"The Name Drop" by Susan Lee

The Name Drop (Sept. 12, 2023) by Susan Lee.

<This is a standalone novel.>

I’m Lee Yoo-Jin. I’m Lee Yoo-Jin. Is there an echo in here? No. Jessica Lee and Elijah Ri (he’s going by Ri to be more difficult) are two teenagers who happen to have the same Korean name. They’re both set to work at tech giant Haneul Corporation’s NYC office, Elijah as the Executive Training Program intern in the fancy clothes residing in a spacious brownstone in the Upper East Side and Jessica as a summer intern at the bottom of the corporate cesspool ladder in her cheap clothes residing in a shoebox apartment with nine other interns in the Lower East Side. What happens is that Jessica finds herself in the gorgeous brownstone with an all-new upscale wardrobe and an office on the executive level, while Elijah is the one in a shoebox wearing a t-shirt lent to him by his bunkmate, Jason, working at the bottom of the totem pole for $15/hour.

            The two catch on quickly that there’s been a mix-up, but they decide to leave things as is. Operation Name Drop is a go. Elijah likes the anonymity and the chance to discover what he wants, and Jessica thrives in her role, leading the other interns in their summer project, a hackathon. The risk of discovery is omnipresent. If not amongst their fellow interns, then by their fathers. There’s Lee Jung-Woo, who’s always concerned about money and wants Jessica to keep a low profile in her internship, not wanting anyone to know they’re related. Then there’s Lee Jung-Hyun. He’s the controlling chairman and CEO of Haneul that’s outdated in terms of misogynistic attitudes and behaviors, which Hee-Jin, Elijah’s brilliant 24-year-old sister, deals with daily despite being Chief Operations Officer and second-in-command. If this charade blows up in their faces, they don’t only risk humiliation; it would be disastrous to both their futures, but especially Jessica’s, because she doesn’t come from a chaebol family. Will the spark between them ignite a flame of success or disaster?

            While this YA novel is grounded in serious themes of discovering your own life so you can live it, social class and combating misogyny in the workplace, it also has in its foundation an energizing framework of humor, big-heartedness and budding romance with a healthy K-drama vibe. When a male exec says to Jessica, “Please use feminine cursive handwriting to make it lovely and pleasing for us to read later,” I wanted to spit. And when I read the line where Elijah thinks of himself as “emotionally constipated,” I laughed out loud. Lee’s writing is current and whip-smart, though I will forever say that expletives do not move a story forward. However, don’t let language deter you from this story (thanks to The Good Place, I use “fork” and “shirt” as replacers) that is swoony, comedic and well-turned-out.

            Favorite line: “If anyone looks at you weird, look at them back even weirder.” --Elijah to the intern cohort (p. 110)

            Also by Susan Lee: Seoulmates

"Seoulmates" by Susan Lee

Seoulmates (Sept. 20, 2022) by Susan Lee.

*This is a standalone novel.*

What’s a girl to do when life imitates a K-drama? Hannah Cho’s plans involved hanging out with her boyfriend and enjoying her senior year with their friend group, but Nate Anderson dumped her at the top of summer. He’s into all the Korean things she has shunned (K-dramas, K-pop, K-everything) to try to fit into her American identity. She plots to win him back, but her former best friend, Jacob Kim, is back in town (town being San Diego). When Jacob left, she cut him out of her life due to her hurt and always feeling like everyone in her life leaves her (Jacob, her sister Helen, their dad in Singapore). But Jacob returns as Kim Jin-Suk, his Korean name and the name all of his fans know him by. Yes. In the interim years since leaving San Diego, Jacob has come to know K-dramas so well that he’s starring in one with the beautiful but awful Shin Min-Kyung (a.k.a. Minky). When time away from set is encouraged, Jacob’s mom takes the two of them, plus his 12-year-old sister Jin-Hee, to stay with the Cho family, the moms being best friends. Jacob has a list of things he wants to do in San Diego that he’d never be allowed and/or have time to do in Korea (like taste-test his way to find the best burrito or go to LEGOLAND), but since he can’t drive, he needs Hannah. He’d like to reconnect with her and figure out what went wrong with their friendship, painful as it will be, and then, perhaps, they can navigate their teenager feelings for each other. Is it love? Is Jacob the rebound guy and Hannah the summer fling before Jacob has to return to Korea? Are they Seoulmates?

            I’m going to get this out there right away, but why is this not the first Asian American-centric YA story I’ve read in recent months where the lead female character has perceived abandonment issues? Is this a new, recurrent them? Or has it always existed, and I simply haven’t read those stories until now?

            For anyone looking for a K-drama in literary form, Lee’s YA debut is perfect for K-drama fans. A swoon-worthy romance? Check. A super good-looking K-drama star? Check. Drama? Check. Korean food? Check. This novel is told in alternating perspectives and is one that celebrates friendship and Korean culture through expressive, fast-paced, thoughtful writing. It meaningfully examines the harder aspects around Korean American identity, but in an honest, believable-teenager way. The way everything K has become so popular surprises me, pleasantly so, like being a book dragon (previously, book nerd) is cool these days, at least compared to when I was one of the rare avid readers in my class growing up. Amongst themes of friendship and the predictable budding romance, the novel explores finding one’s inner strength and the role family dynamics can play, especially when love may not be expressed when someone is looking for that support and validation and picturing oneself as unlovable. This story is daebak, and it won’t be for everyone (I struggled at times, because, well, teenagers) but I expect it will attract a wide range of readers who are already K-drama and K-pop fans.

            P.S. I’m not a big watcher of K-dramas, but I did watch “Crash Landing on You” and “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” last year and was immersed in both of them.

"Tokyo Dreaming" by Emiko Jean

Tokyo Dreaming (May 31, 2022) by Emiko Jean.

*This is a sequel book.*

Currently living in Japan, Japanese-American and overnight-princess Izumi Tanaka is at a crossroads. Some parts are great. Her once-bodyguard-turned-boyfriend is amazing (Akio Kobayashi), and she’s got her stinky dog, Tamagotchi, living with her. She’s overcome imperial scandal, salacious press and the “Shining Twins,” her conniving cousins Akiko and Noriko. It doesn’t ease the amount on her mind, though. Should she take a gap year or attend university right away? If university is the route, how will she decide which tame, apolitical major to pursue? Is her relationship with Akio the relationship? If that’s not enough, the Imperial Household Council does not approve of her parents’ engagement. Her mother’s background isn’t classy enough, her job not reputable enough, and the press continues to paint Izumi in a less-than-desirable light. Izumi wants her parents’ engagement to lead to a wedding that the council approves of, and she’s ready to become the perfect princess to win the council over. This includes obtaining a tutor to prepare for the EJU (The Examination for Japanese University Admission) and improve her Japanese language skills, both written and spoken. Is it a coincidence that her tutor, Eriku Nakamura, is something of a prodigy and only scion to a shipping magnate? Can Izumi rise above royal expectations while maintaining the person that she is?

            It doesn’t take being a royal to know what it is to be pulled in different directions. Follow your heart and your mind or conform to expectations that make you feel like you’re missing pieces of yourself? The way in which Jean presents Izumi’s conundrum never feels forced, and the word pictures she creates for us - of Japan and bits of history, but also a teenager trying to figure things out - are woven together so well that detritus doesn’t sneak through. Relationships are a theme to the story, those of family, friends, new friends and romantic bonds. (There is a love scene, but it’s easily overlooked for those who prefer to avert their reading eyes.) The plot is evenly-paced and does not read as muddled or all over the place. “Tokyo Dreaming” isn’t only a sometimes cheesy, sometimes cringey, royal teen romance, but a story with substance in which you watch a young woman navigate her path between her actual self and her royal self. And that kind of growth in anyone is pretty momentous.

            Book One: Tokyo Ever After

"Tokyo Ever After" by Emiko Jean

Tokyo Ever After (May 18, 2021) by Emiko Jean.

It’s not always a walk-in-the-park being a person of color in mostly white Mount Shasta, California. Fortunately, Izumi Tanaka isn’t alone, for she has the best friends of their self-dubbed AGG (Asian Girl Gang): Noora, Hansani and Glory. Izumi has been raised by her single mother and it’s a book on rare orchids that gives Izumi and Noora a clue as to who her father might be. What she’s not expecting is for her dad to be Crown Prince Makotonomiya Toshihito, first in line to become emperor of Japan. According to Hansani, he’s “the Asian George Clooney,” “Pre-Amal and twins,” adds Glory. So, SURPRISE, Izumi is an American-born, American-raised, Japanese princess! Her Imperial Highness (HIH) Princess Izumi travels to Japan to meet her father and the royal family. Being a princess isn’t all fancy gowns, glittering tiaras and a graceful wave. Nope. Feisty, irreverent Izumi is feeling really basic in a country that she thought she’d sidle right into (because she blends in). It isn’t only the thousands of years of tradition and innumerable cultural differences she must navigate, but catty cousins, a ferocious press, a mulish but annoyingly attractive  Imperial guard named Akio Kobayashi, and learning an entirely new-to-her language. At home, Izumi doesn’t feel “American” enough, but in Japan, she doesn’t feel “Japanese” enough. Will this Lost Butterfly fly? Or will she crumble under the overwhelming weight of royalty?

            Move over, Princess Mia. There’s a new princess in-residence! While princess stories can induce eye rolls, I found “Tokyo Ever After” to be a fresh, vibrant YA novel with a headlining female who’s spunky and relatable, learning to blend her American upbringing with her Japanese heritage. Readers receive a modern fairy tale that is part “The Princess Diaries” and part “Crazy Rich Asians.” It’s a royal romp with an easily-navigable storyline, and it will have appeal that’s beyond Asian-only readers. There’s laughter and tears, structure and chaos, sumptuous detail and mouthwatering food. There are castles and drama, swoony confessions of affection and crushing deception. I’m actually pleased by how solid this story is. It’s not a story littered with glitter; it has personal growth and depth.

Rutabaga's Reads 2018: Part 10

You can’t tell from my posts in recent years, but I read more YA (young-adult) novels than any other book type, and this includes picture books*! Since I made it a personal goal to be more active on my blog in 2018, I decided I might as well put together my second YA compilation of the year.

            * I became an aunt last year, so this could easily change.

All the Crooked Saints (Oct. 10, 2017) by Maggie Stiefvater.

*This is a standalone novel.*

Everyone wants a miracle, but everyone fears what it takes to get one. For those pilgrims seeking miracles, go to Bicho Raro, Colorado, a place filled with mysterious saints, estranged relationships, transformations both amazing and terrifying, miracle-hungry owls, a watchful desert and three Soria cousins. Daniel Lupe Soria (19) is the current Saint of Bicho Raro, and he’s so good at it that even his eyes are soothing. He wants so badly to help someone he is not allowed to help and fears that this fierce desire could ruin his entire family. Beatriz Soria (18) is an eerie and serene woman known as the girl without feelings who prefers intellectual gratification over anything else. She wants to understand how a butterfly is similar to a galaxy and fears being asked to do anything else. Joaquin Soria (16) is suave and clean-shaven. He takes himself very seriously and would prefer everyone else did as well. He has a phobia of dehydration and so always carries enough water to last him for days. He wants to be famous (as his DJ name Diablo Diablo) and fears dying alone in the parched dust outside Bicho Raro.

            Arriving in Bicho Raro of a night in 1962 are Tony DiRisio (a.k.a. Tony Triumph) and Pete Wyatt. Tony is a household-fixture-of-a-DJ who wants to stop having dreams of a specific nature and fears people watching him eat. He’s looking for a miracle. Pete is not. He’s heading to Bicho Raro to talk to someone about a truck. He wants to start a business that, summed up, makes him feel awesome and fears that the empty feeling in his heart will eventually kill him. Miracles may be in store for all of them, but the thing about miracles in Bicho Raro is that they’re never quite what one expects, and they are never straightforward nor easy to obtain.

            While I preferred Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle series over this novel, this one is still a tour de force, a spectacle of imagination. Much of her writing is so lyrical, but not without light and logically-minded moments. It is clear that Stiefvater is a master storyteller. The story does not focus on science and religion, though elements of both shine through in the thoughts and memories of characters from time to time, as the story astutely notes, “Antonia’s kind of belief is not uncommon, but it has done both science and religion a disservice. By relegating the things we fear and don’t understand to religion, and the things we understand and control to science, we rob science of its artistry and religion of its mutability” (p. 185). This fabulism (magical realism) is eccentric but beautiful, dark yet radiant.

The Crown (May 3, 2016) by Kiera Cass.

*This is the final book in a series.*

In the past, princesses born into the family were married to princes in other countries to strengthen relations. This means that Crown Princess Eadlyn Schreave is the first princess of Illéa to hold her own Selection. What began as 35 potential suitors has been whittled down to the top six. After a family emergency, Eadlyn has dutifully taken on the role of regent and therefore makes all decisions of state until further notice. She’s been training for this her entire life, but it’s naturally more work than she imagined. She’s also trying to balance her Selection process and do damage control since the people of Illéa do not approve of her.

            Someone wanting to read a light romance reminiscent of a certain American TV show might have interest in this series. “The Crown” is the fifth and final book in the Selection series. (Eadlyn’s story is contained within the latter two novels.) Sadly, I never rooted for Princess Eadlyn, although I did want to root for a few of the guys. When I first met her in the previous book, she was very much the stereotypically uppity, pampered princess, and no matter how she tried to emulate her beloved parents, I never felt she’d truly turned over a new leaf.

            Despite my less-than-stellar review, I do not like to focus solely on the negative. Not wanting to give away specific top six names, there were definitely suitors that I rooted for. In spite of the number of characters, Cass did do some of them enough justice that I felt like they truly were supporting characters and not passing fancies. The ending is tied up in too pretty a bow thanks to the happy ending, both for love and the Illéan monarchy moving forward, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s simply something I noted.

Everything, Everything (Sept. 1, 2015) by Nicola Yoon.

*This is a standalone novel.*

What would you do if you lived your entire life in a house that you never got to leave? Madeline Furukawa Whittier reads books, and “It doesn’t matter how many you’ve read. I’ve read more. Believe me. I’ve had the time.” Madeline has Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), also known as “bubble baby disease.” Madeline has just turned 18 and a new family has moved in next door. When she starts interacting with the teenage son, Olly, she gains her first nickname of Maddy. And in knowing Olly, she’s definitely going to fall in love, and it will most likely be a disaster. She has her secrets, as she doesn’t want to share the reason she lives in a house that she never gets to leave, and he has his secrets. Chatting with him through emails and instant messages helps pass some of the time – when it’s after 8 p.m. and Maddy’s finally alone – but it is nothing compared to human contact. She so rarely interacts with humans in person that she craves it. Or at least craves Olly. And it appears that he is as curious about her as she is about him. So you see? Disaster.

            Because of how the prose is stylized (as an actual story, as a diary page, list, graph, etc.), I found this YA novel to be fast-paced. I like knowing how many chapters a book has, but this one does not number the chapters; however, each “chapter” does have a heading, so it at least has that going for it. This was Yoon’s debut novel, and the construction of it is so like a new snow under sunlight that it sparkles. It’s an easy story to get caught up in. Even if you’re not into “love” stories, this novel is stunning in its creative writing.