Reviews

Finding My Voice by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

alannar2422's review

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5.0

I loved this book, seeing it from an asian perspective about how hard it is to look different from everyone else. She really fond her voice at the end and the ending made me sad/happy because it was so bittersweet! I feel like Tomper was embarrassed to be seen with her in the beginning and played clueless whenever his friends called her names which rubbed me the wrong way but it worked out well in the end :) It was a great short story

ellesandiego's review

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3.0

3.5**

whitneymouse's review

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3.0

**Thank you to Netgalley and Soho Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating**

I was unaware this was a reissued book going into it. This book was published the year I was born! A lot has changed since then, however, the author noted in her Afterword that she consciously made the decision not to update the book for a contemporary audience in order to "preserve the history of...the 1990s." I'm sad to find my childhood is becoming Historical Fiction.

I do think that, ultimately, the choice to not update will be an issue for many casual readers. Even as someone who was around during the time period, there were things I had to look up (For example, "dittoed copies". I'm aware that ditto machines exist but I couldn't tell you how they're different from a copier). Otherwise "timeless" books have updated language or technology in order to better meet the reader halfway. I always think of "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" as an example of this because the way we deal with some of the issues of the book have changed, therefore the book was updated to better reflect that.

I was also a little concerned that the author states in her Afterword that "the issues that the novel explores --racism, immigration, parental pressure, bullying--have changed for the better --while also continuing on, even intensifying in places." While people perhaps are not as overtly racist as the characters in this book, I do not think it is correct to say that those topics have "changed for the better" since the 90s. They have greatly intensified, especially in the last four years in the US.

To get into the actual content of the book, it was alright. Ellen is a perfectly passable protagonist who is struggling to decide where she's going to college, wanting to get out of her small (and racist) town, dealing with pressure put on her by her parents, and falling in love with a classmate. I do think if this were to be written today it would need to delve much deeper into the issues the book discusses. The issues are explored at a very superficial level with no deeper dive into any of them and what they really mean for the character. The book is very short, so it doesn't have the time to do so. The racism and bullying portrayed in this book is VERY overt. There is no nuance, no microaggressions like we'd be more likely to see now. It is very in your face with the adults doing nothing but saying Ellen is being "too sensitive" for the most part or sometimes even taking part. I think it's important going in to know this as it may shock some readers.

Ellen's friendship with her friend, Jessie, was sweet and briefly hints at the anxiety that comes with growing up in a small town and thinking you'll never leave. I did enjoy the parts about the two of them. Similarly, I thought Ellen's relationship with her mother was sweet. Her father puts a lot of pressure on her to get good grades and attend Harvard, and while you sense that that may be important to her mom, Mrs. Sung also emphasizes that she wants her daughter to be happy wherever she ends up going to college.

While I understand the format of this book is very similar to others of its time period, I can't really give it more than a 3. It felt like more should have been done with the plot. It was very "I have this problem" and then it was fixed with the literary equivalent of a band-aid. The issues were big and the solutions were simple. It never felt like Ellen really learned to overcome her problems. The book is called "Finding My Voice" and it's really "one time she stood up to a bully and immediately resigns herself to things not getting better". I don't get the sense that Ellen is going to continue to call people out on their racism and rude behavior. It's just a little underdeveloped for me. I'm not sure I'd say it fully captures the feeling of what the 90s were like to be called "Historical Fiction", either. It was a decent book and I can see that it was clearly an influence on the YA genre, but it's not one I'd be rushing out to recommend.

ngreader's review

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4.0

3.5 stars rounded up to four.
Kay, this book hit so many tropes that I was originally going to give it a 3-star review. BUT THEN I REMEMBERED- this book created the tropes. It was one of the first books starring a Korean-American teenager and for that reason, it hit so many tropes BECAUSE it created the tropes in the first place. I've been lucky to have so many narratives that show many different sides of being Korean-American, but this book opened up the way for those stories to be told.
Spoiler contained mentions of teen sex, mild cursing, some kissing

bookwyrmjulia's review

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5.0

Pros:
-short, can be read in one sitting
-thorough and well-crafted
-clearly-drawn emotional picture of our protagonist
-nostalgic for high school, college applications, etc
-eye-opening for people who haven't experienced racism
-a perfect polaroid of senior year of high school
Cons:
-it's sad that what Ellen goes through is what real-life Asian American teens go through
-a small amount of the language used is slightly outdated (notably, when discussing teenage bodies and habits) so should be read with that in mind
-none other, you should read it

marmoset737's review against another edition

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3.0

Even though this is about a senior in high school - the book reads like the protagonist is 13...

mercipourleslivres's review

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4.0

This is a really slim little novel but I felt it was almost intentionally written that way. Some readers might find themselves dissatisfied at the lack of resolution or plot depth, but in the end, I found it to be a much more realistic portrayal of growing up than many YA novels. In real life, there isn't always a satisfactory resolution to the shit that happens to you. While some of the characters were barely there and had little to do, I didn't mind because in the end it was Ellen's story and her thoughts were all I really cared about. Despite its original publication setting in the 90s, the book felt very timeless to me (outside of the nickname 'Tomper' that was a bit ridiculous) and I'm glad it got a re-release and chance for more readers to discover it.

maria_elisabeth's review

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3.0

Nice and short, growing up story.
Nothing new really, I've read a few very similar books, with asian-american girl with strict parents and finding their strength.

kimiloughlin's review

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3.0

What is most impressive about this book is that it being reissued after 28 years with a new foreward*. I feel like the Young Adult genre has really grown in the last 28 years and so a lot of this book may seem dated but at the time that it came out, it must have been revolutionary! Ellen Sung is a senior at a virtually all white high school in Arkin, Minnesota. Ellen deals with racist classmates, disappointed and demanding Korean immigrant parents, and a tough college decision. Throughout it all, she matures and finds her voice, eventually standing up to her classmates and forming a really supportive group of friends.

Without the foreward, it would hard to place this book in time. Because it came out in 1992 and was set at a similar time, it reads contemporarily which is slightly confusing when reading in 2020. The home phones, plaid get-ups, and paper college applications gave a clue but the timeless themes of a teenager maturing and small town racism (fortunately and unfortunately) made it universal. I found some of Lee's character development pretty simplistic with a lot of her focus on the main character, Ellen. I particularly wanted to see a bit more focus on Ellen's parents. The pacing of the book also felt a little sluggish despite it's short nature.

For the audiobook, the narrator Jaine Ye spoke sooooo slowly that I had to increase the speed to 1.2x (and I'm not someone who usually does that) and it still felt slow to me which I think affected my overall opinion on the book's pacing. Because of her slow cadence, speeding it up actually made her voice sound crackly as if it couldn't go any faster which was annoying as well.

Overall, the story was simple but cute but the audiobook edition wasn't my favorite. The cover is also very pretty!

*Unfortunately, in the advanced reader copy of the audiobook I was given to listen to, the foreward was not recorded yet (or not recorded at all??) and so was not included. I look forward to reading (or listening) to it at a later date.

Thank you to Recorded Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to listen.

southernbellebooks's review

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5.0

I loved this. Sure, at times it felt a little too transparent and cliche but I think that's what makes it so great. I loved Ellen so much and found her bravery in the face of adversity was admirable. She had taken so many racial jabs on the chin and wore it without complaint until enough was enough and people close to her pointed out what was wrong with what they were saying. It was a feel good story and I can't recommend this book enough.

I listened to it as an audiobook and I loved her. I tend to listen to my audiobooks on faster speed and the narrator annunciated well enough that I never got confused or had to re-listen. Excellent.