Like, I get that he's a fifteen-year-old boy, but it's still not okay and I felt like there needed to some discussion about why it was not okay.
I DID NOT LIKE how Vee casually uses words like "retard" and "fag" in a derogatory manner and this is never pointed out as harmful and bad and deplorable (either by the other characters or implied by the narrative). I would definitely be interested in reading Holland's future work. The second half picks up a bit (in terms of Vee's likability, the action, and in originality), and I did enjoy the conclusion.
The beginning feels like a watered-down version of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, with Vee Crawford-Wong starring as a half-Chinese, half-Texan, and far more annoying and self-entitled Junior. Also, Vee is a teen boy, and the book is told from inside his brain. Red Flags: homophobic slurs - "lesbo" and "fa-" neither of which is corrected, ever. That kind of homophobic language is not acceptable, and it did nothing to enhance the story at all. He stereotypes all the supposedly-lesbian volleyball players and uses the term lesbos frequently throughout his narration. Second, Vee refers to the girls' volleyball team as half princess and half lesbos. That's a really expensive lesson for Vee to learn. His family flies to China (all four of them, plus a guest) because of a letter Vee faked and which his father knew was a fake all along. What I didn't like: First, Vee is uber-entitled. Vee was a very real, very flawed character. The details during the Wong family trip to China were good. What I liked: The multicultural aspect of this book was good. He ends up conning his family into a trip to China, where he meets his grandfather and finds out that sometimes things don't work out the way we expect them to. He's frustrated because he doesn't really know his extended family at all.
He is in high school and he fakes a family tree for Spanish class and fakes a family history for his history class. Vee Crawford Wong would describe himself as half Texan, half Chinese. The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong.
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