A review by h0llyrose
Parachutes, by Kelly Yang
3.0
have you ever heard the term "context is everything"? i would like everyone to remember that while i review this because this is what i immediately started reading after finishing "a little life" by hanya yanagihara; so my emotions had been so drained before reading this that i think it is ON ME for not reacting more sympathetically to this novel--i just wanted to get that disclaimer out before continuing this review and so you would understand the headspace i was in while reading.
this book deals with similar topics of sexual harassment and rape but obviously toned down since this is a young adult novel. this follows two characters from vastly different backgrounds: claire from a wealthy family in shanghai who gets sent to america to attend high school and dani a mixed filipino girl from california who is from a low income household and attending the same high school but on an academic scholarship. this book deals with a lot. i will commend kelly yang for being ambitious in trying to cover a TON about the experience of chinese "parachutes" living in america while also covering dani's experience of being a low income person of color around the wealth of her fellow classmates ALONG WITH sexual harassment, rape, internalized homophobia (with the minor characters), classism, xenophobia, the list does indeed go on. however, i think kelly yang should have scaled back and focused on dealing with just a few topics since this is indeed such a short book (despite being 85(?) chapters with the chapters being like 5 pages at most). because the chapters were so short and the main plot of the story really only happened in the last 30ish chapters, i felt that the climax was sped through and a little rushed. i think some of those heavier topics and events that occur should have happened earlier so we could see these characters really dealing with whats going on rather than just being like this happens so now this happens and now here we are doing this. i would have liked more of the character's thought process before being shown their actions. i also did not fully understand character motivation throughout this story, like sometimes i would just be reading what a character was doing and be completely dumbfounded on why they were doing this.
HOWEVER, while i realize the beginning of this review makes it sound like i did not really like this book. i actually very much enjoyed the fact that kelly yang wrote this story. its been a while since i've seen a contemporary ya author take on SO MUCH in a story, so i really appreciated that. another thing i liked was that the two perspectives were different enough that i never got confused as to who was talking, which happens to me all the time with dual perspective stories. i really liked the characters that surrounded our two leads as well: ming, florence, zach, jess, nancy. although i wish we would have seen more of them, but, like i said earlier, i felt the book was doing a lot so maybe that was for the best.
TLDR, i really enjoyed this book overall, but i just felt like the plot towards the end was very fast and focused on the external pressures of what was going on and i would have liked to see inside the characters heads more during this portion of the story because i felt that could have had some interesting commentary on what was going on. i also felt that the author really went for it in feeling like she had to tackle every single problem that could occur to "parachutes" when i feel like she could have only focused on a few and spent more energy on the main plot of the story. this book was very fast paced and a super quick read (i read it in only 3 sittings) and very different from what i've seen in young adult contemporary recently. i cannot wait to see what kelly yang writes next!
(ps the author note crushed me; i have the utmost respect and admiration for kelly yang)
this book deals with similar topics of sexual harassment and rape but obviously toned down since this is a young adult novel. this follows two characters from vastly different backgrounds: claire from a wealthy family in shanghai who gets sent to america to attend high school and dani a mixed filipino girl from california who is from a low income household and attending the same high school but on an academic scholarship. this book deals with a lot. i will commend kelly yang for being ambitious in trying to cover a TON about the experience of chinese "parachutes" living in america while also covering dani's experience of being a low income person of color around the wealth of her fellow classmates ALONG WITH sexual harassment, rape, internalized homophobia (with the minor characters), classism, xenophobia, the list does indeed go on. however, i think kelly yang should have scaled back and focused on dealing with just a few topics since this is indeed such a short book (despite being 85(?) chapters with the chapters being like 5 pages at most). because the chapters were so short and the main plot of the story really only happened in the last 30ish chapters, i felt that the climax was sped through and a little rushed. i think some of those heavier topics and events that occur should have happened earlier so we could see these characters really dealing with whats going on rather than just being like this happens so now this happens and now here we are doing this. i would have liked more of the character's thought process before being shown their actions. i also did not fully understand character motivation throughout this story, like sometimes i would just be reading what a character was doing and be completely dumbfounded on why they were doing this.
HOWEVER, while i realize the beginning of this review makes it sound like i did not really like this book. i actually very much enjoyed the fact that kelly yang wrote this story. its been a while since i've seen a contemporary ya author take on SO MUCH in a story, so i really appreciated that. another thing i liked was that the two perspectives were different enough that i never got confused as to who was talking, which happens to me all the time with dual perspective stories. i really liked the characters that surrounded our two leads as well: ming, florence, zach, jess, nancy. although i wish we would have seen more of them, but, like i said earlier, i felt the book was doing a lot so maybe that was for the best.
TLDR, i really enjoyed this book overall, but i just felt like the plot towards the end was very fast and focused on the external pressures of what was going on and i would have liked to see inside the characters heads more during this portion of the story because i felt that could have had some interesting commentary on what was going on. i also felt that the author really went for it in feeling like she had to tackle every single problem that could occur to "parachutes" when i feel like she could have only focused on a few and spent more energy on the main plot of the story. this book was very fast paced and a super quick read (i read it in only 3 sittings) and very different from what i've seen in young adult contemporary recently. i cannot wait to see what kelly yang writes next!
(ps the author note crushed me; i have the utmost respect and admiration for kelly yang)