Ratings3
Average rating3.3
Danny Cheng has always known his parents have secrets. But when he discovers a taped-up box in his father's closet filled with old letters and a file on a powerful Silicon Valley family, he realises there's much more to his family's past than he ever imagined.
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The threads of credibility snap by the car crash, with too many thumbs on the scale of writing a flawed protagonist. The parents are also loaded with a lifetime of grave miscalculations including ultimately ghosting on their son, wilfully choking in the mire of not communicating. The story is engaging when it's about the experiences of second generation Asian Americans, about suicide, guilt, self-doubt, and the magnifications and distortions of being a teenager. But Kelly Loy Gilbert juggles too much, mixes in crime and mystery, and tiptoes around queer sexuality. In the lone paragraph not fumbling with half-expressed desire, she has Mr. X describe Danny's identity as ‘funny'. Also, having your flossing habits faulted is listed as an example of a beleaguered life that might contribute to exacting impossible standards from your children?