Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim by Patricia Park

 

Alejandra Kim feels stuck between two identities. As a Latinx Asian American, she finds that people make decisions about her based on her Spanish/Korean name before even hearing her speak. Her "woke" white classmates at her prestigious Quaker high school are nice enough, but they stay silent when a white teacher makes a joke about Ale's ethnicity. And it doesn't help that her cousins look down on her for not speaking Korean, while her Latinx neighbors think of her as "that Chinese girl."

And Ale and her mother are still reeling from the day eight months ago when Papi's body was found on the subway tracks. Ale's mother refuses to accept what Ale believes is the harsh truth behind her father's death. Things between Ale and her ma have been cold ever since.

Ale knows that if she gets into her dream college in Maine, she'll be free from people judging her name before her personality and ignoring the blatant racism that is directed at her. Free from her mother's silence, and the painful memories that pervade her apartment in Queens. But senior year has a lot to throw at her before she gets to graduation: the return of an old neighborhood friend, the white savior attitude of her best friend at school, and the fact that her ma is absolutely opposed to Ale going to college outside of New York. But not even imposter syndrome is going to stop Ale from following her dreams.

I spontaneously picked this book off a library shelf a few weeks ago--something I rarely do, as I'm the type of person to make a detailed to-read list and stick to it like the law. By the first line, "When you have a name like Alejandra Kim, teachers always stare at you like you're a typo on the attendance sheet," I was hooked. Alejandra Kim had said it to me straight, and I was willing to listen to her for the next 291 pages. 

In Imposter Syndrome, Patricia Park does a fabulous job of acknowledging the pain, complexities, and discrimination that are inherent to the lives of multiethnic Americans, while keeping things funny and relatable. Alejandra's perception of her race is tied into others' perception of her, and their opinions about where she "belongs" in relation to other Asians and Latinx people; however, Ale is acutely aware of herself and her feelings, giving the readers a lot to think about as she questions her identity. There are so many things to talk about in this book: the way Ale and her ma deal with grief; the sometimes tense, uncomfortable truth of family; the rise and fall of friendships; the feeling of sticking out like a sore thumb no matter where you go. Not only does Imposter Syndrome offer a window (or a mirror) into someone else's experiences, it is an incredibly enjoyable, thought-provoking read with an unforgettable protagonist.

TW: Mentions of a suicide that took place before the book started, racist language used against protagonist.