Studying -- parent pressure -- peer pressure -- grades --
college applications -- if this all sounds too heavy and
boring for YAs over summer, you're wrong. Think Korean. A
young lady comes to San Francisco for her final high school
year so she can get her grades up to apply for the best
colleges. Seoul's schools are notoriously high-pressure,
and Jisu isn't sure what she wants to do. She just knows
that she loves photography. Oh, and that her traditional
family is setting up an account with a Korean matchmaker.
Poor Jisu is going to endure 29 DATES with second and third
generation Korean-American boys during this extremely funny,
complex and inspiring book.
At first, I admit, the words I didn't know meant it felt
like I was working. But they're well explained, maybe on
the second time of using. And who doesn't want to get an
insight into another culture? Seon or matchmaking blind
dates are imposed on Jisu with a one-sheet, like a brief
resume, for each boy. They are into tennis or physics, their
parents are economics professors and art directors,
literally overachievers hoping their kids will marry very,
very well. But the guys are normal teens (if wealthy), some
of them nice, some boring, conceited, cheap. They go to the
movies, the park, for lunch, whatever other 17-year-olds do
on first dates. Most of them don't even speak Korean.
And then there's high school. Living with a host family and
mixing with a variety of students gives Jisu new
experiences, and she can still FaceTime with her friends at
home. She can even meet boys she likes for real. And the
lovely family of a schoolmate can make her kimchi and
banchan any time she's homesick, which does happen pretty
often, because Jisu is only 17, and a long way from her
parents and beloved, supportive grandfather.
The author Melissa de la Cruz explains at the end that seon
dating would normally happen at college age, but she has
involved this facet of Korean culture to bring home to YAs
what pressures a young student can feel. On one hand, Jisu
isn't obliged to get engaged, and she has ready-made
contacts and an excuse to get out and have fun. On the
other, she has so much study to cope with that adding
another obligation makes the frequent meetings a chore. I
thoroughly enjoyed Jisu's story, and she started to feel
very real. 29 DATES by Melissa de la Cruz must be the best
culture-clash story for Young Adults this year, so get ready
to start speaking a few words of Korean. And if you do have
a Korean background, you'll probably laugh until you cry.
Ji-su’s traditional South Korean parents are concerned by
what they see as her lack of attention to her schoolwork and
her future. Working with Seoul’s premiere matchmaker to find
the right boyfriend is one step toward ensuring Ji-su’s
success, and going on the recommended dates is Ji-su’s
compromise to please her parents while finding space to
figure out her own dreams. But when she flubs a test then
skips out on a date to spend time with friends, her fed-up
parents shock her by shipping her off to a private school in
San Francisco. Where she’ll have the opportunity to shine
academically—and be set up on more dates!
Navigating her host family, her new city and school, and
more dates, Ji-su finds comfort in taking the photographs
that populate her ever-growing social media account. Soon
attention from two very different boys sends Ji-su into a
tailspin of soul-searching. As her passion for photography
lights her on fire, does she even want to find The One? And
what if her One isn’t parent and matchmaker approved?
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