Review by Booklist Review
When 16-year-old Ruby's father leaves for China, finding antiques for the family store is only one of the reasons for his trip. Another is to arrange Ruby's marriage--his way to repair the family's reputation, damaged by her gallivanting about town with a white boy. Such is the narrow societal allowance for a young Chinese woman in 1920s Los Angeles. Fortunately, she has a friend who can help--Anna May Wong, a young Chinese American starlet in the fledgling world of Hollywood cinema. But while Anna May might inspire and support Ruby, will that be enough to evade the fate Ruby's parents have planned for her? And what of the danger skulking behind this new friendship? Meticulously researched and sumptuously realized, Ruby's story captures the time when women were swiftly gaining ground in all parts of society whilst burdened by old structures dragging them down. Ruby is a resourceful, three-dimensional character whose yearning for personal freedom leaps off the page. Anna May is an equally compelling figure, both larger than life as a movie star but still under the yoke of her traditional Chinese family's expectations. Readers will be inspired by Ruby's resilience and dazzled by the historical setting that Liu has painstakingly recreated.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1924 Chinatown, Los Angeles, 16-year-old second-generation Chinese American Ruby Chan's dreams of running the family store with her father are dashed after her parents discover that she has been secretly dating the son of a prominent white family. Ruby's father believes that the only way to uphold their reputation and keep business flocking to the store following the scandal is to prepare Ruby for an arranged marriage. When she befriends 19-year-old up-and-coming actor Anna May Wong, Anna's influence prompts Ruby to question her father's beliefs; later, Ruby gets a job at a department store and starts dating a Chinese American boy despite her family's plans. Liu (Girls on the Line) layers instances of overt racism and covert microaggressions to showcase Ruby's experience navigating Chinese and American cultures while highlighting the exclusionary government policies affecting Chinese immigrants of the period. Centering female perspectives--such as Ruby's ruminations on her mother's own marriage, her witnessing Anna's attempts to break Hollywood glass ceilings, and her recovering from sexual assault at the hands of a powerful individual--serves to showcase myriad additional challenges posed against Chinese American women in a narrative that expertly captures a complex historical moment. Ages 14--up. Agent: Shannon Hassan, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Mar.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--The historical background of this book draws on early days of Chinese people in America when the Immigration Act of 1924 established quotas to limit immigration from China. Yet the center of this book is an American-born Chinese teen who tries to escape her parents' arranged marriage plan and build a life she wants. It's the spring of 1924 when Ruby's father becomes the proprietor of an antique store and moves the family from San Francisco to Los Angeles's Chinatown. Ruby, 16, attends Polytech, a mostly white school where she secretly develops a relationship with a white boy, Russell Blythe. The relationship would not be acceptable to her very traditional Chinese parents and the Los Angeles Chinatown community. Her parents hire a matchmaker to look for a husband to prevent her from bringing shame to the family. Not ready to accept an arranged marriage, Ruby seeks independence by working at a department store while her father travels to China for business with the added intention of finding a Chinese husband for Ruby. Meanwhile, Ruby meets 19-year-old Anna May Wong, a rising Hollywood actor. The girls quickly establish a friendship; Ruby also develops a relationship with Anna's brother, James. In addition to young love, friendships, and relationships, this book also discusses racism and sexism and ways to find self-identity that meets pride of culture. VERDICT Recommended for collection gaps about the racism that Chinese Americans faced back in 1920s, and the different perspectives and approaches to assimilation between the first- and second-generation immigrants.--Anna Ching-Yu Wong
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
After her relationship with a white boy is discovered, a spirited Chinese American teen tries to evade her father's marriage ultimatum. It's the spring of 1924, and 16-year-old Ruby Chan is in trouble. News of her disastrous fling with Russell Blythe has reached her parents. Her father, who recently became the proprietor of an antiques store, is determined to prevent her from bringing more shame upon her family and their Los Angeles Chinatown community. To Ruby's horror, Ba requests a San Francisco matchmaker's services and announces that he'll also be seeking a husband for Ruby during his upcoming trip to China; one way or another, her future will soon be decided. Unable to accept an arranged marriage and still working through everything that happened with Russell, Ruby takes steps to secure her independence, starting with a job at a department store. She also befriends 19-year-old Anna May Wong, the daughter of a local laundry store owner and a rising Hollywood actor whose daring, often villainous, film roles are dividing the Chinese American community. The story alternates between Ruby's present and her memories of Russell, weaving together themes of Orientalism, sexism, and the tension between first- and second-generation immigrants' approaches to assimilation. Despite some awkwardly expositional dialogue, Ruby's determination and pride in her cultural heritage are easy to root for, and her narrative closes on a satisfying note. Charming and informative. (content note, note on terminology, author's note, discussion questions)(Historical fiction. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
