Heartfelt Coming of Age Story

This is a coming of age story that contains all the painful, wonderful, heartfelt emotions of senior year in high school. I think all readers will be able to relate to some aspect of Frank Li's story. Frank is Korean-American; his parents came from Korea. Being Korean-American means that he doesn't feel Korean or American; he's not sure where he belongs. He has a lovely, loyal best friend 'Q', and a group of high-achieving friends called the Apey's (guess why :-)). The major theme of the story is identity. Frank wants to meet his parents' high expectations, but also wants to be true to himself. He has a first girlfriend that doesn't fit his parents idea and Frank struggles with how to handle this (cue the fake dating trope). Fortunately, he's got his own tribe to support him as he figures it out. The writing shares Frank's inner musings- it was really relatable and almost fell into poetry at times, feeling a bit like a memoir. I enjoyed the glimpse into Korean-American culture. I am sure I will be thinking about this book and the characters.

Thanks to BookishFirst and the G.P. Putnam Sons for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.