Gracia's young adult debut digs into teenaged June's messy, sometimes disastrous, and ultimately heartwarming teen exploration of identity, sexuality, relationships, resisting parental expectations, and forging her own path.
Anna Gracia's young adult novel centers around high schooler June Chu.
Despite her Taiwanese mother's unrelenting pressure and sky-high expectations, June has always done just all right. She's got lots of third-place violin competition trophies, unlike her sister, who secured a full-ride violin scholarship to college, an achievement June is frequently reminded of.
But June is more concerned with her crush on her lab partner, Rhys, and on getting to girlfriend-boyfriend status.
After a disastrous encounter with Rhys, a new romantic opportunity arises...and June suddenly finds herself making complicated decisions that shape how she feels about gender roles, her sexuality, her identity, and what she wants for her future.
Her explorations threaten to destroy her relationship with her mother even past the world-war-level disagreements they already have going.
I loved this book. I was all in for June and her whole glorious, often painful, messy journey of discovering who she is and what she wants.
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Boys I Know is Anna Gracia's debut novel.
You can check out my Bossy reviews of other young adult novels here.