Our Wayward Fate
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
“A story that’s sure to stick with you for a long time.” —BuzzFeed
“More than a coming-of-age novel.” —School Library Journal
“[An] inventive, deeply heartfelt love story that explores connections of many kinds.” —Booklist
A teen outcast is simultaneously swept up in a whirlwind romance and down a rabbit hole of dark family secrets when another Taiwanese family moves to her small, predominantly white midwestern town in this remarkable novel from the critically acclaimed author of American Panda.
Seventeen-year-old Ali Chu knows that as the only Asian person at her school in middle-of-nowhere Indiana, she must be bland as white toast to survive. This means swapping her congee lunch for PB&Js, ignoring the clueless racism from her classmates and teachers, and keeping her mouth shut when people wrongly call her Allie instead of her actual name, pronounced Āh-lěe, after the mountain in Taiwan.
Her autopilot existence is disrupted when she finds out that Chase Yu, the new kid in school, is also Taiwanese. Despite some initial resistance due to the “they belong together” whispers, Ali and Chase soon spark a chemistry rooted in competitive martial arts, joking in two languages, and, most importantly, pushing back against the discrimination they face.
But when Ali’s mom finds out about the relationship, she forces Ali to end it. As Ali covertly digs into the why behind her mother’s disapproval, she uncovers secrets about her family and Chase that force her to question everything she thought she knew about life, love, and her unknowable future.
Snippets of a love story from 19th-century China (a retelling of the Chinese folktale The Butterfly Lovers) are interspersed with Ali’s narrative and intertwined with her fate.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As the sole Asian-American at her small-town Indiana high school, Taiwanese-American Ali Chu is used to playing unperturbed in order to fit in, letting microaggressions go uncontested, and eschewing engagement with her culture in front of her white friends. But when Chase Yu moves to Plainhart from Flushing, N.Y., Ali questions her complacency, finding in him an ally, a kung fu sparring partner, and a boyfriend. Ali believes Chase's Taiwanese-American identity should please her difficult mother, so she's surprised when her mother insists that Ali break up with him. Family friends Ali doesn't remember, a long-lost relative on the Chus' doorstep, and Chase's own mysterious past complicate the narrative, and Ali has her work cut out for her as she investigates her family's enigmas. Chao (American Panda) treads familiar paths in regards to intergenerational miscommunication between immigrant parents and their children, but a reinterpretation of a classic Chinese romantic tragedy, "The Butterfly Lovers," and the perspective of a park freshen the novel with varying degrees of success. Though readers versed in Asian-American literature will recognize some well-worn dynamics, this contemporary romance will find likely find appreciative readers. Ages 12 up.)
