Details

Length: 406
Story Build: slow burn 
Character development: strong 
Age Recommendation: 9th grade and up
Reasoning: strong high school context (AP classes, SAT talk, college talk) that is really relatable for the older YA crowd; language; sexual content (not that explicit at all)

Summary and Review

Frankly in Love is definitely one of my favorite YA novels of my 2020 year. I tore through it, and I honestly didn’t want it to end. It was beautifully written, and I can’t express how lovely Yoon’s narrative style is. 

The novel is about Frank Li, a Korean- American teenager growing up in California. His parents are from Korea, and while Frank is growing up in America, they have some strict requirements based upon their culture. One of these values is that he date a Korean- American girl. 

However, Frank does not agree that he must follow their traditional customs. In fact, he often doesn’t understand why his parents moved to America only to make him follow the life they left. Frank feels conflicted about who he is and where he actually belongs, which is a common theme for many teens, but especially those who have a multicultural background. 

Frank’s life becomes more complicated when a girl from his AP calculus class, Brit Means, takes an intense interest in him. See, she is white and not the least bit Korean, which means that Frank’s parents will not be supportive of their togetherness. Therefore, Frank must hatch a plan that involves his family friend, Joy, in order to have any semblance of a romantic life during his senior year. 

But the novel is over 400 pages, and I can tell you that the text is not hundreds of pages of sneaky dates. It is layered with the subjects of friendship, ethnicity, family, love, and heartache. I can’t pretend to understand what Frank faces as someone who feels a dual identity as both Korean and American, but David Yoon does an exceptional job at providing a small window into that struggle.

This is a book that I don’t want to share much more about because it will give the story away, and you should really experience it. 

Celebrations

There are so many celebrations about this novel. I really loved the word choice, sentence structure, and poetic nature of Yoon’s writing. He is a strong author and definitely has an artistic quality to his style. Furthermore, he’s funny. His writing is funny. His characters’ dialogue is funny. Frank and his best friend, Q, have a quirky back-and-forth, calling each other “old bean” and using archaic terminology that is goofy and realistic. He also makes Frank’s voice clear and real, which is refreshing. He is a believable 17 year old, for sure. 

Hesitations

 I really don’t have any… I wish it hadn’t ended because I loved it!