Elle Zoellner may have never met her father, but she can't say her life was that bad...until her mom became a drug addict and Elle was sent into the system of foster care. That was the beginning of a two-year nightmare where she had to leave everything behind: her little but cozy home, her best friend Reggie, and the school swimming team.
But on her 16th birthday, Elle gets an unexpected present: her long-estranged Japanese father wants her to go living with him...in Tokyo!
With her mom in jail and the perspective of staying at the awful foster family she's currently with, Elle knows that that's her best option...even if she's not 100% convinced.
Elle is catapulted in a new, completely different environment and, while she finds the food tastier and places like Shibuya and Shinjuku amusing, she struggles to get along with all the different rules, customs, and traditions that drive Japanese society...also her new family isn't as welcoming as she hoped they'll be: Kenji, her father, is working non-stop, her grandmother openly despise her and the only adult she can rely on is Uncle Masa, her father's cousin.
Even in her new school, she's torn between the 'cool kids' group named Ex-Brats, led by charismatic but moody Imogen Kato, and the 'outsiders' like her swim teammate Ryuu Kimura and flatmate Akemi Kinoshita.
Elle soon finds out the not-so-shiny sides of Japan and will have to fight to demonstrate she's exactly where she's supposed to be.
But on her 16th birthday, Elle gets an unexpected present: her long-estranged Japanese father wants her to go living with him...in Tokyo!
With her mom in jail and the perspective of staying at the awful foster family she's currently with, Elle knows that that's her best option...even if she's not 100% convinced.
Elle is catapulted in a new, completely different environment and, while she finds the food tastier and places like Shibuya and Shinjuku amusing, she struggles to get along with all the different rules, customs, and traditions that drive Japanese society...also her new family isn't as welcoming as she hoped they'll be: Kenji, her father, is working non-stop, her grandmother openly despise her and the only adult she can rely on is Uncle Masa, her father's cousin.
Even in her new school, she's torn between the 'cool kids' group named Ex-Brats, led by charismatic but moody Imogen Kato, and the 'outsiders' like her swim teammate Ryuu Kimura and flatmate Akemi Kinoshita.
Elle soon finds out the not-so-shiny sides of Japan and will have to fight to demonstrate she's exactly where she's supposed to be.
👍👎My Thoughts
The author did a splendid job in describing all the differences between Japanese and Western culture and the feeling I got while reading of all the places in Tokyo that I've been visiting myself was somehow exciting and bittersweet...Elle's life as a gaijin has its pros and cons, but don't get your hopes up if you are expecting a blindsided positive novel: Elle is a strong, stubborn teenager, taken aback from all the singularities about Japan and Japanese...she's not committed in fitting in her new reality, yet she wants to find her own place in this new world, at her own rules.
I think this is the kind of book you should read if you want some insiders intel and a different perspective because, political schemes aside, the description of life as a foreigner in Japan and how Japanese society works are pretty accurate and close to reality.
My vote: 8/10
Ph: goodreads.com
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