Bookish Brews Snapshot
Boys I Know by Anna Gracia
June Chu’s mother is adamant that June follow in her perfect sister’s footsteps, but June doesn’t see a point when she knows she’ll fall short anyway. June just wants to make her relationship with “Rhys” official and to pave her own way.
🎨 Contemporary Fiction 📖 Couldn’t Put It Down 🎓 High School 🌼 Self Discovery
- Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Book Review
Relatable, real, brutally honest, uncomfortable, smart, hilarious
Boys I Know is one of those books that I knew I would connect with immediately. I mean, growing up Asian American in a majority white city with majority white classmates? It’s such a strong reflection of my life growing up. June is just trying to grow up just like any other high schooler but there is just so much that she doesn’t understand and no one really around to show her. I found my high school self in June and I hope that June can do the same for others, especially teens who are still where June is today. I’m so glad this book exists and I’m so excited for Boys I Know to find its readers because I know that my experience, June’s experience, is not unique.
June Chu is the definition of “just good enough” but she’s somehow still never good enough for her mother’s exceedingly high expectations or to get any good guy to want anything serious. June just wants to get through high school, prove to her mom that she doesn’t need to follow in her sister’s footsteps to be successful, and focus on making her relationship with Rhys “official.” But will it be enough to meet her mother’s expectations?
June’s experience growing up is shockingly similar to mine, which made Boys I Know so special to me. Like June, I grew up in an area where I knew very few Asian people and the ones I did were definitely not Vietnamese (or in June’s case, Taiwanese). I had no concept of what it was to be growing up as an Asian woman because I just didn’t have friends who could give that meaning. I didn’t understand certain microaggressions because I didn’t know the root of any of them. Just like June.
June makes so many mistakes in Boys I Know and she lets too many things slide that she shouldn’t. But in those mistakes, and in that obliviousness, I found myself. I know exactly what it’s like to not understand how “China doll” is terrible. I completely understand how it feels when you finally hang out with Asian women and they remind you how much you’ve assimilated. Deep in my soul, I know how painful it is to wonder if there was ever a way not to assimilate when you are the only Asian woman. Did I really have a choice? Does it make really me less Asian? It doesn’t but that is a lesson that takes years to understand. Maybe, just maybe, with more books like this, that lesson won’t be so hard to learn.
Anna Gracia pulls at my heart in a way I have never experienced before. I related to June’s background growing up an Asian Woman in a primarily white area so much and I’ve never seen it immortalized in fiction before. I wish I had this book for myself when I was a teen but I’m so happy it exists for teens today.
Book Club Questions
- How did you feel when June was being called “China Doll”? Why do you think that it took June so long to realize why it was wrong? Disclaimer: this is a very real experience! It isn’t because June is just oblivious!
- What pressures are put on teens at June’s age with regard to their future? How many teens do you think feel like June when they are applying to colleges? Do you think that June is doing enough with her AP courses and college visits?
- How did you feel when June started to feel that she wasn’t “Asian enough”? How do you think that affects teenagers to feel that way? June grew up in a primarily white area, so she likes things her friends likes, does that make her any less Asian? Why or why not? Can you see how she might feel that way? How can we prevent people from feeling like this in our own lives? Is it possible that you’ve ever made someone feel this way?
