Author: Liselle Sambury

Genres:  Contemporary/Dark Fantasy

Pages: 592

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Review Copy: ARC by publisher

Availability: Available now

Summary: When August’s brother disappears before his sophomore semester, everyone thinks the stress of college got to him. But August knows her brother would never have left her voluntarily, especially not after their mother so recently went missing.

The only clue he left behind was a note telling her to stay safe and protect their remaining family. And after August is attacked by a ten-foot-tall creature with fur and claws, she realizes that her brother might be in more danger than she could have imagined.

Unfortunately for her, the only person with a connection to the mysterious creature is the bookish Virgil Hawthorne…and he knows about them because he is one. If he doesn’t find a partner to help control his true nature, he’ll lose his humanity and become a mindless beast—exactly what the secret society he’s grown up in would love to put down.

Virgil makes a proposition: August will join his society and partner with him, and in return, he’ll help her find her brother. And so August is plunged into a deadly competition to win one of the few coveted candidate spots, all while trying to accept a frightening reality: that monsters are real, and she has to learn to master them if she’s to have any hope of saving her brother.

Review:  Liselle Sambury is known for her speculative/horror fiction and this latest installment, which is the beginning of a new dark academia series series that really examines who are the actual monsters, set the right mix of horror with a touching emotional story. Set on the Queens University campus in Kingston, Canada, the story follows August, a teen who has decided she doesn’t want to attend college, but doesn’t know what she wants either. Her mother had months ago, she is a bit estranged from her father, she lives with an aunt she barely knows, and her only connection to her family is her brother – and then he also goes missing. As one would expect, this leads her to make some questionable choices but these choices land her in a secret community which has her meet friends who accept her for who she is now, in all her messiness. 

August is a narrator that is often hard to like as she has a very one track mind and seems to be extremely selfish. However, you understand her selfishness because prior to her mother’s disappearance she was trying to be the perfect daughter and it wrecked havoc on her mental and emotional state. At the beginning of the novel, when we first meet August, she is living fully for herself for the first time in her life. It is kinda hard to be annoyed by a character like that. Which is what Sambury does well if you’ve read her other books. Her main characters are deeply flawed to the point of almost being unlikeable, but deep down they are beautiful souls who’ve just been hurt and are protecting their self. By trying to find her brother August ends among folks who take her as she is and I feel like this one of the best parts of the novel. Virgil, and all of the other members of the secret society who help her, are all deeply flawed and hurt characters who are trying to protect themselves as well. Their openness to their hurt heals August and the friendship that forms among all of them is uplifting. To me, the growth of their friendships and August ability to open up with herself is the strength of this novel. The monsters and the mystery were fun, but it was the emotional journey August, and all the characters, that they went on that stood out the most. 

I also think the definition of “monster” is explored really well in this novel. While Virgil is a literal monster, there are many others in the book who actually behave as monsters. Virgil is the sweetest cinnamon roll around and is the perfect foil for August because he allows her to understand that a person is not just their hurts but that they can use that hurt to become better people. And there are others in the book who are human but wield their cruelty against the “monsters” and others and don’t think twice about the consequences of their actions. The novel also explores how the concept of power and how those “monsters” tend to make decisions that they feel are best, but again, might not be and how can we change this power. There was so much to this novel that was deeper than just a monster tale I really enjoyed this novel because of it. 

Horror

They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran 

Since the hurricane, the town of Mercy, Louisiana has been overtaken by a strange red algae bloom. Noon and her mother have carved out a life in the wreckage, trawling for the mutated wildlife that lurks in the water and trading it to the corrupt harbormaster. When she’s focused on survival, Noon doesn’t have to cope with what happened to her at the Cove or the monster itching at her skin.

Mercy has never been a safe place, but it’s getting worse. People are disappearing, and the only clues as to why are whispers of underwater shadows and warnings to never answer the knocks at night. When the harbormaster demands she capture the creature that’s been drowning residents, Noon finds a reluctant ally in his daughter Covey. And as the next storm approaches, the two set off to find what’s haunting Mercy. After all, Noon is no stranger to monsters . . .

Contemporary

Chasing Pacquiao by Rod Pulido

Self preservation. That’s Bobby’s motto for surviving his notoriously violent high school unscathed. Being out and queer would put an unavoidable target on his back, especially in a Filipino community that frowns on homosexuality. It’s best to keep his head down, get good grades, and stay out of trouble.

But when Bobby is unwillingly outed in a terrible way, he no longer has the luxury of being invisible. A vicious encounter has him scrambling for a new way to survive–by fighting back. Bobby is inspired by champion Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao to take up boxing and challenge his tormentor. Then Pacquiao publicly declares his stance against queer people, and Bobby’s faith–in his hero and in himself–is shaken to the core.

An Impossible Thing to Say by Arya Shahi

Omid needs the right words to connect with his newly met grandfather and distant Iranian heritage, words to tell a special girl what she means to him and to show everyone that he truly belongs in Tucson, Arizona, the only home he’s ever known. Neither the school play’s Shakespearean English nor his parents’ Farsi seems up to the task, and it’s only when Omid delves into the rhymes and rhythms of rap music that he starts to find his voice. But even as he does so, an act of terrorism transforms familiar accents into new threats.

Then a family member disappears, and it seems everyone but Omid knows why. When words fail altogether and violence takes their place, what will Omid do next?

Romance

True Love and Other Impossible Odds by Christina Li

College freshman Grace Tang never meant to rewrite the rules of love. She came to college to move on from a grief-stricken senior year and to start anew. So she follows a predictable routine: Attend class, study, go home and visit her dad every weekend. She doesn’t leave any room in her life for outliers or anomalies.

Then, Grace comes up with an algorithm for her statistics class to pair students with their perfect romantic partners. Though some people are skeptical, like Julia, Grace’s prickly coworker, Grace is confident that her program will take all the drama out of relationships. That’s why she keeps trying to make things work with her match, a guy named Jamie. But as the semester goes on and she grows closer to Julia, Grace starts to question who she’s really attracted to.

In award-winning author Christina Li’s YA debut, Grace will have to make a choice between the tidy equations she knows will protect her from heartbreak or the possibility that true love doesn’t follow any formula.

Check out Crystal’s review 

Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang & Leuyen Pham

She was destined for heartbreak. Then fate handed her love.

Val is ready to give up on love. It’s led to nothing but secrets and heartbreak, and she’s pretty sure she’s cursed—no one in her family, for generations, has ever had any luck with love.

But then a chance encounter with a pair of cute lion dancers sparks something in Val. Is it real love? Could this be her chance to break the family curse? Or is she destined to live with a broken heart forever?

Fantasy

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. But as with all things that offer hope when hope had gone, the tale came with a warning.

Every wish demands a price.

Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong.

Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two choices: to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time-hope.

But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape…that of the dragonfruit itself.

Check out Crystal’s review 

The Floating World by Axie Oh

Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.

Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.

Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn’t realize she’s the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined…

Non-Fiction/Memoir

Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir Of A Wuhanese American by Laura Gao

After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars—at least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name.

In Messy Roots, Laura illustrates her coming-of-age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter.

Insightful, original, and hilarious, toggling seamlessly between past and present, China and America, Gao’s debut is a tour de force of graphic storytelling.

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings – Edited by Ellen Oh & Elsie Chapman

Star-crossed lovers, meddling immortals, feigned identities, battles of wits, and dire warnings. These are the stuff of fairy tale, myth, and folklore that have drawn us in for centuries. Fifteen bestselling and acclaimed authors re-imagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia in short stories that are by turns enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and passionate.

Compiled by We Need Diverse Books’s Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman, the authors included in this exquisite collection are: Renee Ahdieh, Sona Charaipotra, Preeti Chhibber, Roshani Chokshi, Aliette de Bodard, Melissa de la Cruz, Julie Kagawa, Rahul Kanakia, Lori M. Lee, E. C. Myers, Cindy Pon, Aisha Saeed, Shveta Thakrar, and Alyssa Wong.

A mountain loses her heart. Two sisters transform into birds to escape captivity. A young man learns the true meaning of sacrifice. A young woman takes up her mother’s mantle and leads the dead to their final resting place. From fantasy to science fiction to contemporary, from romance to tales of revenge, these stories will beguile readers from start to finish. For fans of Neil Gaiman’s Unnatural Creatures and Ameriie’s New York Times–bestselling Because You Love to Hate Me.

NOTE: Spoilers below!

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings has 15 stories total (whew!), and they’re all pretty incredible. Did you have a favorite? How did it speak to you?

JESSICA: All the stories were incredible, but if I had to pick a favorite, it’d be “Olivia’s Table” by Alyssa Wong. It hits all my favorite stuff: Family and the link between generations, the magic of food, and ghosts. It’s a story very much rooted in its setting, Arizona, and that’s reflected in the ghosts that visit Olivia’s banquet during the Ghost Festival. There’s Hopi women, Chinese miners, among others. The story really spoke to me as a Taiwanese American, especially since a big part of how I relate to my mother is through food.

The funny thing is that I actually didn’t know anything about the Hungry Ghost Festival growing up. I learned about it via wikipedia (much like in this comic by Jean Wei) after I came back from a summer visit to Taiwan as a college freshman and got curious. There’s something to be said here about what’s lost and what’s passed on between generations, and how that happens.

AUDREY: I loved “Olivia’s Table” for many of the same reasons you did. (It made me cry!) My paternal grandmother and aunt came to visit last month for the first time in five years, and so everyone got together and made tamales and spent a week eating the food that only my grandmother could make. “Olivia’s Table” hit my family and food feelings hard, and I loved that the story explicitly countered the “white cowboy” narrative that often gets pushed by Hollywood.

I also loved “Bullet, Butterfly” by Elsie Chapman and “Eyes Like Candlelight” by Julie Kagawa. I like my romances with some tragedy in them, clearly, and (coincidentally?) both featured government/government actions as the things that thwarted the young lovers. Despite the tragedies in both stories, the characters were able to reunite in other ways, and I found that a uplifting, too.

CRYSTAL: There are so many fantastic stories here that it’s difficult to choose just one. For straight up fun, I would choose “Girls Who Twirl and Other Dangers.” It made me smile and laugh so many times. Three friends are united in their plan for revenge on a jerk and hilarity follows. For bittersweetness, I’d have to go with “The Crimson Cloak.” It was definitely romantic in all of the right ways. Wonderful, lovely moments happen, but all is not perfect. It made me sigh and even cry a bit.

K. IMANI: I loved all of them, but if I had to choose, I would say “The Smile”. I loved that Yasmine, or rather Naseem, was realistic about her life in the castle and with Prince Kareem, which I found to be really powerful. Her strength when she was imprisoned in the tower really stood out to me as she decided not to give in and stand up for herself. By standing up to Prince Kareem, she knew she would face death and I found something so beautiful in that. I was moved by the fact that she was willing to die for what she believed in and for her freedom. The power in taking ownership for yourself and your future, as Naseem did, really stood out to me.

These stories re-imagine mythology, fairy tales, and folklore from different Asian cultures. They range from stories set in the past (ish) to stories in the present and future. Did any stories from a particular time period (for lack of better term) stand out to you?

K. IMANI: This is an excellent question and hard to answer. I think, for me, I liked the blend of stories set in past(ish), present, and future. The diversity in story settings really showed how timeless these mythological stories are and that we can always gain meaning from them whether we lived 100 years ago or 100 years from now.

AUDREY: I will always be a sucker for stories set in “historical fantasy” worlds, so I was thrilled to see so many of them in this anthology. But I also love reimaginings set in the present and the future–I’m not picky when it comes to time periods.

In retrospect, I do wish that there were a few more stories set in the future, like “Steel Skin” or “Bullet, Butterfly,” because I think a lot of white American sci-fi steals a good chunk of its visual/aesthetic cues from Asian countries/media (especially East Asian). I’d love to see a broader view of the future as imagined by a wide selection of diasporic Asian authors, much like this was a folklore/myth/fairy tale anthology. (Maybe a sequel anthology? I would definitely buy that.)

JESSICA: I use “past (ish)” in the question above because, to be honest, I’m not sure what you call that particular setting of myths, fairy tales, and folklore, and I wouldn’t even say they’re all the same setting. But you know that vibe of “once upon a time” or “in a land far, far away” or “mukashi mukashi arutokoro ni”? Yeah. Roshani Chokshi’s “Forbidden Fruit” retelling of the stories of Maria Makiling really set the tone for the anthology. It’s beautiful and speaks to the long tradition of weaving stories with the land around us.

On the flip side, I also loved “Steel Skin” by Lori M. Lee, and how it set a Hmong folktale in a future of androids and bipods. The twist that Yer herself was an android, throwing into question her own memories and identity, really brought home the idea of what it means to be human and how grief and history ties into that. The futuristic setting was perfect for the story in that way.

CRYSTAL: I was also intrigued by Lori M. Lee’s story, “Steel Skin.” The story managed to twist in ways I hadn’t expected. I also enjoyed the idea of traditional tales pitching all the way into the future.

Another one that really got me with the setting was “Eyes Like Candlelight.” I was in Japan recently and visited more than one Inari shrine so vivid pictures of fox statues and the mountain forest filled my mind. The story itself was also overflowing with emotions. Foxes are certainly intriguing anytime, but with the romance and tragedy too, this story is very memorable.

Were there any common themes that you picked up on that carried across different stories?

CRYSTAL: I see through these stories that connections with others bring us joy, sorrow, and they can play a role in who we become. The people who touch us affect us in big and small ways. Parents obviously have a strong influence on who you are and who you will be. An example is In “Land of the Morning Calm,” Sun Moon and her mother are connected in unexpected ways and Sunny begins to see her mother within herself even though she is gone.

JESSICA: Two major threads that I picked up on were the themes of family and freedom. “Olivia’s Table” spoke to Olivia’s grief and relationship with her mother, demonstrated with the banquet she sets out for the ghosts. And “The Counting of Vermillion Beads” by Aliette De Bodard is a tale of siblings, Tam and Cam, whose bond is powerful and heartbreaking and heartening all at once. The two work as census girls for the emperor, with no true way out except through transformation and flight. The ending got me thinking about what it means to be truly free on your own terms, and what it means to have no home to go back to, unless you make a home yourself in the people you love.

K. IMANI: I have to agree with both of you on the themes of family and freedom. “Olivia’s Table” and “Land of the Morning Calm” both touched me in that both stories dealt with how a family moves on after the loss of an important member, but still connected to that person, which is so moving. I also feel like the theme of love was all the stories. And by love I mean all the different types of love – familial, romantic, platonic, and most importantly self. Which, when one thinks about it, mythological stories, fairy tales, and folktales are often lessons for personal growth, so having the theme of love, all the different types of love, and how they change us, how it helps be who we are, makes sense that it would be a theme throughout all the stories.

AUDREY: Family and freedom were definitely major themes within the anthology. Similarly, I noticed the recurring questions of when it was best to try to let go of the past/when it is best to move forward. Whether it was a parent’s death, a childhood grudge/slight, or a relationship you thought was love but maybe wasn’t, the question of how much the past did or should influence your present actions and your future was brought up a lot.

A number of the contributors to this anthology have previously published works of fiction. Have you read them? Did you see any connections or common themes between any particular author’s short story and previous writing?

JESSICA: Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been over the moon about Cindy Pon’s Taipei sci-fi thriller Want for, like, the last year. I really enjoy Cindy Pon’s writing, from Silver Phoenix to Serpentine to Want, because it’s all so deeply rooted in cultural stories and their settings. Her short story “The Crimson Cloak” is no different. I’ve read a few other short stories by Alyssa Wong (“Olivia’s Table”), and the one that stood out to me is “A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers” which, be warned, is haunting and fairly brutal. It touches on family and loss and a whole lot more that I don’t think I’m equipped to talk about without sounding totally silly. And after reading “The Counting of Vermillion Beads,” I’m reminded that I really, really need to read Aliette De Bodard’s other works: The House of Shattered Wings, and The Tea Master and the Detective. So much to read…

CRYSTAL: I too love Cindy Pon’s work and thoroughly enjoyed her story here. Another author who has revisited a theme is Aisha Saeed. Her novels, Written in the Stars and Amal Unbound, also feature young women who are trapped and appear to have no choices. Again, this character doesn’t see an easy road ahead, but bravely steps out anyway.

AUDREY: Another fan of Cindy Pon here! I’ve also read Elsie Chapman’s Along the Indigo, Lori M. Lee’s Gates of Thread and Stone and The Infinite, Sona Charaipotra’s Tiny Pretty Things, and Renée Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn. Off the top of my head, some of the crossover themes I can think of are family secrets, problems with siblings, and potentially doomed/star-crossed love.

K. IMANI: I’m fourthing being a fan of Cindy Pon’s. “The Crimson Cloak” really reminded me of her “Silver Phoenix” duology with the fantastical way she described the setting and Hongyun’s voice. I’ve read a number of the authors in this anthology so I was happy to read short stories by them. I think many of the themes I’ve seen in these authors books and in these stories is the theme of being true to one’s self and loving one’s self.

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings is unique just by virtue of what it is: A short story anthology centering Asian narratives by diasporic Asian writers. What does this anthology mean to you? And what are some other anthologies you’d like to see in the future?

JESSICA: This anthology means so much. I’m so happy that it exists – diasporic Asian writers writing Asian stories! Yes! I remember back in college, when I first joined Rich in Color, there were a spate of YA books that were “Asian-inspired” but written by white authors — some were good, some were, well, somewhat racist. And looking around, there just weren’t that many Asian YA books by Asian authors (Cindy Pon and Ellen Oh, among others, were some of the few). It was really discouraging and honestly, infuriating. I’m happy that the library of stories like these have expanded since then. In terms of anthologies, I want more of this. Here’s to the future!

CRYSTAL: This anthology helps to fill a gap in young adult lit. I’ve always been a big fan of traditional tale re-tellings, but they have lacked diversity for sure. This means there have been tons of Cinderellas, Snow Whites,and Beautys, but very few nine tailed foxes in my life. Not only have I been missing out, but so many people haven’t had the chance to see stories from their cultures on the page. More collections like this are essential. More stand-alone novel re-tellings from a wide variety of cultures would also be fabulous – hopefully from #ownvoices authors.

K. IMANI: Like Crystal and Jessica, I agree this anthology definitely fills a huge gap in YA lit. I can tell writing these stories meant a lot to all the authors with the care and beauty from each of the stories. I really enjoyed learning about mythological, fairy tales, and folk tales that are different from cultures and the author’s interpretation of these stories. As for what I’d like to see, more collections from a variety of backgrounds and even stand alone stories as well, much like the Richard Riordan presents series. It would make our literature more inclusive and reflective of our diverse world.

AUDREY: This anthology was great. I loved seeing diasporic Asian authors tackling their own cultures, and the subtlety, nuance, and detail they put into their short stories was breathtaking. I’m thrilled that there are teens today who will be able to read this book and finally see themselves and their families represented. As I mentioned before, I’d love to see a specifically sci-fi YA anthology for diasporic Asian writers, but I’d honestly love to see a similar folktale/mythology anthology for Latinx folk. (Call me selfish.) After a stressful month, this anthology made me want to get back into reading again and made me even hungrier for #ownvoices narratives.

Summary: Danny Cheng has always known his parents have secrets. But when he discovers a taped-up box in his father’s closet filled with old letters and a file on a powerful Silicon Valley family, he realizes there’s much more to his family’s past than he ever imagined.

Danny has been an artist for as long as he can remember and it seems his path is set, with a scholarship to RISD and his family’s blessing to pursue the career he’s always dreamed of. Still, contemplating a future without his best friend, Harry Wong, by his side makes Danny feel a panic he can barely put into words. Harry and Danny’s lives are deeply intertwined and as they approach the one-year anniversary of a tragedy that shook their friend group to its core, Danny can’t stop asking himself if Harry is truly in love with his girlfriend, Regina Chan. When Danny digs deeper into his parents’ past, he uncovers a secret that disturbs the foundations of his family history and the carefully constructed facade his parents have maintained begins to crumble. With everything he loves in danger of being stripped away, Danny must face the ghosts of the past in order to build a future that belongs to him. [Image and summary via Goodreads]

Review: I loved Picture Us in the Light, end of story. Full disclosure: I’m basically incapable of producing an objective review, given that I grew up adjacent to Danny’s hometown of Cupertino. Now that that’s out of the way (just kidding, I’m totally circling back to this), let’s get to the actual review.

Picture Us in the Light is set in Silicon Valley, in a majority Asian town, and follows Danny Cheng as he nervously anticipates his acceptance to RISD, where he can fulfill all his dreams as an artist. His future seems all laid out, but he discovers family secrets and grapples with a past tragedy — all of which shape and warp his relationships with his best friends and his parents.

Danny’s story comes together in flashbacks and memories and small moments captured in the present, much like his art. With his future looming, family secrets coming to light, and past tragedy giving way to even more secrets, there’s a lot happening. And with worse execution, it would have felt crowded. Instead, every piece fits just right, and the sum of its parts is something greater, more melancholy and meaningful than you would expect.

My favorite part of the book happens early on, when Danny shares a soul-baring conversation with his best friend Harry. (Aside: No one told me that Danny was queer! Twitter, you have failed me.) That moment, and many more moments in the book, felt so real to me. This is where my Cupertino-adjacent upbringing makes me biased. All the little details and conversations were ones I recognized and had lived to a certain extent: The pressure-cooker academic environment of a Silicon Valley high school, the Ranch 99 grocery bags, hiking at Fremont Older, the constant refrain of “aiya!”, and kicking it at the Cupertino library. It was pretty much like reliving my teenage years, but with 80% more plot twists.

Picture Us in the Light also gets into some heavy topics, be warned: Depression, suicide, and immigration, among others. The issues were handled well and sensitively, in my opinion. Mental health is a very real problem in hyper-competitive schools in Silicon Valley, and that’s something that this book doesn’t shy away from. Picture Us in the Light just feels incredibly relevant.

Honestly, I can’t recommend Picture Us in the Light enough. I want to say something cliched and punny about pictures and a thousand words, but I’m not sure what, so I’ll leave you with this: Picture Us in the Light is beautiful and moving and important. Just read it.

Recommendation: Buy it now!

Extra reading: Check out our Rich in Color author interview with Kelly Loy Gilbert here!

Just this summer, Want by Cindy Pon, a sci-fi thriller set in Taipei, was released. Now half a year later, American Panda is weeks away from joining the few and proud ranks of YA books starring a Taiwanese protagonist. Who is your intended audience for American Panda? How did you go about writing your book and its portrayal of life as a Taiwanese American for that audience? 

I am so honored to join the proud ranks of YA books starring Taiwanese protagonists, and I’m so grateful to be a part of Jennifer Ung’s fabulous list, which includes Cindy Pon and Sandhya Menon. My intended audience for American Panda is anyone who is struggling with who they are and where they belong. I believe that the book’s themes of not fitting in and searching for your path is universal, but I also think it will particularly resonate with child of immigrants who grew up with parents similar to mine.

I wrote this book with the goal of capturing an honest portrayal of one Taiwanese American experience: mine. I wrote for me in the initial drafts so that I could get my story down, and then I let the industry and readers in during revisions.

Did you have a central theme or message in mind when you were writing American Panda? Can you tell us what it is?

I wrote the book I wish I had as a teen, and I wrote hoping to show teens they aren’t alone. I was too embarrassed to tell my friends in high school about my struggles with the cultural gap, and I hope this book will show those readers that their struggle is real and that it can get better.

Not many YA books are set in college. Why did you choose college, and specifically MIT, for Mei’s story?

Mei’s story needed to be set in college because she had to be out of her parents’ house to start asking herself what she thinks and what she wants. My own personal self-discovery happened in college, and I felt that setting was the right place for Mei to find herself as well.

MIT is my alma mater and I wanted to capture its unique, supportive, and zany community, where being a nerd is lauded and weekends are spent chair surfing, climbing on the dome, and yelling at the movie projector in lecture halls. Since MIT is a place where students can be themselves, it was the perfect place for Mei to learn who that was.

Aw, you got me right in the college nostalgia feels. So, the cover of American Panda is adorable, and features dumplings which is at least 40% of its charm. What’s your favorite type of dumpling?

I haven’t met a dumpling I didn’t like, but if I had to choose a favorite, I would go with the soup dumplings from Din Tai Fung. They have some fancy ones with shrimp and crab, but their plain soup dumplings are the standard-bearer.

Truth. Do you have another book or project brewing?

Yes! I’m thrilled to be working with Jen and Pulse again. My second book, Misaligned, will release fall 2019 and follows a Taiwanese teen outcast in a small, white Midwestern town. When a second Asian family (including an attractive boy her age) moves to her town, she is swept up in a forbidden romance and down a rabbit hole of dark family secrets. The book explores race, identity, and the difficulty of communicating, especially within family.

Eep! Can’t wait to learn more about Misaligned! And finally, we always ask this question at Rich in Color. What upcoming YA books by/about people of color are you excited for? Share your list with us!

I am delighted to say there are many upcoming YA books by/about people of color that I am excited for! My list includes but is not limited to (in no particular order): The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan, Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles, The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton, Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon, Summer Blue Bird by Akemi Dawn Bowman, Picture Us In The Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert, Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena, The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo, and A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman.

That’s quite the list. *Takes notes.* Thank you so much for stopping by! For those of you reading along, be sure to grab American Panda when it comes out on February 6th!

Gloria Chao is an MIT grad turned dentist turned writer. She currently lives in Chicago with her ever-supportive husband, for whom she became a nine-hole golfer (sometimes seven). She is always up for cooperative board games, Dance Dance Revolution, or soup dumplings. She was also once a black belt in kung-fu and a competitive dancer, but that side of her was drilled and suctioned out. American Panda is her debut novel, and Misaligned is forthcoming fall 2019. Visit her tea and-book-filled world at gloriachao.wordpress.com and find her on Twitter and Instagram @gloriacchao.

Title:

Summary: The house on Arrow Island is full of mystery. Yet when Mei arrives, she can’t help feeling relieved. She’s happy to spend the summer in an actual mansion tutoring a rich man’s daughter if it means a break from her normal life—her needy mother, her delinquent brother, their tiny apartment in the city. And Ella Morison seems like an easy charge, sweet and well behaved.

What Mei doesn’t know is that something is very wrong in the Morison household. Though she tries to focus on her duties, Mei becomes increasingly distracted by the family’s problems and her own complicated feelings for Ella’s brother, Henry. But most disturbing of all are the unexplained noises she hears at night—the howling and thumping and cries.

Mei is a sensible girl. She isn’t superstitious; she doesn’t believe in ghosts. Yet she can’t shake her fear that there is danger lurking in the shadows of this beautiful house, a darkness that could destroy the family inside and out… and Mei along with them. [Image and summary via Goodreads]

Review: It’s only January right now, and I’ve found one of my favorite books of the year. For reference, my favorite last year was a belated reading of Lucy and Linh by Alice Pung. Like Lucy and Linh, Liana Liu’s Shadow Girl is another incredible read with a heroine from a low-income Asian immigrant background and strong narrative thread focusing on family. I read Shadow Girl in one sitting, staying up past 2 in the morning — which was not the greatest idea, considering it’s quite the spooky story.

What struck me right away was how real Mei felt as a character. Her inner life and voice, and the mix of guilt and protectiveness she felt for her mother were all too familiar to me. To top it all off, part of my Chinese name is Mei and like the heroine, I used to do tutoring as a high schooler to help pay the bills. The familiarity of Mei’s life made the paranormal aspects of Shadow Girl all the more scary.

Admittedly, I have a pretty low bar for scary. I skirt any piece of media that feels even the teensiest bit stressful, and I’m not a fan of ghost stories. But the cover and the Asian protagonist were a strong draw for me, so I gave this book a try, and I’m so glad I did. While people made of sterner stuff may not find the paranormal element as scary as they’d like, the suspense that builds from the shadows within the majestic mansion that Mei goes to tutor in and the Morison family tensions were enough to keep me up through the night.

Mei’s relationship with her mother and brother, and her struggle to understand herself and discover the freedom to pursue her dreams, are what make this book. This may be a fraction of the plot — most of it is devoted to Mei’s time spent at the Morison’s mansion and the slowly building mystery of its shadowy past — but it’s what makes this so worth a read. I loved the little details — Mei listening through the walls to her mother vacuuming around their small apartment, how Mei navigates a world of racist comments and wealthy, petty parents who want to hire her as a tutor, and the list goes on.

Finally, this is a small detail, but shoutout to how spoken Chinese is handled in this book. Mei’s mother speaks wholly in Chinese, and it’s done in a way that isn’t exoticized or whitewashed over. No clumsy attempts at incorporating translations through awkward clues, or tacky imitations of Chenglish, or randomly shoehorned-in lone Chinese words. Mei’s mother speaks Chinese, and it’s translated in a straightforward way, no decoration or smoothing over. It’s just there. And I loved it.

If you’re looking for a suspenseful, spooky story, or you just want to see some high quality Asian representation in YA lit (of course you do!), buy this now. I’m so happy I read this book, even if it kind of wrecked my sleep schedule. Totally worth it.

Recommendation: Buy it now!