Loveboat, Taipei (Loveboat, Taipei, #1) in Between The Pages

Apr 19, 2021 Zitong Ren rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021, contemporary, young-adult, diverse, contains-romance

Read with the Between the Pages bookclub for our April Member’s BOTM.

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3.5 🌟

Well look, I certainly enjoyed this book, and as a person who is Chinese-Australian and the son of parents who are immigrants from China, I could certainly relate to many points brought up in this novel. That being said, there were some things regarding execution that I didn’t vibe with, and there was also a love triangle, which I’m afraid t Read with the Between the Pages bookclub for our April Member’s BOTM.

Join the Between the Pages bookclub here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/....

3.5 🌟

Well look, I certainly enjoyed this book, and as a person who is Chinese-Australian and the son of parents who are immigrants from China, I could certainly relate to many points brought up in this novel. That being said, there were some things regarding execution that I didn’t vibe with, and there was also a love triangle, which I’m afraid to say aren’t my thing. I still enjoyed it despite that, and I had a solid time reading this.

I liked the characterisation of Ever, our main character. I thought she was well developed, and her actions made sense considering the kind of person she was and how she grew up and how her parents treated her. I actually liked her revelation at the end of the novel that she had about her parents(no spoilers, won’t go into detail) and at how she was able to shape her own journey and truly discover who she was as a person and what she was comfortable with. The characterisation of some of side characters were ok, but not brilliant. I honestly would have liked more depth from some of them. Also, some of their actions made little sense at times, especially this pretty major incident with Sophie, that just didn’t seem like the kind of person that she was. I found Xavier to be fairly interesting and at how he grappled with his issues, and overall, I just thought that his arc that he had was neat.

I both dislike but also sympathise with Ever’s parents. I understand their worry and plight because of the background they came from and while they think they know the best for their child, which is having a stable career and financial security, because they lacked that. On the other hand, they do come off as being far too controlling of Ever’s actions and it is too much.

I thought the plot was fine. It had some nice moments, and I liked the way it ended, even if it was predictable. In a sense, it is all over the place, but that was to be expected, considering it is a contemporary where the focus is on the characters. I felt that there were some plot conveniences, or that some things were wrapped up too easily, or that there were no real consequences for a lot of things. It’s hard to say that it was unrealistic, but I’m come to realise far too many things can be realistic over the course of this past year and a bit.

It does focus on a lot of stereotypes regarding Asians living in western countries. I think it handled it well. Not fantastically, as there was a lot of issues raised here and some things were glossed over, but it provides a taste to non-Asian readers as to what Asian people, or specifically East-Asian people may feel of go through and the pressure and all that sort of stuff. It’s both funny and sad that I was trying to piece together the pinyin in this book as while Chinese is atrocious and, in a sense, I could seriously relate to the main character in that way. Also, the whole medicine thing and I’m not up to that stage in life yet being the teenager that I am, but I am the sort of person that would go off and do an Arts degree instead medicine or law and it’s interesting at how these stereotypes are brought up. It does create a lot of racist narratives for sure, and yet, many things that this novel touches on can be perfectly accurate so it’s an interesting thing to look at and analyse.

Anyways, I enjoyed this, thought it was solid, but didn’t end up loving it. 7/10 ...more

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Apr 25, 2020 Emma rated it did not like it

Shelves: diverse, 1-star, read-in-2020, tbr-2020, scribd

Oh, this was such a hot mess.

Little bit of a disclaimer: Yes, I did have this on my 'read' list for however long, but it was only because Goodreads added this to multiple mutually exclusive lists. I didn't mean to count this as read until I listened to the audiobook on Scribd, which I just did yesterday. So no, it didn't take me two months to finish, but I read 200 pages and then had to return it to the library, so I finished it up through audio. Just wanted to clear that up!

When I first picke ...more

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Dec 28, 2024 akacya ❦ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audience-young-adult, ownvoices, own, format-physical, genre-romance, asian-authors

2024 reads: 344/250

2024 tbr: 105/120

content warnings: toxic friendship, racism, suicidal ideation, bullying, leaked nudes

ever is distraught when her parents send her to chien tan, a strict, educational immersion program in taiwan, for the summer. when she gets there, though, she discovers the infamous “loveboat,” a place students like her are expected to find love. her classmates are more interested in taiwan’s nightlife than in school, so ever quickly finds herself roped into the world of clubb ...more

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Aug 11, 2023 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore rated it really liked it

Shelves: american, america, young-adult, teens, taiwan, immigrants, abigail-hing-wen

While young adult romance is a genre I wouldn’t usually pick up, let alone buy, I ended up acquiring a copy of this one after hearing about it on YouTube/Booktube a few years ago (likely close to its release in 2020) as this is set in Taipei and I had (and till reading it still hadn’t) read anything set there. While it is indeed primarily a teen romance (and thus geared to a very different audience than myself), it does also cover themes of racism and stereotyping faced by children of Asian immi While young adult romance is a genre I wouldn’t usually pick up, let alone buy, I ended up acquiring a copy of this one after hearing about it on YouTube/Booktube a few years ago (likely close to its release in 2020) as this is set in Taipei and I had (and till reading it still hadn’t) read anything set there. While it is indeed primarily a teen romance (and thus geared to a very different audience than myself), it does also cover themes of racism and stereotyping faced by children of Asian immigrants, as also the disconnect and fraught relationships many have with their parents who while well-meaning have their own aspirations and resultingly unreasonable expectations from their children, never quite understanding them.

Loveboat Taipei is told in first person by our main character, Everett (Ever) Wong, an eighteen-year-old Chinese American just about to graduate high school and head to college where she is to study premed (The book in fact opens with responses to various applications she’s sent in). She has received several rejections but also admission to Northwestern University. Amidst this stack of premed applications, there’s another she secretly sent in—to the Tisch School of Dance as dance is the one thing she truly loves. For her parents through, it isn’t something that can put food on the table, and only adds to your CV as an extracurricular for other ‘more important’ careers. We get some background of her very strict upbringing (no boyfriends; no make-up (even lip gloss counts as make-up), modest dressing, focus on studying alone, etc.) and the future her family has envisioned for her.

Ever is more or less resigned to her fate (after all her parents have worked hard to get this for her—her father is trained as a doctor but working as an orderly in America since his degree is not recognised), but looks forward to a dance in the parade she has been preparing for with her best (perhaps only) friend Megan. But before any of that can happen, her mother swoops in and is packing her off for the summer. To Taipei to a summer school of sorts to study Mandarin, which she doesn’t know at all, and Chinese culture. Upset but once again with no choice, and believing her summer all but ruined, Ever arrives in Taiwan to attend Chien Tan, where she almost immediately runs into the one person she has hated all her life even though she’s never set eyes on him. Rick Woo, also the son of immigrants, seems to have been perfect at everything—spelling bee, football, studies, and a million other things and someone her parents have always measured her against. I’m sure you get the picture, and all how that’s going to turn out. Befriending her immediately though is Sophie Ha, Rick’s glamorous cousin and soon at the school a few others. Almost as soon as she comes in, she discovers that while there are Mandarin lessons and electives to be done, this isn’t quite the strict place she expected—students sneak off in the evenings to clubs, do exactly what they want and even have casual flings or serious relationships. So instead of a place where she thought she’d be trapped, she suddenly finds herself free from all her family’s rules and pledging in fact to break them.

Setting about doing so does seem like fun, but when things go too far and combined with misunderstandings send her almost rock bottom, she is forced to reevaluate whether breaking the rules is what she truly wanted. And more than that what does she really want in life—will living up to her family’s expectations be enough?

Romance is of course key in this one, and there is plenty of it all through—Ever has only had one serious crush in her life and that person is now dating her friend (we learn that complicated story as we read), and even here she isn’t determined to find love but it does come her way. There is the attraction to (even if she denies it) Rick and she also seems to have an admirer who is sending her beautiful sketches of herself. Alongside, we also follow Sophie’s attempts at finding love. There are plenty of dramatic moments on the way, and at times things did feel a bit much, but it was still fun enough. This is of course geared to older teens.

But the other aspects of the book in terms of the complicated relationships many of these kids have with their parents and what they face as immigrants appealed to me much more. On the one side we have Ever herself, who is intelligent and does well at school and whose parents want her, no expect her to be a doctor (fulfil their American dream). But she gets nauseous at the sight of blood and her heart lies in dancing. Yet she is well aware of the sacrifices her parents have made and caught between her wishes and wanting to do something for them who’ve given up so much for her. She laments how she isn’t close to her parents and can’t really share anything (not just hopes or dreams but even simple things like books or music) with them like others do. She is ‘American’ (and individual) and they ‘Chinese’ (and community driven) so they have that divide between them even when living as a family. Her parents are well-intentioned even if rather harsh (at least her mom), but it is when we get to see her father more closely towards the end that some of their perspective too comes in—in that they are first generation immigrants and find their daughter’s English so difficult and rapid that are unable to keep up. They also constantly question their decision to immigrate, and wonder whether they’ve done the right thing. So it isn’t the children alone who are struggling. On the other hand, is Sophie who is an intelligent young woman whose mother is unable to believe that she can do anything worthwhile beyond marrying money and as a result she seems unable to rely on her own abilities and only out to find a rich husband. Rick whose father had walked out on his family has had to take on too much responsibility, while there’s Xavier whose father is unable to understand or accept his dyslexia dubbing it a Western problem that Chinese can’t have. Each of these and others struggle, but while they have their differences with their parents, they are mature enough to also understand their parents sacrifices and viewpoints and how privileged they are compared to others. Yet, that balance between their own and their family’s happiness must be found.

The characters also navigate other relationships—romance and friendships—which in each case have their singularities and complications; unrequited love, over-possessive partners, even violent ones. There are also sibling relationships like Ever and her sister Pearl; or the cousins Sophie and Rick—always supporting each other.

Meanwhile we also have some other students, Sam, Marc, Peter, David and Benji, determined to break the stereotypes associated with Asian Americans, using every opportunity to take photos in certain places and poses to do so, even a performance in a concert the school ends up holding. Each of them (Ever, Rick, and Sophie included) have faced racism in some form or other—mostly verbal but still hurtful, and that is an experience that ties them. In terms of identity, Ever also starts to get comfortable with her Asianness, something she has tried to deny or run away from her whole life, an attitude that sadly many seem to adopt because of their environment—ending up with disdain of a sort for their own culture. [On a related aside, she finds herself able to openly enjoy foods that she refused to have in her lunch because the American kids would comment]. While she’s happy to break all the other rules, she does take her lessons seriously and Mandarin becomes less of a mystery.

Then there’s of course the reason I picked this book up in the first place, Taiwan. Once a fair way into the story we get some glimpses into the place—places of interest like the National Palace Museum, Sun Yat Sen memorial, National Theatre etc., also the lovely historical home Lin An Tai, besides other places in southern Taiwan as the students are taken on a tour. All of these are described but just enough for a YA novel (I’d personally have liked some more description). We also visit the affluent quarters of Taipei where Rick and Sophie’s relations live. In their classes are Bo fights and fan dancing, calligraphy and Chinese medicine and Rick and Ever also walk into a Taichi session on one occasion. The picture is balanced with the other side of the country where typhoons lead to damage and families losing all—the part of society which has to struggle for survival.

Ever herself is an interesting character to follow; on some levels, she was the typical teenager who did tend to annoy me, on others I could sympathise, and yet others appreciate her understanding. She does some fairly foolish (reckless really) things, but at her age and in her situation, one can’t entirely blame her either. Her love for dance (and the author’s) is apparent all through—not just in the steps or dances she choreographs but the feeling she goes through and how the rhythm takes possession of her body and makes it flow.

So while I may not be the intended audience for this book, there were plenty of elements that I could appreciate and enjoy and I found I did so much more than I’d expected. There are two further books in the series but rather than sequels, they continue the stories of other characters we’ve met. I may not jump on them immediately but wouldn’t mind looking them up at some point.

3.75 rounded off ...more

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Apr 16, 2021 Eileen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, teen-young-adult, cultural, contemporary, romance, realistic-fiction, 2021, 2021-ng-group-challenge, asian-author

If YA books can make me cry, then they're more than the usual YA trope-filled story, at least to me. Yes, this book contains them for sure, but the author succeeded in making me care for the characters and not just the MC. I loved watching many of the characters make mistakes, but then learn from them and grow. There was so much I loved about this book, and quite a bit that I related to, if not directly, then through friends who have experienced some of these things. FWIW, I am Taiwanese, and I' ...more

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Feb 19, 2020 mjraves rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-favorites

This book was just so much fun! I loved all of the scenes, and it was cool to read about the characters having all of these amazing new experiences. The friendships and relationships are complex but very good. A very enjoyable read that I would highly recommend.

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