Wow, wow, wow, wow. This is a long, deep book with many story lines and it goes back and forth between the past and the present. It's a book about secrets, growing up, family, friends, art, and love. I was really and truly blown away.

I loved this novel, its fresh voice and lovely language. I recommend it to all the library's teen readers

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading about Danny's coming of age story. Following Danny on his journey as he discovered long buried secrets was amazing. I feel for Danny and his parents. I wish Danny and his family an amazing happy future, they deserve it.

Okay thoughts on the book, I really did enjoy it. I thought I was just going to read another young adult book. It turned out to be more than that. Danny discovers family secrets that affect the lives of many and together with his great friend, they go on a journey to uncover those secrets. This turned out to be an enjoyable read. I look forward to reading more from this author.

TBH I was not the biggest fan of <i>Picture Us in the Light</i>, but I do think that it was a good book. It's not a Christina book at all really, so bear that in mind. I will say that if you came here for the m/m romance aspect, let me tell you that it's really only a minimal portion of the book.

Initially, I struggled because <i>Picture Us in the Light</i> moved so slowly. For a hundred-plus pages, you read about Danny's suspicions and his difficulty with art ever since an old white man judged him. You know more is going on, but you don't know what. He has a crush on his super adorable best friend, and you hope that will go somewhere, but it doesn't, and friend still has a girlfriend. None of it's bad, but there's not a lot of motion to the beginning of this book.

Then, when things start moving, everything is sad basically all the time. This book deals with teen suicide, immigration, and <spoiler>child trafficking</spoiler>. Danny's relationships with pretty much everyone in his life are falling apart, and it's just an incredibly sad book. That's not my thing. I need humor and romance to balance out something darker like this, or I at least needed an emotional connection to Danny, but his voice felt rather distant to me. Personally, I preferred Gloria Chan's <i>Our Wayward Fate</i>, which has some similar themes (though not all obviously) but with a lighter tone.

Oh, I also obviously hated the snippets in second person. I know I bitch about second person frequently, but every time I hit it, it throws me out of the book.

If you enjoy darker contemporary novels, I'd recommend this book to you, but as a reader primarily of fluffy and/or romantic contemporary, <i>Picture Us in the Light</i> did not win me over.

It's complicated. That pretty much sums up Danny's life, friendships, family, etc. This beautifully and sensitively written story wends its way through a very difficult senior year for Danny, tossing in despair but teasing with glimmers of hope. A great choice for older readers. Shows realistic teen boys coming to terms with what life throws at them.

Although it takes a while to get going, Kelly Loy Gilbert’s second book is just as heartfelt and complex as her first, Conviction. Daniel Cheng has just gotten accepted at RISD, yet he worries that he may not have any more in the tank after preparing the art portfolio that got him in. He is confused about his feelings for his best friend, Harry Wong, and basically just trying to get through his senior year. Early in the story, Daniel discovers a box in a closet that opens up a mystery and the possibility that his parents are keeping a really big secret.

This is a complex story that covers many themes and takes a long time to unfold. It may not have the slam-bang appeal of many YA novels or thrillers, but it does take on some big issues. The students are coming up on the anniversary of a classmate’s suicide, and the school has forbidden mention of her in case it inspires copycats. Like many survivors, Daniel feels guilt for things he could have done differently. Although Daniel keeps checking himself to see if he likes girls, he concludes that he really has a thing for his best guy friend. Daniel’s parents are immigrants from China, and there is a lot they didn’t tell him about their journey and abrupt move from Texas to California. Daniel struggles with self-doubt and must find his authentic artistic self and decide whether he really deserves to go to RISD. All the teens are part of that high-achieving Cupertino school environment and the (almost) stereotypical Asian helicopter parents. Even with all this going on, the mysterious past of Daniel’s parents is what propels the narrative forward.

Character development is handled well, with no true villains, only people who are hard to understand until you learn their stories. Aspects of the Asian cultural experience seem to be handled well. Both PUITL and Conviction feature parents who have had to make very difficult choices and live with the consequences of their actions.

As a librarian, I would not give this to someone looking for a quick read. But those who are intrigued by ambiguity and complexity will find this book rewarding.

My Thoughts:
Considering the fact that because of my location and the kinds of students we serve in Hawaiʻi (a minority majority state), I am constantly looking for contemporary YA books with minority characters, specifically Asian. On my public library overdrive site, asian authors/characters is actually its own shelf on my page. I try to uplift minority authors writing fiction from a minority lens. However, this book took me about 4 months to read as I kept picking it up and abandoning it.

What bothered me about the characters had nothing to do with the mystery the parents tried to keep secret or even the will he or won't he struggle Danny had about his budding homoerotic awareness. What bothered me was that I could almost hear the author thinking. With first generation and second generation characters, do authors steer towards the stereotypical in order to appeal to a wider, non-Asian audience? By stereotypical, I mean Harry's parents and Harry's drive for SAT perfection. These extra high expectations are the stereotype that fuels the racist "model minority" label that has been an albatross on the subsequent generations. But then there is Danny. It is almost like Ms. Gilbert was trying to both acknowledge the stereotype and at the same time throw the story off kilter with the much less successful Chengs who push their child into the humanities, specifically art and portraiture without any hesitation or pressure. It feels "hapa," (half in Hawaiian) as if the story was written to appeal a certain way to white audiences, and appeal a different way to Asian audiences. I felt it lacked an authentic identity as a whole and that is why it took so long to get through it. I just could not find any character who felt real.

"Art doesn't change the ending. It doesn't let you lose yourself that way--the opposite, really; it calls you from the darkness, into the glaring, unforgiving light. But at least--this is why it will always feel like a calling to me--it lets you not be so alone."
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Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert is an incredible young adult novel that came out in April this year. I'm so glad I read this one. It has all of the elements of a really great book: memorable characters, nuanced relationships, realistic struggles, and beautiful writing.
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Danny, son of Chinese immigrants to America, just got into the art school he's been dreaming of. But he's too distracted by a secret his parents have been keeping from him to really enjoy the news. Then a tragedy occurs that shakes his friend group to its core and Danny has to make peace with his past if he's ever going to build a future. Themes of friendship, immigration, mental illness, homosexuality, and coming of age. 5/5 enthusiastic stars.

Picture Us in the Light focuses on Danny Cheng, who rejoices when he gets a full ride to Rhode Island School of Design. But then his life begins to unravel when he finds a mysterious file of documents that his immigrant Chinese parents refuse to explain. Knowing they had a daughter who supposedly died in China, Danny wonders if her death is involved with his parents' secretive behavior. In addition Danny is beginning to come to terms with his attraction to his best friend Harry Wong and struggles with guilt over the suicide of a girl who was his nemesis at school. Danny's Asian-American community is socio-economically and religiously diverse which creates a variety of problems, as well. When he discovers the reason for his parents' secretive behavior and begins to resolve his issues with friends, he realizes his life will never be the same. Although the book covers some tough issues, it is ultimately uplifting.

OMG this book is <3 <3 <3 I'm so happy with this and I already want to re-read it. I'd love to have an audiobook of this, but I can't find one anywhere which is sad. The cover and characters nad everything is just fab.

Wow, this is a book that packs a punch. The last twenty or so pages absolutely broke me, they were so beautiful and heartbreaking and also happy. This book is an intense character study and I was enthralled on every page. It's not like nothing happened, it was just that I cared so much for the characters and how they reacted to discoveries that it didn't really matter to me if nothing much was happening, plot wise. This is such a complicated and heartfelt book and I absolutely recommend it. I think fans of Adam Silvera and Celeste Ng would enjoy Kelly Loy Gilbert's writing.

What a powerful novel! This is definitely one where you'll remember the main character rather than the plot.

More and more I talk to people of all ages who admit to suffering from impostor syndrome. I think this book will give voice to those students who, like the book's protagonist, suffer from it. Hopefully readers might see themselves in this pages and they will realize they are not alone.

Kelly Loy Gilbert’s debut novel CONVICTION was one of my favorites of 2015. She is masterful with language and her stories grapple with tough subjects but in such a way that isn’t preachy. Danny Cheng is a senior in high school who seems initially to have it all going on. He has wonderful friends, loving parents, lives in a wealthy Northern California town, and just won a scholarship to his design school of choice. But underneath all that are secrets and struggles that are unveiled page by page. His parents are harboring a secret of their own that initially takes a backseat to the main storyline of Danny and his friends grappling with their own insecurities and demons. Tragedy strikes the high school and Danny’s circle of friends. It rocks his world but then his parents drop a bombshell of their own on him. The mystery behind what happened to Danny’s parents in their past is gut-wrenching and something I never saw coming. Danny’s journey to facing his future and his parent’s past is so raw and real. Gilbert knows how to tap into what makes us human and I will read anything she writes.

I loved Gilbert's debut "Conviction," but I absolutely adored this one. It's one of the loudest quiet books, I've ever read and I love it all the more for it. Even more than that, it provides so many opportunities for discussion, especially between teens and parents. Beautifully written and thought provoking, every YA collection needs to have this on their shelves.

Review originally posted at BookBrowse: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/pr239744

Originally posted on Forever Young Adult on 2018 April 18.

BOOK REPORT for Picture Us In the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Cover Story: Picture This On A Wall
BFF Charm: Big Sister
Swoonworthy Scale: 4
Talky Talk: Language As Art
Bonus Factors: Silicon Valley, Immigration
Relationship Status: Picture Me In Love With You

Cover Story: Picture This On A Wall

This cover reminds me of my general apartment aesthetic: black and white with giant pops of bright color. Naturally, I love it. I think it’s incredibly appealing, but I was pretty surprised to find out that the main character’s art is not street art. In that, it’s a bit misleading, but it nevertheless does an excellent job of being eye-catching.

The Deal:

Danny Cheng’s parents, like all parents, have secrets. Theirs, however, threaten Danny’s entire perception of his family, his life, and his future. When he discovers a box of clippings in his parents’ closet, indicating that his Ma and Ba may have a far darker, sadder past than he ever imagined, he fights with himself as to whether he really wants to know what they’re hiding.

It would be so much simpler if things kept going the way he had always pictured: his acceptance to RISD, working on the school paper with his best friends, and maybe one day getting to be openly in love with his friend without hurting anyone. It’s not perfect, but it’s a good life in sunny Cupertino.

You know what they say about the best-laid plans, though. It becomes clear that the Cheng family is spiraling toward a breaking point, and the truth behind his father’s job loss, the box in the closet, and his parents’ fights are about to be brought into the light.

Trigger warning: This book deals with suicide, untreated mental illness (depression and panic attacks/panic disorder), and the separation of families. All of these subjects are handled sensitively, but Gilbert pulls no punches—if they’re triggers for you, you may want to avoid it.

BFF Charm: Big Sister

I use the Big Sister BFF charm a lot, because my natural inclination is to want to squeeze the crap out of anyone I see suffering. Danny is no exception, nor are his friends. They are muddling their ways through life (some more efficiently than others)—they’re charming, driven, often idealistic, and occasionally beaten down by life. Anyone who has talked to a teenager lately—or watched the MSD students take to the airwaves and the streets to demand change—knows that these characters are an honest portrayal of what the Kids These Days are often like. And so I still want to give them a giant group hug, and write them letters of recommendation, and tell them that life never really gets easier, but they’d be amazed at the things they’ll do and the places they’ll go.

Swoonworthy Scale: 4

Danny is in love with his best friend, Harry—romance isn’t the focus of the story, but it’s always hovering in the background. Danny’s love for Harry is just one component of Danny’s search for his own identity.

Talky Talk: Language as Art

For anyone who has read Conviction, you already know that Kelly Loy Gilbert can write a hell of a book. This follow-up cements her as a pretty stunning talent (seriously, how? How do you write so well?!). I love the literary-yet-incredibly-realistic voice running through this novel; Gilbert seems to effortlessly offer up a vivid sense of place, complex characters, and beautifully sad observations about life.

I optimistically thought that this wouldn’t break me the way Conviction broke me (former lawyer from the Central Valley here, so that book was close to my heart). Ha. Ha. Haaaaaaaaa.

Bonus Factor: Silicon Valley

You just don’t see this area represented in YA books very often. Having lived near and visited Silicon Valley my entire life, I feel as though this book has been sliced directly from life and put on the page. From Danny’s predominately Asian high school, to the sleepy Cupertino streets, to sun-baked San Jose and escapist jaunts up north to chilly San Francisco, it feels extraordinarily real—which makes the story even more arresting.

Bonus Factor: Immigration

Danny’s parents are Taiwanese immigrants, and their immigration status has a significant bearing on how they handle the secrets of their past. It’s so relevant to today’s political climate, and Gilbert renders it in heartbreaking sincerity.

Relationship Status: Picture Me In Love With You

Book, I had anticipated our date for what seemed like forever—but you blew me away with your ability to connect me with your characters as if they were people in my own life. Our date was sweet and honest, occasionally funny, often frustrating, and I will even forgive you for the tangible reminder that I really need to go buy some waterproof mascara.

This had promise, but also too much going on. There's the plot-line about Danny's sister and how she died, the plot-line about why Danny's parents just picked up and left Texas (and what they're hiding), the plot-line about Sandra, and then the plot-line about Danny's feelings about Harry. Of course there's intersection, but the problem is more that focusing on one or two would have made for a stronger book. As it is, all feel as though they're each being given short shrift and no character is fully fleshed out. The pacing is also a problem, with the first almost-half being slow and filled with back-story.

ARC provided by publisher.

This is a real tough one because the content of the story tackles serious issues, such as, suicide, sexuality, and the pressure on young people to live up to their parent's expectations (especially when, like Danny, you are the only child of immigrants) something which I believe many people-young and old could certainly connect with but I felt it all very boring because something was missing in making me care. The majority of the story is really Danny's internal struggle and filling in the family back story which could have been really interesting if it hadn't been hijacked by the day to day life of a high school senior.

At 60%, I decided to bid the story adieu!

If I were to describe Picture Us in the Light in one word it might be “complex.” Or maybe “squishy.” “Beautiful.”

Human.

I have a bad (?) habit of not fully reading synopsis before picking up a book. Really, I don’t need to when it comes to Kelly and her books. Conviction is easily one of the books you’ll ever read so there was exactly zero chance I wouldn’t love this.

I sit here, a week after finishing, unable to read anything else. Danny’s story isn’t just the story of a child of immigrants, of an artist, of a Silicon Valley youth trying to get into our incredibly competitive college system, of someone who is grieving, of secrets, of family, of friendship, of love, of heartbreak. Danny’s story is the story of how complex, squishy, and beautiful our human lives are.

Kelly drops us right into the action- Danny’s college acceptance into his dream school with his dream major. It’s such a beautiful moment, where Danny and his parents recognize their sacrifices and choices (on so many levels) have made it possible for him. We meet Henry, his best friend, and his group of friends. We look into their environment - the small-town feel of Cupertino (home of Apple and safe streets). We sense his world crumbling and his resilience.

In this story, so much happens but honestly it’s all about Danny and you going through the emotions and experiences he’s having. You’re going to experience every emotion Danny has, which are across the entire spectrum. There are shifts in the timeline that reflect situations leading up to the present and help shape Danny and his community. Kelly works her writing magic and brings it all together, leaving us readers in a puddle.

Thank you to Disney Hyperion and Netgalley for the advance Kindle copy of this book. All opinions are my own!
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for this book, which releases TODAY! It took me awhile to really get into it, but by the second half I was flying and didn’t want it to end. Danny is an only child whose parents do not really speak of their lives in China, before they moved to the U.S. He knows he once had a sister (before he was born), but does not know what happened to her. When his dad suddenly loses his job, his parents become even more paranoid than they usually are and Danny starts digging into their past. What he finds is could change his life and future as he knows it. The twist in the story was fairly easy to guess, but the author does a nice job of weaving a story of heritage, coming of age, and a secret past. Recommended for grades 9+.