Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies) by Justina Chen Headley

Title: Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies)

Author:  Justina Chen Headley

Release date:  April 4, 2006

Publisher:  Little, Brown

Pages:  256

Genre:  Young Adult Fiction

Source:  Library

High school sophomore Patty Ho has it pretty difficult these days.  Her Taiwanese mother does nothing but criticize the parts of her that are imperfect, her white father has been absent ever since Patty can remember, and her older brother can do no wrong in her mother’s eyes.  At school, she doesn’t fit in with the white kids because she’s half-Asian and doesn’t fit in with the Asian kids because she’s half-white.  Because of her fear that Patty will end up married to a white guy and living in destitute if she doesn’t get a quality education, her mother sends her to math camp at Stanford for the summer.  Just when Patty writes off her summer entirely and decides that she’s going to spend the next four weeks in math geek hell, things start to get a little interesting… as in, a new friend, a love interest, and the discovery that she may just enjoy being a smart kid.

Ever since reading North of Beautiful (one of my favorite reads of the year) I’d been planning to read more by Justina Chen Headley.  So when I saw this one at the library, I couldn’t resist!  I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by it like I was North of Beautiful, and I definitely wasn’t, but it was still a solid young adult novel that I really enjoyed.

Patty was a very realistic teenager.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to feel like such an outsider in one’s own life.  She truly didn’t believe that she belonged anywhere, based on her “hapa” (half and half) status.  To make things worse, her mom put so much pressure on her to be perfect that she was bound to disappoint her mother at some point.  While her mother did seem pretty stereotypical for an Asian mother, I have to say that in high school and college I had a large group of friends that included many Asian kids, and without exception, ALL of their mothers treated them in the same kind of way that Patty’s mother did.  Of course there were varying degrees of harshness, but they were all extremely hard on their kids and put immense pressure on them to succeed at any cost.  So while she seemed a bit overdone in the book, based on my experience I found Patty’s mother to actually be quite realistic.

I didn’t love the romantic element that the book had.  I just did not find Stu to be all that charming, and I could have predicted what ended up happening in their relationship from the beginning.  But still, it was nice to read about Patty finally gaining some confidence in herself and the understanding that she was beautiful and intelligent, and any guy would be lucky to call her his girlfriend.  The fact that it had to be Stu – well, that’s an unfortunate aspect to the book, in my opinion.

While Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies) won’t make my favorites list for the year, I would recommend the book to teens.  Patty is a strong, smart heroine who really finds herself as the novel goes on.  Having now read two books by Justina Chen Headley, I’ll still continue to read more by her as I definitely enjoyed this one.

Review: North of Beautiful

Title:  North of Beautiful

Author:  Justina Chen Headley

Published:  February 1, 2009

Page Count:  384

Genre:  Young Adult Fiction

My Rating:  5/5

It’s hard not to notice Terra Cooper.

She’s tall, blond, and has an enviable body. But with one turn of her cheek, all people notice is her unmistakably “flawed” face. Terra secretly plans to leave her stifling small town in the Northwest and escape to an East Coast college, but gets pushed off-course by her controlling father. When an unexpected collision puts Terra directly in Jacob’s path, the handsome but quirky Goth boy immediately challenges her assumptions about herself and her life, and she is forced in yet another direction. With her carefully laid plans disrupted, will Terra be able to find her true path?

Written in lively, artful prose, award-winning author Justina Chen Headley has woven together a powerful novel about a fractured family, falling in love, travel, and the meaning of true beauty. 

Going into North of Beautiful, I assumed it would be a decent YA book, but nothing special – great characters, an interesting plot, and good writing – a book that I would like but not love.

Well, I was way wrong about that.  This book was beyond fantastic.  And I LOVED it.  North of Beautiful got to me, it really did.  First of all, I have to say that I saw a lot of myself in Terra, so that is definitely one of the reasons I fell in love with the book so much.  Growing up, my father had a similar personality to Terra’s father, and as a result (of that and other things, too) I had little to no self-esteem for most of my childhood/teen years.  So when I say I got her, I REALLY got her – I saw so many of my thoughts, feelings and even behaviors as a teen mirrored in Terra.  It was hard to read, because I so related to her, but it was also a great experience for me because I truly felt like I was right there with Terra – both in her physical journey to China and in her personal journey to self-discovery.

Okay, let’s talk about the book itself.  First, the story.  I loved where Justina Chen Headley took the plot – China!!  How fun is that?  I have never been to China, but it’s clear that Chen Headley has – the descriptions of the sights, smells, and sounds of Shanghai were just too perfect for her not to have experienced it herself.  I loved reading about all the places they visited and even though the China trip was a huge part of the book it didn’t detract in any way to the more intimate plot lines of Terra and her mother’s relationship, and Terra’s newly forming relationship with Jacob.

Speaking of relationships, that is the other fabulous thing about North of Beautiful.  What I usually love most about YA books are the relationships between the characters, both romantic and otherwise.  This novel was no exception to that.  I loved following along with Terra and Jacob’s blossoming romance, it was so perfectly written that I easily went back to the days of crushes, when just spending a few minutes in that person’s presence could put a smile on your face for the entire day.  And Jacob was just such a sweet, wonderful guy – he obviously cared about Terra and wanted to be with her, but never laid it on too thick or pushed her to be more than friends before she was ready.  And, really, just reading about their freindship was nice – they were just so CUTE together!  I also enjoyed reading about Terra and her mother’s relationship, especially once they got to China.  Without getting into too much detail, before the China trip Terra didn’t have much respect for her mother.  But once they started breaking down the walls between them and really getting to know each other without the presence of her father, they became such a close mother/daughter pair and really, it was so heartwarming to read about. 

North of Beautiful is truly an amazing book.  I loved it, and I think it’s a must-read for YA fans.  I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for more of Justina Chen Headley’s books – she has written her way into my heart with these characters and this wonderful story.

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