Frankly in Love by David Yoon

Frankly in Love had such a great plot twist – the fake-dating trope is one of my favorites – and a new take in YA literature with a coming-of-age story of a second-generation Korean teenager in the US. But even though Frank was an adorkable male protagonist, this book didn’t deliver quite as well as I had hoped. Mostly due to the way Frank acted in some situations that made him less likable, and because of his narrowminded and racist parents.

In short, this is about Frank and how his dreams and wishes do not meet his Korean parents’ expectations. And their racism. (Sometimes it was so hard to read all the things Frank’s parents said and how they shut their daughter out for falling in love with a black man, that I wanted to toss the book into the wall.) So when Frank falls in love with white girl Brit it’s a big no no. To solve this, Frank decides not to stand up to his parents and fight for his right to love whomever he wants, but to come up with a fake-dating scheme with a Korean girl his parents would approve for him to be with.

The fake-dating scheme was really cute, but Frank’s feelings for Brit never seemed that deep and the way he treated her made me like him a lot less. In fact, the longer time I spent with Frank, the less I liked him. At first, he seemed fun and quirky, but after a while he just became a bit too much and unrelatable. I did love his friendship with Q though and the dorky way the talked and how they always supported each other, but I really feel that Q deserved more attention. This would have been a much book if he’d gotten a real backstory, instead of “the real him” being a last minute plot twist.

What I did love about this book, was to learn more about Korean culture and the complexity with family relationships and racism within minority groups, and that the author didn’t provide any easy answers to these problems. It was also great seeing through the book how Frank’s understanding of his parents, their reasons and their past, began to grow. I just wished that Frank would have behaved a little more honorable and been a more likable and relatable character.

Rating:
3 stars

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​Author info:
David Yoon