Frankly in Love

Starred review from June 24, 2019
Caught in a brawl between romance and family expectations, Frank Li isn’t sure which one will knock him out first. His Korean immigrant parents have already disowned his sister for dating a non-Korean, so when Frank falls for a white classmate, he settles on a con. His partner in crime is fellow Korean-American Joy Song, and together they begin a for-their-parents’-eyes relationship that allows them to spend time with their real crushes—but might not be so fake after all. Yoon’s debut examines issues of identity through a significant but often-overlooked subset of the Korean diaspora in California: working-class immigrants and their first-generation children. Frank’s parents’ racism is overtly presented alongside classism, microaggressions, and prejudice that subtly touch all characters. Yoon never settles for stereotypes, instead giving his well-defined characters a diversity of experience, identity, sexuality, and ambition. Told in youthful-sounding prose, Frank’s journey reaches beyond Korean-American identity and touches on the common experiences of many children of immigrants, including negotiating language barriers, tradition, and other aspects of what it means to be a “hyphenated” American. Ages 14–up.

Right from the start, narrator Raymond J. Lee fully inhabits funny, endearing, nerdy-and-proud-of-it California high school senior Frank Li. Frank is studying for the SATs, hanging out with his fellow AP classmates, falling in love, and thinking a lot about his identity as the son of Korean immigrants, all with the heightened feelings of a teenager experiencing these things for the first time. In one affecting passage, Frank overhears a seemingly fraught conversation in Korean between his father and a family friend. Because Frank doesn't know much Korean, he doesn't understand what they're saying, and unless the listener knows Korean, neither do we. Lee's emotionally and culturally authentic performance will have listeners rooting for Frank through many twists and turns, all the way to the audiobook's lovely conclusion. J.M.D. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine