Families are interesting groups. This novel follows Mei through the Cultural Revolution in China under Mao ZeDung and her resettling in America; her daughter and her grandson as well. All are exceptional scientists or married to one, all fascinated by DNA mapping and gene editing. Therein lies the theme of this story. With the leaps medical research has made in the last several decades come many ethical dilemmas. The 3 generations of this family struggle first hand with choices made for them. The characters each tell their own stories and are well developed. So many lesser themes are also present: parenthood, love, societal responsibility, racial bigotry, sexual bigotry, wealth, and our need for time—more time. Thoroughly enjoyed this story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alfred A Knopf Publishing for the ARC to read and review.

Beautifully written story told in three parts with each part having it's own identity. Part one was a romance, part two a coming of age story and part three historical fiction. Yet each part fits seamlessly together in this tale of racial identity, history, science and fate. Lily's story begins in 1999 when she is an unpaid intern, struggling to pay her bills in New York. Lily is American but her parents were born in China and are both scientists. Lily loves her parents but didn't follow their path in science and often feels like a disappointment to her mother. Lily meets Matthew at a party; he is her opposite in every way; tall, blonde, very wealthy and highly educated. The two fall in love and while Lily often struggles fitting in to Matthew's family and not knowing what she wants to do in her life, we root for the couple to succeed.

Part two is set in 2021 and is about Nick, the son of Lily. Lily and Matthew are not together and Lily raises her boy with strict rules and little resources in the state of Washington. Nick is tall and blonde and doesn't look Chinese at all, a fact that makes him curious about the father he never knew even though he loves and is loved by his mother. Shortly before he is to leave for college, he takes a DNA test and finds out his father is very wealthy and they reconnect. Nick's part of the story is the longest part as he struggles with anxiety and being lonely and not feeling like he ever fits in. The third part of the story is set in 2030 but tells the tale of Mei who is Lily's mother. Mei was a young college student in the 1960's when the cultural revolution was taking place and people and their belongings were destroyed in favor of living a grueling life as a worker. Mei's story was fascinating and explained many of her choices in life and how there were many things in her life she could not choose. There is also a magical realism part of the story which is not really emphasized or fleshed out.

I very much enjoyed this novel and at the same time wished some things were better explained including the decisions made in the name of science. I also found it very hard to believe that Lily and Matthew would meet accidentally given the relationship between their parents. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for a review.

Author Rachel Khong's sophomore novel is a multigenerational saga wherein we meet three generations of Chens. First, there's Lily, a Y2K-era twenty-something living in NYC who meets and falls for Matthew, a tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed conventionally All-American-looking guy. He seems so down to earth but happens to be the heir to a mega-influential pharmaceutical empire. Flash forward twenty years to Lily and Matthew's son Nick, who looks the spitting image of his father even as Lily has poured her all into raising him alone on an island in Puget Sound, Washington. Nick can't wait to get off the island and learn about the father Lily has insisted wants nothing to do with him. Finally, we meet May Chen, Lily's mother, who immigrated from Mao's China to work at the forefront of epigenetic research. After all she'd experienced during China's Cultural Revolution, May wanted to "change how life could be, ... to make the unjust just,  ... to right what began wrong."
In posing the question, "How far would you go to shape your own destiny?" Rachel Khong performs literary magic with the concepts of destiny, time, and fortune. All three characters have the ability to arrest time, experiencing it at a different rate than it passes. If the Chens are fortunate in one thing, it is time. And as the saga unfolds, we see that they also possess an abundance of love for one another. It's a remarkable read, one I highly recommend to those who love a richly drawn intergenerational drama.
[Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

I think I'm landing on a 3.75 rounded up — this is a good book, and I KNOW it's a good book, but jumping into this after reading several back to back lighthearted romances was tough. This took me so much longer to get through, and it's because I had to actually think while reading 💀

I liked how this story followed different generations of the same family, and how the concept of "American-ness" was explored, as well as the different ethics and science of genealogy. The characters and the story was interesting, but every time things were getting really good, it felt like the plot changed. I felt lead on a couple times, and this is another book where I turned the last page and was disappointed to see there wasn't anything left! I wanted more (a good thing), but the end did not feel like the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a DRC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Real Americans asks, if you could shape your own destiny, would you? How far would you go?

Split into three parts (and the audio with three narrators!) between Mei, a Chinese immigrant who fled Mao's Cultural Revolution in the 1960's, her daughter Lily who met and fell in love with someone despite their opposite backgrounds, and Lily's son Nick who passes as white but navigates being biracial in America, all the while questioning his own identity.

Each part was so distinct, they felt like separate books until they started to come together. I loved how each of their experiences contrasted each other's in some ways, and ran parallel in others.

It made me reflect on how much of our identity is tied to our DNA, how much to experience, and how much is left up to chance. And if you had the ability to edit your identity, where would you draw the line.

I was really intrigued by the magical realism aspect, and wished there had been more details; though I liked that it still made sense to the story without overshadowing the characters.

I have yet to read Khong's debut novel Goodbye, Vitamin, but it is now solidly on my list.

I loved this book. The characters are developed, emotional, unsure of themselves but question everyone else. Seeing how the story develops and how the past complicates the future is different from other novels. Learning about who you are and where you come from can bring answers or destroy lives. In this case, both are true.

Real Americans deserves every single bit of hype it's received, and more. This story is magical, engrossing, and will suck you in from the very first page. Khong's writing style is absolutely beautiful and she has a way of making the characters completely jump off the page and come to life.

I honestly don't want to say too much because I don't want to risk spoiling it for someone who hasn't read Real Americans yet. It's a powerful story that explores race and identity, culture, wealth, and finding a place to belong. This is truly a book not to be missed.

Thank you Knopf Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this book. I was totally immersed and didn’t want to stop reading. Great story about family, choices and genetics. What makes us who we are? Highly recommend.

I kept being drawn to this story from the very beginning until the last page, but on reflecting I never found the drama I was seeking. It was conveniently left in between the three sections. The wealth was something I could not grasp. But I really liked the reflection on Mei/May’s early life. It introduced me to history and culture I was not familiar with.
I wish the third section had of stuck to one narrator. The continuation of the Nick and Matthew saga was too predictable.

This novel was not at all what I was expecting (and having read it and re-read the publisher's blurb, I'm not sure where those expectations originated), but it turned out to be a captivating and very compelling read. It's a family story told from three perspectives in three different time periods: Lily's story in 1999, Nick's in 2021, and Mei's in 2030. Themes of parental expectations, personal choice, racial identity are woven into the story, along with a bit of Chinese history, and some exploration of the science of genetics and the ethics of genetic manipulation. The characters are well-developed and their thoughts, feelings, and experiences very relatable, despite their differences. Even when I wished they'd make different choices, I couldn't help but root for them to achieve their desired goals. I read this book over only three days because I didn't want to put it down. I will surely look for more from this author in the future. 4-1/2 stars.

I was excited to read this book as early reviews noted it as a favorite book of the year for many people whose reading tastes I admire -- all this to say I had very high hopes! For me this book was very good, but I never quite got the magic that other people got.

What I liked: The writing was beautiful. Wonderful descriptions, down to the mundane parts of life that made the characters very relatable and human. I really like the first part of the book which was Lily's story -- the coming of age and finding love and growing a family. There were also so many small connections between the parts of the book if you were really paying attention. Small references to a turn of speech or an object (oysters, for example, appeared in different parts of the book in different ways). There were these little tendrils connecting the three segments of the book together if you read with focus. Finding one was like discovering a little secret.

What worked less for me: I found myself less connected to May's story and her time in China. Normally I love a book set in another part of the world, but I start losing interest on this part of the book. I also was a little tripped up on the slight magical realism element. The scientific developments -- ok no problem. But the stuff about suspension of time sort of threw me off and had me thinking deeply on why it was included.

All in all, it was an excellent book, just missing the sparkle and magic I think it held for a lot of other readers!

Loved Goodbye Vitamin by this author. real Americans shows what a strong writer Khong is--it is nothing like her previous book. It is beautifully written and told through an effective structure: multiple points of view via three connected narrators at three points in time, A slow-burn story of family and belonging, race and identity, hopes and dreams, struggle and achievement, with the three segments coming together nicely, but not necessarily neatly, at the end
What made it a 4 star read for me (vs 5 star) was that the characters' segments were uneven for me--not equally developed and/or appealing--and a science/sci fi element that was difficult to understand and believe in. It was significant to the story but easy enough to let go of and suspend my disbelief.
Highly recommended--engaging and immersive.

Three generations of a family struggle with loving each other, doing what is right for each other, and understanding each other. I liked the first half of the book more. I felt it started to fight for answers in the second half.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my review!

I enjoyed that this book weaves the tales of three Chinese Americans together and gives the reader a glimpse into the challenges that each character faces. I found it difficult to connect to May's story the most of the three, but that might speak to the way that Khong wanted her character to come across, due to her story as an immigrant.

I liked the sci-fi aspect to this book, as someone interested in gene therapy, and the ethical dilemma it introduces. It was satisfying how all three stories came together at the end. Overall this book kept me entertained and will have me thinking back on it for a long time!

This book has so much going for it. Complex characters, multi-generational family saga, family secrets, complicated parent-child relationships, near-future technology, and the Chinese cultural revolution to name a few. And it delivers on all of these themes.

2.5
This one is tricky. This was I'm rating purely on my personsal enjoyment. Because I can see why the book has such a high rating. The story is well plotted, everything comes really well together (it's really nice to see the author tying everything together), and the pacing for this type of book is enjoyable. The ending is pretty good as well.

I really liked Lily's story. The first 30% really had me gripped. It had some small little misteries. Lily was likeable in a way that I could sympathize with her a lot. I was rooting for her happiness, I wanted to follow her story. I wanted to understand her relationship with her parents, especially her mom. And I really wanted to keep seeing about her time thing (I really liked the way this was explained in the end, it was satisfying).

But, I HATED Nick. If there is one thing that completely makes me despise a character is when they take what they have for granted and idolize what they don't. He also starts completely disdaining what he had. He gives grace and chance after chance to strangers, whilst completely shutting other people out without so much as a thought. I just couldn't get past it. I also felt that he was compelled by anger, and he was too old for that behavior in my opinion.

When the book goes to May (around 70% maybe), I was so angry with the book. But May's story was so good. I really liked the science involved in her section as well and all the ideas presented. I think May's story is the most interesting one.

I wish the book only had Lily's and May's sections. They are not perfect and they make frustrating decisions as well. I loved their character development. But Nick was just one of the type of people that irritates me the most; I also didn't think he went through any development, certain people just unsurprisingly didn't turn out the way he wanted them to be and so he had no choice other than what he did (trying to not spoil things).

If there was no Nick section in the book, this would probably be a 4. But I can't say I enjoyed the book with the overall experience.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

Money, luck, control and the pursuit of the American dream. How much, if any, control do we have over our lives? Khong shares the stories of three generations of Chinese Americans, Lily, her son Nick, and her mother Mei.

My favorite section was the story of Mei and how she endured the Chinese Cultural Revolution, became a scientist and ended up in America. The conversation surrounding epigenetics and biology was quite fascinating and thought provoking. I could have read a whole book just on Mei.

While the book isn’t perfect (I think Khong attempted too much and a lot was underdeveloped) it left me with a lot to ponder, which is the mark of a book worth reading in my opinion.

“Our DNA encodes for innumerable possible people,” Mei thinks, “and yet it’s you and I who are here – winners in a stupefying lottery.”

“In the act of giving I conceded that I had more than I needed, and someone had far less than they did,” Lily thinks, faced with a beggar. “It shattered the illusion of my own free will – that I had made choices, and those choices had resulted in my life.”

3.5 stars, rounding up. I'm afraid I don't have a lot to say about this one. I liked it. It's good. But I waited too long to review it after having finished it, and now much of the finer details have fled my brain. (Not a great sign for a book to be forgotten after less than a month, but let's blame that on me having largely read it while traveling, not on the book itself.)

This is a fascinating story about the birth of a boy. The first third of the story is told by his mother, the second third is told by the boy starting at age 15, and the last third is told by his grandmother.

This well-written, compelling story is basically about the control that science has over the birth of future humans, and humanity as a whole. The reader gets a very personal point-of-view from each of the three main characters, how their decisions have affected each other, and could affect those in the future.

It was an interesting story and really made me think!

I’d like to thank NetGalley, Rachel Khong, and Knopf for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

A cracking good, unputdownable three-part novel about generations of a Chinese/Chinese American family that is seamlessly rich with thought-provoking ideas about families, fortune, and inheritance.

We start with the middle generation at the end of the 20th century; Lily Chen is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and is an unpaid intern at a New York media company. At a holiday party, she meets Matthew, an affluent White American, and despite their differences they fall in love.

Next we move to a small island in Washington in 2021, where Lily now lives with her son Nick. Nick feels like an outsider socially, so he tries to track down his father who Lily is completely silent about.

Finally we are back in New York in 2030 where Nick is now working for a start-up but he is tracked down by his grandmother, Lily’s mother, who tells him (and us) her story of life in China before and after Mao and then her life in America. This final section brings all three generations and their stories into a coherent whole.

The unusual chronology allows the author to delve into ideas about how an individual’s identity is formed by what is passed through genetic inheritance as well as the handing down of love and hopes through the generations. Linked to this is the theme of luck and how that can affect a person’s future. These are so well-woven into the narrative that they become an organic part of the Chen family’s story without being their only story.

I ripped through this over a weekend and was absolutely engrossed, particularly by May’s evocation of life during the cultural revolution. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Knopf and Netgalley for the digital review copy.