Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim

by Patricia Park

A multicultural teen struggles to fit into her elite prep school, her diverse Queens neighborhood, and even her own home. A hilarious, poignant, and powerful YA novel from the award-winning author of Re Jane.

“Simply brilliant!” —David Yoon, New York Times best-selling author of FRANKLY IN LOVE
“Scathingly funny.” —Gayle Forman, New York Times best-selling author of IF I STAY
Alejandra Kim feels like she doesn’t belong anywhere.

Not at home, where Ale faces tense silence from Ma since Papi’s passing. Not in Jackson Heights, where she isn’t considered Latinx enough and is seen as too PC for her own good. Certainly not at her Manhattan prep school, where her predominantly white classmates pride themselves on being “woke”. She only has to survive her senior year before she can escape to the prestigious Whyder College, if she can get in. Maybe there, Ale will finally find a place to call her own.

The only problem with laying low— a microaggression thrusts Ale into the spotlight and into the middle of a discussion she didn’t ask for. But her usual keeping her head down tactic isn’t going to make this go away. With her signature wit and snark, Ale faces what she’s been hiding from. In the process, she might discover what it truly means to carve out a space for yourself to belong.

Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim is an incisive, laugh-out-loud, provocative read about feeling like a misfit caught between very different worlds, what it means to be belong, and what it takes to build a future for yourself.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Audiobook, Mental Health, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Family

304 pages, Library Binding

First published February 21, 2023

About the author

Patricia Park is the author of the award-winning novel, Re Jane, a Korean American retelling of Brontë’s Jane Eyre; and the YA novels, Imposter Syndrome & Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim, and the forthcoming, What’s Eating Jackie Oh? She is a tenured professor of creative writing at American University, a Fulbright scholar, an Edith Wharton Writer-in-Residence, Edith Wharton Writer-in-Residence, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and other awards. She has written for The New York Times, New Yorker, Guardian, and others. She was born and raised in Queens.

Reviews

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a powerful story about a young teenager’s searching a space for herself in the world to just breath and act like who she is, fighting against critical issues like identity crisis, racism, Asia phobia, discrimination to find her own way!

Alejandra Kim attends a high school as a scholarship student where children of rich Manhattan elites attending. Her mostly white woke friends and teachers don’t have any idea she’s working at the laundry after school, living in Jackson Heights with her widowed mother who spends most her time at the hospital she works.

She lives in a city crowded in immigrants but she thinks she doesn’t deserve to have her own space: she isn’t enough Argentinian or Korean. The people barely pronounces her name in Spanish and her Korean face doesn’t match with the name she carries. She still deals with curses start with Chink word! She’s trapped in a world differentiated with different ethnic classes and she feels like she doesn’t belong any of them so she thinks she’s imposter who acts like she could adapt easily!

She has only two people who can see her true self! Her father Papi who was a jazz musician, supporting every decision she takes and advises her to think big! And Billy: the neighborhood boy is her confidante she shares her secrets.
But Billy is now far away to take care of his sick grandmother and his Papi’s body has found on the subway tracks. Her mother insists it was an accident but she doesn’t believe in her. She knows the harsh truth!

Her life couldn’t be more complicated as soon as a teacher’s racist comment puts her into spotlight she doesn’t want to get involved from the beginning. When her mistreatment gets exploited by other kids, she thinks that’s enough!

This is sarcastic, smart, thought provoking, bold, emotional and inspirational story! I loved Alejandra Kim a lot! I enjoyed to hear her unique, honest voice!

Giving my five diversity, micro aggressions, anti racism stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s Crown Books For Young Readers for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

[Susan Atherly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alejandra Kim lives in Washington Heights in an illegally modified apartment. Her parents are minimum wage immigrants from Argentina's minority Korean community.

Alejandra Kim also attends one of the most prestigious private schools in NYC on a merit scholarship. It is her senior year.

This is a story about not fitting into any box. She's wholly Asian but from a Spanish community. But even that is problematic, Argentine Spanish is this weird mashup of 15th century Spanish and slang, so even other Spanish speakers can be left scratching their heads. She barely speaks any Korean and everyone assumes she's Chinese anyway.

And don't forget the culture clash from being working poor but spending her days around people who spend more during a Starbucks visit than her family spends on groceries for a week.

On top of that, she has to learn there are the lies we tell ourselves, secrets people keep, the terrain of grief, and trying to find your way in a world where you will never fully fit in.

It's a lot to deal with.

Patricia Park tells all of of this with humor and that giddy chaotic feeling that is high school.

I really liked this story. Despite dealing with some heavy topics, the tone doesn't get weighed down by that and ends up being a story of hope and self discovery.

I want to add that Felisha Wong did an amazing job narrating this story on the audio book, especially since she had to switch between English, Spanish and Korean.

[Stephanie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Alejandra Kim has lived in the Jackson Heights section of Brooklyn her entire life. Her neighbors are used to her Latinx first name and Asian last one, for the most part. Although “Kim” is Korean, she hears muttered, “Chinas” and “Chinks” behind her sometimes.
The people at the elite school that Alejandra has attended the past four years are a different story. Unintentionally, they mispronounce her name and make assumptions about her just because of her name and appearance. Her best friend has always had her back, so Alejandra was able to ignore most of the ignorant comments.
Now, in senior year, things have changed. Some teachers make downright racist remarks, particularly the Creative Writing teacher, right to Alejandra’s face. This makes her classmates uncomfortable, but not enough to speak up. Others, especially her best friend, seem to be fanning flames for more diversity, making it an issue that embarrasses Alejandra. For herself, she wants to finish her year without more trouble on top of what she and her mother are already facing, what with Popi’s death. She has applied to a college in New England that seems perfect, where she hopes people will see HER, not just latch on to her name and face. And it’s nowhere close to Jackson Heights…
Red Flags:
Some terms and phrases are used for the purpose of plot, that readers may find offensive. Frequent f-bombs are dropped, and there are scenes of teenage drinking/drunkenness. A character has allegedly committed suicide and it is discussed, although it took place before the book began.

[Elizabeth Jorgensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a high school English teacher and IMPOSTER SYNDROME and other confessions of Alejandra Kim is a book I will recommend time and again to my students. It's a fast and compelling read. I didn't want to put this book down. And, I didn't want it to end. I'm waiting for the movie -- it's sure to come next!

In IMPOSTER SYNDROME, Patricia Park has written a story that all high school students can relate to. But this book's scope is not limited to young adults. Patricia Park has created a timely, compelling, thought-provoking, entertaining, heart-warming, heart-wrenching, and beautiful story. Park brilliantly navigated the difficult topics of race and political correctness, "woke" and "virtual signaling" culture, as well as stereotypes and the impact of language.

If you are at all compelled to discuss or think about privilege, cultural expectations, depression, suicide, the principle of social facilitation, ableist language, origin stories, first generation Americans, racial melancholia, immigration, mental health or what it means to be an ally, IMPOSTER SYNDROME is a must read!

[Nicole | nikiashreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll be honest—this is a difficult review to write. That’s partly due to the heavy topics found in this novel, but also because of the difficult time I had with reading this novel. On one hand, this book joins the incredibly poignant conversation about political correctness, racism, and identity in American society. On the other hand, the structure of the novel was incredibly clunky, and the story was poorly written. So where does this leave this book? In a strange sort of limbo.

This book deals with heavy topics with a heavy-handed approach. It covers everything from racism, to suicide, to identity. However, these topics appeared to take turns on the page, and Alejandra’s character spent a good chunk of the novel avoiding engaging with or challenging these topics in her life. Instead, it felt like Alejandra was aware of these topics were happening around her, and she still shied away from engaging with them until the very end.

The plot also felt unfocused throughout the book. There were multiple sub-plots going on, such as: dealing with grief over a death in the family; a sprinkle of romance between Alejandra and Billy; Alejandra dealing with college admissions and racism at her college prep school. Which is fine! The more subplots involved mean more opportunities for the main character to grow and change. Right? Right? Unfortunately, that was not the case here. For a good half of the novel, Alejandra felt like a passive character as the plot events happened to her. It was only once Dr. C came onto the page that Alejandra began to show some signs of change; but, even then, much of that change seemed to happen off-page, as events were summarized to the reader. And that heavy-handed used of summary was a huge disservice to this story. Rather than seeing Alejandra thinks things through or embrace the conflict happening, we heard about it in quick summary and moved onto the next plot point. With the main character feeling disengaged from her own story, I, in turn, felt disengaged and disconnected from the story in front of me.

Any time I read a book, the writing style tends to be a make-or-break element for me. Unfortunately, in the case of this book, it was a break moment. There were inconsistent elements to the writing style—such as fourth wall breaking, which only lasted the first three-four chapters—but the roughest part was the telling and not showing. When I pick up a book, I want to immerse myself in the world it has to offer. Instead, the writing on page felt clunky and overly preachy. Often, it felt more like a monologue than prose that could pull a reader into its pages. Overall, the story felt more akin to middle grade quality and did not feel up to par with other young adult novels on the market.

I absolutely believe that we need more books in the young adult genre tackling these prominent and important issues found in American society. Even now, we’re amid a cultural shift, and it’s more important than ever to have this conversation, even at a fictional level. However, this novel was too ambitious in regard to the content it wanted to engage with, and the story lost sight of itself.

TW: death of a parent (off-page), suicide (off-page), racism, racial slurs

Thank you to Crown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

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[Theta Chun · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s weird to read a book which clearly knows you. I don’t think I can ever really grow used to it, and Alejandra Kim, for me, is that book. Growing up my parents never kept their ethnicities secret, but it wasn’t something we flaunted. My dad’s Korean-Argentinan and my mother’s Thai-Teochew after all, those statements never solve more questions than they raise. And that was never more apparent than when I would meet other Asian kids. I would have to explain time and time again that some people’s grandparents went to America, mine went elsewhere. I know that I am Korean, I know how to be Korean. But I don’t know how to be Korean American, not in the way people want of me. Alejandra Kim struggles with that in the exact same way, she’s Asian, but not the same sort of Asian as everyone else. And she’s being placed in a white progressive school that sometimes in its quest to be inclusive, ends up something else.

Mine was better than Alejandra, we had multiple Asian teachers, but I was the only kid with two Asian parents, the only one whose family was even marginally from Latin America. And in my predominately white progressive K-8 in LA, I was the only one who didn’t sound like I belonged. I was in speech therapy for years to fix speech impediments and round out my vowels into something standardised. After that I’d go to a private Catholic school, where I was a scholarship student who was made to clean classrooms to ‘earn my scholarship.’ Ironically that was the first time I met another Korean with parents from Latin America.

I don’t know how to feel comfortable reading this book honestly. I don’t think I can. A lot of people I know talk about how reading something that makes you feel seen is a comfort and it’s ‘oh so revelatory and fantastic!’ But honestly? I’ve spent enough of my life unseen that I don’t know if I can ever feel comfortable being seen. This book is honest in what sucks about being one of the few students in a space which wasn’t made for you. It’s fantastic about explaining what it’s like. It’s also horrifying, I felt myself cringing all the way through as Alejandra tried to contend with the nuance of taking what you have and using it, but the horrible sense of exposing yourself for public consumption.

I’m already in university, and when I wrote my essays I chose to not mention my race or ethnicity. I chose to not self-exoticise because I hated the idea of it. Sometimes I still wonder if explaining the rarity of my heritage would’ve gotten me into more schools though. If revealing myself to be some one time special rare breed of Asian, the sort that won’t exist in another hundred years or so, would’ve been good. Maybe it would’ve been. I could’ve written about how I’ve only ever had a single Latina teacher who called me the Spanish diminutive of my name. And how in 3rd grade other kids used to try and say it as well, and how I hated it from them. I could’ve talked about how everyone used to call me ‘too loud,’ and how my Auntie Lily would lean in and say ‘it’s because we’re from New York.’ To tell these stories feels like self-cannibalisation though. That I’m consuming myself to fend off the starvation of better things, that I am selling bits and pieces of my existence in order to go further and farther than my parents ever could.

Like Alejandra my dad loves jazz, he plays it every morning, and owns hundreds of records. I can sing all of Girl from Ipanema from memory. Sometimes he sits me down and plays his music for me. He paid for me to be classically trained in piano. He saved up for me to learn opera. Now I know how to describe music far better than he ever has, and yet he still loves it more than me. It feels like an unfair relationship.

Alejandra Kim is a fantastically written book. I do have a quibble with the constant use of accents on words like súper, and I ultimately think a lot of the conclusions the book comes to are a bit too schloppy. I respect it, it’s not made for me as a university student, it’s made for kids in HS who haven’t had those conversations. I think I hate this book, and I think I love it. And I don’t think I’ll ever read something that knows the deeply uncomfortable reality of being a ‘rare’ Asian ever again, and I really don’t think I want to.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great story for teenagers. This story cover so many topics that teenagers deal with on a daily basis. This is an entertaining and at times heartbreaking story.

Here is a list of some topics covered in this book…

Loss of a parent
Lower income
Suicide
Depression
Privilege
Cultural expectations
First generation American
Biracial race
Immigration
Mental health
Racial melancholia

All thoughts and opinions are my own, and I have not been influenced by anyone.

[╟ ♫ Tima ♪ ╣ ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In the end, silence seemed safer than words".

Excuse me, attention please! I loved this book!. It was refreshing, it was raw with the ways in which we deal with grief, or how grief deals with us when we try to hammer it out of sight. It was heartful, it was deep, it was funny, it made me so emotional. ♥

Alejandra Kim is a Korean-Latine (YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT! A rarely explored representation and i LOVED seeing her come to life on the page!) girl who is struggling with enormous loss of her father while trying to find her footing in the world. I am grateful that Patricia Park did not shy away from the harsh realities that mixed children have, and how often that challenge comes from within the families themselves. She also deftly and delicately handled what it feels like to experience microaggressions and how conflicting it can feel to determine if it is worth bringing up or if "there are bigger things to worry about". I thought Park explored that in a really real way, showing how well-meaning friends can often be blissfully unaware of their own microagressions, as well as how defensive more privileged folks can become when called out even gently.

The only cons I found in this book were that it has a few times where the author tried too hard to be overly inclusive in a way that was unnatural and not used in the real world. The prime example of this would be the EXCESSIVE use of the word "freshperson" in lieu of freshman. It made my skin crawl, and I truly hope to never see the word again. As a non-binary reader, it screamed performative and doing too much while doing nothing at all. It was used so often throughout the story, completely unnecessarily, and is not a phrase that is actually preferred. Just say their grade. Say anything else. Please, I'd rather be called a hot dog than a freshperson.

Also, Lena Dunham is a predator and a bad person in general - so I'd urge the author to look into that before very overtly referencing her in future works that are aimed at diverse audiences ♥

BEYOND THAT, I will be recommending this book to everyone. I feel like it fits nicely into its marketed audience of YA - but also transcends it into anyone who can relate to dealing with deep grief, with living between two worlds as a child of immigrants, and facing casual racism in every day dealings.

A big thank you to NetGalley, and Random House Publishing, for the letting me read this novel in exchange for my honest review. Grab your copy - releasing on February 21st, 2023 everywhere that books are sold! ♥

[Nicole Means · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and insightful YA novel about how intersectionality impacts our daily lives. For protagonist, Alejandra, she finds herself lost between three very different ethnicities and the expectations on how society believes she "should act." The rawness of Alejandra's emotions are authentic and eye-opening for the reader, but there is just enough humor sprinkled in the plot to keep the reader laughing. For example, Alejandra writes an essay with paper and pencil instead of using preferred digital platform of her generation, and she excuses herself, "I am analog like that." That made me laugh so hard--maybe because I am a Gen X-er and am quite analog myself!!

What I love most about this story, is that as Alejandra becomes more comfortable in our own skin she starts to realize how her body loosens up and she no longer feels tension when she enters a room. Throughout her life she has experienced bigotry disguised as humor, but throughout the story, she no longer laughs awkwardly because she does not want to make a "big deal" out of it. By laughing along she is silencing how she feels-- shame. She learns she does not want to "comfortably coexist" and begins to speak out against microaggressions. As she finds her voices, she embraces her Korean, Argentinian, and American heritage and begins to feel whole.

I love this story because it is a story of growth. The author takes us through Alejandra's journey, and while it is not perfect, it is an authentic, beautiful story of the human experience.

[Catalina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for the early access to this book, I very much enjoyed it.

Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim is the perfect book to add to a class program or to read in any multicultural or social studies class. And I know that, because I could apply stuff that I learned in my Multicultural Actors and Perspectives class last semester. This book belongs in classrooms as it deals with identity, belonging, and how to navigate in this present society.

It presents various topics to which I related, and I feel that there are many other readers who will relate to Alejandra and the rest of the crew as soon they read it. It is the perfect book to those still searching for their identity between cultures and places, to those who want grief explained and presented in a different way and even to those who are dealing with college applications and figuring out their future.

I hope future readers find this book as great as I did and that it soon sees a classroom full of students willing to learn and listen.

[Dysha Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a powerful story. It’s hard to not feel imposter syndrome when you don’t feel like you fit in with the story. This story is a great depiction of that, mental health, grief and how to find your voice. I’d definitely recommend this book.

[Emily Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It surpasses the typical cringey YA genre and takes a deep dive into meaningful topics I’ve witnessed often as a teacher.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like this book. It was exhausting and cliche and just doing the most. Come on, “freshPERSON” year?? “taupe period”??? Super obnoxious.

[Pui Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I think this book was a little too ambitious; it tried to tackle a lot of topics: imposter syndrome, stereotyping POCs, racism, grief and also college admissions. Because of this, none of the topics felt like they had a major impact on Alejandra. As a reader, I know that these topics are important to her, but they don't feel impactful enough to shape Alejandra and allow her character to grow. I feel like the entire book was mostly about her being aware of all these things going on around her. Maybe it's because of the writing, but I also felt quite detached from Alejandra in general. I get that she feels like an 'imposter' because she's not fully Korean nor Spanish, but it felt difficult to empathize with her. I get that she's grieving over the death of her father, but then it doesn't feel very significant based on the writing.

There were also a few irks that I had with the writing in general. I feel like this book is a little too 'woke' for me; it tries too hard to be inclusive. I have no clue why the author insists on writing 'freshperson' rather than 'freshman', along with the whole debate on whether 'guys' is a gender-neutral term or not. I feel like we're just making a mountain out of a molehill when you want to be so gender-specific. Additionally, 'freshperson' is just as ridiculous as it sounds. There's a reason we use the term 'freshman'...

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is SO good. The way the author was able to weave together a story of both belonging and not belonging, especially when you can identify with multiple cultural groups, was masterful. But to top it all off with a high school experience as a senior deciding your future, and dealing with grief, and trying to work through complicated feelings of people you thought were friends and maybe aren't, and friends that are maybe more, was incredible. It never felt like too much, and nothing ever distracted from the central theme. Alejandra Kim was easy to root for, and I'll be thinking about this for awhile.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really great #ownvoices YA coming of age debut story about feeling out of place, dealing with grief over the death of a parent (suicide) and learning to find your way in the world. Alejandra Kim is half Korean, half Argentinian and constantly feels other attending a very whitewashed school in Queens. When her father dies unexpectedly her world is turned upside down and she has to figure out how to deal with her grief and help her mother with hers. Great on audio narrated by Felisha Wong and highly recommended!

[thewoollygeek (tea, cake, crochet & books) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Alejandra's story and how much I learnt about myself as I read this. I also loved reading about her experiences as a minority in school and the greater world, Alejandra's discussions with friends about how to be a good ally are really good and sadly these honest conversations don't always happen as they should. I could really relate over the imposter syndrome too. A beautiful read

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Albie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't have too much to say about this book, but overall it was okay.
While the points of race and culture were important and discussed well, I feel like those points weren't intertwined well with the plot. To be honest, I am not really sure what the book was really about. I am happy she found peace at the end, but I feel the overall plot of the story was lost and not really interesting.

[Tyler Kolmansberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

first book in a while i've read in a day. very YA but read for a book club. not my cup of tea - also, why does every YA book with a setting in NYC romanticize the city so much?

[sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

""that's the way people are," i say. see something, say nothing."

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read! I enjoyed the story and it’s tiny blend of identity, grief, navigating PC-ness, and the tumultuous storm that is high school. I wish there was a little more meat to the story—wanted to learn more about each character whose name was thrown around as if we know who they are.
I especially enjoyed the realness at the end. Friendships, connections, and how time effects them all.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok I am no Latinx / Korean / American teenage girl but! there were aspects of this book that I really really related to, and the bit with her dad made me really sad I cried LOL. so this has a v special place in my heart but prob wouldn’t recommend to other people lol

the ending was kind of abrupt and rushed, I liked how the Laurel storyline played out, I was annoyed at how the college storyline played out

[Justine from Novels and Panda]

this book sound right up my alley, wow

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very thought provoking and rather heavy. It’s a good read I’d recommend it.

Alejandra Kim doesn’t feel like anyone really understands her, even her name confuses people.
Her family comes from Argentina and they are Korean.
She is from a lower income area in NYC but goes to a really exclusive high school.
She wants to go to college out of state but she has to get a scholarship. While her classmates can afford to go to any Ivy League they get into that is not that case for Ally. And Ally still feels guilty for making her dad feel bad about not being able to pay for college, he died soon afterwards. She feels like her dad understood her better than anyone and she misses him badly.

I found Ally’s college essay on her dad’s Korean-meets-Argentinian empanadas to be rather symbolic.

Poor Ally is at a turning point in her life and she’s trying to figure out who she is, her place in the world, who her friends are, and what kind of treatment she deserves and expects in life.

This was well written. Ally wasn’t always likable but she felt believable. I definitely cared about what happened to her and I loved the epilogue.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay so, this is a book that would’ve fundamentally changed me if I’d read it as a teen. Big thanks to Patricia Park, NetGalley, and Crown Books for Young Readers for putting this story out there and then letting me have an advanced copy.

Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim is a journey of self discovery. Alejandra Kim lives in New York, and her parents are descendants of Korean immigrants who grew up in Argentina. Alejandra struggles with defining her cultural identity, and this 3-culture struggle was portrayed so well I felt like I was reading my own thoughts. As a person who grew up and lives in the US, but was born in Brazil to a family descended from Japanese immigrants, this 3-culture struggle has been my whole life and I have never ever seen it portrayed in a book until just now.

Alejandra’s relationships are all complex. There’s the relationship with herself, learning how to be herself instead of splitting into multiple versions of herself depending on the setting and the people around her. There’s the relationship with her parents- her father is dead and her and her mother don’t always see eye to eye. There’s also the relationships between Ale and her peers- Laurel, the super woke best friend from her preppy school, and Billy, her childhood best friend that lives in her neighborhood. Being a person is hard, and nobody can be all good or all bad all the time. All of the characters were refreshingly human, and their relationships with each other changed in sometimes unexpected ways.

Grief is at the center of this story as well. Alejandra’s father died unexpectedly, and this story examines how everyone deals with grief in their own way and in their own time. I felt a lot of compassion toward many of these characters in their moments of grief.

This is the story I needed, not only because of how clearly I saw myself reflected in it, but because of how it highlighted dealing with grief, working to understand others around you instead of judging them, and accepting that we don’t always get what we thought we wanted (and the end result might just be even better than what we initially wanted). This story is funny, sad, unique, thought-provoking, emotional, and so much more.

[Limeminearia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for book access. This is SO GOOD. Add this to high school English class and pre-first year undergraduate reading programs. Adapt it for tv. Give it book awards. Also: it’s the perfect rebuttal to right
-wing panic about critical race theory. Unlike every other YA book accused of discussing CRT, this novel actually is (partly) about it. Without sacrificing story, Imposter Syndrome does a great job of demonstrating the potential relevance, appropriateness and community impact of teaching critical race theory to teens.

[Staci Vought · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. The overall purpose was a good one, but I didn’t like the approach of the main character, which made me emotionally distant from her thoughts and experiences. I also found the MC saying “freshperson” instead of “freshman” to be a bit much. I think our students would have a hard time relating to the cut-throat/high stakes college admissions, even though we are a high performing high school.

[Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate what this book was trying to do. It's definitely important to look at how different identities intersect and the way people struggle in different ways. However, it came across as heavy handed to me.

[Monique Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like this is a great book for anyone who feels so lost in their own identities and view their successes as pitied or unearned. I find Ale to be a relatable protagonist that feel trapped and unwelcome in school, home, and work. I view the story as how to write intersectional fiction right. Although the book is aimed at teenagers, this is enjoyable for any adult that needs someone to empathize with. Ale represents what it's like to struggle as a minority character dealing with her own problems as a biracial teenager and, dealing with lost of a parent, and surviving a system that devalues you and uses diversity as a disguises.

Spoiler Below!:

Alejandra Kim (or Ale) starts off as the usual silent student of color in her so-called progressive and rich high school who doesn't feel like she fits in with her white dominated classmates as well her identity as a biracial Korean-Latinex teenage girl. While struggling to grieve for the unexpected death of her Latino father, Ale also feels like she not Spanish or Asian enough to fit the mold of what people expects of her. Although she's an academically successful student and works hard like her parents wanted, it makes her feel incomplete and alone. She dreams of going to a university outside the city that she belives will accept her for who she is and lead her to a prospeous life.

Ale has always had to deal with microaggressions from every angle, whether it's in her school, her family, in public or even her part-time job. But when a popular new teacher (a successful white book author) throws another microaggression at Ale, this encourages her best friend Lauren (whose white) to make a petition to have the teacher removed on her behalf. Lauren not only takes it to the next level, she turns the incident into a cringey white savior spectacular that forces Ale into the spotlight as the student who got the teacher fired. Ale does become extremely embarrassed, but decides to not tell Lauren in fear of causing more problems. While this may make Ale look as the stereotypical silent Asian student, we start to understand why she doesn't have the courage to stand up for herself.

Ale is a protagonist that many people of color can relate and fully understand. She represents what it's like to struggle to advocate for yourself in a environment that doesn't acknowledge or respect you, especially in a academic setting that claims to be all about diversity. The story does dive a little into the Model Minority Myth and how no amount of hardwork will convince some privilege people to understand the racist and sexist barriers that hold people of color from achieving the over-tiresome American Dream. For example, we do get to meet Laruen's father who represents the out of touch white male who views diversity and inclusion as unnecessary and believes that people of color should 'pull themselves by their bootstraps' like he did. Lauren's father is not aware of the privileges that he has like so many real life white have. At least Lauren somewhat understands her privileges, but she and her family will never know what it is like to be treated unfairly, disrespected, and view as a stereotype.

As Ale juggles with exploring her identity, college appications, and her last year of high school, she has to deal with her Korean mother who is dealing with the lost of her husband (Ale's father) while working long hours to keep paying the bills in their gentrified Queens neighborhood. Through most of the story, we don't see her look heartbroken and seems to want to forget her late husband. This cause a rift between Ale and her mom as they both struggle to talk through their lost, which is usually normal when someone loses a love one. Through flashbacks, we start to understand from Ale's perspective about how her parents would fight so much about financial problems while Ale's dad goes through his own depths of despair. Ale's dad's death slowly unravels as to how he died and whether or not it was an 'accident' as Ale's mom chooses to see it. Everyone has a right to grieve the way that they want, but this makes Ale more angry and alone in her own grief.

When Ale's school hires a new teacher (Dr. Chatterjee; Ms. C) who is a woman of color, this begins Ale's journey to explore her identity and examine how being in a white-centric education environment robs her of who she really is. We do meet minor students of color who also shares their struggles halfway through the story, including one particular classmate that Ale never expected to befriend. Ms. C's introduction into both the story and the school allows Ale to empathize with her. To any marginalized person, seeing a person who share similar identities and struggles can make them feel comfortable, less isolated, and motivated. Eventually, Ale becomes an intern for Ms. C for a research project about immigrants who struggle with their own identities and the systematic barriers that make them feel either alone or home sick. The more that Ale learns through her research, the more she starts to understand the sacrifices her parents went through, particularly her father. This may come off as another immgrant story about how Ale's parents endured hardships in their own countries and the lengths that they went through to get to America. However, this exposes the challenges that Ale's parents faced once their arrived on American soil. We learn about what Ale's dad was really like, how he lived both in his home country and in NYC and what led to his death. Ale's dad starts to reveal what Ale is now, a quiet Asian teenager who must make herself small in order to not cause problems. Almost every minority has felt that if they wanted to be successful as their rich and privileged white counterparts, they feel like that they have to assimilate to gain respect and acceptance. But by not defending themselves and letting go of their culture heritage, they start to lose who their are and start to feel like an imposter like Ale.

The more Ale learns through her internship, the more she starts to realize that her hardwork and keeping low isn't enough to keep those with privilege and money from viewing her as a sentient stereotype. For example, we meet Ale's part-time workmate who is embodies the Model Minority Myth (Michael Oppa). Michael Oppa may have did everything right to achieve the American Dream, but he gets deny promotions or advancements from is employer, even if he works much more harder than his white colleagues.

Ale starts to see her so called rich white classmates as performative, meaning that they're unwilling to look past beyond their privileges understand the systematic barriers that minorities endure. Even when Ale visits her dream college, the university is basically adult carbon copy of her high school. The difference is that the students are adults who don't really care about diversity or inclusion. To them and the University, they're using diversity and inclusion as a decoration instead of something that needs to be included for everyone. Ale realizes that she doesn't want what she thought she wanted. She learns that she was exceptional just the way she was, but she needed to explore her multiple-cultural family, her heritage, and properly grieve with her mother about her late father. Towards the end of the story, Ale changes for the better and reflects on how she's no longer the quiet person who tolerated microaggressions for the sake of success. Although her father isn't around to support her, she and her mother choose to celebrate his life as the man that they knew and love.

[Alaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. Just wow.

Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim was such a good book. I enjoyed every second of this audiobook and getting to know who Alejandra Kim is. Throughout this book, she is just trying to figure out who she is before she sets off on her next adventure: college. Along the way, she deals with pretty serious and critical issues that help define who she is and who she wants to be.

Alejandra attends school on a scholarship, which I can only imagine isn't easy when you are surrounding my spoiled rich kids in Manhattan of all places. No one has any idea that she has a job, or where she lives, or how her family copes after her father's passing. Her mother is constantly working at the hospital to make ends meet. This definitely makes having a decent mother-daughter relationship with one another pretty difficult.

She's also in a place where she doesn't feel like she belongs. Whether it's with the people she lives near, her name, or with her peers at school. Alejandra feels very trapped and is constantly dealing with things she shouldn't be at her age (or ever). Sure, she has some people in her back corner that she can rely on—or, at least, she thought she could.

Life is complicated and messy. Alejandra's life is stuck in the middle of those two until she does something about it. There's drama for sure, but more importantly, there's so much growth. This was hands down such a good book to listen to, and I highly recommend it.