Alejandra's Papi is dead. Her mom calls it an "accident". Ale knows better. But this tragedy isn't the main plot in Patricia Park's story about a Korean/Argentinan high-schooler who is struggling to understand herself and the situations around her.

She has a best friend, who she thinks she can trust with anything. But can she? Or is there a little too much "white savior" complex going on? And it's not her fault the beloved creative writing teacher was asked to leave because he made a racist comment. Why is everything around her falling apart?

This book speaks to multiculturalism, mental health, racism and microagressions that are a part of life for Alejandra. Recommend for grades 8 and up.

From my blog post: This was another book that kept me laughing but also one that I deeply understood. As someone who hails from two different cultures, I often times battle how much I may feel of either one on any given day. Alejandra deals with this a Korean Argentine (the book touched on the history of this, which reminded me of Haiti’s history being a sanctuary/refuge country) and how she not only battles the identity crisis she faces but how others impact this internal struggle. Since this book took place in New York (*shouts NEWWWWWW YORRRRRK*, sorry, had to), I felt like I was right in the middle of the story. There were emotional highs and lows but even with the lows, I didn’t feel pulled under because of the way Patricia wrote it. She did a bit of a “cut to” with the epilogue but I wasn’t mad at it because we often don’t get to see where YA characters are too much into their futures. This was definitely a worthwhile read!

Alejandra is spunky and relatable, navigating a world fraught with the challenges and difficulties of being yourself, educating others, and maintaining genuine connections with friends and family. This book was an amazing exploration of thoughts and feelings I've had and have wondered if others have, too. As we go forward in becoming more sensitive and aware of the cultural differences between all people, Imposter Syndrome is a breath of fresh air to help everyone recognize that it's hard work, but good work, and all of us struggle with finding the right path, but the most important thing is that we keep trying.

Language: High
Violence: Mild
Drugs: Moderate
Sex: Mild

I'm really sad, because I wanted to love this book as I live in Jackson Heights. There are some really good conversations in it, but I have a few issues with it:

1) I don't think this feels like a super authentic teen voice - the use of "fresh person year" made me cringe every time - it really felt like an adult trying to talk how they think Gen Z does. I kept thinking the "wokeness" was a commentary but we never actually got the full commentary if it was.

2) This is not Jackson Heights - the park is made up - and I think that if a teen from Jackson Heights actually picked this up they would see through it. The vibe of the neighborhood is there - but the fake locations feels weird when there's so many real ones you can use.

3) The way CUNY/SUNY schools are stigmatized was never really unpacked in the way I think it needed to be.

4.5 stars

While books like these get my blood boiling from all the racism the characters experience, it's also good for helping me check my own biases. Some things Alejandra's classmates do are overt, but there are a lot of micro-aggressions that she experiences constantly and you can see how these people don't think they're doing anything wrong.

I enjoyed reading about Alejandra's life as a senior in high school getting ready for what comes next. She's working hard to get into her dream college so she can get away from her distant mom and start over where no one knows her. When a teacher makes racist remarks directly to her, she doesn't want to make a big deal about it and would rather move on. I understand where her friend was coming from in wanting to stand up for Alejandra, but it's completely unfair to force someone to be the face of your 'movement'. BIPOC people aren't here to educated ignorant or racist white people and I've been seeing more pushback to educate yourself instead of relying on someone else.

This was a big year for Alejandra, some revelations, new friendships, and figuring out what she wanted for her future. It's well paced and a compelling read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Random House Children's and NetGalley for the copy.

A high schooler juggles her multicultural background and a personal tragedy on a daily basis. When she inadvertently gets involved with a microaggression, it feels like everyone is looking at her differently. Through it all, she tries to figure out who she is and who she wants to be. Author Patricia Park debuts in the young adult genre with a novel that is relatable, thoughtful, and insightful in her new book Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim.

For Alejandra Kim, going into the world every day is an exercise in patience. Some days she feels like the token diversity child at her uppity private school in Manhattan. Even though most people have gotten used to the idea that she shares both Asian and Latinx heritage, it still throws them sometimes. Her Korean features and her full-on facility with the Spanish language just do not compute for others.

Still, Ale, as most of her friends call her, deals with the sideways looks and the overly accommodating comments. Before he died, Ale’s dad made it that she needed to make the most of her scholarship opportunity at the high school. He and her mother worked day and night to come to New York; Ale’s sole responsibility is to take every chance she can to make life better for herself and run with it.

She has no problem with that part; Ale dreams of attending the prestigious Wyder University. It’s her chance to get out of state and away from her mom who has been driving her crazy. It’s not Ale’s fault that her father died, but she and her mom have never been able to have the hard conversation of whether it was an accident or suicide. Ale has her suspicions, but her mother’s job as a home healthcare aide keeps her busy. When she’s not busy, she’s angry.

When a visiting speaker at school tosses a casual racist remark in Ale’s direction, it sparks outrage among other students. Her best friend, Laurel, demands to the school administration that they fire the speaker. Ale is mortified, but she’s also confused. Why does it feel like everyone in the world is way more worked up about this than she is?

The only person who understands anything about dealing with differences in race is Ale’s best friend, Billy, but he’s been in the Dominican Republic for most of the school year helping to take care of his sick grandmother. When Billy comes back, Ale is thrown off. He seems the same and yet different all at the same time.

As the campaign at school starts to pick up steam, Ale does her best to keep her head down and focus on what she needs to do to get out of New York. But every time she makes any significant strides forward, they leave her wondering whether she really earned them or they were given to her out of a call for diversity. She does her best to figure everything out one day at a time all while keeping her eye on her ultimate goal of claiming herself.

Author Patricia Park writes with self-assurance and ease on the topic of cultural confusion. Many readers who are the children of immigrants will feel an instant affinity with Ale and her challenges. Balancing more than one culture on a daily basis can leave teens and even adults questioning their own identity frequently. Park captures that essence of questioning while keeping Ale’s quest for independence universal.

At times the narrative tries to go overboard in capturing a sense of political correctness. First-year high school students at Ale’s rich school are called “freshpersons” instead of “freshmen,” and the various periods throughout the day are given color names rather than numbers (first period, second period, etc.) It’s unclear whether Park meant these as satirical jabs at those who go overboard in compensating for inequality, but after a while the unfamiliar terms become somewhat tedious.

These minor issues aside, Ale’s struggle with her guilt about her father’s death, her confusion as to why her mother won’t parent like an adult, and how to handle her friends are presented in relatable ways. Those looking for a young adult novel touching on these issues and more in a satisfying way will want to check this out.

What a unique perspective on the "will I get into college" trope in YA lit! Alejandra Kim had my heart from page one.

I've been wanting to read Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim by Patricia Park since I attended a panel with the author speaking. I knew I had to get my hands on this book. Graciously, the publisher approved me for an eARC and this did not disappoint.

I really enjoyed Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim. I loved that it was a quick-paced YA novel, but it really delved into heavier topics like mental health, racial issues, grief, and self-identity, to name a few.

I wanted something more with the Billy storyline of the book--we're just kind of left hanging. And some of the PC talk between Alejandra and her friends left me kind of confused as to what was actually being said. Overall, though, I enjoyed it.

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for my review copy!

Figuring out your identity is hard enough when you’re a kid who’s growing up in a community full of kids just like you. But it’s so much more complicated for the conflicted teenager in Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim by Patricia Park.

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery

Alejandra Kim wrestles with her identity and finding out where she truly belongs as she goes through her senior year in high school at a progressive private school in New York City. The depiction of her private school was fantastic (and at times funny). Her struggles with her Korean via Argentina identity were enlightening. Her complicated home life, financial difficulties, and college application process felt real. I was fully emerged in Alejandra's world and anxious to keep reading. I'm glad that my experience with Park's "Re Jane" didn't stop me from trying this young adult novel that should appeal to high school students but also adults.

I loved this one. It's a story of family, belonging, and growing up that touches on many tough topics with great care and empathy.
Major props to Patricia Park for perfectly putting into words what it feels like to not fully be accepted in any of the groups you're supposed to be and feel a part of. Ale is Latina, but she doesn't look like people (even other Latinos) expect her to look. She's also Korean, but she didn't grow up with the culture or the language so she can't feel a part of it. She is born and raised in America, but Americans only see her otherness and insist on putting her into boxes she doesn't fit. It's a constant and exhausting struggle that many first, second, and even third-generation kids struggle with, so reading about a girl who's doing her best to navigate it all at the same time she's working to figure out her future and accept her past was an eye-opening experience. And that's not even getting into the great discussions and messages that also touch on being white when the world (ironically, mostly other white people) is always forcing you to look at how you benefit from and treat the rest of the world.
The characters read so real it feels like you could run into any of them in the streets of Queens or New York. It's a great story for teens who can identify or even for those who could use a little bit more opening up of their worlds.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley, Random House Children's, and Crown Books for Young Readers for the empathetic read!

This one tries too hard- it comes off as preachy and I think most teens would get the sense that it was too woke for its own good, at least that was my reading of it. Social justice in stories is important and should be handled as a window/mirror/sliding glass door but this one forces the issue in ways that feel over the top.

However the issues that it confronts especially in the grieving process and the feelings of being an imposter are valuable. It wasn't palatable for me in this package.

A short, yet impactful book that follows the main character's journey to consciousness-building as a multicultural, young woman of color. Alejandra is dealing with the grief over her father's suicide while holding in a suffocating frustration at her predominantly white and wealthy high school. She has hidden her emotions and identity to assimilate in her environment, but as the book goes on, she grapples with the complexities of the person she has become while hiding her true self. This book captivated me with Alejandra's frank and dynamic inner monologue. Readers will not have a hard time grasping the concepts she is learning because the author has broken them down without being overbearing. It's relatable content for young adult readers who are grappling with their own place in the world.

"In the end, silence seemed safer than words".

Excuse me, attention please! I loved this book!. It was refreshing, it was raw with the ways in which we deal with grief, or how grief deals with us when we try to hammer it out of sight. It was heartful, it was deep, it was funny, it made me so emotional. ♥

Alejandra Kim is a Korean-Latine (YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT! A rarely explored representation and i LOVED seeing her come to life on the page!) girl who is struggling with enormous loss of her father while trying to find her footing in the world. I am grateful that Patricia Park did not shy away from the harsh realities that mixed children have, and how often that challenge comes from within the families themselves. She also deftly and delicately handled what it feels like to experience microaggressions and how conflicting it can feel to determine if it is worth bringing up or if "there are bigger things to worry about". I thought Park explored that in a really real way, showing how well-meaning friends can often be blissfully unaware of their own microagressions, as well as how defensive more privileged folks can become when called out even gently.

The only cons I found in this book were that it has a few times where the author tried too hard to be overly inclusive in a way that was unnatural and not used in the real world. The prime example of this would be the EXCESSIVE use of the word "freshperson" in lieu of freshman. It made my skin crawl, and I truly hope to never see the word again. As a non-binary reader, it screamed performative and doing too much while doing nothing at all. It was used so often throughout the story, completely unnecessarily, and is not a phrase that is actually preferred. Just say their grade. Say anything else. Please, I'd rather be called a hot dog than a freshperson.

Also, Lena Dunham is a predator and a bad person in general - so I'd urge the author to look into that before very overtly referencing her in future works that are aimed at diverse audiences ♥

BEYOND THAT, I will be recommending this book to everyone. I feel like it fits nicely into its marketed audience of YA - but also transcends it into anyone who can relate to dealing with deep grief, with living between two worlds as a child of immigrants, and facing casual racism in every day dealings.

While I didn't think the epilogue was necessary, I really enjoyed Alejandra's story. Watching her grow and figure out how to be her true self was satisfying.

Omgomgomg I freaking loved imposter syndrome!! Alejandra is such a good writer and this was so much fun to read!!

Strongly narrated, and a really interesting take on identity, belonging, privilege, and grief. There's a lot packed into a short space, and the book examines issues in a very fraught, personal, real way through Alejandra's eyes. I appreciated the strength of the NYC setting and enjoyed the ways that things were layered and complicated throughout - Alejandra's relationships with her mother and Laurel, her dream of going to Whyden, her memories of her father - but the ending felt like something of a letdown. While there was still a lot of material to cover and perhaps there wasn't a good way to end things within one book, having just a montage-type epilogue was something of a disappointment. However, even among YA contemporaries focusing on tokenism or the complications of culture, Alejandra's Korean/Latinx story stands out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel. 4/5 stars.

I really enjoyed this and how unique Alejandra's positionality is as a Korean and Latinx person. I also did not know about the Korean population in Argentina until this novel. Overall, this is such a good book that details belonging, identity, grief, and figuring out who you are. I also like how the plot analyzes the role of whiteness in social justice work, especially with how Lauren exploits Alejandra. Most of the book deals with Alejandra figuring out the different parts of her identity and how they interact with each other. It did take a while to get into, but I really liked the different essays within it that Ale wrote for her admissions and the inclusion of Dr. C as a mentor for her. Some of the plot felt rushed or a bit out of place, like the dilemma with Billy...but overall this was a really great read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Books for the advanced copy for review.

In Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim, Ale doesn't feel like she fits anywhere. She's Argentinian and Korean, but doesn't feel like she belongs in her Latin neighborhood or her mostly white school either. She feels like she needs to go out of state for college because then she will finally fit in. Will she though?

Ale goes through a lot in this book. She's hit with microaggressions from people who don't know her and also from people who should know her the most and think they're doing the right thing, but it ends up just being wrong. She's also trying to navigate her life without her Papi.

This book definitely had some eye opening conversations in it that as a white person I had no idea that they would be interpreted in the manner that Ale does. It's truly made me think about things and I love books like this that you're not expecting to get as much out of it as you end up with.

Alejandra Kim is in her senior year of high school and trying to balance school, applying to colleges, and dealing with the death of her father. Her classmates are mostly wealthy and white and often make Alejandra feel like she has to conform to fit in. In addition to issues of disparity in wealth, the book focuses on family and coming to terms with Alejandra's own cultural heritage which is a blend of American, Argentine, and Korean backgrounds. Alejandra wants to be able to be herself without feeling like she always has to compartmentalize parts of her life or constantly deal with stereotypes, but also doesn't want to break the status quo. The book did a great job at showing many viewpoints and was very cognizant to the fact that there is more to someone than how they appear or how they present themselves. Overall, this book is very introspective and insightful and would be a great addition to any YA collection.