"Very mixed feelings on this book, more like a 2.5 rounded to a 3. I’ll start with what I liked, which is that I think Rachel Khong did a nice job of showing how parents both do their best with and fail their children. It was interesting and engaging to read about how children interpreted their parents� “failures� across multiple generations and the extent to which children choose how to engage with their parents: to be similar, to be different, to have contact, to have no contact, and all that’s in between. I found the second part of the book the most compelling and was hooked on Nick’s coming-of-age story. In this section of Real Americans I found the prose particularly appealing; in part 2 Khong’s writing had me pretty hooked, as well as in part 3 though to a lesser extent.

What I really did not love about this novel was just� the complicity in whiteness and white supremacy. Ugh. It always disappoints me when I write about this in relation to Asian American writers� work. But the overwhelming entrenchment in whiteness in this novel just bothered me so much. In fact, reading part 1 of the book, I was so annoyed I was sure I was going to give this book two stars, which speaks to how parts 2 and 3 redeemed it enough for me to round to three.

What I didn’t love in part one of the book was the main character’s unresolved, unaddressed desire for whiteness and white men, as well as her self-dislike of her Asian traits. Here’s part of a specific passage, where she writes about herself in relation to her white male romantic partner:

“When he held me I looked, instinctively, to our reflection. It was like pressing a bruise, wanting to see if the pain lingered. I wanted to see how contradictory we were, as a pair, the difference of our physical bodies: him blond, built, tall; me with my plain black hair and average height and face that didn’t look good, I believed, unless I wore makeup. It was a face that made people ask: Where are you from?�

I was just like� omg, yikes. And I get that some Asian American people struggle with internalized racism, I get it, but this dynamic of glorifying white men (e.g., implying that being blond and tall are attractive traits, describing her own Asian features as “plain�) does not get addressed in any meaningful way in the book. There are also several passages in part 1 that directly name how the main character and her Asian friends all choose to date white men, but then that pattern is also never addressed in any thorough or thoughtful way. So that was highly disappointing.

I also really questioned the author’s intentions related to racial justice and alignment with white beauty standards during a specific moment in part 2 of the book. In part 2, we follow Nick Chen, who starts off as a senior in high school and we follow him into his college years. Even though he’s part-Chinese, he passes as a white man. I actually found Nick a sympathetic and three-dimensional character and enjoyed reading about him. However, there’s an odd passage in the book where Khong basically writes about Nick’s white-passing privilege as if he’s oppressed by it? I understand that biracial/multiracial people have unique experiences of oppression, but this passage was more about like� Nick basically feeling sorry for himself that he looks white because his ex-girlfriend was annoyed at his racial privilege (which he does have) and Khong implying that we should feel sympathy for tall blond white men, even though we’re already socialized within the United States to view these people as attractive? Idk, it was weird in a negative way and didn’t sit right with me.

Anyway, this book is titled Real Americans but it was more like� Chinese Americans navigate intergenerational (mis)communications while spending a lot of time with white people. Some parts I liked and others I really didn’t. I’ll also just leave some novels I’ve really enjoyed over the past few years by Asian women with three-dimensional Asian female characters whose lives don’t revolve around whiteness: Yolk by Mary Choi, Sea Change by Gina Chung, and Late Bloomers by Deepa Varadarajan. I’ll also recommend Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou that takes a more racial justice-oriented approach to matters of Asian Americans and internalized racism."

"Five Happy Dance Stars 💃💃💃💃💃


Mason was kidnapped one year ago. His case is still unclosed. Its every parent's nightmare. He was taken at night from his crib while his parents were sleeping.
Isabelle has always had insomnia and she always walks in her sleep.
She can't rest at all now until Mason is returned to her.
Her insomnia gets worse and she is having some uncomfortable memories from her childhood.
Her husband, Ben has cheated on her and they are no longer a couple.
She does not know who she can trust.

This one had a little slow burn in the beginning but I was never bored.
I loved loved loved this book. It was so good. I guessed every character and I was wrong every time. All the characters seem to be untrustable.
There are lots of jaw dropping moments and loved all of the twists. I could not put this book down after the beginning. I kept on flipping the pages to see what was going to happen next. It gave me a five star high. It kept me on the edge of my seat. This book was just so crazy. It had everything that you want in a thriller. This one is not a predictable read. It was mind blowing!

I want to thank Netgalley, and St. Martin's Press for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review."