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When Sunny Dae meets Cirrus Soh, he is struck by how cool she is. Cirrus has moved around the world with her parents and just has this vibe. And it’s opposite of his vibe: Sunny considers himself decidedly un-cool, a nerd who plays RPGs and LARPs with his two similarly un-cool friends and gets picked on at school. When he meets Cirrus, he also happens to have just put on one of his older brother’s shirts from a band Gray was in a few years before. And she mistakes Gray’s room, full of guitars and rock posters, for Sunny’s. Sunny decides to go with it.
And go with it he does, full-throttle. He persuades his two best friends to back him up, quite literally, by creating a band.
Of course, this scenario plays out until its inevitable end, but even as Sunny worries about getting exposed as a fraud, he revels in his newfound rock persona copied from his very cool brother, who’s in L.A. trying to make it big. Cirrus gives him that Look. Kids at school who teased him or ignored him before now give him the Look. He finds out that football games are pretty fun. And he’s even finding he’s not too bad at music. As time goes on, how much of the new him is really him, and how much is fake? And what may he be leaving behind, for good or bad?
David Yoon has such skill in capturing the teen experience, and he has fun with it. Dialogue among characters is entertaining and very real, and Sunny’s inner thoughts ring true. On top of sharing the truth of adolescence, Yoon also opens a window on the Korean-American experience, or that of any Asians: the feeling of being an outsider, of being teased for your culture (or what seems more like your parents’ culture). This story is set in Southern California, but in an upscale area that is low on Asians or minorities in general. Yoon exposes just how far we have to go as Americans in removing prejudice against the Other. But it’s not overdone or the focus of the story, just a natural outgrowth of the character and his situation. I had a great time reading his Frankly in Love, and this newer book certainly didn’t disappoint. I recommend it, particularly because this one has only a moderate rating, rather than the high of Frankly.
Rated: Moderate. There is one instance of strong language, plus a few instances of it just abbreviated as part of an acronym; there are about 15 uses of moderate profanity; about 35 uses of mild language, and about 30 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes kissing and a making-out session or two, and some mild references to teen boys’ thoughts or reflexes.
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