Free Frankly In Love Written By David Yoon Text
seen so many mixed reviews for this book lately and it kinda had me feeling unenthusiastic for it but HEY LOOK THERE'S GOOD NEWS, i actually really enjoyed reading this.
low expectations actually work, wow
so this book wasn't revolutionary, but i think it set out what it meant to do and it had some really insightful, inspiring, moving moments.
i really liked the complex parentchildren relationships we got to see, especially from the korean families, i liked the talk on race and fitting in and culture and acceptance and feeling like an in between cultures kid that hit deep.
i really liked the friendship shown in this book and ok the ending made me seriously tear up :
while enjoyable to read in the moment, this book was FAR from perfect.
yes, the fake dating trope can forgive most literature offenses but i kind of when is involved
i mean, that could have easily been avoided.
also the relationship between brit and frank came out of NO WHERE, i barely had time to catch frank's name and he was off making heart eyes at brit, boy slow down.
so, was this book revolutionary and made me question my entire existence no, not really, but it did make me smile and laugh and maybe wipe a stray tear and you know, sometimes thats all you want from a book.
.this is written by nicola yoons husband and there are no greater couple goals than spouses who write together.
i love that for them,
however, i will say that i prefer nicolas stories to her husbands, and thats not because anything is blatantly wrong with this, its just personal storytelling preferences,
what missed the mark for me is the promise of fake dating one of my fave tropes, but the fake dating takes place for only a couple of chapters.
i get that its the natural progression of the plot, but still, i would have like a bit more of it, also, i wasnt sure i was a fan of frank, he was a bit too much for me at times and i found myself skimming over a lot of his introspective sections.
buuuut, what i absolutely adored about this is the representation, i loved learning more about korean culture and more fulling understanding what life might be like for a second generation american.
its very eyeopening and handles the topic of race respectfully, so that gets my full appreciation,
overall, i think this is a great start for yoon! i have no idea how this will become a duology, because everything is pretty must concluded at the end, but i guess we will see!
stars I received an ARC of this book for free from the publisher.
Since I received an ARC, my quotes from the book are tentative,
I give this book,which rounds up to,
This book was so good! Its a romance but it goes so much deeper than just that, At the core, its a story about first love, racism, identity, and family,
I absolutely loved that this book did not shy away from talking about racism, especially the racism of Koreans towards African Americans and other Asian communities.
I havent really seen that in a book before,
I liked that this book explored the struggles of being KoreanAmerican and having immigrant parents, Frank is often conflicted over his identity, At one point he states, “I call myself KoreanAmerican, always leading first with Korean or Asian, then the silent hyphen, then ending with American.
Never just American” pg
I also loved the end of the book, It was a bit sad but still realistic,
My one critique is that the romances seemed a bit instalovey, especially Franks romance with Brit, Frank fell in love with Brit so fast, It kind of came out of nowhere,
Lastly, as a Filipino American Im always looking for representation and this book has a tiny bit of Filipino rep.
One of Franks friends, Paul, is Filipino, His character doesnt do much, but the book does incorporate Isang Bagsak, Isang Bagsak is a Filipino unity clap, whcich I never even heard of prior to reading this book,
Overall, I really enjoyed this OwnVoices exploration of love and identity, hands down one of my favourite books of the year,.
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My first arcreadbeforethebookispublished! I'm so excited! Thank you so much Penguin NZ for gifting me this amp for being happy for me to share my opinion of the book.
I used to say about my parents, "I just can't talk to Mum amp Dad!" But American born Frank really couldn't talk to his parents their English was bad and his Korean was worse.
A lifetime of misunderstanding come to a head in Frank's final semester at high school, Frank is clear on two things he doesn't want to live by his parents racist beliefs, But he also doesn't want to hurt them, These two goals look to be on a collision course,
I absolutely loved this book and it was aread for around the first, Yoon's words just flowed on the page and I found it very hard to put the book down,
I'm Canadian born, We moved to New Zealand when I was seven and I did spend the first half of my life feeling I didn't really belong in either country, so I identified with some of Frank's confusion.
I just feel the last part of the book tried to pack too many events in, and while this may work in the future film, it is just too much on the page.
Still highly recommended!
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Actual footage of me attempting to check this out from the YA room of the downtown library.
.
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Frank Li is your regular meganerd who, when not studying in an attempt to scoreor better on the SATs in order to get into “The Harvard,” can usually be found with his buddy Q.
Like most nerds, Q and I spend our time watching obscure movies, playing video games, deconstructing the various absurdities of reality, and so on.
We hardly ever talk about girls, for lack of material, Neither of us has dated anyone,
Occasionally, however, they do go for a visit to what they have dubbed “Lake Girlfriend” a/k/a a fountain in the middle of the Westchester Mall where they chuck a coin and wish for their perfect mate.
Qs lips have always been sealed when it comes to his secret crush, but Frank isnt particularly choosy,
“Basically I guess she has to be kind, is most important, ” Q raises his eyebrows. “So no meanies. Got it. ” “And she should make me laugh,” I say, “Any other vital criteria” says Q, I think. Anything else hobbies, musical tastes, fashion sense doesnt seem to matter that much, So I just shake my head no, Q gives the fountain a shrug, “Thats super romantic, like in the most basic sense, ” “Basically,” I say.
No one is more surprised than our boy Frank when it appears Brit Means may be taking a shine to him.
Theres only one thing that could get in the way of his chance at love his parents, You see, Mr. and Mrs. Li arent exactly what you would call open to interracial dating, In fact, they are pretty blatantly racist to anyone not Korean, Frank has been able to balance his two worlds pretty well up to this point and so has the daughter of their parents friend group, Joy Song.
When the two find themselves in the same predicament regarding the opposite sex the solution is simple,
“Me and Joy have come to this agreement, whereupon the arising of certain occasions for socializing of a romantic nature between, say, myself and a certain member of the female population who might cause tension within a certain traditionally minded population of our shared ethnicity, uh.
”
“Were fakedating,” says Joy,
I wont say more in an attempt to not spoil everything, I will just say things get a bit complicated, And also, real life happens because doesnt it always And Frank grows up and eventually everyone learns to,
“Go do you, ”
“What the hell else is there, right”
Take myStars with a grain of salt.
Per the. gif above, I was obviously not the target demographic for this one, Sadly, I didnt really like Frank enough to give him more than that and his behavior regarding the girls made the momma in me want to beat his ass.
I also thought this was WAAAAAY too long and could have easily hadpages cut and still have managed to get the point across.
Buuuuuuuut, all that being said, I would gladly read a book about Q and probably give that one all the starz because I just loved him.
Looks like there may be a chance too since this is marked “” I just hope David Yoon finds a cowriter or an adviser if thats the case because “Our Voices” works for everyone and Qs voice is certainly not David Yoons.
I finally finished this book! I started this back in May and only now finished
it, Unfortunately, this book was disappointing for me as I expected to love it a lot more than I did, This book has the “fake dating” trope, which I love, but I found that it didnt last long enough for me.
I didnt really like the romance either and I also didnt like really any of the characters, Some of the things the main character would say were really cheesy and it just made me roll my eyes a lot.
I feel like if the romance had been developed better, by showing more cute moments/interactions, or was a slow burn instead, I might have felt differently.
I will say though, that the discussions of race and family relationships, are the two points I did enjoy about the book.
Its just unfortunate that I didnt like any of the characters or the romance, Thank you so much to Penguin Teen Australia for the review copy!
“Humanity's greatest strength and also the reason for its ultimate downfall is its ability to normalize even the bizarre.
”
trigger warnings: racism, shooting, panic attack, cheating,
representation: Korean American rep own voices, African American rep, panic attacks, gay rep,
I really enjoyed this one, although not as much as I thought I would!
T H I N G S I L I K E D :
it's HILARIOUS.
like, actually hilarious
the audiobook narrator is iNCREDIBLE
the cameo of David's actual family OMG
It was so emotional towards the end, which I kind of wasn't expecting due to the tone of the book at the start, but it was really well done
Very realistic ending that some people might hate, but I appreciated
T H I N G S I D I D N ' T L I K E:
There was this weird point in the book where it felt like it was over, but there was still likehours of the audiobook left and I was kinda confused
I don't know why, but it just left me feeling kind of 'meh' Like, I didn't have that feeling when I read a fantastic book like 'omg this is SO FREAKING GOOD', so I kinda felt a little underwhelmed even though I have no idea why I didn't connect with it
the cheating is.
. . yikes
I do highly recommend it though, It has a lot of elements that a lot of people will really appreciate, but it unfortunately just wasn't an absolute favourite of mine! I'm betweenand.
stars.
Frankly in Love is a fascinating look at love, friendship, cultural identity, parentchild relationships, and prejudice.
I had been waiting for this book to come out for a while, and David Yoon certainly didn't disappoint me!
Frank Li is smart and funny, a firstgeneration American who tries hard to be a good son and a good friend.
His parents want him to study hard and especially meet a nice Korean girl, so he doesnt get disowned like his older sister.
Of course, life doesnt happen the way we plan, and when Frank falls for his classmate, Brit, he wishes he could just be with her and not have to deal with his parents prejudice.
Instead, he and Joy, the daughter of his parents friends, who is dating a Chinese student, concoct a scheme to help them both.
They pretend to date in order to have the freedom to spend time with their real dates, But of course, they don't clue either their boyfriend or girlfriend into the scheme, or why it's even necessary,
When his life takes an unexpected turn, Frank must decide whats most important in lifedoing whats right or doing what makes him happyand if he can reconcile the two.
He also must come to terms with his parents view of the world, and how it shapes his own identity.
This is really thoughtprovoking, as it examines how everyone has some level of prejudice, and how it often comes from fear of losing ones own cultural identity.
Yoon is a terrific writer, This book is funny and emotional, and even difficult to read at times, because you just wish Frank could say what he needs to to those who need to hear it, instead of causing problems by avoiding difficult subjects.
Like many YA books, the characters are far more witty and erudite than real teenagersbut these are the smart students, so maybe this is the way these kids talk nowadays He asks as he tells those rotten kids to get off his lawn.
David Yoon and his wife, Nicola Yoon, the amazing author of The Sun Is Also a Star and Everything, Everything, are quite the YA power couple.
You must read both of their books!!
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