Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers

ISBN: 9780593563373

A high schooler juggles her multicultural background and a personal tragedy on a daily basis. When she inadvertently gets involved with a microaggression, it feels like everyone is looking at her differently. Through it all, she tries to figure out who she is and who she wants to be. Author Patricia Park debuts in the young adult genre with a novel that is relatable, thoughtful, and insightful in her new book Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim.

For Alejandra Kim, going into the world every day is an exercise in patience. Some days she feels like the token diversity child at her uppity private school in Manhattan. Even though most people have gotten used to the idea that she shares both Asian and Latinx heritage, it still throws them sometimes. Her Korean features and her full-on facility with the Spanish language just do not compute for others.

Still, Ale, as most of her friends call her, deals with the sideways looks and the overly accommodating comments. Before he died, Ale’s dad made it that she needed to make the most of her scholarship opportunity at the high school. He and her mother worked day and night to come to New York; Ale’s sole responsibility is to take every chance she can to make life better for herself and run with it.

She has no problem with that part; Ale dreams of attending the prestigious Wyder University. It’s her chance to get out of state and away from her mom who has been driving her crazy. It’s not Ale’s fault that her father died, but she and her mom have never been able to have the hard conversation of whether it was an accident or suicide. Ale has her suspicions, but her mother’s job as a home healthcare aide keeps her busy. When she’s not busy, she’s angry.

When a visiting speaker at school tosses a casual racist remark in Ale’s direction, it sparks outrage among other students. Her best friend, Laurel, demands to the school administration that they fire the speaker. Ale is mortified, but she’s also confused. Why does it feel like everyone in the world is way more worked up about this than she is?

The only person who understands anything about dealing with differences in race is Ale’s best friend, Billy, but he’s been in the Dominican Republic for most of the school year helping to take care of his sick grandmother. When Billy comes back, Ale is thrown off. He seems the same and yet different all at the same time.

As the campaign at school starts to pick up steam, Ale does her best to keep her head down and focus on what she needs to do to get out of New York. But every time she makes any significant strides forward, they leave her wondering whether she really earned them or they were given to her out of a call for diversity. She does her best to figure everything out one day at a time all while keeping her eye on her ultimate goal of claiming herself.

Author Patricia Park writes with self-assurance and ease on the topic of cultural confusion. Many readers who are the children of immigrants will feel an instant affinity with Ale and her challenges. Balancing more than one culture on a daily basis can leave teens and even adults questioning their own identity frequently. Park captures that essence of questioning while keeping Ale’s quest for independence universal.

At times the narrative tries to go overboard in capturing a sense of political correctness. First-year high school students at Ale’s rich school are called “freshpersons” instead of “freshmen,” and the various periods throughout the day are given color names rather than numbers (first period, second period, etc.) It’s unclear whether Park meant these as satirical jabs at those who go overboard in compensating for inequality, but after a while the unfamiliar terms become somewhat tedious.

These minor issues aside, Ale’s struggle with her guilt about her father’s death, her confusion as to why her mother won’t parent like an adult, and how to handle her friends are presented in relatable ways. Those looking for a young adult novel touching on these issues and more in a satisfying way will want to check this out. I recommend readers Bookmark Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim by Patricia Park.