This book is, quite frankly, brilliant. Three sets of main characters swap the narrative throug out the story. There is the main story of Jin Wang, the American child of Chinese parents who is desperate to fit in at his new school. A school where he is the only one of Chinese descent. There is the purely mythological story of the Monkey King, based on Chinese Folklore. Finally, there is that of Danny, a supposedly white teenager who has to deal with the visit of his somehow Chinese cousin, Chin-kee, who is every racist, Chinese stereotype rolled up into one. Author Yang takes three seemingly unrelated stories, and roles them up into one by the end of the book. And then end, while bittersweet is just right.