Honestly, I just didn't like the writing style of this book. It was okay, I just couldn't appreciate the way it was written..

Soma is depressed. Her father, her Ba, has been deported back to Cambodia, because of a transgression he did years before, and no one can tell her when he is coming back. Plus, her Mom went to be with him, so now it is just her older sister, who is trying to plan a wedding, who is supposed to be taking care of her.
Does she have anger? Like heck she does. How does she deal with it? By writing slam poetry.

She puts her poetry out there on social media, and everyone likes it, so she does more, and enters a poetry contest. Meanwhile, she can’t talk to her Ba. It is just too much that he is gone, and she is afraid he will never come back home again, and she can’t live with that.

Full disclosure, I can’t read poetry, and judge it, so that part of the book kind of goes over my head, but I think it is enough to know that it is her way of escape. Her way of making sense of the world.

I do like how the author dropped little bits of the culture that Cambodian-Americans have in the US, as a second generation, for the wedding of her sister, of the food. Of the frustration of reading white male authors for inspiration.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. The book comes out the 3rd of October 2023

Unfortunately this book isn't for me - I can't get into the style and voice as it's a lot younger/more informal than I was expecting. Hard to rate as I won't be finishing so I'll go middle of the road.

I am really glad this book exists, because I can't think of any other contemporary YA I've read with a Cambodian lead. Despite that, the writing style just wasn't for me - I do think it might appeal to more reluctant teen readers though!