*ARC* Book Review: Parachutes by Kelly Yang

Title: Parachutes

Author: Kelly Yang

Published by: Katherine Tegen Books

Date Published: May 26, 2020

PLOT: 
Speak enters the world of Gossip Girl in this modern immigrant story from New York Times bestselling author Kelly Yang about two girls navigating wealth, power, friendship, and trauma.

They’re called parachutes: teenagers dropped off to live in private homes and study in the US while their wealthy parents remain in Asia. Claire Wang never thought she’d be one of them, until her parents pluck her from her privileged life in Shanghai and enroll her at a high school in California. Suddenly she finds herself living in a stranger’s house, with no one to tell her what to do for the first time in her life. She soon embraces her newfound freedom, especially when the hottest and most eligible parachute, Jay, asks her out.

Dani De La Cruz, Claire’s new host sister, couldn’t be less thrilled that her mom rented out a room to Claire. An academic and debate-team star, Dani is determined to earn her way into Yale, even if it means competing with privileged kids who are buying their way to the top. When her debate coach starts working with her privately, Dani’s game plan veers unexpectedly off course.

Desperately trying to avoid each other under the same roof, Dani and Claire find themselves on a collision course, intertwining in deeper and more complicated ways, as they grapple with life-altering experiences. Award-winning author Kelly Yang weaves together an unforgettable modern immigrant story about love, trauma, family, corruption, and the power of speaking out.

REVIEW:
Disclaimer: I received an eARC of the book in exchange for an HONEST review.

This is my first 5-star rated read of the year and I was bawling my eyes out and the end. This book is about how two different lives converge and how powerful one voice is. 

This book left me frustrated and that is a good thing and I hope others who read this story will also get frustrated because the culture portrayed in the story our reality. A culture that is filled with injustices, discrimination, corruption, bribery, and normality of violence, especially sexual in nature, in our society. Both Claire and Dani experienced sexual assault. Sexual assault is a common incident in the world at large, which is sickening because any form of sexual violence is not acceptable and tarnishes humanity as such. According to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network, every 73 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. In addition, an estimated 13% of women and 6% of men have experienced sexual coercion in their lifetime; and 27.2% of women and 11.7% of men have experienced unwanted sexual contact (NIVS 2010 Summary Report). 

I really admire Kelly Yang for writing this personal and difficult story. I like how she wrote it in a way that projects as everyones story. Whatever you race, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, everyone can relate to this story due to the fact that it talks about different themes such as friendship, immigration, economic violence, sexual violence, social pressure, discrimination, sexuality, romance, and injustices. In addition, one of the main characters, Dani, is a Filipina born in the U.S, and as a Filipina myself I cannot help but relate to her. She is family oriented, strives for success, and very out spoken. I like how the author presented the Filipino culture very well and how she conveyed the struggles of U.S. born Filipinos through the story of Dani and her mom. 

The ending does not provide any resolution, which makes it more realistic because many sexual violence cases goes unheard or a swept under the rug. Nevertheless, the support system between the girls provided them strength to cope up with the sexual abuse and continue on with the lives. This makes the MeToo movement much more important because it gives sexual violence survivors their voices back and cope with one another.  

Thank you Harper Collins International sending me a copy of this amazing book. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Kelly Yang is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of FRONT DESK, winner of the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Children's Literature, PARACHUTES (forthcoming YA debut novel, May 2020, Harpercollins) and THREE KEYS (Front Desk Sequel, Sept 2020, Scholastic). She was born in China and grew up in Los Angeles. She went to college at the age of 13 and graduated from UC Berkeley at the age of 17 and Harvard Law School at the age of 20. After law school, she founded The Kelly Yang Project, a writing and debating program for children in Asia. Prior to becoming a novelist, she wrote for many years for the South China Morning Post, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Atlantic.

Follow Kelly Yang on:

Goodreads

https://www.frontdeskthebook.com

Twitter

https://kellyyang.com

Instagram

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XOXO,

Bella