Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Stay True

A wonderful memoir that gracefully interweaves culture, friendship, and youth.

I loved Hsu's lyrical writing and how nostalgic his prose was. The memoir was sprinkled with setting specific details that left me wistful of a time period where I didn't even exist yet. He recollects growing up as a second generation Asian American Californian youth in the 90s, interlacing the ways that shaped his identity, along with the clothes, music, and the cultural and political events especially during his college years. He also details the unlikely friendship he develops with Ken, and the grief and guilt he feels after Ken's murder. The memoir is vivid, atmospheric, and so insightful. You're transported to moments in Hsu's life where he is very emotionally honest in the way he shows us the person he was during his teens and early 20s.

Reading this leaves me reflecting on my own friendships and the inkling of fear I have of death, not for my own but for the people around me, and if I'll ever be able to remember them with the clarity Hsu seems to of Ken. I think the worst part of mortality, besides loss, is how fleeting memory is and the way details will be forgotten and how all we can ask is Can you stay with me a little longer?

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rlinnyc's review

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

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samchase112's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

This powerful memoir was about so much more than grief and friendship. As Hua Hsu immersed me in 1990s California I became swept along the waves of his coming of age, from faxed letters exchanged with his father to misguided, firmly held convictions to diary entries tinged with feeling, from rooftop balconies to dorm room hangouts to dusty record shops… then along the path of shock and grief, coping and not coping. Interspersed with questions of identity and belonging, history and memory… How can I express my thoughts except to say, life is so sad sometimes.

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

Thanks to PRH Audio for the free copy of this book.

- STAY TRUE is a meandering memoir, a book that truly captures the roaming of the mind that happens in college friendships as you are trying to figure out yourself and your relationship to the world.
- The blending of pop culture and philosophy in this book is wonderful, prompting deep consideration of how we choose to present ourselves and interact with others.
- The last portion of this book, after Ken’s death, is really hard. I think Hsu nailed that feeling of being unmoored after a loss, and it’s painful and beautiful to follow him as he tries to make sense of it all.

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