It's Not Like It's a Secret: 08/01/24

It's Not Like It's a Secret by Misa Sugiura (2017) is a YA sapphic romance. It begins with Sana Kiyohara reading a text to her father while helping her mother navigate during a road trip. It appears to be from a mistress and it's a secret she keeps tucked away until things finally hit a boiling point after her family relocates to San Jose, California from somewhere in Wisconsin.

Sana has to deal with culture shock - of California vs Wisconsin - as well as her own family struggles as a Japanese-American trying to abide by the expectations of her traditional, rural Japanese parents. In the midst of all of that she has feelings for a Mexican-American girl in her high school and the two eventually end up dating.

The breaking point for Sana is the weight of two secrets: her girlfriend and her father's mistress. It seems she is forced to exist under rules that don't apply to her father.

But the ultimate irony is that of course, her mother knows about the affair. Her mother also has other opinions on things that are contrary to what she usually tells Sana.

My one quibble with the book is the way the high school teens break up into ethnic groups as their default friend groups. Having just seen my two children go through high school in the Bay Area, these cliques don't exist. Maybe it's different in South Bay (we're in East Bay) but the de facto cliques seemed unrealistic.

This family and high school drama sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. The Kiyoharas are a family (33) of travelers. Their destination is a better home life (66). Their route there is through the cornfields (FF) (as mentioned on the road trip chapter).

Four stars

Comments (0)