Frankly in Love (book review)
(sorry this is so long)😂
Dear Reader,
first off I want to say thank you to the wonderful Olivia for sending this book to me, I loved it and I'm very happy you shared it with me- I'll return the favour ;)
This is gonna be a relatively short review because I know it's better when I summarise it for ya. So let's begin, shall we...
First off- it took me so long to understand the title. Like I'm literally an idiot. I was more than 2/3 through the book before I got the wordplay. Plain stupidity.
Annnnny way lets steer away from my dumb brain and into the brilliant mind of the author of this book.
The writing- 10, definitely, completely perfect- made me laugh, made me sad. It just did everything right. However the plot, a little weak at times maybe? It was cute- don't get me wrong but if the character development wasn't as strong as it was, I wouldn't have been able to stick with it. There just was never that much going on, not even at the end. And like sure, I like to read. But I'm not gonna read about you going to the cornerstone for 12 pages when I could be going myself you know? That slow pace- MUST EXPLAIN ALL kinda style isn't my thing, but damn I have a sweet spot for this Frank kid. He's the first American-Korean protagonist I've ever read in the first person in a YA book and I really fell for him. He's just a really solid guy.
One thing that really confused me the entire time was this. Joy and Brit yeah? Literally. The. Same. Girl.
Excuse me- what?! Did literally no one else catch this?
Sure one was European-American and the other Korean-American- but come on, switch their perspectives around and you'd be reading the same thing! Maybe this was intentional- some kind of practicality over love (subconsciously picking the easier and more beneficial option kind of thing*). But that could definitely be my analysing-way-too-much-into-things-brain running away with itself.
If anyone else noticed this, please email me because we should talk about this conspiracy.
Some bits I loved in this book was when Joy broke up with frank and he just completely geeked out with that D&D thing. That was very cute indeed. I loooooove Q. He's so adorable- kinda knew he was gay from the start but I didn't say anything-didn't wanna block that slow-burning self-discovery road for him haha.
One thing I really loved about this book was the parents-
These guys where actually the most developed parents I have ever read in a young-adult book. Not just young adult either- any book.
So I'm sure we have all noticed this 'trope' in YA where our protagonist's parents are pretty much completely discarded throughout the entire plot. And its really stupid because the kids that are reading these books aren't getting seeing a good family connection which is very important for teens to have. I mean, let's face it- half of the things that happen in young adult and teen fiction books would be avoided if these kids actually talked to their parents. Juuuust saying.
Anyway, it was really lovely to see that parent-child dynamic written so well in this book. It was also nice to get some actual family history in there too (another rare thing we wanna see more of in YA *cough* authors *cough*)
Above all though, my favourite bit in the whole book was how we saw Korean culture from 4 sides.
-how some Koreans view themselves
-how some Koreans view each other
-how some Koreans view the rest of the world
and how some Koreans view other minorities in the US.
It was so interesting to get that perspective. Especially me- a europian-British white girl who knows literally nothing about Korean-American culture to learn about this boy who was kind of forced to lie to his (yes- vary racist) parents because he was scared of not getting their approval. I mean- you can't blame him, his sister was disowned and everything. Ah, bless him- poor kid.
Before I finish, I just wanna confess something.
I didn't cry when his dad died, to be honest, I wasn't even sad. Which is really bad and I could possibly be shifting into a sociopath. The only bit that actually made me a Lil teary-eyed was when the dad felt Hannahs baby bump. Who could resist that?! Evidently not me haha.
There was no real reason I didn't cry at that I just think that it was the way things had to be- so I couldn't be sad about it. If that makes any sense.
I was quite satisfied with the ending- I know a lot of people wanted them to stick together but I had a 5th feeling that wasn't gonna happen anyway.
I would give this book a solid 4.4/5. I would recommend it to anyone as uneducated as me looking for a really sweet plot and an irresistible main character.
(We love you Frank Ly)
Love
Issy
xx
*Just so you know- the reason I think this is, is because they broke up over practicalities which I don't think him and Brit would have- if not for his parents. However, just a personal opinion :).
Dear Reader,
first off I want to say thank you to the wonderful Olivia for sending this book to me, I loved it and I'm very happy you shared it with me- I'll return the favour ;)
This is gonna be a relatively short review because I know it's better when I summarise it for ya. So let's begin, shall we...
First off- it took me so long to understand the title. Like I'm literally an idiot. I was more than 2/3 through the book before I got the wordplay. Plain stupidity.
Annnnny way lets steer away from my dumb brain and into the brilliant mind of the author of this book.
The writing- 10, definitely, completely perfect- made me laugh, made me sad. It just did everything right. However the plot, a little weak at times maybe? It was cute- don't get me wrong but if the character development wasn't as strong as it was, I wouldn't have been able to stick with it. There just was never that much going on, not even at the end. And like sure, I like to read. But I'm not gonna read about you going to the cornerstone for 12 pages when I could be going myself you know? That slow pace- MUST EXPLAIN ALL kinda style isn't my thing, but damn I have a sweet spot for this Frank kid. He's the first American-Korean protagonist I've ever read in the first person in a YA book and I really fell for him. He's just a really solid guy.
One thing that really confused me the entire time was this. Joy and Brit yeah? Literally. The. Same. Girl.
Excuse me- what?! Did literally no one else catch this?
Sure one was European-American and the other Korean-American- but come on, switch their perspectives around and you'd be reading the same thing! Maybe this was intentional- some kind of practicality over love (subconsciously picking the easier and more beneficial option kind of thing*). But that could definitely be my analysing-way-too-much-into-things-brain running away with itself.
If anyone else noticed this, please email me because we should talk about this conspiracy.
Some bits I loved in this book was when Joy broke up with frank and he just completely geeked out with that D&D thing. That was very cute indeed. I loooooove Q. He's so adorable- kinda knew he was gay from the start but I didn't say anything-didn't wanna block that slow-burning self-discovery road for him haha.
One thing I really loved about this book was the parents-
These guys where actually the most developed parents I have ever read in a young-adult book. Not just young adult either- any book.
So I'm sure we have all noticed this 'trope' in YA where our protagonist's parents are pretty much completely discarded throughout the entire plot. And its really stupid because the kids that are reading these books aren't getting seeing a good family connection which is very important for teens to have. I mean, let's face it- half of the things that happen in young adult and teen fiction books would be avoided if these kids actually talked to their parents. Juuuust saying.
Anyway, it was really lovely to see that parent-child dynamic written so well in this book. It was also nice to get some actual family history in there too (another rare thing we wanna see more of in YA *cough* authors *cough*)
Above all though, my favourite bit in the whole book was how we saw Korean culture from 4 sides.
-how some Koreans view themselves
-how some Koreans view each other
-how some Koreans view the rest of the world
and how some Koreans view other minorities in the US.
It was so interesting to get that perspective. Especially me- a europian-British white girl who knows literally nothing about Korean-American culture to learn about this boy who was kind of forced to lie to his (yes- vary racist) parents because he was scared of not getting their approval. I mean- you can't blame him, his sister was disowned and everything. Ah, bless him- poor kid.
Before I finish, I just wanna confess something.
I didn't cry when his dad died, to be honest, I wasn't even sad. Which is really bad and I could possibly be shifting into a sociopath. The only bit that actually made me a Lil teary-eyed was when the dad felt Hannahs baby bump. Who could resist that?! Evidently not me haha.
There was no real reason I didn't cry at that I just think that it was the way things had to be- so I couldn't be sad about it. If that makes any sense.
I was quite satisfied with the ending- I know a lot of people wanted them to stick together but I had a 5th feeling that wasn't gonna happen anyway.
I would give this book a solid 4.4/5. I would recommend it to anyone as uneducated as me looking for a really sweet plot and an irresistible main character.
(We love you Frank Ly)
Love
Issy
xx
*Just so you know- the reason I think this is, is because they broke up over practicalities which I don't think him and Brit would have- if not for his parents. However, just a personal opinion :).
