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A review by brittanica_bold
Private Label by Kelly Yang
4.0
This was my first Kelly Yang book and I enjoyed it. While it may not have checked all my boxes, it was definitely a nice, sweet read.
What I like about the book:
1. It is well written. It has an easy flow and it’s entertaining with all of Lian’s jokes.
2. I really like Lian. He is probably the sweetest male character I’ve ever read, and I want to see more characters like him in the future.
• He respects Serene,
• he isn’t some fuccboi who brags about his accomplishments,
• he helps his sister to realize her dream on his own dime,
• he helps Serene and his sister appreciate their culture,
• he carries his coat in case Serene gets cold,
• oh my god! That pendant contract was everything!,
• he asked if he could kiss her (that is so high school sweet!),
• he printed and mapped out on his bedroom wall the Great Wall of China so he could “take Serene there” as his grand gesture, and
• he is downright hilarious! Seriously, his comedy is what kept me reading and wanting more of the chapters in his POV.
3. There is a revolving theme of assimilation and not being welcomed because of who you are. I felt the author did a very good job of highlighting some of the messed-up stuff non-white people go through in America. I appreciated the deep thoughts around how different people dealt with it and how the strongest character, Lian, helped Serene and others see that being yourself is most important at the end of the day.
What didn’t do it for me:
1. I really wanted to like Selene, but she just fell flat for me. She had sweet moments, especially when she acted really mature with her mom’s illness and taking care of her. But there were a couple things about her that bugged me.
She spent way too long being in a relationship with Cameron and arranging her life to try to make him/his group of friends happy when she even realized she didn’t really like him all that much anymore.
I also felt she was really hypocritical of her mom. In one breath she’s pissed that her mom changed her name from “Li” to the more Americanized spelling “Lee”, but then she’s changing everything about herself to fit in at school too. At the end of the day, be you, not who others want you to be and don’t be a hypocrite.
2. I felt this book should have had a wide range of emotions and it fell short of that goal. Going into this book, I wanted to be devastated with her mom’s illness, and I wanted to be in love with Serene’s and Lian’s love story. Neither of these happened.
While her mother’s illness was a focal point to the story, the points where real emotion could have been interwoven in were highly glossed over. At no point did I want to cry, and this should have been a book to wreck me.
As for Serene’s and Lian’s love story, it just felt…abrupt. One second Serene doesn’t know who he is and the next she thinks about kissing him instead of her boyfriend. It also seemed strange how fast they recognized the other as their “best friend”. They barely knew each other…
Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins Children's Books, Katherine Tegen Books, and Kelly Yang for the opportunity to read this ARC. The opinions expressed above are my own, honest opinions.
3.5 stars!
What I like about the book:
1. It is well written. It has an easy flow and it’s entertaining with all of Lian’s jokes.
2. I really like Lian. He is probably the sweetest male character I’ve ever read, and I want to see more characters like him in the future.
• He respects Serene,
• he isn’t some fuccboi who brags about his accomplishments,
• he helps his sister to realize her dream on his own dime,
• he helps Serene and his sister appreciate their culture,
• he carries his coat in case Serene gets cold,
• oh my god! That pendant contract was everything!,
• he asked if he could kiss her (that is so high school sweet!),
• he printed and mapped out on his bedroom wall the Great Wall of China so he could “take Serene there” as his grand gesture, and
• he is downright hilarious! Seriously, his comedy is what kept me reading and wanting more of the chapters in his POV.
3. There is a revolving theme of assimilation and not being welcomed because of who you are. I felt the author did a very good job of highlighting some of the messed-up stuff non-white people go through in America. I appreciated the deep thoughts around how different people dealt with it and how the strongest character, Lian, helped Serene and others see that being yourself is most important at the end of the day.
What didn’t do it for me:
1. I really wanted to like Selene, but she just fell flat for me. She had sweet moments, especially when she acted really mature with her mom’s illness and taking care of her. But there were a couple things about her that bugged me.
She spent way too long being in a relationship with Cameron and arranging her life to try to make him/his group of friends happy when she even realized she didn’t really like him all that much anymore.
I also felt she was really hypocritical of her mom. In one breath she’s pissed that her mom changed her name from “Li” to the more Americanized spelling “Lee”, but then she’s changing everything about herself to fit in at school too. At the end of the day, be you, not who others want you to be and don’t be a hypocrite.
2. I felt this book should have had a wide range of emotions and it fell short of that goal. Going into this book, I wanted to be devastated with her mom’s illness, and I wanted to be in love with Serene’s and Lian’s love story. Neither of these happened.
While her mother’s illness was a focal point to the story, the points where real emotion could have been interwoven in were highly glossed over. At no point did I want to cry, and this should have been a book to wreck me.
As for Serene’s and Lian’s love story, it just felt…abrupt. One second Serene doesn’t know who he is and the next she thinks about kissing him instead of her boyfriend. It also seemed strange how fast they recognized the other as their “best friend”. They barely knew each other…
Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins Children's Books, Katherine Tegen Books, and Kelly Yang for the opportunity to read this ARC. The opinions expressed above are my own, honest opinions.
3.5 stars!