*4.5 stars

Every so often, I stumble upon a piece of writing—be it a novel, story, poem, or another such format—that just, for one reason or another, feels like home. Win Me Something falls into that category. Like many works I’ve grown attached to recently, it’s not a dramatic, sprawling saga with grand stakes; instead, it’s a very down-to-earth novel that explores identity, growth, and privilege in an everyday but still beautiful, compelling way.

From the start, its format and writing are of particular (positive) note. I’ve always had a soft spot for non-linear narratives, as this is, and the way the characters’ pasts are woven into the present here is carried out nicely. Kyle Lucia Wu’s style, too, is nothing short of gorgeous; it flows very smoothly and never ceases to be engaging and descriptive, knowing well when to show and when to tell.

Win Me Something’s plot is not that of a fantastical epic, so the heavy lifting is primarily done by the characters, which I found adequately intriguing. Willa was a main character I could instantly connect with, in no small part because I think her background is the closest to my own I’ve ever seen in media—mixed white and Chinese, but part of a blended family where white relatives are predominant, and disconnected from Chinese culture. The exact details, of course, don’t match up, but the surface-level similarities lent themselves to a certain viscerality. In other words, a novel about a woman who desires to be seen seemed to see me in a way I never have been before.

There’s a certain forceful passiveness about Willa, too, that’s very interesting. The novel is driven by her struggle to navigate both various social spaces and her own self; the progression of her life, in snippets of her at twenty-four and various ages around and under sixteen, was one I got invested in very quickly. Watching her ups and downs wasn’t exciting, in comparison to more expansive narratives, but it was gripping and provocative.

As a whole, there’s a certain refreshingly realistic quality to the imperfect, uncertain nature of the entire cast and their interactions. The quiet tension and resentment that undercuts Willa’s relationships are very well-handled, from her distance from her own family to the similar but distinct alienation she feels from the Adriens and their associates. I especially enjoyed her and Bijou’s dynamic, where they forge a supportive enough connection but Willa can’t help noting the social, economic, and individual gaps that separate them—it’s an interesting take on the nanny-child dynamic, and by the novel’s end I even wanted to see it develop further.

I did feel that the pacing could be improved in some areas to greater effect, and I’m not wholly satisfied with the ending. Its melancholy but hopeful tone is in line with the rest of the book, but there are several loose ends that I’d have liked to see resolved more conclusively, and on a personal but not strictly literary level I suppose I expected something more in the way of catharsis. There were also a few minor formatting issues, but nothing that really distracted from the narrative or that wouldn’t be expected of an early copy.

Nitpicks aside, Win Me Something is a quietly visceral and powerful piece about identity, complicated dynamics, and searching for a place to belong, and I found it almost necessary to draw out the time I spent with it. It’s a very strong debut, and I’ll look forward to whatever Wu puts out in the future.

Willa Chen is drifting along in her mid-20s in New York City, when she gets a chance to nanny for a wealthy family in Tribeca with one daughter. Soon, she's ferrying the precocious Bijou to dance class, Mandarin lessons, and enriching museum trips. She idolizes Nathalie, the career woman who seems to have it all--huge apartment, amazing wardrobe, great job, supportive husband, and who welcomes Willa (mostly) warmly. But even after Willa becomes their live-in nanny, she is physically present but still not part of the family.

Nothing too dramatic happens in this short, meditative book, which feels exactly what it's like to be Willa's age. You're an adult in the eyes of the world, but you still feel like a kid playing dress-up, and maybe you haven't found the right career or romantic partner yet. You're trying things on and waiting, watching. Willa has a deep longing to belong somewhere, but doesn't feel like she fits anywhere. Not with her own family (or families--both her parents remarried and had more kids with their new partners), and not exactly with Nathalie and her family, either.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

As a Chinese-American who often has felt not Chinese enough or American enough, this book really hit home. Wu’s coming of age story about identity and family dynamics is poignant, personal, and compassionate.

Willa Chen has never felt like she fit in exactly right. Born to a now-divorced white mother and Chinese father who have each gone on to create new families, she has recently taken a nannying job with a wealthy family that doesn't 100% accept her either. Win Me Something is a story about identity and belonging that will stick with readers long after its completion.

Wu's characters and scenes are imperfect, awkward, and believable. Many authors seem to struggle to write realistic children, but Wu artfully brought Bijou and her relationship with Willa to life. I enjoyed this book a lot, and found there to be a great balance of entertainment with poignant messages about who we all are and our struggle to belong.

Note: I received a free ebook copy of 'Win Me Something' from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Being the parent of an Amerasian daughter, I was eager to read Kyle Lucia Wu's novel, Win Me Something. Willa Chen has a white American mother and a Chinese father., When she was young, her parents divorced and remarried to people of their own race. Willa never felt as if she was a part of either of these families. Too asian for one and not asian enough for the other, This was true of how she felt with the outside world too. She takes a job as a nanny to a girl whose family lives in Tribeca. There are moments of connection and reminders that she is the help. We follow Willa as she tries to make sense of the world's mixed messages and to determine who she is. I read this book very quickly. There were a few experiences that I never thought of, assumptions like Willa would know the best tea. What I did not find is a real connection to any of the characters, including Willa. Maybe it is a result of the her perpetual search that I was not able to find her either, It is not that I disliked the characters, it is more that I could not find real empathy with their stories. But then again, maybe that was the point.
My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

𝑰𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑰 𝒐𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒆, 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒋𝒐𝒃 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒖𝒏𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅, 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒖𝒑 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈.

When the story opens, Willa Chen is about to be interviewed for a job as a nanny for the Adrien family. This is a step up from the last couple she worked for, Nathalie and Gabe are living the life people like Willa can only dream about, with their enormous apartment in downtown Manhattan. Immediately she feels self-conscious, unremarkable, her attire boring and cheap beside beautiful Nathalie. Willa is leaving behind one service industry (bar at night, coffee shop in the morning) for a job that will give her back hours to finally create a life. This her chance for open-ended days, certainly Willa doesn’t love children. The last family she had worked for, the Erickson’s, didn’t make many demands nor require much effort into caring for their children, it was easy money. She was a babysitter, plain and simple. She wasn’t hired to shape their children’s futures, wasn’t expected to conjure gourmet meals in the kitchen nor speak to them in Mandarin. An Asian American, Nathalie assumes she would speak her father’s language, or at least “be in touch with her culture.” It is a sensitive subject for Willa, remembering how as a teenager she tried to be less Asian, thanks to cruel teasing by her peers. It feels like a check against her now with Nathalie’s probing , where culture and taste is illuminated.

Bijou isn’t your average child, in fact, Willa is envious of her cushy world, one where someone is paid to wait on you, a life that is full of activities to challenge and mold a child into their fullest potential. Her childhood couldn’t be further from the Willa’s. College educated, this isn’t the life she imagined for herself and the question arises, where would she be if she had been showered in the care and attention that are afforded people like Bijou? Willa admits she wasn’t neglected, certainly people have much harder upbringings than her, but as she moves in with the Adriens she can’t help but compare her own family and how much of an outcast she has always been. I think this is why she has a hard time truly relaxing and fitting in, she never quite trusts her place in her own life. It began with her parents.

Loneliness doesn’t encompass the emotional landscape of her life, how the split between she and her parents left her without a solid identity. She is far more distanced from her father whose Chinese culture she knows next to nothing about, always having felt the weight of strangers expectations as her looks leave no doubt to her ethnicity, but it is her white mother who mostly raised her. Her father hasn’t taught her much, not about his past and the shy interactions she has when she visits him speaks volumes about her longings for a deeper bond. It’s not much better with her mother, whose new life leaves her feeling excluded too. Willa is always more like a guest no matter where she lives and works, her needs never acknowledged and while it’s true she is guilty of never asking for more, it may well be that she was never given the security to trust that she could and still be loved.

She has felt discarded and unprotected for too long. Willa is wounded by the past and I think it holds her back. Well past the age of eighteen she is still waiting for life to begin, clueless about her next steps, never thinking much about the future, just sort of floating along. It’s nothing new, not everyone has spectacular careers lined up after college. Is determination, ambition in our genes? I don’t know, but it’s a fact not everyone that needs guidance gets it. The class divide is a reality too, there is no denying children like Bijou have an edge anymore than Willa’s half siblings love and attention will likely serve them well. You can see an interesting dynamic in someone so much younger than Willa ‘schooling her,’ already so sure of herself and her place in the world where Willa is lost. She truly is struggling to figure out who she is while both admiring and envying her employers. I was engaged, at times I wanted to shake her, you won’t get anywhere spinning in circles. It is thought provoking, because she is cut off from half of her identity (her father’s culture), and it robs her of something vital. She is an American-born Chinese girl who, as she states, “wasn’t really Chinese enough.” She doesn’t have an anchor in either world. It’s a heavy weight to bear. Solid read.

Publication Date: November 2, 2021

Tin House

This was a beautiful story about a young biracial woman living in New York who feels so disconnected, separate, and other. Her parents were divorced and she never felt like she had a real home with her mom or her dad. They both went on to have more children with their new partners. She was always getting racist comments thrown at her from kids at school and people in her life about being Asian, but she never felt fully connected to her Asian heritage. In this novel we are following Willa as she becomes a live-in nanny for a wealthy family in New York. She starts to feel like she belongs to them and finally starts to feel like she has a home, but as time goes on, things change and she realizes that her home is where she makes it and people do love her when she lets them in. I would recommend this story to anyone who loves a story about family dynamics, race, class, and finding your way through the world as a young adult. The prose was nothing short of exquisite and I can't wait to pick up another book by this author in the future.

Thank you for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book!

Willa Chen is 24 years old, living in New York, and searching for a sense of belonging. This book follows a year with a family she ends up nannying for, mixed in with flashbacks of her parents' divorce and eventual remarrying.

As someone who spent a few years being a nannying, I always find it interesting to read about this very intimate working relationship, and this book is no exception. Wiu's writing style is subtle and although the book wasn't action packed, I never wanted to put it down.

I just reviewed Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu. #WinMeSomething #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

4 stars

This is a subtle novel characterized by an engaging style that kept me hooked through even the most ordinary events.

Willa, the m.c., is 24-years-old, multiracial, post-college, and half-heartedly finding herself in New York when the novel begins. When she stumbles upon the opportunity to nanny for a precocious girl named Bijou (whose name suits her especially well), she puts aside her distaste for children and accepts the position. Throughout the novel, Willa's engagement with Bijou, her parents and relatives, and a fancy apartment and neighborhood in Tribeca leave Willa in a familiar place: the middle. She neither truly belongs nor is fully apart.

What fascinates me so much about this text is that there is nothing truly shocking or momentous that happens, and yet I found it a speedy and compelling read because of the underlying personal discomfort that Willa experiences. Willa's surroundings cause her to think much less about what is next for her. Instead, her focus is very much on who she was and then, maybe later, how that has shaped who she IS. Her memories of her early childhood - but especially her parents' development of their "new families" (spouses and kids from both) after their divorce - are woven seamlessly in with the present day scenes. In the ordinariness of Willa's worries and questions, there's an unmistakable and surprising profundity of common experience.

Bijou is an added bonus. She is so well drawn, and I am dying for a novel about her in her mid-30s and beyond.

For me, this is a sleeper hit. It's not flashy, but I do feel a bit like Wu won me something with this work. I'll absolutely be on the hunt for future pieces from this author and will recommend this read judiciously to folks I know can appreciate style, depth, and subtlety and do not need wild antics and shock to love a novel.

I kept flashing back to "Such a Fun Age" while reading this. That is not a bad thing. Willa is a biracial twenty-something, trying to find her place in the world. She becomes a nanny for Bijou and while she has a place, she doesn't necessarily belong. The story meanders--there is no discernable first, second, or third act, but again, Willa is meandering through her life. An excellent debut.

This was a book I settled into peacefully and almost wished I waited until winter by a cozy fire. While the plot of this book wasn’t riveting, the premise was interesting. Often times we walk so much in our own shoes it’s hard to imagine being in someone else’s? This author does a good job of making you feel the main characters angst and discomfort as if you are in fact, walking in her shoes.
Although there was no explosive ending, I still enjoyed this book and appreciate the advance copy.

While the book was well written, and it kept my attention throughout, I didn't understand what the author was trying to achieve with this novel. The relationships between characters were well developed, but I didn't sense an objective, nor conclusion.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Win Me Something.

Willa Chen is a biracial Chinese American who has never fit in; not with her family, her friends, or the world. Her parents divorced and are now remarried with new children of their own.

When she accepts a nanny position with an affluent family, she is drawn to their 'perfect' home life, the mother is the epitome of what Willa imagined a mother should be, unlike her own mother, her precocious charge Bijou is bright and curious, and Willa soon imagines becoming a part of their lives, fitting in seamlessly where she doesn't fit in with her parents' new lives.

Willa's plight is relatable and understandable; the not so subtle racist jabs at her ethnicity from ignorant people, but Willa's passivity is palpable, reinforcing a common stereotype of Asian minorities; that we're passive, especially the women. For me, this made Willa unlikable.

She constantly wonders why people don't speak to her, engage with her, but as she notes toward the end of the novel, perhaps it's because she doesn't do the same. Her docility and inaction reinforces the stereotype she's been trying to shake herself out from under, with her family and the family she's caring for.

I understood her angst, her desire to find a place where she belongs whether in a family or a group of friends, inability to know what she wants to do with her life. She's only 24!

Not many people know what they want to do with their life, and no one knows what the future holds.

I'm not 24 anymore and I'm still wondering if I should do something else with my life or if I missed out on stuff when I was young.

Willa doesn't feel recognized and seen, especially by her family, because she doesn't respect and see herself for who she is. There's nothing wrong with being confused, with wanting to belong, with seeking your identity, so you look, you research, you learn all you can about yourself and hopefully you'll be able to find your yourself and where you belong,

if you don't see yourself for who you are and who you want to be, then no one else will.

Unlike some reviewers, I liked the ending. I thought it was positive, hopeful, offering readers a chance to see that maybe, one day, Willa might see herself for who she truly is. What that is no one knows. Only Willa does.

I find myself wishing that I had read this book with a book club so I had someone to discuss the central character with. My best description of the book is that it is a well written story of a season in the life, with flashbacks, of a fundamentally unformed young woman. I say unformed not from any lacking on the part of the author but rather of who this character is. Made me wonder about some of the quiet individuals who have passed through my life and what goes on underneath the quiet. Thank you to Netgalley and Tin House Books or this opportunity of an early read. I will be especially looking forward to reading the opinions of others.

Rating: 3.5/5

I chose this book to do something different, the genre and everything about this is different from what I tend to be drawn towards. I don't read enough diverse books, so I have been seeking out books with either LGBT+ or representation of people of color as a main theme, or sometimes both.
Willa is biracial; she's Chinese and American, but everyone seems to focus on the fact that she's asian, even though they never ask what "kind" of asian she is. They assume she's Korean, japanese, Thai, but never really ask her. And she feels disconnected from her identity because she didn't spend a lot of time with her father, who is Chinese. She grew up with her white mom, who remarried and had white kids. Didn't speak Chinese until she was an adult, and even then didn't speak it well. So she spends a lot of time alone, feeling invalidated by her own identity, and the people around her certainly don't help matters.
I spent a lot of time with this book frustrated because no one ever seemed to ask Willa about her identity or even really got to know her, they just acted ignorant and made assumptions. The only person who didn't seem to judge her or make bogus comments about her race was the 10 year old she was a nanny for.
The content of the story was okay, but I really wish Willa had a happy ending because she deserved that. The ending was kinda sad.
I did have issues with formatting of the book, but that could have been because I was reading on my phone instead of my Kindle.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTshOA6LI06/?utm_medium=copy_link

Writing: 4.5/5 Plot: 3.5 / 5 Characters: 4/5

Lit Hub lists this as one of the “22 novels you need to read this fall,” so I moved it to the top of my review list.

Willa is the bi-racial (Asian dad, white mom) daughter of parents who divorced when she was young and moved on to build new families. Somewhat adrift in New York City after finishing college, she falls into a live-in nanny position with a wealthy family and a precocious child and wonders what life would be like to be part of such a (in her eyes) perfect family. The story alternates between the present day and various experiences in Willa’s past.

What I liked about this book was the content-rich and easily flowing writing style and the high degree of reflectivity on the part of the main character. While at times it appeared to move slowly, that is a good reflection of how normal life proceeds, and I enjoyed the access to Willa’s mind as she slowly came to understand what was important to her and how she could make changes in her own behavior to make her life be what she wanted. I also liked the way the story focused on Willa as an individual and not as a representative of a particular group. It traces the impact of her various experiences (some teasing at school for being Asian, lack of attention in her broken home situation, etc.) without calling attention to an overly dramatic agenda. It’s a personal story of an individual.

Win Me Something is an understated coming of age story by debut writer Kyle Lucia Wu. The reader follows Willa Chen as she accepts a nanny position for the Adrien family and cares for the young Bijou, a precocious foodie who enjoys cooking and learning Mandarin. Willa's own upbringing is juxtaposed with Bijou's want for nothing childhood. Willa had a dissatisfying, unfulfilling childhood, and her experiences are a direct foil to Bijou's experiences. By the end of the novel, Willa doesn't seem to have reached any clarity about what she wants for the future, but the story ends with a glimmer of hope that lets the reader know she's going to be okay.

Some readers may read this book and think that nothing much happened. While the novel wasn't motivated by a fast-moving plot, its nuanced exploration of themes was a focal point. Wu's paragraphs often ended with sharp, poignant sentences that captured Willa's disappointments and musings on loneliness, family, and feelings of erasure. Willa's character was a bit hard to grasp at times, and her motivations were not always clear or easily defined. However, that is precisely the point; sometimes, it's hard to pin down complex emotions that impact one's actions and relationships with others, especially in a bildungsroman story.

I enjoyed reading Wu's first novel and will be interested in whatever she writes next. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Willa’s story is heartbreaking as she struggles to find herself. She becomes a nanny for a family but has a hard time relating to them. This is a thoughtful, entertaining read that I really enjoyed.

I was excited to get an early copy of this book as I heard good things. It’s a good story about a young woman who starts a nannying position and reflects on her own family growing up. I spent most of the book waiting for a climax, but it’s just a gentle story without the highs and low I’m used in. I felt a few of the characters could be more fleshed out, but it was an interesting book.

A very successful debut novel! I'm drawn to novels and non-fiction on bi-racial characters because my own children are bi-racial. Wu's novel is an unusual one in the genre of White-Asian biracial families because it is the mother who is white and the father who is Chinese. Her parents are divorced and both have started new families. Willa does not feel she belongs at either home and she finds a new home as a Nanny with a wealthy NYC family. She doesn't belong there either, but she discovers more and more about herself as she tries on different identities.
Nanny stories are always fun as they provide a glimpse of how other people live. And Willa is certainly not a perfect Nanny. It is. both a light and heavy read. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.