Kween
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
A searing, joyful YA debut about a queer Cambodian American teen’s journey to find her voice and step into her legacy, perfect for fans of Ibi Zoboi and Elizabeth Acevedo.
Soma Kear’s verses have gone viral. Trouble is, she didn’t exactly think her slam poetry video through. All she knew was that her rhymes were urgent. On fire. An expression of where she was, and that place…was a hot mess.
Following her Ba’s deportation back to Cambodia, everything’s changed. Her Ma is away trying to help Ba adjust to his new life, and her older sister has taken charge with a new authoritarian tone. Meanwhile, Soma’s trending video pushes her to ask if it’s time to level up. With her school’s spoken word contest looming, Soma must decide: Is she brave enough to put herself out there? To publicly reveal her fears of Ba not returning? To admit that things may never be the same?
With every line she spits, Soma searches for a way to make sense of the world around her. The answers are at the mic.
From debut author Vichet Chum comes a celebration of Khmer identity, queerness, and embracing the complicated histories that shape who we are and want to be.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sixteen-year-old Soma Kear, a queer Cambodian American poet living in Lowell, Mass., is struggling to deal with significant familial challenges. After decades living in the U.S., Ba has been deported to Phnom Penh, and Ma keeps extending her visit with him without explanation. On top of that, Soma's much older sister Dahvy, a Lowell High School teacher, is acting as a bossy second mother since moving back home to care for Soma. Communicating with Ba hurts too much, but when he sends an email that strikes a nerve, Soma unloads her frustrations via a free-form poetry video, which she posts—and which goes viral, prompting her Cambo best friend Sophat to convince her to enter the annual Jack Kerouac Poetry Competition. As Soma prepares for the contest, she navigates a contentious relationship with a Cambo peer, crushes on gorgeous Black classmate Britney, and dreads fulfilling her responsibilities as maid of honor at Dahvy's upcoming wedding. In this smart and edgy debut, Chum, per an author's note, gives Soma space to be "clumsy, complex, and, yes, contradictory at times," channeling a protagonist whose uncertainty in the face of her future and the model minority myth feels fresh and radical. Via Soma's sharp, first-person voice, Chum mixes humorous insights with forthright interrogations of colonialism, immigration, and racism. Ages 13–and up.
