An incisive, laugh-out-loud contemporary debut about a Taiwanese-American teen whose parents want her to be a doctor and marry a Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer despite her squeamishness with germs and crush on a Japanese classmate.
At seventeen, Mei should be in high school, but skipping fourth grade was part of her parents’ master plan. Now a freshman at MIT, she is on track to fulfill the rest of this predetermined future: become a doctor, marry a preapproved Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer, produce a litter of babies.
With everything her parents have sacrificed to make her cushy life a reality, Mei can’t bring herself to tell them the truth–that she (1) hates germs, (2) falls asleep in biology lectures, and (3) has a crush on her classmate Darren Takahashi, who is decidedly not Taiwanese.
But when Mei reconnects with her brother, Xing, who is estranged from the family for dating the wrong woman, Mei starts to wonder if all the secrets are truly worth it. Can she find a way to be herself, whoever that is, before her web of lies unravels?
Mei is a germaphobe who wants nothing more than to not be a doctor. Her brother staged a rebellion, escaping any of the expectations of his parents and Mei doesn’t want to have to do that. Until Darren, the amazing Japanese boy at MIT catcher her eye, causing everything to turn on its head.
I really enjoyed this book. There were so many aspects of it that I really enjoyed. Mei’s personality. She is a spit fire who really finds her own way.
At first I really hated Mei’s parents, so much and I couldn’t understand anything they were doing but the more I got to know them in the book I got to understand why they were doing what they were doing to her.
Mei really branches out towards the middle of the book, slowly becoming friendly with Nicolette (her roommate) and starting to warm up more to Darren. I really loved reading about Mei and Xing’s relationship.
I think this book is really great and if you’re looking for a good contemporary that is not solely focused on romance, this is a good one.