“Charmed my socks off.” —David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author of Kids of Appetite and Mosquitoland “A soulful and hilarious debut.” —Booklist (starred review) “Effervescent.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “An earnest, funny, and emotional story.” —Book Riot
An incisive, laugh-out-loud contemporary debut about a Taiwanese-American teen whose parents want her to be a doctor and marry a Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer despite her squeamishness with germs and crush on a Japanese classmate.
At seventeen, Mei should be in high school, but skipping fourth grade was part of her parents’ master plan. Now a freshman at MIT, she is on track to fulfill the rest of this predetermined future: become a doctor, marry a preapproved Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer, produce a litter of babies.
With everything her parents have sacrificed to make her cushy life a reality, Mei can’t bring herself to tell them the truth—that she (1) hates germs, (2) falls asleep in biology lectures, and (3) has a crush on her classmate Darren Takahashi, who is decidedly not Taiwanese.
But when Mei reconnects with her brother, Xing, who is estranged from the family for dating the wrong woman, Mei starts to wonder if all the secrets are truly worth it. Can she find a way to be herself, whoever that is, before her web of lies unravels?
2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge 34. A book set on a college or university campus
“Well, what do you want?” No one had ever asked me that before, including myself. It almost felt forbidden. Partly because it was, by my parents. But mostly because it made things harder. Which meant . . . I already knew what I thought. I think I had stopped asking myself what I wanted after the pre-prima-ballerina dream turned nightmare. Dreams could hurt you if they didn’t come true, but if they never existed in the first place . . .
— Portrays the struggles of being in an Asian family with very traditional ways and values. It was okay, but I found it very one-sided and felt all over the place.
