A review by fyziksgirl
Front Desk by Kelly Yang

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This book is an incredibly poignant look into the life of immigrants to this country who come over for a better life and find hardship most of us cannot dream of. Throughout, the protagonist's positive attitude and general loveableness keeps it from becoming depressing, yet makes the way the deck is stacked really hit home. I've heard that children of immigrants can never forget how hard their parents worked and how much their parents gave up for them to have the opportunities they did, but I understand it in a deeper, gut level way after reading this book.

It is largely autobiographical and it reads as an autobiography at first, without a clear problem to solve being introduced for a fair bit into the book. There are clearly problems in her life, but it reads as more a telling of what her life is like than a traditional story with rising action, etc, for the first half. The second half is where it feels more like a work of fiction. This is not bad, just an observation. The end was fairly feel-good unrealistic, but that makes sense for a children's book about *hard* topics that can't be nicely tied up with a bow.

Overall an important book that makes its readers richer for having read it.
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