I could not put down this book.

Junie Kim is dreading the first day of school. She’s particularly unhappy about having to wait at the bus stop with resident racist, eighth grader Tobias. When she arrives at school she’s greeted with racist graffiti, and if it’s not outright racism it’s one microaggression after another. When her friends (who are diverse and mostly BIPOC), discuss starting a diversity club, Junie balks. She doesn’t want to make herself more noticeable then she already feels.

This book tells three narratives, the first being Junie Kim’s. We read about her struggle with racism and cultural identity, and what kind of toll that struggle takes on her mental health. We also read about her grandparents and their experiences during the Korean War; how they survived, how they met, how they ended up in America. The three narratives compliment each other. Junie’s grandfather tells a story of neighbors turning on neighbors, sometimes with no good reason and sometimes out of misguided fear of the other. Junie’s grandmother tells a story of people fleeing from their homes during the war, a family torn apart and what it takes to survive. Junie is able to use these stories from her grandparents past and use them to find the courage to educate her school and her peers about the racism she faces in the present.

The only thing I didn’t love about the book was Junie’s interjections at the end of each chapter when it’s her grandparent’s POV. It totally took me out of the story every time.

This book isn’t afraid to confront the hard truths of what it’s like to be growing up as a BIPOC student in today’s world, and neither does it shy away from the difficult details of war. Strong trigger warnings for violence, racism, hate crimes, death and suicidal ideation. Highly recommend this book to readers of all ages, but especially middle schoolers and young teens who are dealing with depression or racism in their everyday lives.

There was so much I liked about this book. I appreciated the honest voice of the protagonist who wasn’t perfect; articulated self-doubt, fear, grief, and anger; and grew from her experiences. The book deal with so many difficult topics from racism, to war, to depression and suicidal feelings, to death, and ultimately beginning to find one’s voice. I wasn’t sure where it the story was going in the beginning, but once it got going I couldn’t put it down and Junie felt like an extension of myself.

Finding Junie Kim is three stories in one, two set in the past and one set in contemporary America. Junie Kim is a middle school student of Korean descent who faces continuous and viscous racist attacks daily at school and on the bus she takes to it. Her particular nemesis is younger son of a highly racist family, although racist attacks, graffiti, and microaggressions abound in general in her DC-adjacent community. Prompted by discussions with her grandparents regarding their experiences during the Korean War, Junie and a few other BIPOC students create a diversity club to educate their fellow students about the impact of racism and microaggressions. The majority of the novel is concerned with retelling her grandparents' stories, often with chapter ending interjections by Junie herself. Strong trigger warnings for racism, hate crimes, war, violence, ethnic slurs, and multiple character deaths. This is a challenging book, but one that does not flinch away from expressing the realities of anti-Asian racism and wartime experiences.