PRIVATE LABEL

Chinese American teens contend with the unpredictability of life.

Seventeen-year-old Serene Li has always admired her mother for moving from Beijing to the U.S. by herself while pregnant and achieving success as a single parent and trailblazing fashion designer. When her mother is diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer, Serene suddenly faces a future alone—unless she can find her father. Serene’s classmate Lian Chen also feels desperate. At school, he endures microaggressions from students and teachers; at home, he faces intense parental pressure to test into a competitive engineering program at MIT. Lian’s true passion is stand-up, but he knows his parents would never allow him to pursue such an uncertain career. When his college admissions counselor advises him to demonstrate leadership skills, Lian starts a Chinese club at school, counting on his classmates’ apathy to leave him with time and space to practice his comedy. He doesn’t anticipate popular, pretty Serene showing up to learn Chinese—or their gradual bonding over shared experiences, including being the only Asian American kids in their affluent, White Southern California town. The novel’s strength lies in its thoughtful, nuanced depictions of the teens’ complicated relationships with their immigrant parents, which deftly incorporates overarching themes of prejudice, assimilation, and heritage-seeking. Unfortunately, clunky wording in romantic scenes and a rushed, too-tidy conclusion that belies the book’s skill in portraying life’s complexity, unfairness, and unpredictability detract from the otherwise emotionally immersive story.

Overall, a compelling and genuine coming-of-age story.