Parachutes: 09/07/20

Parachutes by Kelly Yang is a very personal response to the Me Too movement as the author explains in her afterword. It's an honest portrayal at how women will be tossed aside to protect the reputation of the men around them, even when those men are predators. It's told in alternating points of view between Dani, a Filipino-American teen on the debate team, and Claire, a Chinese-American exchange student from Shanghai.

Claire comes from a wealthy, though not 1% wealthy, family and after getting a bad grade on an essay is sent to Los Angeles. She'll be staying at Dani's house. Her piece in the story shows that money and status can't protect against sexual predators.

Dani, on the other hand, is there on scholarship. She needs her debate team wins to get into a good college. She's aiming for Yale. She believes she's the team's star and is blind to her coach's advances until he's blatantly obvious.

As an adult reader, how these sexual predators, whether teen or adult, begin to control Claire and Dani is obvious and heartbreaking. For younger readers, their machinations might be eye opening to some.

It's a long book, 476 pages, plus the author's note. It's sometimes a hard read because of what the characters go through. But it's a worthwhile read.

Five stars

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