How far would you go to shape your own destiny? This moving and thought-provoking story about race, class, identity, and family follows three generations of the Chen family.  Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a media company, meets Matthew, who is easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster, andheir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Despite their differences, Lily and Matthew fall in love. In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers, and leads him to his mother’s mother.

Thank you so much @netgalley, @rrrrrrrachelkhong, and @aaknopf for the ARC! This was a beautiful and incredibly well-written story that gripped me from the start. With a touch of magical realism and foundations in science, the book raises important questions about choice and identity. The story also addresses the moral boundaries of gene modification and whether you can truly ever change who you are. The theme of trust and forgiveness was well explored in all of the relationships between the different characters, and they were each so well developed. The prose was powerful and pretty, and really set the tone for each character and their inner thoughts. I definitely recommend adding this to your 2024 TBR!