Maurene GooBesprekingen

Pretty clean but the last half of the book fell flat. I preferred the hate to friends of Clara and Rose as opposed to the romance of Clara and Hamlet.

Had a hard time getting into the story

OK teen book about a "rebel" of a girl who finds out that maybe the nerdy kids aren't that nerdy after all. Technically a romance but more about friendship and family.

Cute- though the fantasy of a K-Pop idol falling for her teenaged paparazzo is definitely a farfetched fantasy.

Finished this a few days ago but was out of town-very cute YA read (and third in a row for my unintentional We Need Diverse Books read). Desi Lee is a super motivated Type A person in almost all aspects of her life... except for dating. When a cute new boy comes to their school, Desi decides she'll fix her flailures (flirting fails) by creating rules to get her man, derived from watching several series of K-Dramas.

I think I'd pick up on more references to tropes had I watched any k-dramas before, but it was a cute frame structure and she's such a likeable teen. Hooray for teen girls!

Oh gosh, this was adorable. Maurene Goo is 2 for 2 with me for good, fun protagonists, though Clara is definitely more sarcastic and pranksterish than Desi Lee of I Believe In a Thing Called Love.

This book is definitely dated to 2018. Clara's dad runs a food truck called KoBra that serves Korean-Brazilian food (did you know: there are pretty substantial Asian diaspora communities in south and central America? Need MORE STORIES), and her absentee "social media influencer" mother travels around the world. Our plot is this: after performing a pop culturally hilarious prank at prom, Clara and arch-nemesis Rose Carver are required to work at Clara's dad's food truck for the summer, with their wages going towards damage from said prank. We learn about friendship and we learn about crushes and also parental disappointment. I was also pretty tickled at the terminology love interest boy uses for his grandparents (who are also ABCs, so heyyyy representation of us exclusion-era ABCs) and just... the diversity of family situations.

Also, all of the principal characters are people of color- Felix, Patrick, and/or Felix's girlfriend might be white, but it's honestly kind of refreshing to be like yes, this is some #ownvoices for us.

I see the upcoming title is "Somewhere Only We Know" and deals with a kpop idol- Korean archetypes and pop songs are Goo's thing, I guess?

This read was the one book by this author that I had not read before. It had a super cute concept and it was a cute read. I think using K drama concepts to land your man is a fun concept. I thought the overall this read was cute but some elements of this story came acrosss as being a bit manliptuve in geeneral as a character. I read through this book super quick but the story did not wow me it. I did like the characters overall!!

I read this book in a day. I really thought this was such a fun summer themed read. I read the next book by this author and felt that this book was also super strong. I liked that this book focused so much on self discovery. I really also enjoyed how clara changed so much throughout this novel. This book had a lot of mini plots travel, job, competition and they did not all mesh together super well to make a strong clear novel. I felt like some parts were quickly tied up and I wanted the last 50 pages to be bit longer and sreached out. I really did enjoy the characters in this book thought and would read more by this author in the future.

This read was the one book by this author that I had not read before. It had a super cute concept and it was a cute read. I think using K drama concepts to land your man is a fun concept. I thought the overall this read was cute but some elements of this story came acrosss as being a bit manliptuve in geeneral as a character. I read through this book super quick but the story did not wow me it. I did like the characters overall!!

I read this book in a day. I really thought this was such a fun summer themed read. I read the next book by this author and felt that this book was also super strong. I liked that this book focused so much on self discovery. I really also enjoyed how clara changed so much throughout this novel. This book had a lot of mini plots travel, job, competition and they did not all mesh together super well to make a strong clear novel. I felt like some parts were quickly tied up and I wanted the last 50 pages to be bit longer and sreached out. I really did enjoy the characters in this book thought and would read more by this author in the future.

OH MY GOD LOVE LOVE LOVE

(thank you to my wonderful Sestra Samantha for lending me her copy)

I'll go a bit more into this closer to the date, but guys I think I needed to be best friends Desi in High school because honestly she's my kind of cool.

Representation: Biracial main character
Trigger warnings: Fire
Score: Four points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

This was such an absolutely disgraceful book and I'm surprised this got an award; other readers enjoyed this book but I didn't enjoy this one. What ruined the book was the main character Clara Shin and she was one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen in any book. For starters she is such an attention seeker when she threw tampons at the assembly and poured fake blood during the prom announcements. Afterwards she just acted aggressively towards her dad and Rose and other than a figurative slap on the wrist she gets away with it?

I didn't feel anything for Hamlet and Clara since Hamlet was just a stereotypical quirky character and that's it. In the last third of the book she gets away with visiting a waterpark, going to a resort in Tulum to see her mother, ditching her friends in the process but how are they still friends with her? If you want a funny rom com skip this one and try The Sun is Also a Star since it's way better and funnier than this book despite the fact that it's a little bit unrealistic but at least the characters are enjoyable.

Definitely more Marty McFly vibes than Annabelle Andrews when Samantha Kang takes an off-brand ride share after a fight with her mom and winds up at the 1995 homecoming week at their shared highschool, Quick to realize her predicament, Sam quickly figures out a place to stay and the reason she has been sent back--to help her mom Priscilla win homecoming queen and smooth the relationship between her and her own mother, Sam's grandmother. This was a fun, fast paced read. The pop culture touchstones of the mid 90's are relayed really well and the cringey casual racism Sam sees firsthand begins to shape her new thoughts about her mom's upbringing and relationships. There were a couple twists I didn't see coming and scenes with so much humor, I chuckled aloud.

This was a cute story, it could have been done in less chapters than it was written. It gives you a light in to the K-pop management world. How hard the pop stars have to work.

The characters were well rounded. Lucky, the k-pop star, comes to realisation that something is missing.

Jack, thought his parents didn't support him.

They meet, accidentally and go on this carefree day. Jack has intentions but Lucky . . . just wants to get away from reality.

It is nice contemporary romance, makes you go aww and then - 'it should come to an end now' moment.

3 stars due to dragging the plot and all they did was go around to eat and fun, eat and fun. A lot of repeating.

Samantha Kang has never gotten along with her mother, Priscilla, they’re just too different. After a huge fight between them, Sam gets left in a parking lot and has to use a rideshare app to get to school. She gets there, but instead of her time, it’s now 1995… and Priscilla is a 17-year-old senior.

Now, Gen Z Sam has to fit into an analog world. The fashion she gets, but everything else is baffling; what’s with the casual racism and misogyny? And what is “microfiche?” Also - why does Sam feel like she would actually be friends with Priscilla??

Will Sam be able to figure out what she needs to fix in order to get back to her own time? And what about these feelings she’s getting for a boy in 1995?

So, I have a soft spot for time traveling; it’s not something I gravitate towards per say, but if the book catches my eye and I see it has time traveling in it, then I’ll most certainly read it. Add to the fact this one was set in the 90’s and I was most definitely going to read it.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Sam and her mother and the exploration we get to have with it in this novel. As someone who is pretty close with her own mom, I think it would be so fun to go back in time and be friends with her in high school (though she would have been in the early 80’s).

Though this is a YA book, I can see both teenagers and adults enjoying it - especially the adults that grew up in the 90’s, but the culture shock from Sam can be enjoyed by both. Those who have a complicated relationship with their mothers could also enjoy this.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this time traveling, throwback to the 90’s novel and can’t wait to put it in the hands of a few friends of mine.

*Thank you Zando Young Readers and Edelweiss+ for a digital advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

This book was so fricken cute and wholesome I almost can't deal with it!!

While I think the range of readers that would enjoy this book is wide, I do think that that someone like myself, a borderline Gen Xer who was actually in high school in 1995, really had a lovely connection with it.

I mean, who knew you could have such an incredible microfiche scene in a story???½

Throwback by Maurene Goo

If you could change the course of your mother’s life, what would you do? This is the question posed by Throwback, a young adult novel filled with edge and heart. Samantha Kang is utterly at odds with her mother, unable to understand why their outlooks on life are so different. When she is transported back in time, Sam realizes that she has the opportunity to alter her future, and must learn to become friends with her mother as a teenager in the past. Can she truly rewrite the story of their lives? Or is the past forever set in stone?

Sam is an overly modern heroine, perhaps because her timeline is set in 2025. She is intensely passionate, and regularly calls out offensive actions, chauvinistic comments, and racism in the past. While important to note how standards have changed, I found her comments far too repetitive. As the daughter of an immigrant, I found the themes of conflict between generations to be very authentic, and the different ideals of the American dream were deftly explored. The quirkiness of the characters is a strength within the writing, as well as Goo’s firm sense of setting. I am critical of the lead character, because I felt that Sam wasn’t a very sympathetic figure, but she does show teen angst quite realistically. Overall, this novel was a fun ride, and I greatly enjoyed the dynamic relationship between the mother and daughter.

LOVED the cultural elements--Desi's dad is one of the cutest fathers I've read recently--but this was quite airy and light. There was no substitute behind the romance and the ending irked me. But it was an easy, sweet read.

Really liked this one! Super fun and cute! It makes me want to watch all the K dramas. Definitely recommending to all my k drama lover friends!

I had only a passing familiarity with Silk until I read a reprint of the first chapter of this book in Marvel's Voices: Identity. Since it was one of the better parts of that anthology, I thought I'd give her whole book a try, and I was not disappointed.

YA author Maurene Goo makes a strong comics debut with a light and energetic superhero story featuring a young Korean American woman with the same power set as Spider-Man as she was bitten by the same spider that enabled Peter Parker to do whatever a spider can.

Cindy Moon is a reporter who works under J. Jonah Jameson at an online news hub called "Threats and Menaces." Her first story gets her pulled into a street gang war that is being won by a cat demon with ties to a Japanese tech company. Moon is likable and the story introduces everyone well enough that I did not feel lost for not having read her previous solo books, but I will probably give them a try now even though Goo does not write them.

FOR REFERENCE:

Originally published in magazine form as Silk (2021) #1-5.

I really enjoyed this book. The adventure of the main characters go on is fun and endearing. Having the secret build behind them and knowing how it's going to explode gave the right amount of tension and high stakes. I feel like the ending was a bit soft, considering how high they started. This would make an amazing movie. The visuals would be stunning!

An average 3 star romance. The k-pop stuff was cool though

Evergreen Bk Award nominee. A dual narration between two young adults as they navigate the working world of K-Pop music industry, "Lucky", and Jack, the world of tabloid journalism as a way to make ends meet and NOT go to the college his parents were hoping for. Escaping her handlers from the fancy highrise hotel, Lucky, disguised as best she can, goes out into the Hong Kong night and attempts to stay awake in spite of the dose of sleeping pills she always takes - and Jack, worried about this dozing (drunk?) girl alone on a Hong Kong bus...decides to follow her. What transpires is a series of Hong Kong nightlife, near misses with suave "players" at a nightclub, and the police, a chaste stay over at Jack's apt and a meet up with Charlie, Jack's taxi-driving friend and unabashed fan (not as much as his sister) of Lucky. Less than a couple days -and then it shifts to "a year later" plot developments; this has got movie written all over it. A "meet cute" romance between two Californian Korean young adults; too much "telling" and internal dialogue going on throughout entire book but definitely a sweet love story.

diverse teen fiction with girl-boy romance set in Los Angeles, absent but glamorous mother and hard-working father; parents are Korean by ethnicity but Brazilian by birth; main character's friend is incidentally African-American with anxiety issues, her love interest hails from a millionaire-rich-type family in Beijing.

If you enjoy sappy romance dramas, Maurene Goo's characters are sweet as well as full of spunk and sarcasm (this is the second book of hers I've read and they were both good). Plus there are lots of food trucks in this story. A great diverse read with a gorgeous cover.

teen fiction (rom-com, k-drama style, diverse cast, set in modern Orange County). This was a light read, recommended for those who are or might be interested in Korean drama series (with a helpful primer at the end, in case you are new to them but want to learn more).