Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Private Label

Private Label by Kelly Yang @kellyyanghk is a YA realistic-contemporary about two Chinese-American teens trying to find their place in the world. One of them is Serene (She/Her/Hers), whose passion is fashion like her mom. One night, she finds out her mother has pancreatic cancer, and everything changes. The other is Lian (He/Him/His), who enjoys doing stand-up comedy. He moved to from China to a mostly white southern California area. He doesn't fit in at school, and kids mispronounce his name. His parents are traditional Chinese parents and don't care about what he wants to do, pushing him to do MIT.

For me, I loved how relatable this was in terms of being Chinese-American. A lot of this resonated with me. WeChat is a real app btw!

Favorite Quotes:

I look up at my mother, appreciating her empathy, but nauseated by my stupidity. She didn't get to where she is by making mistakes. She got to where she is by being in control. Never letting a weak moment get the best of her.
Mom gets up and goes to her room. "I want to show you something."
She returns with the framed sketch from her desk. It's a picture she drew of women in the Victorian era wearing various lavish, colorful dresses and evening gowns. I always thought she was paying tribute to Little Women, one of our favorite movies. But Mom tells me, "See those colorful dresses? Before the Victorian era, it was extremely expensive to dye fabrics. But then one day Walter Henry Perkin Jr. accidentally mixed oxidized aniline with wine. That's how synthetic dye was created."
Mom puts a hand to the picture.
"I keep this on my desk to remind myself, it's OK to make mistakes. Some of the best innovations in fashion came as a result of desginers daring to experiment."

I hate that even when a guy threatens to do something totally demeaning, a girl still feels like she has to be nice in order to get the guy to not do something illegal.

"Because she doesn't make me choose between two things I love, she accepts all of me! That's what love is, it's not expecting perfection and punishing flaws. It means being for them always."

Content Warnings

klutzykara's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I love how Kelly Yang weaves her own life experiences into her work, while still creating a unique story and characters. There is so much heart and joy in her writing. I loved the core of this story: a strong bond between a mother and daughter (through hard times), the pressure of growing up and figuring out what you want to do/want to be, young love between two people helping each other to dream big and to never give up. I also liked the ending of the book.

I did not like: Cameron's horrible, douchey existence. Men like that do exist in high school (everywhere :/), but his character took away from the the important themes and arc of the story and should have been removed. The sexual comments, nudes, revenge p*rn, and general toxicity from him was randomly inserted in a way that dragged down the story and my rating. I wanted more from other characters. & tbh the dialogue from the teenagers was pretty cringey to me at times. I'm not a teenager anymore, but the teenagers here seemed to interact with each other like caricatures/clichés of current teenagers rather than realistic ones. So while I like Kelly Yang's writing overall, the writing needed to be better in these instances. I would probably recommend Parachutes and/or her Front Desk series (a middle grade all ages can enjoy) over this one because of this reason, although the story here is a good one overall.

Content Warnings

bookishcb_21's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh my heart! This story is not only a love story, but it focuses around family relationships and how they can help shape/mold who we are as we get older. Serene adores her mother and the fashion business she created, while Lian is trying to create his dream life with comedy in it, but having a hard time convincing his parents to let him pursue it. When Serene finds out about her mother’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis, she is on a journey of her own to learn everything about it and how to connect with her father (who isn’t currently in her life). Enter Lian, who is nothing but a sweetheart to Serene throughout her entire journey and wants nothing but to help her out and to build a connection with her. This book takes you on a wild roller coaster ride, but I was there for the entire thing! I can’t wait to pick up more works by Kelly Yang ❤️ On a side note, the Author’s Note broke me and had me sobbing the entire time I read it 👩‍👧🫂💜

Content Warnings

clarvicle's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

maggies's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There was so much going on in this book—cancer, abandonment, revenge porn, parental pressure, racism and microaggressions, and of course romance. At times, it felt like too much, but most of the time it was handled with remarkable care. Serene and Lian were such sweet protagonists, and the voice actors reading their perspectives were amazing.

Content Warnings

librarygirlreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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