This book had a slow start but ended up being an interesting commentary on the plight of the AAPI person in America. It seemed meant to be satire or an alternate reality but felt very close to current day. I wonder when Nguyen actually wrote the bulk of the content of this. I enjoyed the multiple POV's and when they came together. The ending was not very satisfying.

This novel is an excellent combination of modern family exploration and speculative fiction that's just close enough to the current day that it doesn't feel farfetched.

The story follows members of a Vietnamese-American family in contemporary times. The characters are dimensional and interesting and I'd read about their lives and perspectives even without the events that unveil in this book. However, in this book a terrorist attack is perpetuated by a group of Vietnamese people and the country responds by locking up almost everyone of Vietnamese descent in concentration camps in a way reminiscent of our shameful internment of Japanese-American people in WWII.

What follows is a story about a family divided by class, income, appearance and privilege. It's a story about sports and journalism and how people respond when they are robbed of resources and autonomy. And it's a story about how powerful government is and how little actual is there to hold our leaders accountable.

Get into it. It's good and it will make you think.

Thank you to Random House for an advance review copy for unbiased review!

A somewhat satirical take on an alternative-history 2010s where Vietnamese-Americans are deported and interned in concentration camps-- a variation on the Japanese-American internment of WWII-- after being blamed for a mass-death terrorist attack. We follow two sets of half-siblings who share an absconded Vietnamese father: one pair (with a Vietnamese mother) is sent to a camp, and another (with a white mother) who maintain their normal lives as an online journalist and a Google intern.

But despite the high-concept premise, this novel demonstrates a real failure of imagination. The characters are extremely flat and shallow, and I can't tell if this is Nguyen's failure to write fully-human characters, or if he's satirizing the blandness and superficial of extremely-online millennials. The satire of right-wing American racism and left-wing identity politics is extremely broad and clumsy, and the descriptions of internment are oddly bloodless and lacking in real-world detail.

I didn’t personally care for this title, but it was interesting to see what I imagine similarities to the Japanese internment camps in the US were. I still think others would greatly enjoy this more than I did.

When a dystopian novel ends up feeling not all that dystopian, you know it’s going to make for a good book club discussion. When Maycember hit Jillian and me hard with work, life, and multiple graduations occurring between the 2 of us, we decided to push up the date until June 30, and in doing so have turned it into an author talk night as Kevin Nguyen will be joining us! Make sure you are signed up for our Bookclubs email so you get the new date and link.

Is it truly that far fetched that we would live at a time where an entire race would be placed in internment camps? With an eerily historical fiction feel informed by Japanese incarcerations and modern day immigrant detention centers as well as issues of racism and assimilation, Mý Documents tells the story of several cousins and family members who are all impacted in very different ways. After a string of terrorist actions, the government rounds up Vietnamese individuals, placing many in camps away from family, the public, and technology.

“A more accurate saying would be that history is a reflection of who had power, and how they flattered themselves.”

Mỹ Documents follows four cousins as their lives are forever changed when the U.S. government, emboldened by the AAPI (American Advanced Protections Initiative), begins detaining and imprisoning Vietnamese Americans in undisclosed locations.

When dystopian fiction is no longer dystopian…reading this book with the current state of our country is eerie to say the least. I mean, this quote could be straight from today’s headlines - “AAPI had promised two things: to keep America safe, and to create jobs.” [AAPI is fictional, it was created in the story after multiple terrorist attacks were carried out by Vietnamese Americans.] The story also draws parallels to the Japanese internment camps during WWII.

This was a powerful story that had me invested from the start and will keep me thinking long after finishing. Part 1 was a bit confusing to follow (keep going, it gets clearer), and the transition to the “camps” felt quite abrupt to me, but looking back, I think that’s the point.

A huge thank you to @oneworldbooks for the gifted copy. The booklet they shared asking people what they wouldn’t miss about the internet was powerful.

Before diving into this book, I purposely tried to refrain from reading up on it too much and boy am I glad I did so. This book quickly shocked me by taking a turn I did not expect and I was hooked! Not only is this story incredibly timely considering the events our country is living through, but it made me excited to look back on our history and learn about what was referenced throughout the story.

I really enjoyed the multiple POVs and was grateful we got to learn not just about people’s time in the centers but afterwards too.

A really astounding book that manages to capture the horror/mundanity of state sponsored racism and the complexity of extended family dynamics. Impressive in it's ability to deal with a lot and deal with it all pretty delicately. Disturbingly prescient.

Kevin Nguyen’s novel, MY DOCUMENTS, paints a picture of an America that resonates with our past as well as our present. Nguyen uses the divergent paths of four family members as the American government begins detaining Vietnamese Americans in response to a terrorist attack. I particularly appreciated how Nguyen explores the role of media in erasing oppression and various acts of resistance each family member engages in. A fast paced novel that looks at anti-Asian racism in America that rings eerily true to the daily systems of oppression present in America.

My Documents is one of those books that doesn't feel like fiction—it feels like a warning. A little too close to home, especially in 2025. Kevin Nguyen has crafted a dystopian story that reads like it could happen next week. Honestly, that's what makes it so powerful.

The story follows four Vietnamese American cousins—Ursula, Alvin, Jen, and Duncan—as a wave of national panic leads to the forced internment of Vietnamese Americans. Some are sent to camps, some are exempt, and others watch from the outside. What unfolds is a gut-punch of a family story, full of complicated choices, blurred lines between right and wrong, and the harsh reality that sometimes, even the right thing has devastating consequences.

I was especially drawn to how Nguyen shows each side of the experience—those inside the camps, those left out, and those trying to make sense of it all. The characters are vivid and fully human, each carrying their own mix of fear, hope, and guilt. And despite the heavy subject, there are moments of dry humor and warmth that catch you off guard in the best way.

This was my first Kevin Nguyen book, but definitely not my last. My Documents is smart, timely, and deeply moving. I can't recommend it enough.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and One World for an advanced reader's copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This novel chronicles the experiences of 4 members of a Vietnamese family, living in the U.S. during uncertain times. Alvin, Ursula, Jen and Duncan are raised as cousins and are just entering their young adult lives with dreams and ambitions. As violent attacks occur throughout the country, the U.S. government begins detaining the Vietnamese, much like the Japanese internment camps during WWII. Two of the cousins end up living in the detention camps, but the other 2 receive exemptions. This is the story of their various experiences and how they tried to get their story out to the general public, away from government propaganda.

What feels like it could be dystopian, feels quite terrifying as the U.S. is going through tumultuous changes recently. I appreciated the different perspectives, the flaws of the characters who were on the outside and the decisions that the character inside the camps made.

Thank you to @oneworldbooks @atrandombooks @netgalley @knguyen for a #gifted early digital copy of this novel

In My Documents, Nguyen does a wonderful job at world building, creating a dystopian view of America but within the context of the current period.. This book is about the aftermath of a domestic terrorist attack perpetrated by seven middle-aged Vietnamese men. The government investigators are unable to determine a motive, which doesn’t allow either them or the public to mentally compartmentalize the threat. This leads to widespread, irrational panic about the entire Vietnamese population and a response from government that would be otherwise inconceivable: internment of a million Americans. This turns out to be big business, and as time goes on, there is less inclination to reverse course. But, with a robust contraband system within the camps, word will get out about the realities inside the walls.

Had this book been published ten years ago, it would have been nothing more than a great dystopian novel. Clearly, it is still that, but the novel does hit close to home on some points. Terrorism on American soil. The challenge of ferreting out who else might be involved. How this leads to fear and overreaction. But the creepiest is how Nguyen describes the deployment of technology and cooperation from tech giants to help carry out human rights abuse. Despite the bleakness of the storyline, he does an excellent job telling a story about a family and survival.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

ANHPI Heritage Month 2025 #11

✨ LA Times Festival of Books 2025 ✨

/ The F Words: Family, Fame, and [Mis] Fortune in Contemporary Fiction
/ Saturday, April 26, 2025
/ 2:00 PM
/ The Ray Stark Family Theatre

Meredith Maran was one of the worst moderators I've ever had to listen to. The authors handled her beautifully. I wouldn't have. 0/10

I ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I don’t know what took me so long to pick this up. I’m really enjoying this.

Families are messy. I don’t know if Vietnamese families are messier than most, or if it’s just my extended family that’s extremely messy, but either way, I get it.

We get introduced to a few members of this family saga. I don’t quite know if I love Ursula or hate her, but as the daughter of a Vietnamese man and white woman, with one brother and two half siblings they call cousins (it’s more palatable/polite) trying to work in journalism (a very much not Asian approved field: it’s doctor, lawyer, engineer, or accountant, in that order), her story speaks to me. It’s captivating me more than the others. I find Jen juvenile and annoying. I forgot the boys’ names.

This section ends with a terrorist attack. We have been shown the Japanese Internment, and how most of us don't learn about this in American History. Shameful. And in this day and age, unfortunately still so relevant. No one is safe. They’ll come for you next.

II ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This section went quickly. I enjoyed the first section just a tad more. Obviously, this is where shit starts to go down.

Even though it's the Vietnamese that launched a terrorist attack, it's Vietnamese Americans that are rounded up and tossed into concentration camps. (Why must we be hyphenated? Why are Asian Americans combined like this? No one calls white people European Americans, but I may start.)

Kevin wrote this pre Trump part two, but it's oddly reminiscent of current happenings. I don't say this in a good way.

Ursula and her brother, whose name I cannot remember, get exemptions. If you remember, they have one white parent and are white passing. Their half siblings, called cousins for whatever palatable reason, are detained. Ursula finally deigns to reply to Jen's texts. It's too little too late.

III ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Things are picking up. Or growing more horrifying. Your choice. As the Vietnamese Americans are firmly ensconced in the camps, some settle into captivity. Some don't. Jen joins a group a resistance. It's always the young.

I remember Jen's brother's name now. It's Duncan. I can't really tell you anything about him, because I find him boring.

Jen leaks information to Ursula, who finally deigns to respond. With this news, Ursula can finally become a serious reporter. She is told to stop using her mother's white last name, and that her father's Vietnamese surname lends more credence to her stories. Some authors do this. I am guilty of second guessing a book if the author's name looks too western.

IV ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I know the other brother's name now. It's Alvin. Do you hate these play-by-play reviews? At least one of you all loves them. Not that I care.

Alvin works at Google, the only reason he is exempt from the camps. Also, he passes. But Ursula was exempt all along. Anyway, he leaks documents (decks, not slideshows - get with it, non-techies) to his sister to publish and acts brand new when Google catches him. He is fired. He is a little shocked. No one else is.

So obviously, Alvin can no longer afford to live in the Bay Area. He gallivants across the US to stay with Ursula in New York, doing little chores for her in order to earn his keep.

The other siblings are finally interesting to me, as we near the end. Ursula meets up with El Paquete, the go between for Jen to get messages to her. Also the supplier of the camps. At first, we’re enamored with the face behind the help. Then we realize he’s just like every other man, taking advantage where he shouldn’t. Is it so hard to be decent?

Shit goes down at Jen’s camp. I want to kill Dennis, who I can picture as a 5’5” rat whose Hinge profile contains all selfies and lists his height as 5’8”. Did I date this man? Actually, no. I was going to say my taste in Vietnamese men isn’t this bad, but that’s a lie. IYKYK

V ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not that things weren't already sad, but they get sadder. This loss, which I won't mention, feels pervasive. As loss often does, it binds people together. Why does it take something sad to bring people together? Why can't it be something happy? My extended family, in particular, are guilty of this. Have we done anything to change our behavior? No.

I was going to say Ursula isn't really a palatable character, but truly, none of these people are. No one anywhere is. We contain multitudes, and that's what makes us people.

I was also going to say I don't know what took so long for the rest of the American people (because Vietnamese Americans, and everyone else you try to hyphenate are American) to realize that the camps were horrifying and unconstitutional, but I do.

All in all, an amazing read, and one pushed forward for this heritage month I have certain feelings about, and listening to Kevin speak at LATFOB. All of the authors on the panel were fantastic. I have TEHRANGELES. I put the others on hold. Once again, the moderator was horrible. She ignored and asked questions only a white woman would. I'll leave it at that.

📖 Thank you to One World

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and One World

My Documents was really a fantastically written book. I was putting this off because it felt a little too real in some ways, but once I started, I couldn't put it down. It is set in modern times, and we get to know a Vietnamese-American family and their history, the book mainly focuses on 4 siblings/half-siblings in their teens and 20s. Due to certain events, the US suspends habeus corpus puts all Vietnamese-Americans into detention camps, similar to the Japanese internment in WWII. The book covers both what it's like in the camps, and for those outside. One of the most shocking things is that for most Americans, life goes on as usual outside. Because contact with the camps is severely limited, no one really knows what's happening and people forget about them. Although this book focuses on the Viets, it is clear that this could happen to any group of people with no due process and little thought or oversight. The book is pretty shocking, but also very easy to read with likable characters, and even those in camps are just looking to get through their days. I will recommend this broadly.

Absolutely incredible and deeply unsettling. It draws on the past while being terrifyingly close to the future we are barreling toward. Highly recommend!

Thank you to Net Galley and One World for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. After a terrorist type attack in the US, the government begins to detain Vietnamese Americans in internment type camps. We follow the lives of four members of the Nguyen family - Ursula and Alvin receive exceptions as Ursula is an upcoming journalist and Alvin works for Google. Jen and Duncan are sent with their mother to an internment. They have no contact with the outside world and really don't know what is happening, where they are or how long they will be there.. But, over time, Jen finds she has access to email and starts sending Ursula reports from camp (citizens also have no idea what is happening there). We see how some assimilate and others fight back in the ways they can. I read that the author took real life examples from Japanese incarceration, the Vietnam War and practices from modern day immigration detention creating another version of reality that feels all too real. The title is a play on words as My in Vietnamese means America. The author brings light to racism, how America others immigrants and the brutality of their treatment. Yet, on the other hand, there is resilience, determination and how we find strength in our communities.

How awful for Author Nguyen to publish this trenchant story at exactly the moment it becomes predictive. <a href="https://lithub.com/i-take-no-pleasure-in-having-written-an-eerily-prescient-novel/" target="_blank">He didn't tell it with that in mind</a> (it's not a paywall yet, you can dismiss it), saying in the article linked above that "...I worried that in all of the conversation around <i>Mỹ Documents</i> being timely, that its actual conflicts and themes had been obfuscated by the emphasis on the news cycle".

Steamrolled by events you thought you were extrapolating? It has to be the ultimate first sex in your stateroom on the <i>Titanic</i> feeling: Will I get to do this again? He's done it before. His first novel, <i>New Waves</i>, came out in March...of <U><b><i>TWENTY-TWENTY</i></b></u>. Melpomene seems to have it in for this poor author.

All that out of the way, let's have a look at the storyverse Author Nguyen's made for us. An absent father unites Ursula and Jen, half-sisters born to white and ethnically Vietnamese mothers respectively. Each woman has a full brother. Their appearance mirrors their mothers' features, so the elder appears white. She is a journalist, exempted from being incarcerated because of her less-visible paternal heritage. She is also not interested in exposing herself to difficulties by claiming kin with her incarcerated half-sibs...a continuation of her uninterest in becoming close to these people...until their connection can be useful.

As the internment camp's realities begin to bite her, no internet, limited contact outside the confines of the camp or even within it, no access to any communication technology. Jen becomes part of an in-camp samizdat operation called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Korematsu#World_War_II" target="_blank">Korematsu</a>. Ow, my nose. That gives her something Ursula the journalist needs: reliable intel from the inside of a buttoned-up space. The sisters, with poor grace on both sides, cooperate to tell The Truth About It. How that pans out, well...white people, even half-white people prosper in correlation to their willingness to become exploiters, says Author Nguyen of Ursula; glittering kudos, lucrative contracts rain on her. Jen, her source, is traumatized by hellish deprivation and the loss of the brother she loved and Ursula did not care a fig about.

And here is where I talk about the characters, not their arcs. The absent father was a rolling stone who was too damaged...by what?...to contemplate settling down. Why the hell he didn't use a condom instead of fathering kids he wasn't around to raise remains unaddressed. (Selfishness, of course, but it's unaddressed.) Ursula and her full sib are All American White People, Jen and her full sib are not. My, that's tidy. The mothers barely registered on me. That's why there's no part of a fifth star.

The ending of the story finds Jen and Ursula...Ursula's sib vanishes somewhere along the line...completing their trajectories as set. It's all pretty pat. What it isn't is poorly told. I'm not saying "described" here by considered usage. We are not centered in a physical locale. That is not the story being told. There's little scene-setting beyond what is needed to get the immediate point across. This is, for some readers, a huge flaw. To my read of the book it is the way to immerse you in (mostly Ursula's) development, and by extension, the entire exercise's purpose of indicting our culture for simply accepting injustice, for treating injustice as infotainment, and criticizing the people seduced by empty plaudits into betrayals of human bonds that are, by rights, sacred and cherished.

Pay attention to the people who wander, all unmoored. Ask yourself why that is the choice they made for a life spent among other humans. Is it a choice you can understand?

Listening to Ursula, I can do so better than before I read this book.

The story follows four Vietnamese American Ursula, Alvin, Jen and Duncan. They call themselves cousins, but are really half sisters and brothers. After seven violent attacks the U.S. government begins detaining Vietnamese americans in internment camps. Jen and Duncan are detained in Camp Tacoma while Ursula and Alvin remain outside.

I enjoyed the story and the complex characters. Their decisions did not always make sense to me, but I could understand where they were coming from and appreciate their coping mechanisms. I did not enjoy the writing style much. The omniscient narration felt disjointed and distancing. Overall this was a good book and an interesting and terryfying read.

Years after the Vietnam war ends there are seven terrorist attacks by the Vietnamese on six airports and Rockefeller Center. As a result all Vietnamese are sent to detention camps. The Nguyen family has a crazy family dynamic. Dan was one of four children that left Vietnam at the end of the war. He has at least three families that he left behind and the half siblings Jen and Duncan, and Ursula and Alvin are sometimes referred to as cousins or siblings. Ursula and Alvin are half white and do not get sent to a camp but Jen and Duncan go to Camp Tacoma. The story is related from different POVs. Ursula, Alvin, Jen, Duncan and sometimes Dan. I didn't feel that I could really connect and understand any of the POVs because not enough time was spent on each of them to get to know them.

This was a frightening story. Apparently we hadn't learned a lesson from the Japanese camps and I can't rule out that it will never happen again so in that it felt like an important story. Unfortunately for myself there were too many holes. The main one was why were the bombs set off in the first place? And why such a drastic reaction to create the camps. And why was Dan always running away? At one point Ursula flies to California to meet with a source and he tries to force his way into her room. Was there a point that the author tried to make because I didn't get it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House- Random House for providing me with a digital copy.

My Documents conceives of a dystopian future that is increasing easy to imagine. I enjoyed the shifting voices throughout the book as we switched between characters, but I found myself wanting to know more about the world in which the attack happens. More specically, what other people were thinking and how they were engaging with the events as they unfolded. That being said, the descriptions in the book felt immersive and compelling and highlighted some very real issues we are faced with today.