Saturday, May 13, 2006

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

She's half Taiwanese, from her crazy mother, and half caucasian, from her almost non exsisting father. She's a lonely freshman and tells it like it is. She is Patty Ho. Her overprotective, very strict mother sends her to summer math camp when Patty's fortune teller grandmother says she is going to meet a white man. Patty is furious when she finds out that she is going to camp while her suck up brother does nothing. So she is sent off to Stanford with no tendency of enjoying it. She is glad that she is getting away from the classmates who tease her but the thought of leaving her best friend makes her week to the knees. What she doesn't know is math camp at Stanford might not be so bad after all.....

For me, the book overall wasn't that interesting. At the very beginning of the book, the second paragraph, didn't make me want to read more. It was kind of weird and almost gave the wrong impression. I started to read more and I just couldn't get into it. There were some parts that were suspenseful and exciting but after a few pages, it got kind of dull. The excitement faded out. To me, I felt there was no plot. All the book focused on was that Patty Ho was half Asain and half white. I also couldn't relate to the book. It was hard to understand where Patty Ho was coming from being half and half. Headley used excellent description and I could the see the situations in my head as I was reading it but it didn't grab my attention.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 4
Reviewer Age: 14
Reviewer City, State and Country: Villa Hills, Kentucky USA