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OLDER FICTION
Chao, Gloria

Our Wayward Fate

311 pp. | Simon | October, 2019 | Trade ISBN 978-1-5344-2761-7 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-5344-2763-1
(2) YA Seventeen-year-old Taiwanese American girl Ali (Āh-lěe) Chu has grown up in a predominantly white Midwestern town; she has learned to survive school (where she is known as Allie) by blending in and being "as dry as white toast." Yet as new people enter her life--a childhood friend she doesn't remember, a new Taiwanese American classmate, and a great-uncle she never knew existed--things begin to change. After uncovering family secrets and confronting painful truths, Ali eventually exits survival mode, ditching "Allie" and beginning to live life as her true self, "100 percent Ali." Ali's first-person narration employs colloquial, authentic teen language. The absence of a glossary for the Mandarin vocabulary in the book requires readers to experience, like Ali, what it is like to grow up in a family speaking a different language in the home. Also noteworthy is Chao's inclusion of a retelling of the famous Chinese "Butterfly Lovers" legend; the retelling is parsed out between chapters, providing valuable insight into Ali's culture.
Reviewer: Weileen Wang | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2020

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