Hey YA Readers!
This will be my last YA newsletter for a couple of weeks, as I’m taking some time off to celebrate my birthday (today!) and to soak in the wonder of early fall. You’ll be left in capable hands, as always.
Today, we’re going to hit new releases in hardcover and then look at a pair of titles published in the last couple of months that offer powerful stories about Vietnamese immigration.
But before we get there, did you know that Book Riot’s editorial team is writing for casual and power readers alike over at The Deep Dive? During the month of September, all new free subscribers will be entered to win Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, plus five mystery books from The Deep Dive. To enter, simply start a free subscription to The Deep Dive. No payment method required! (My piece for this month centers on the increase of book prices over the last 5 years, and previously, I wrote about the publishing power of Barbie!)
Bookish Goods
Fall Bookstore Magnetic Bookmark by kmariecreations
Don’t you just want to walk into this bookstore with a warm beverage and sprawl out with tons of books for the rest of the day? I know I do. Grab this magnetic bookmark for $5.
New Releases
It is such a packed week of new YA releases, so I’m cheating a tiny bit and offering three titles below to highlight. You can grab the entire list over here.
Mermaids Never Drown edited by Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker
Are you looking for a diverse collection of mermaid stories? Look no further. The editor duo of Córdova and Parker, who brought you Vampires Never Get Old are back with a host of fresh tales about all things mermaid. The contributor list is out of this world, too: Darcie Little Badger, Kalynn Bayron, Preeti Chhibber, Rebecca Coffindaffer, Julie C. Dao, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Adriana Herrera, June Hur, Katherine Locke, Kerri Maniscalco, Julie Murphy, Gretchen Schreiber, and Julian Winters.
An Impossible Thing to Say by Arya Shahi
Omid feels like he can’t form the words he needs, either when it comes to talking to the girl he has feelings for, the grandfather he’s just met, his Iranian heritage, and even to explain that he does belong in Tucson, Arizona, the only place he has ever called home. All of this, despite the fact he knows Farsi, knows Shakespearean English, knows how to write those words.
It’s not until he discovers rap music that he truly finds his voice–but that voice will be rattled when a terrorist attack changes his entire world.
This one is being compared to The Poet X and A Very Large Expanse of Sea, and it’s written in verse.
Thieves’ Gambit by Kayvion Lewis
Ross is 17…and she’s a master thief. She’s really good at escape plans in particular. At least she was until she tried to escape her family of thieves, and her mom’s life is at stake.
Desperate to save her mother, she decides to enter the Thieves’ Gambit, which requires her to undertake a series of international heists. She could die, and her competition is stiff. But winning the Thieves’ Gambit means getting any wish she wants granted, and she wants to save her mom’s life.
How can she win when she’s also fighting off feelings she might be developing for one of her competitors?
This is a high-stakes heist adventure being compared to Oceans Eleven and The Inheritance Games.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
I’ve read two YA books recently–both published this summer–that explore the experiences of Vietnamese immigrants. Both are challenging reads but compelling ones.
Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham
This graphic memoir is told through a series of chapters that focus on a particular food. Pham and his family immigrated from Vietnam, and the beginning chapters center around the experience of travel then being stuck in a camp until a placement for them in the States was secured. The remaining chapters explore how his parents find work, how he and his brother acclimate to a new country, and ultimately, the book ends with Pham securing his U.S. citizenship. The art is gorgeous, the story compelling, and the framing of the book around these meals–including the one that begins and ends the story–really savvy.
For readers who love learning about process, Pham offers a peek behind how he put this book together at the end, as well as how he talked with his family and friends about the story.
My Father, The Panda Killer by Jamie Jo Hoang
This book is told in dual timelines, and it’s one that comes with a pre-story content warning–it’s not an easy read, so take care.
The first timeline is in 1999, in San Jose, California, and it follows Jane, who is 17, just about to graduate from high school, and who has a big secret she’s been keeping: she got into her dream college and will be moving away at the end of the summer. This is a big secret for several reasons, including the fact that she’s sort of the glue holding her family together. Mom disappeared, and Jane has stepped in to be her little brother Paul’s rock. She feels obligated to be that way because of their demanding and, at times, physically abusive father. She is scared to tell Paul she’s leaving because she’s worried he’ll feel like she’s abandoning him and leaving him to fend for himself. At the same time, Jane knows this is her opportunity to finally live her own life rather than live the life she believes she’s supposed to live. Plus, she’ll get away from the rigid expectations of her father.
The second timeline is 1975, and it follows Phuc, who is attempting to leave his war-torn country of Vietnam during the war. It’s been a brutal war and one where even family has been split in their loyalties. But for Phuc, getting out of Vietnam is not easy in the least. Every attempt to get out has left him battered or in danger of losing his life. When he finally does get the chance to get out, even the boat becomes a place of fear. He witnesses murder, death, and the limits of human suffering–all of which he feels deeply and which embeds in him in each attempt to escape. When he finally gets to America, he marries and moves to San Jose. But even if there is no war in America, he carries with him the burden of survival, as well as the challenges that come from being an immigrant.
Phuc is Jane and Paul’s father, and this is not a spoiler–you know early on that you’re seeing both sides of what has been a traumatic immigration experience, one riddled with violence, pain, and suffering. This split perspective gives insight into why Phuc behaves how he does toward his children, never apologizing for it but giving it context; it also gives Jane a lot to think about when it comes to why she feels the pull to be as similar to her white American classmates as possible and eschew her Vietnamese heritage. This will shift and change through the story as Jane is able to reconnect with family overseas and comes to see that her best friend–also a second-generation immigrant–may be misguided in her attempts to forget her family’s past.
This is a slow read, without romance, and it is a powerful story of family, immigration, trauma and its effect on mental health, intergenerational trauma, and what it is to make a life for yourself when the world has been the furthest thing from kind for you. Both Jane and Phuc are deeply flawed characters, but their flaws are what makes their stories so compelling.
Thanks for hanging out, and even though I won’t see you for a couple of weeks, the next YA newsletter will hit your inbox as normal on Thursday.
Until then, happy reading!
— Kelly Jensen, currently reading In Limbo by Deb JJ Lee.