I’ve seen this book floating around some classroom libraries and decided to give it a go - in terms of its content, it’s a unique verse novel that offers an interesting take on the fall of Saigon and a Vietnamese immigrant’s experience in the United States. For that alone, the book is worth a read. However, I think I’m beginning to be more critical of verse novels when it, well, doesn’t feel like verse. This was something I encountered when I was reading Booked - I just didn’t feel like I was reading poetry. I know that anything can be a poem, but I feel like poetry should also be hallmarked by powerful imagery, interesting word choice, intentional literary devices, and I feel like Booked and this book kind of lack that - some of the time. I’ve read (much) worse verse novels, but if I read a verse novel, I want to feel lost in the poetry, I want to feel struck down by powerful language, and this book didn’t always do it for me. There were definitely some memorable poems, and it’s definitely going into my classroom library, but I don’t know if I can count this among my favorite verse novels.