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A review by luckies_universe
From Little Tokyo, with Love by Sarah Kuhn
2.0
I wanted to like this book a lot, and for a moment, I was kind of into it. The weather's getting warmer which means it's the perfect time to settle down with a cute summer romance, especially a loosely-based Cinderella story featuring a biracial main character and an array of other BIPOC characters.
I just felt like the message the author wished to portray in the story overpowered the story itself. This book is very clearly about growing up biracial in America, feeling lost and out of place, battling racism within and without your own community, finding friendship and acceptance and facing your fears. On their own, these are important messages, and I love reading about them, but to me it seemed like the author was trying to put in too many core themes instead of sticking to one or two. It made the story far too long and it lacked direction and purpose. The dialogue so obviously pushed the key messages and it made the actual story (a girl trying to find her mother and falling in love) feel like background music.
I've read a lot of books from POC authors like S. K. Ali, Adiba Jaigirdar and Gary Lonesborough which tackle racism and self-acceptance in Young Adult literature in skillful and nuanced ways, giving readers equal parts story and message. I guess I just had high hopes for Little Tokyo and was really excited to read it, I couldn't help but feel a little let down.
I still want to read the author's other book, I Love You So Mochi, as I've heard it's much better compared to Little Tokyo.
I just felt like the message the author wished to portray in the story overpowered the story itself. This book is very clearly about growing up biracial in America, feeling lost and out of place, battling racism within and without your own community, finding friendship and acceptance and facing your fears. On their own, these are important messages, and I love reading about them, but to me it seemed like the author was trying to put in too many core themes instead of sticking to one or two. It made the story far too long and it lacked direction and purpose. The dialogue so obviously pushed the key messages and it made the actual story (a girl trying to find her mother and falling in love) feel like background music.
I've read a lot of books from POC authors like S. K. Ali, Adiba Jaigirdar and Gary Lonesborough which tackle racism and self-acceptance in Young Adult literature in skillful and nuanced ways, giving readers equal parts story and message. I guess I just had high hopes for Little Tokyo and was really excited to read it, I couldn't help but feel a little let down.
I still want to read the author's other book, I Love You So Mochi, as I've heard it's much better compared to Little Tokyo.