Where Do You Belong When You’re Split in Two?: A Review of Frankly In Love by David Yoon

Hello Patrons! 🙂 

I just finished reading my arc (which I was so nicely gifted by my coworker Alia) of David Yoon’s first novel Frankly  In Love. Currently, when I am writing this it is July of 2019 so I hope some of the things I am going to discuss in this review will have been altered by the time you all are reading this in

David and his wife Nicola at the premire of Everything Everything

September.

Synopsis:

Frank Li is a Korean-American teen trying to live his best life, after his sister Hanna has been disowned for dating and subsequently marrying a black man. Frank struggles with the idea of belonging in America, not being fully comfortable in his Korean circle with his parents and their friends and not being comfortable with his fellow classmates in his Southern California High school. Frank comes up with an idea to date a white girl Brit behind his parents back, but when the unthinkable happens Frank is left questioning all he thought he knew.

*Record Scratch*

I got the title of my review from a letter in the beginning of the arc where Yoon talks about his intentions for the novel, being a son of immigrants like himself. As a daughter of an immigrant I find myself thinking about the same question. I identify as Arab -American even though I was born in America and have no ties to Syria my fathers home country. My freinds growing up always asked why I didn’t just identify as American, and that’s something I still don’t have an answer to.

This book hit me in such a deep place that I am going to break from my usual form of review for a couple of topics. I have conflicting feelings about several of the events and decisions that occur in this book so I want to tackle that before going into the more concrete things I  liked or didn’t like. Please bear with me.

Frank’s Organic Use of the English Language

Frank, the narrator of the novel, has a very distinctive voice because of his organic use of the English language. The first half of the novel I was confused about his voice because I didn’t know if I was just to take him as quirky or just not very proficient in English. I decided on the former because Frank discloses early in the novel that his Korean is lackluster at best, to the point where he can’t communicate with his own parents very well. (And vise versa with Frank’s parents). This use of the English language had me cackling with some of the conversations between characters. For readers like myself who are going to be put off by Frank’s narration style I say just give it time because it helps the novel rather than hinders it.

A Certain Character’s Sexuality is revealed…

So I am not going to spoil anything, but a certain character during the closing chapters of the book is revealed to be gay, and it is both used as a revelation and also just taken with such ease by Frank. I like that it wasn’t made into a big spectacle of OMG THIS CHARACTER IS GAY! EW!  (That’s what would have happened in a YA novel in the early 2000’s) But I also think this could’ve been handled a different way in the novel. I am kind of annoyed with sexuality being used as a big reveal or plot twist. I liked how YA has grown passed that trope.

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What I Liked:

I liked Frank’s teacher Mr. Soft. He was the comedic relief that was needed in between the novel’s heavier plot points. He made me chuckle. Soft is the classic quirky teacher roll. I liked the overall arc of the story, that it was more complex than I originally thought. My preconception that I brought to the novel was that it was going to be simple, Frank dates white girl with help of his friend by fake dating, parents find out all hell ensues. The novel in actuality is more complex because it explores ideas of belonging, first love, family, and racism.

What I Didn’t Like:

Frank’s parents were just very racist. I think it was off putting for me because they were so open about it.  (Also I have this lofty idea that people of color should be more accepting of others when in actuality I know that all people are racist not just white people). Frank’s parents don’t automatically wake up and smell the roses, thusly not being racist anymore, that wouldn’t reflect reality. They do however, make baby steps into being less ignorant about other groups of people and that made me happy.

My Final Thoughts

I really liked this book. I am a big fan of Yoon’s wife Nicola’s books The Sun is Also a Star, and Everything, Everything, so I had very high expectations for this book and I wasn’t disappointed. Frankly in Love is a layered story of deep topics that aren’t always talked about in YA, but need to be. Frank is a genuine character that is so human I felt like I could meet him on the street and have a conversation. I gave Frankly In Love 4.5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. Read this book if you want to think, if you want to cry, and if you feel like you haven’t found where you belonged just yet.

Tell me what your reading in the comments below.

Stay Golden! 🙂 

-Leila