Loveboat, Taipai

 Loveboat, Taipai

by Abigail Hing Wen

HarperTeen, 2020. 414 Pages. Young Adult

Ever Wong just wants to dance. She has been on dance squad and color guard; she choreographs all their dances, and she lives and breathes ballet. But Ever Wong has two very determined parents who have decided that she is going to be a doctor. Her father was a doctor in Taiwan, but his degree didn't carry over when they came to the US. Her parents have scrimped and saved for Ever to get into medical school. And Ever does! She makes it into Northwestern University. But she also makes it into dance school. Ever knows her parents will never approve of her dancing so she ends up declining dance school. Before she can grieve too deeply, her parents send her away to a Taiwanese immersion program that will take up the rest of her summer. While there she discovers that the program is nick-named the Loveboat because everyone hooks up during their stay in Taiwan. Every kid is smart. Almost every kid is rich. And all they want to do is sneak out at night and go to dance parties. Ever thought that she would hate the program, but she soon makes a circle of friends, including several very handsome boys. Normal teenage drama ensues, including the obligatory love triangle, and Ever has to decide how to deal with this drama while also trying to figure out who she really is and wants to become.

This book has adult themes, but it handles them so well I didn't end of throwing the book across the room. The writing is smart and easy to get caught up in, just like one of Ever's dance routines. This is a coming of age story with all the appropriate themes of leaving home, making friends, breaking rules, getting in trouble, trying to get out of trouble, being jealous, being sad, missing home, etc. I thought that this was just another Teen Rom Com, but Ever’s journey to self-actualization is compelling. I groaned several times at the choices she made, but was pleasantly surprised at how Wen used these moments to show Ever thinking through what she had done. There are always consequences to choices, good and bad, and that is what this book so effectively shows.

AGP