Book Review: My Other Heart

My Other Heart is a contemporary coming-of-age novel written by author Emma Nanami Strenner. The narrative of the book follows primarily a pair of Asian-American girls called Sabrina and Kit.  Best friends since a young age, the pair are slowly approaching the end of their high school days.  With college on the horizon, the two girls are stuck trying to figure out what direction they want to take their lives in next. Adopted by a rich, white family, Kit has always felt a part of herself longing to tread the roots of her Japanese heritage, so she takes a summer trip to Tokyo. Despite having her own ambitions to venture to China to embrace her own culture, Sabrina is unfortunately forced to stay in America during the summer period due to a lack of finances living with her single mother.  While both friends are forced to spend time away from one another, they each tread down similar paths of romance and self-discovery that will lead the pair of friends to revaluate who they thought they were and what they hope to become both individually and within their friendship.

Despite some rather tedious portions, my time with My Other Heart was reasonably good.  The choice to frame the story through the lens of two central characters works in the sense that it helps define Sabrina and Kit both on an individual level as well as a pair of friends. I much preferred Sabrina’s side of the book than Kit’s, just because she was a way more endearing character to read about.  Her struggle with understanding where she stands not just presently but in her future is a very relatable character trait that many readers, including myself, can relate to. Kit in comparison is a much shallower character who despite having some empathetic traits to her story, comes off as a major opposite to Sabrina.  I understand that’s the point, that despite their similar ethnicity and bond of friendship, they are two distinctly different people.  Just because the book makes that a defining point of its story doesn’t mean I can enjoy or find much to relate to with her portion of it.  Kit also lacks the definition or relatability that Sabrina has in spades so it makes her personal story way less meaningful to read through when compared to Sabrinas story. I understand their lives are intertwined though and I appreciate the effort Strenner went to do a dual-perspective story, they’re never easy to pull off and you can at least get the impression she tried her best.

As this is a book definitely geared towards a younger adult audience, the tone behind the book is fairly restrained for the most part. As the story deals with a pair of teenage girls, there’s a lot of common elements like romantic tension, jealously, self-image, etc.  I’m not discrediting these themes, as I can assume they are common and relatable elements in a young teenage girls’ life; I guess it’s just not something I can completely relate to myself. The bits I appreciated more so was then the story got more grounded in its approach to family, heritage and self-discovery. There’s a deeply emotional core to this books themes that really flourishes as you get closer to the end. As for pacing, I will have to knock a few points off the book on that front sadly.  The book drags unnecessarily a fair amount of times, it’s almost as if Strenner was worried the reader wouldn’t get the point of the chapter so she goes overboard on trying to describe the scene and the emotions at play.  Less is more in these kinds of cases and I feel Strenner could have benefitted from stepping back and letting the reader pick up on the cues rather than having it obviously projected to them.

My Other Heart is a good book despite the underlying flaws that permeates within it. Its story has a lot of emotional resonance within it that anyone can understand and relate with.  Even if the quality of its writing and one of its central characters is inconsistent for the majority of the time, that doesn’t mean its lacking in any compelling elements.  Its pros are definitely worth sticking the book out for in my opinion.  If you like your coming-of-age stories and want to experience something which celebrates a different string of cultures then I would still give this book a try and see how you like it.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐