Sour Heart

I no longer need to write the great Chinese-American-millennial novel because Jenny Zhang would probably do it better than me. There's a lot in here that makes me suspicious that she has some kind of secret access to my mind/memory. But I knew this collection was perfectly true to me by page 13, when she writes: “I was born itchy as all hell and I would die itchy as all hell unless a crafty genius somewhere decided to invent a miracle drug that would save me from this long and itchy life.”

this is one of those books that i instinctively felt repulsed by during and immediately after my initial read, but has stuck to me months after reading. a unique perspective on the chinese diaspora and on the coming-of-age genre which broaches explicit subjects usually avoided by other middle grade and young adult perspectives. i appreciated how every story tied together, and the glimpses of each story protagonist's opinion of another.