Something Inside Me Knows: a Memoir

by Malinda Lo

National Book Award winner and New York Times bestseller Malinda Lo delivers an inspiring memoir in verse about losing her language, finding her voice, and honoring her ancestors.

In 1978 when Malinda Lo was three years old, she sat on her white American grandmother’s lap in a wheelchair as her father pushed them across the wooden bridge at the border between the People’s Republic of China and British-controlled Hong Kong. She does not remember the crossing that redefined her life; she has only been told the story.

Lo brilliantly weaves a nonlinear story of immigration and identity, connecting her childhood in small-town Colorado to her grandmother’s experiences in wartime China.

Incorporating free verse, found poetry, and lyric essay, Lo’s debut memoir excavates the tangled roots of her hybrid heritage, exposing the unspoken pain of migration and the long shadow of the American myth.

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer, Memoir, Adult

288 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication March 30, 2027

About the author

Hi Goodreads! I've only created this profile to claim my name here, and I don't check messages here or add friends. I invite you to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or visit my website at malindalo.com.

BIO: Malinda Lo is the bestselling author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, winner of the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, as well as Michael L. Printz and Walter Dean Myers honors. Her debut novel Ash, a Sapphic retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award and the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the Lambda Literary Award. She can be found on social media @malindalo or at malindalo.com.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky to get a chance to read an ARC of this memoir-in-verse. Incredible mix of formats and styles, for lovers of history, culture, food, writing. This is a powerful story about telling our story and how influences both within and external to our families shape us, how choices linger for generations, but most importantly about the interconnected nature of civilization

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this memoir transcends the genre. Part poetry, part essay and all heart, this goes into Malinda Lo's experience of migration and the sense of loss that comes with it. Beautifully written, her family history is not only fascinating but brought to life across mixed media.

I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC provided by Follett First Look