Kay Honeyman

This book surprised me. I was very hesitant when I heard about it, initially- debut book by a white author about Chinese American history, written while she was between adopting Chinese children? Could be well-intentioned, but I'm wary of my history being used as a prop. Fortunately, Kay Honeyman did her homework and writes an accurate depiction of what Angel Island detainment was like.

It doesn't surprise me but always disappoints that it seems like most Americans are way more aware of show more Ellis Island than Angel, and though both stations were gateways for immigrants, Angel Island also served as detainment for undesirables. Fire Horse Girl is set in 1923, which is approximately the same time my great-grandmother arrived in the United States. My great-grandma was luckily one of the few hundreds of women who legally arrived as the wife of a merchant (the only exception to the Chinese Exclusion Act- merchants who owned businesses) with a child in tow. FHG's protagonist Jade Moon isn't as lucky, and with a betrayal twist in the first third is forced to disguise herself as a boy to make it onshore to the main land. There's some time skipping, and I do sort of wish we had some interstitial peeks through that (seriously, how did she handle periods while disguised? That's detail we should maybe know...)

My biggest pet peeve to be honest was how some character's names were translated into their meanings (Jade Moon, Sterling Promise, Spring Blossom), but others weren't (Jade Moon's father, Chan Jan Wei, though I will note Honeyman did maintain generational name structure by having his brother share the Jan part- if you didn't know already, Chinese clans have generational poems, where everyone born in the same generation shares the next character of the poem, so my cousins, sibling and I all have the same first part of our Chinese names).

It does feel a little assigned-reading-in-school in terms of getting history to the reader, but it's action-y enough YA that it'll do. show less

I am a huge Jane Austen fan and when I heard this pitched as Emma meets Friday Night Lights I knew I had to read it. It didn’t disappoint. I loved Kate even if she always thought she was right she had good intentions and was so kind, caring, and strong. She is moved back to her father’s home town with her parents after causing a scandal that hurt his political career. At least that was their story for moving Kate there. Turns out it has just as much to do with her as her father wanting show more to run for Red Dirt congressional seat. I adored the romance between Kate and Hunter. They were so cute together and I loved their banter. Hunter is a swoon-worthy hero and the perfect Mr.Knightly. I loved that this book had a main character who is a photographer because I love photography. I also really liked how the book showed both the good and bad side of politics. I really love books in small towns because I am from one and it always brings back all the memories and the author wrote small-town life perfectly. The writing and plot were great. I really needed a fun contemporary novel and this book delivered. I highly recommend this book for football fans, Emma fans, and people who just love a good small-town story.
Rating: 5 stars show less

The inside flap of this book describes it as Emma meets Friday Night Lights, placing unfairly high expectations on it. Interference does entertain, just not quite to the lofty degree of those two titles.

After scandals for both father and daughter, Kate and her parents head to her father’s small Texas home town purportedly to lay low for a while, however, their plans quickly change when her dad gets embroiled in a local election and Kate gets embroiled in high school.

Since this is a show more contemporary re-telling of Jane Austen’s Emma, Kate shares that literary heroine’s power to frustrate, consistently acting before she thinks anything all the way through, be it with matchmaking or revenge schemes. Kate has good intentions for the most part, so it’s not that she’s unlikable, it just gets a bit old when nearly every action she takes blows up in her face and unlike the reader, she seemingly never sees it coming.

While Interference does a solid job of touching on many of Emma’s plot points, it would have been interesting to see Kate’s dad be more of a fussbudget like Emma’s father in the original (he is uptight about how their family is perceived for his political career but not as extreme about health, diet, etc.) and I wasn’t clear on who, if anyone represented Miss Bates, admittedly, those are both somewhat annoying characters in Emma, but they’re also sources of humor which it might have been fun to have more of throughout this book.

As for the Friday Night lights comparison, the entire town is crazy about football, there’s QB drama, and a few scenes of on-field action, however with the entire story told from Kate’s point of view - a non football fan who isn’t all that invested - it never quite captures the whole clear eyes, full hearts feeling.

I would have loved to see the familial relationships explored further than they were, to have them take precedence over the politics, the romance, Kate’s machinations, etc., still, whenever the focus did shift to Kate with her dad, Hunter with his mom, or Kyle with his dad, those brief moments were when I found myself most emotionally engaged with the book, and they’re why I would try more from this author. show less

YA FICTION
Kay Honeyman
Interference
Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic
Hardcover, 978-0-5458-1232-0 (also available as an e-book, and on Audible), 352 pgs., $17.99
September 27, 2016

Kate Hamilton and her parents have returned to her father’s roots in the fictional town of Red Dirt, Texas (“the hairy, dry big toe of the earth”), in the aftermath of a political scandal that was kinda sorta Kate’s fault, culminating in her father’s dropping out of a re-election campaign for his show more congressional seat in the Hamiltons’ adopted North Carolina.

Culture shock ensues as sophisticated, politically savvy, sixteen-year-old Kate works on transitioning from Washington, D.C., to a rural West Texas high school (“You [Kate] took a class called Ethics of Science. I’m not really sure what that is, but since you had credit for biology, physics, and chemistry, I put you in Agricultural Sciences”) in the middle of high school football playoffs (where Kate discovers the joys of Frito pie). When her father decides to challenge his former high-school teammate for Red Dirt’s congressional seat in a special election, all the old stresses return. After several false starts, Kate learns that interference earns you a penalty in life, as well as on the football field, even if you’re trying to help.

Interference is Kay Honeyman’s second young-adult fiction title. Kate’s first-person narrative of a coming-of-age-as-a-fish-out-of-water story should be required reading for politicians with teenagers. Slip it in with their briefing books. There is more to Interference than first meets the eye.

The characters are evenly divided between stereotypical and complex. Kate is particularly interesting. Confident, smart, dedicated, and talented, she’s also frequently a presumptuous busybody, forever practicing political spin on everyone in her path, especially driven to level the field when she uncovers inequity. Kate has a good heart, but she’s convinced she can fix anyone and any situation—a “win-win,” in her family’s political parlance. The character and relationship development afforded Kate and her father are particularly affective.

Interference is equal parts comedy and drama, befitting teenagers. Honeyman excels at dialogue. A conversation between Kate and a friend:

“People change. Not everyone is determined to be a complete jerk their entire life.”
“I think you underestimate Kyle’s commitment.”

Instructions from a campaign manager to her volunteers:

“Stick to the phone script, people,” India said in the living room. “I want to know what they think of the candidates, not what happened at the eye doctor.”
“How is Gladys?” someone called out.

There are clever metaphors in science class (“Ants are more powerful as a group than individually. They create whole empires with collective will”), and Kate’s love of photography (“The darkroom at my old school had been my sanctuary. It was easy to control. You timed every step. There were no politics, no power plays. Everything was black and white, light and dark”). Honeyman has a just-right, light touch when things get heavy.

Interference has a well-constructed plot, moving along quickly and steadily, packing several nice twists. City kid moves to hick town is a familiar, comfortable scenario, but Honeyman’s tale feels fresh thanks to her engaging characters, and timely thanks to the political themes. It’s a win-win.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. show less