A Diverse, Feel Good Book // ARC Review: The Way You Make Me Feel by Maureen Goo |A Thousand Words A Million Books || A Young Adult Book Blog

Title: The Way You Make Me Feel
Author: Maureen Goo
Publication Date: May 8th 2018
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux (Macmillan)
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Macmillan Intl (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon US || Barnes and Noble || Wordery || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck.
Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind?
With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.

THIS BOOK MADE ME LAUGH.

Which is rare. I IMMENSELY enjoy and get HIGHLY invested in a few books too many than is healthy, but I very rarely laugh because of a book.

The Way You Make Me Feel, in a nutshell, was an adorable read, filled with GREAT FOOD, diversity and anxiety rep that also made for a wonderful, light summer read and the perfect way to close out my last summer as a student (hello, senior year and my twenties *bursts into tears*)

There were a lot of things I really liked about this book, so let’s break it down:

1. KOREAN – BRAZILIAN FUSION FOOD: If you read the synopsis, (directs you upwards) you’ll know that our main character spends her summer working in her dad’s Korean-Brazilian fusion food truck and OH MY GOD THE DESCRIPTIONS OF FOOD AND THE DIVERSITY IN THE FOOD WERE ESSENTIALLY THE BEST THING IN THE FOOD.

2. ALL THE DIVERSITY: Our main character, Clara Shin is Korean and Brazilian. Her co-worker on the food truck is African American and it all just felt right. It was so well done, and I loved how Maureen Goo portrayed her characters, especially how their skin color and roots were a part of who they were, and they were also so much more.

3. THIS WAS KIND OF HILARIOUS?: I read a sampler before requesting this book, and this book made me laugh in the VERY first scene which contained feminism, prom queens and tampons and I kept laughing after.

4. IT JUST MADE ME FEEL GOOD: Reading this story made me feel happy. I don’t know if it was Hamlet, the ADORABLE love interest, the fact that it was a summery read and also a love letter to LA and delicious food OR Clara’s personal growth, but I loved it regardless.

The One Thing I Thought Could Have Been Better:

1. The Lack of Connect/ The Extreme fast pace of everything: When I read The Way You Make Me Feel, I felt disconnected from the story and all the brilliant elements playing out on the paper. I quickly realised it was because I felt like the dialogue was… insubstantial and very fast and there was SO MUCH TELLING AND NOT SHOWING, that I simply didn’t enjoy it as much.

Would I recommend this book? YES. The Way You Make Me Feel was a hilarious, feel-good, summer read with some great character growth, diversity, romance and family.

Maurene Goo grew up in a Los Angeles suburb surrounded by floral wallpaper and piles of books. She studied communication at UC San Diego and then later received a Masters in publishing, writing, and literature at Emerson College. Before publishing her first book, Since You Asked, she worked in both textbook and art book publishing. She also has very strong feelings about tacos and houseplants and lives in Los Angeles.