Oof, Win Me Something hit me right in the heart!!

Kyle Lucia Wu did an amazing job (not surprising when you see what she does for a living!!) capturing the feeling of being torn between worlds, feeling adrift, like a puzzle piece that just doesn't quite fit anywhere I'm the world.

Willa is a biracial Chinese American & white young woman, who at 24 accepts a job as a nanny for a wealthy family. Forever torn between worlds- the white and Chinese, the rich and poor, the divorced parents homes- she never quite finds her place in the world.

Some would say this is a quiet book but I disagree. A book doesn't need to have a hero saving the world to be loud and important. Willa feels like me, like so many young multiracial women I know. And feeling seen is a worthy, loud enough reason to love a book. From the straddling of cultures, to the racist micro & macroagressions, to the unsettledness of your early 20s, this book does it all.

One thing I particularly loved was the way the story was told between timeliness, the current time of 2013 in NYC and the flashbacks between the 90s and early 2000s in New Jersey.

I cannot reccomend this book enough and can't wait to see what Kyle has coming in the future.

Favorite quotes:

"How when you felt as if no one had seen you for so long, the size of kinship felt like intimacy"

"It was September Autumn only an advertisements cartoon orange leaves red backpack signing the sign for back to school sales."

"But how could she understand? Her blonde hair fell out of her ponytail and wisps and behind glasses at her chlorine pool eyes if I looked like her I wouldn't understand either."

Willa is an Asian American young woman who is unsure of her identity. Her parents divorced and remarried with new families, while Willa did not feel comfortable with either one. Willa takes a job as a live in nanny with a wealthy family living in Manhattan’s TriBeCa, babysitting for the precocious Bijou. The story didn’t really resonate with me, although it might for someone who likes introspective literary fiction. I didn’t feel like anything was really happening. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved the premise of "Win Me Something" as someone of AAPI descent, but I'm not sure the execution was the best.

The novel focuses on Willa Chen, a half-Chinese and half-Caucasian girl who grows up in suburban New Jersey. She is hired to be a nanny for a wealthy family in New York, and her experiences further exacerbate the divide and isolation she feels, never quite belonging to any group or having her own identity. There's a lot of important topics that this novel highlights, across race, wealth, and sexism, but I found the writing to be underdeveloped and Willa's character also felt quite one-dimensional and flat.

Wu's debut follows a 20-something biracial female protagonist who is drifting, flailing even, and trying to stay afloat. Willa Chen, having worked odd jobs here and there, living aimlessly in Brooklyn, is given an offer to nanny for a wealthy white family in Tribeca. It is presented with an air of novelty, mystery, and change. Change that feels necessary for Willa, who is inured in monotony. Once accepted, she begins to inhabit a life that is not her own. The elaborate meals, the expansive closet, the casual but close mother-daughter relationship between Nathalie and Bijou – a relationship she never had with her own mother. The story weaves in and out of syncopated memories in which she reconstructs her childhood. One moment her parents were together, and the next they were separated and starting their own families, leaving her like flotsam adrift before she was ready to grow up. Wu's writing is meditative and poignant as she explores themes of biraciality, family, labor, and home. She asks how home can be reconstructed from fragments and detritus? Can home be found simultaneously where labor is transacted? What is the cost of surrogate mothering? Can mothering as labor be healing? A thoughtful debut by Kyle Lucia Wu.

Willa has never felt like she belongs. She is half Chinese but has no connection to that side of herself or her Chinese father. She relives some of her childhood experiences as a nanny to Bijou, who has grown up privileged and loved.

This book reminds me of [book:Such a Fun Age|43923951] in regards to the complex relationship between the nanny, the child, and the employer. There are also subtle undertones of racism throughout, due to ignorance, privilege, and a lack of understanding.

There is not a clear plot in this book. We follow Willa as she meanders through life and becomes more entangled in the Adrien family. She struggles with navigating her own identity and sense of belonging while witnessing a totally different childhood than the one she grew up with.

This book is particularly relatable for me but may not be for every audience.

Win Me Something comes at the crossroads of two current trends in publishing, excellent Asian American protagonists, and the "nanny novel" a la Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here. There's a lot to unpack in both of those themes, so I was super excited to pick this one up.. Willa is a hard protagonist to sit with. She knows she's experiencing racism and misogyny but she has a hard time pushing back on any of this--almost to the point of feeling like she's playing into a trope. I found her grating at times. Altogether, this was a miss for me but I appreciate the effort.

Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu is a coming of age story about Willa, a biracial Chinese American girl in New Jersey. Willa becomes a nanny for a well-off family in New York City and tries to figure out who she is and what is important to her. The author does a great job of presenting the many race and class issues that Willa has to contend with. I enjoyed this book and thought it was well-written. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a coming of age story with so many compelling components that I'll be recommending very widely!

A beautiful story about a young bi-racial Chinese American woman. I enjoyed this book but always struggle with flashbacks. I would have preferred to learn about Willa's life and in a different way. Thank you, NetGalley

Thank you to TinHouse and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Now available.

Set between New York & New Jersey, Kyle Lucia Wu's debut novel Win Me Something is a poignant exploration of liminal identity. When Willa Chen takes a position as a nanny for the wealthy Bijou, she is forced to confront her own childhood trauma. As a biracial Chinese-American woman, Willa never truly felt like she belonged with either of her families. As the novel progresses, Willa unravels some of the incidents from her own childhood and finds the courage to speak up.

To be honest, I felt frustrated with Willa. She is so passive about all the abuse she faces. While I understand she is a child, it also feels like the author strongly leans on the submissive Asian American woman stereotype. The writing style, too, is passive.. I started to grow restless, yearning for some action. I did appreciate all the descriptions of food though!

The books is wonderfully relatable and I was instantly intrigued by the plot and cover of this book. It's very well written and there were occasional pacing problems.

I found this story heart breaking. Willa has never felt that she fit in anywhere, or that she was wanted anywhere, only part of that is based on her being biracial. She is always the outsider in either of her parents second families and her attempt to belong in the family she nannies for is ultimately unsuccessful. She is increasingly alone and adrift. The writing really captures the characters, you feel like you know Willa, I felt hopeful for her in the end.

Willa is a young woman who is finding her way in life and in NYC. Throughout the story she reflects on her family of origin while longing to be a true part of the family she nannies for, or really just to belong anywhere. Throughout you hold your breath over some of the foolish choices she makes and yet you feel for her as she makes her way. I didn't find the story a compelling one and at the same time it was an easy read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The most important thing to know about Willa Chen, the twenty-four year old protagonist of Win me Something, is that she is biracial, half Chinese and half white, and unhappily so. The other things to know about her is that she is a millennial, aimlessly so, and that, in the fall of 2013, she has just begun a job as a live-in nanny for a wealthy white couple in Manhattan.

This novel could have been an interesting examination of race and class in America from a fresh and underrepresented perspective, but the examination is done via one of the most frustratingly passive women characters that I have ever read. Having grown up with a pair of distant parents, Willa seems never to have learned how to assert herself. She allows her employers, the Adriens, to browbeat her into various semi-demeaning tasks, shows up at parties and doesn't talk to anyone, and seems constitutionally unable to perform any action that would advance her life towards any career or life goal. It'd be one thing if Willa suffered consequences for her passivity that drove the plot in an interesting direction, but it turns out that when you don't do anything for yourself, nothing interesting is going to happen to you.

The author, Kyle Lucia Wu, isn't a bad writer per se, but lord is this a boring novel. John Updike once said that children make for bad protagonists in novels because, lacking property or the capacity for romantic relationships, they don't really have much way to engage with the prime drivers of drama. I think this is just as true for grown-up children like Willa.

This was a deeply moving story about a young biracial woman living in New York. Willa. Chen has a white mother and a Chinese father who are married to other people and have families of their own. Willa feels like an outsider, belonging to neither family, and neither race. She becomes a live-in nanny and begins to feel a sense of belonging until reality shows up and reveals she is an outsider there too. This is a story about self-discovery, race, identity, and belonging. It is a journey worth taking.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

5 stars!

Growing up as a biracial Chinese American in New Jersey, Willa Chen has never felt like she truly belonged. She always felt like she was too Asian to fit in with her white peers and too white to fit in with her Asian peers. Home was just another place where Willa felt out of place. Her divorced parents have remarried and had children with their new spouses. Years later Willa is working as a live-in nanny for a wealthy, white family in Tribeca. While she loves the family she works for, it forces Willa to come face to face with what she missed out on growing up. Her time with the family allows her to reflect on who she is as a person and what it means to belong.

Do you ever feel like you don’t belong? I’m sure you have, I think we’ve all felt that way. Sometimes that feeling can make us feel so incredibly alone that we are left searching for places where we can fit in. Willa’s feelings of loneliness, discomfort and desire were so raw and relatable. There were certain moments that cut me to the core because they were feelings that I could relate to. I'm a big fan of Sally Rooney and I got similar vibes with Wu's writing. I really felt like I was in Willa's mind and was experiencing all of the feelings that she was. This is one of those stories that will have you reflecting along with the main character and one that will stick with you once you are finished. This was such a solid debut and I’m very excited to see what’s in store next fo Kyle Lucia Wu!

Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I am a sucker for a good coming of age book and Win Me Something is a good one. A young Chinese American woman takes a job as a nanny for the daughter of a wealthy family in New York City and is exposed to a lifestyle she's never known. Her childhood was split between parents who remarried and started new families of their own, families she never felt a part of. It's interesting to see her attempts to find a place for herself in the home where she is a nanny. It's a fascinating read. The writing style really suits the story and as I finished the book, I felt promise for the main character as she continues through adulthood.

Willa's never felt part of a family- her parents divorced and started up new families with their new spouses- but now, for just a moment, she's feeling something about the Adrians. Although it's not quite family. She lucks into a job as a nanny for Bijou Adrian, a precocious New York kid who wants to be a chef, among other things. It's not Bijou who fascinates Willa but Nathalie Adrian, a finance executive whose life feels just so pulled together. This is in some ways a familiar plot- an underachieving twenty something who becomes a nanny for a wealthy family- but Wu has done a nice job with her characters. The story moves back and forth in time to tell Willa's story with both her father and her mother. I found myself wrapped up in the story even though I sort of knew what was coming, although not the specifics or the impetus. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

I didn’t quite understand Willa. I had sympathy for,her, shuffling between her parents’ new families and feeling like she didn’t belong anywhere. Yet, she’s an adult and seems to just be drifting with no purpose or direction in life. I thought she was a rather one dimensional character. The ending fell flat for me as well. It’s an ok read.

I will preface my review with the caveat that literary fiction is my least read genre. However, I could not pass up this cover! It is beautiful.

I struggled getting in to this book. The writing style just seemed a bit all over the place and I found myself having to reread portions to understand what was happening and what I should be learning.

I expected this to be more about Willa's culture and her struggle to fit in because of her mixed heritage but it felt more like a book about struggling within her family. Both parents were remarried and had new families and that seemed to be the source of her troubles.

Most of the book seemed to lack focus, but the last 20% seemed to come together and I enjoyed seeing Willa start to find herself and see where she had been making her own mistakes.