I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Willa takes a job as a nanny. The situation is somewhat awkward as she is not quite family. Her feelings about her own divorced parents and their new families enter into her current living situation as she has no where that she truly feels comfortable.

Beautiful writing in a coming of age story.

Willa has always been on the outside looking in. Half Asian, half white, she fits into neither group in her suburban community growing up. Her parents divorced and started new families, neither of which she feels truly a part of. After feeling like she has spent her life as an afterthought, she takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy white family in New York, leading her to question her family, her upbringing, and how she might truly belong.

Win Me Something is a coming of age style novel, as Willa navigates who she really is and tries to learn where she belongs. Her parents leave a lot to be desired, both sets keeping her on the periphery of their newer families and not realizing what she might need. She's a rather sympathetic character, especially due to the benign neglect of her parents, and the reader wants her to succeed in spite of them.

I received a free, advance copy of this book through Netgalley for my honest review.

I adore books with imperfect characters on journeys to better understand themselves, even if the journey is not taken with purpose. Willa Chen, a Chinese American in her early twenties, has struggled to find a place that felt like home to her, even within her own family. She grew up in a white community in New Jersey, with a Chinese father and white mother, but they divorced and formed new families, leaving Willa to not feel grounded in either part of this new life. These aspects of her life have left her feeling untethered and unsure of herself. When seeking a new job, a friend recommends that she babysit for a wealthy white family in Tribeca, a long subway haul from her not-trendy apartment in Brooklyn. This babysitting job leads to Willa becoming the live-in nanny for Bijou (because of course that's her name) and becoming a resident herself of this wealthy community.

I found the writing to be stilted, but purposely so, which did so much to bolster the angst and unsettled existence of Willa, and is a sign of a very talented writer. The author navigates Willa's experiences of race based micro-aggressions, class divide, family dynamics, a boss/employee relationship, being a parent figure, social interactions, and even Willa's new found disposable income (thanks to not having to pay rent as a live-in nanny) in ways that make you feel the discomfort of not knowing where one might fit in. This author also manages to be sympathetic and kind to her young protagonist, without writing Willa in a way that diminishes the very real struggles that she faces, which isn't always the case in books written about young women struggling to find themselves.

This is a really special book, and I'm excited for this new author. I'm excited to read anything else she would publish. Also, I would really love a Willa-revisited in her late 30s book as a follow up....She's a character that I don't want to leave in her twenties...I want to see her grow.

I couldn't get into this one. Felt like an inferior version of SUCH A FUN AGE, and while I am fine with protagonists who are still finding themselves, the narration was too flat.to keep me engaged.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book. Willa’s story was heartbreaking but I loved watching her growth. Very quick entertaining read!

What exactly is the phrase, “Win me something”? Perhaps a demand, or a call to arms, or a request made between companions. For one to ask another to win a thing for them implies a particular sort of intimacy, for it is an intimate act, both to accrue and accept a debt.

But there is also something troublingly ambiguous about the phrase. For what, exactly, is something? Why is it contingent upon material acquisition? And what is this unspecified debt?

In Kyle Lucia Wu’s novel, the phrase “win me something” is not the defiant, declarative statement it first appears, but an offhand comment made between Willa (our protagonist) and her mother, when Willa's mother sends her to school after pulling her out for a “mental health day”. In a twist, the day off is a maneuver which Willa correctly discerns as selfish. Willa is forced to skip the day before for an important spelling test, and her mother sends her to school the next day, conscious of the text but unaware that there is no test left to win.

This small moment in her debut novel is a microcosm of the emotional landscape of the book, how it highlights a mind warped by a lifetime of emotional precarity. Willa is a victim of this from both sides of her family--not quite of neglect, but of thoughtlessness.

Kyle Lucia Wu’s emotional palette is considerable. She is always feinting at different ways a scene can be perceived, always thinking her way into a narrator for whom every scene is laced with a certain low-grade anxiety. It is a book in which the way that an egg is cook is drenched with meaning. This is a unique book, and a subtle one, and also a gentle one, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it. A stunning literary debut from a voice I’d like to see more from.

4 STARS

This book hit a little too close to home. It was uncomfortable for me reading this novel because of just how much I relate to the main character and her experiences. When I first saw the description, I was instantly hooked just because I don't often see myself in media. But this book did an absolutely fantastic job at describing what the biracial experience is.

WIN ME SOMETHING is an adult literary debut by Kyle Lucia Wu. As a half-Chinese and half-White girl, Willa Chen has always felt out of place. When Willa accepts a job to be a nanny for a wealthy family in New York, she finds herself lost and not belonging in a world where she is neither and outsider nor a participant in their glamorous world.

I can't describe how seen I felt in this book. So many of Willa's experience throughout the novel felt like they were chosen from my life. Willa's character was amazing to read about. Seeing someone who feels like they don't belong, yet they do at the same time, is such a strange in-between feeling that many mixed people can relate to. There were a couple of lines in the novel that felt extremely personal. The microagressions that Willa faced were all too familiar. I was a bit bored at times, but WIN ME SOMETHING was such an incredible book that I wish I could have read sooner.

This is an exquisite novel about a young woman who feels herself separate from everything. Willa is bi-racial and feels replaced by her parents “second” families. Rather than trying to relate, she withdraws. She doesn’t feel Chinese or white, she feels that the world looks down on her because she is a misfit in both communities.

Much of this inner-life and isolation is dissipated when she inadvertently becomes a nanny for the wealthy, privileged Tribeca family, the Adrians. She becomes attached to their daughter, Bijou. Once again she faces separation because she is neither servant nor family member. She is drawn to the mother, Nathalie, but finds herself hurt and confused.

Though I often find it hard to relate to young protagonists, Willa is so beautifully drawn that I found her and the setting engaging. Like “The Nanny Diaries” and “Prep” I found myself immersed in the story and the writing, not the demographics.

Honestly, I can’t think of any woman, daughter or mother who will not enjoy this novel. I highly recommend this to book groups of all ages.

Thank you Netgalley for this lovely little jewel.