Seventeen-year-old, Mei feels like her life is crashing down around her. She’s been accepted early into MIT, but to be a doctor like her parents have planned out for her. She’s half American, half Taiwanese, and struggles with the culture clash. Wanting to be more like her surroundings, living life like a freshman, taking classes she wants and being with a boy she chooses. But she knows that her tough parents won’t allow it. When she meets up with her estranged brother, Xing, she starts to question whether the secrets she’s started to harbour are worth it. This was an emotionally filled coming of age story, that was really well done. The reader liked that this didn’t feel so black and white or me versus them. Instead we got to see both sides of the story, in the best way possible with only one point of view. Mei was a great main character and narrator because she understood, for the most part, where her mother was coming from, and as the novel continued we kept getting glimpses into the life her mother had when she was younger. Watching Mei and her mother communicate was so beautiful and moving because we really felt like they were listening to each other. Even though it didn’t exactly start healthy, it did feel like a healthy relationship and the reader really liked watching her mother blossom and flourish into a person she never thought she could be. The reader truly thought Mei’s mom was the best character, Mei did a lot of growing and developing, too, but that was expected, her mom’s was not. The side characters were really good because they helped Mei see things in a different light that she might not have seen, and their purpose really moved the plot. As for the plot, it was fast-paced, and well thought out. It did get a bit repetitive with how Mei kept doing things she knew her parents wouldn’t like, but it built up in an organic way to have a good resolution. In the end, the reader really liked that we could see past the teen angst of going against your parents and could really get to the heart of the matter; this was really well done, highly recommend.