A review by averywindyday
Finding My Voice by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

5.0

I received an ARC of Finding My Voice by Marie Myung-Ok Lee from a giveaway hosted by Goodreads.

Marie Myung-Ok Lee's Finding My Voice follows Ellen Sung throughout her final year of high school. Despite being written and set in the 90s, the novel tackles many issues and themes that are still relevant to contemporary America. As an Asian American teenager, Ellen Sung deals with the pressures of expectation-- both familial and societal. Ellen's parents expect much from her academically so that she can have a successful and happy life in the United States; whereas, Ellen simultaneously has to survive the racist stereotypes of her small town.

The novel explores the issue of racism thoroughly by highlighting both blatant, outright expressions of racist hate speech and violence and its more insidious form of being a bystander and not fighting against those racist incidents. Furthermore, Finding My Voice clearly gives examples of how both expressions of racism coming from both her peers and teachers-- the adults of authority in her life. Another relevant motif of the novel is Ellen's development as a character. Finding My Voice is a quintessential coming-of-age novel as the protagonist grows and learns how to fight against others' expectations of her.

While the novel is still relevant, its original publication date does reflect the language of its setting as Ellen refers to herself using an outdated, pejorative word-- due to her being raised and saturated in a society that utilizes this terminology-- until she learns of the implications of the term.

This edition features a gorgeous cover, a lovely foreword by Kat Cho, and an insightful afterword by the author.

I truly enjoyed discovering this novel and would recommend it to others for its exploration of othering and adolescence.