In Finding My Voice, Ellen juggles her two worlds: the obedient daughter of a Korean doctor and immigrant who want her to attend Harvard and the American teen who wants to have fun with her friends. The story is set a few years ago, but the themes, like racism, acceptance, identity, and family are still relevant today. When a football hero shows interest in Ellen, the temptation to sneak out grows and she finds herself lying to her parents and hiding her actions along with the racism experiences from students and teachers..

Verdict : This is a good story about finding balance in ones identity when caught between two worlds. I recommend adding this to school libraries. We need more diverse books by diverse writers.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This book had a lot more heart than I thought it'll have. It dealt with a lot of issues such as racism, growing up, first love and fitting in. I'm really glad that this book is scheduled to be republished to reach a broader and new generation of readers.

Finding My Voice follows the story of 17 year old Ellen Sung, a regular girl who just wants to be like everyone else at her American high school. The people in her town however, never forget to remind her of her cultural differences of being a Korean-American. At the start of the year she starts falling for the cute popular boy, Tomper who seemingly likes her too but is their relationship enough to withstand the bigotry of her town and the disapproval of her family?

I found that the book was really light hearted despite its darker and more serious themes. It's well written with a real focus on Ellen trying to finish her last year of school and trying to satisfy her parents high expectations on what she should do once she graduates. More importantly, it shows Ellen struggling and overcoming the extreme racism and racist slurs of her peers and teachers. She uses the racist remarks as a motivator for her to do better in class and to achieve well to get into the University of her dreams.

I really enjoyed looking into Ellen's personal life with her family, her relationship with Tomper and her own identity as a student at her school. I thought each aspect of her life was carefully looked at and written. However, with Tomper I found that the relationship was built up too quickly for my liking. Despite its shortness I thought that if the romance was developed slower then I would've increased my rating.

All in all, I really enjoyed the book and thought it was very careful and thoughtful with the themes depicted in it. I reckon that if this book was published today with current themes, the whole plot would've been very different especially with the prevalence of social media and cyber-bullying. Nevertheless though, it must be said that this book is very important to a wide variety of readers and should be on many people's to-be-read pile.

ACTUAL RATING: 4 STARS

Ellen is living in the Shadow of her genius older sister, who is fulfilling their parents dreams at Harvard. Stuck inside studying all the time, instead of enjoying her senior year she feels like she's missing out on all the classic teenage stuff she should be doing. On top of that she has to face racism from her peers and even some of her teachers for being Asian-American in a small minded town. But there's three rays of sunshine in Ellen's life; her friend Jessie, gymnastics and a cute boy at school who she thinks might like her. Can she find her own voice against the bullies and her parents to finally be who she wants to be?

I'm really torn about this book. On one hand I really wanted to like it and enjoyed that it's an authentic view of 90's America for someone that doesn't fit in. But on the other hand, I found it kind of dull. It only begins to pick up near the end and then it suddenly finishes, nothing feels resolved and I hate open-ended endings MORE THAN ANYTHING! All things considered, I'd say I can see why this book was so groundbreaking at the time and I'm pleased it's being republished again but I just felt underwhelmed and unsatisfied by the story and some of the characters.

Thank you Netgalley and Soho Press for sending me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It didn't do it for me but I'm sure it will for countless others.

I was reading halfway and realized I have read this book with a different cover back in the early 90s for school. What a pleasant surprise! Still a easy read with short chapters about diversity and racism within asian community. There is themes of family - expectations of Asian parents with their kids education. I’m not sure if this book can reach current young generation for some of the references are a bit outdated. Still a lovely story.

Finding My Voice is a relevant and thought provoking read with a very strong protagonist who entices you in to her story and makes you feel her emotions. Tackles topics such as racism which very much a relevant topic.

At first "Finding My Voice" moved a bit too slow for my taste. Lee dives right into Ellen's story and at first, I wondered where she was going with it. As a reader, we experience everything Ellen deals with from parental pressures to racism. The racism theme was THICK in "Finding My Voice," I screamed a few times, mostly at Ellen because she just stood there and took it. The romance in this book was cute and it added some drama but it with or without the story could have moved forward. The book only began to pick up towards the end of the story but it went out with a bang! I was upset at the open ending, I really needed some closure! I love to see Ellen struggle with the blending of western and eastern ideas in her life; it's a very real thing that people have to deal with in this day and age. The growth of Ellen and her parents' relationship was brought me to tears and the theme of racism is well dealt with.

Seventeen-year-old Ellen Sung just wants to be like everyone else at her all-white school. But the racist bullies of Arkin, Minnesota, will never let her forget that she’s different—the youngest member of the only Korean-American family in town.

At the start of senior year, Ellen finds herself falling for Tomper Sandel, a football player who is popular and blond and undeniably cute and to her surprise, he falls for her, too. Now Ellen has a chance at life she never imagined, one that defies the expectations of hanging out with her core group of friends or pleasing her parents.

I honestly didn't know that this book was originally published in 1992 when I started reading it, though I felt that it was set at a different era but still it was interesting to read.

It was beautifully written it was a fun light read about Ellen's final months as a high school senior. Its about how she manages to meet her parents expectations while trying to enjoy her senior year with her friends.

Also most importantly the book focuses on how Ellen overcomes the constant racism she faces from few of her classmates and teachers. Its really amazing how Ellen takes in all the racist comments and kind of uses it as a motivation to do better in what she is good at, ie , studies. At times I hoped that she would get some courage and confront those idiots!!

Though I feel if the book was set in 2020, the story would have been different and maybe Ellen would have found her voice sooner, I still enjoyed this book!!

Thank You to NetGalley and Soho Press for this ARC!!