i loved how this book really showed the struggles of children of immigrants and how hard it is to find this balance (or if it is even possible to find a balance) between pleasing your parents that habe very specific and high expectations of and for you as a child or if you should follow your own wishes and dreams even if that might disappoint your parents but ends up giving you the life you actually want to live.

and that’s not necessary as easy as it should be as a kid to decide.
because yes sure everyone always says „choose what makes you happy“ „it’s your life!“
but you know who helps with that? your parents and their support because without that it’s a lot harder to start it all.

so i really think the struggle and thought and feelings this book showed in that regard were done phenomenally.

i also enjoyed the sister relationship because it’s so nice to see two sisters who love and support each other!

sadly i didn’t love most of the rest of the book.

i hated the slut shaming and i didn’t understand the necessity of the nude photo drama (the entire book and its plot and how it played out could have happened identically without that and i would have liked that better!)

i also really didn’t enjoy the relationships as a whole in this - the female „friendships“ which where basically all toxic feeling and not at all well done especially compared with the so nicely done sister relationship and i will not even start with the „love“ relationships because those were just horrendous on my eyes!-
i didn’t think any of them where at good place to start ... well anything more serious then a loose friendship if that.

all in all i think it’s a good first novel. it shows potential. i love the view and voice the author brings.
but to me this book also clearly showed that it could have been better and i hope the next book by this author will show improvement especially with female friendships!