Reading Multiethnic America

Shadowshaper

In Daniel José Older’s YA fantasy novel Shadowshaper, Brooklyn, New York comes alive as a character more than just a mere backdrop. Older is a former EMT, who has been riding the ambulance through the streets of New York for eight years. In various interviews, he has mentioned how influential his experience as a paramedic has been…

The Smoking Mirror

Aztec god Tezcatlipoca’s name roughly translates to “smoking mirror,” which refers to the mirrors made in obsidian that were used for rituals. This summer, I read two books that offer very different versions of this deity: David Bowles’s middle grade fantasy novel The Smoking Mirror (2015) and Ernest Hogan’s science fiction novel The Smoking Mirror Blues (2001),…

Country of Origin

Set in 1980s Tokyo, Don Lee’s Country of Origin is a detective novel that brings together a troupe of characters who are all half-heartedly searching for something or someone. Tom Hurley, a Junior Officer at the American Embassy in Tokyo, receives a call from Susan Countryman, who has not heard from her sister in a month. Her sister,…

Labyrinth Lost

Labyrinth Lost is the first installment in Zoraida Cordova’s Brooklyn Brujas series. I was very excited by the premise of this book and was glad that it did not disappoint. The protagonist of this series is Alejandra Mortiz, a fifteen-year-old Latina who lives in Brooklyn. And, she comes from a long line of brujas and…

The Book of M

I can’t exactly remember why. But when I was a kid, I used to say that the scariest thing in the world was losing memories of the ones you love. I don’t think I quite understood loss back then. Still, my answer would be the same today. The apocalyptic near future depicted in Peng Shepherd’s…

An Ember in the Ashes

Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember of Ashes is one of the books that intricately builds its fictional universe without making the plot movements slow down to a standstill. It took me a moment to recalibrate myself as I have never in earnest sat down to read a YA fantasy novel for academic research until now. Also,…

Exilée

Sometimes, book covers will tempt readers with a promise to take them along on a journey to “exotic” and “faraway” places. I recently found an entire section in Barnes & Nobles dedicated to “Escapist Fiction.” But if your body is already in motion, is the process of being transported from one place to another that simple…

Spirit Hunters

I picked up Ellen Oh’s Spirit Hunters when the oppressing heat of the summer was becoming unbearable for me. This was a perfect reading choice as I did not expect to be so chilled by a middle grade horror novel. Every time a ghost appeared on the page, the line read, “the temperature inside the…

The Interpreter

Suki Kim’s debut novel, The Interpreter (2003), revolves around a murder mystery, but offers much more than that. The novel provides a gripping portrayal of interior lives of 1.5 generation immigrant children, who are prematurely brought into the morally ambiguous adult world as interpreters for their non-English speaking parents. Though narrated in the third person,…

Edinburgh

The cover of the reissue edition of Edinburgh by Mariner Books feature blue and red waves painted in rough brush strokes. It is simple, yet mesmerizing. And, when I finally read the lines below, I caught my breath: “Not blood spilled, but the essence of blood, the red heat, the transaction of all life. A gas passing…