The Girl Between Cultures. An achingly honest YA coming-of-age novel about identity, belonging, family secrets, first love, cultural pressure, and the courage to claim a self that was never one thing or the other

"You're not really Korean, Jiy. You're a wannabe with a passport." Her own cousin said it. And fifteen hours later, a stranger on the plane said it too. Jiy flew from New Jersey to Seoul for a summer language program, hoping a country could finally tell her who she was. Instead, her grandmother met her at the airport without a hug - and handed her a laminated pronunciation card for letters Jiy had known since she was twelve. "You don't know these, " Soon-ja said, careful and cold.
"Your mother told me you studied. But I see now she was protecting you." Too American for Korea. Too Korean for home. A girl with a passport to a place that keeps reminding her she doesn't belong. In the taxi from Incheon, Jiy counts streetlights to keep from crying - one, two, three, each one a second survived without breaking. But the hanok holds secrets older than her shame - a portrait her grandmother won't explain, a tiger pin locked in a box for decades, an envelope from America no one will let her open. There are rivals who smile while they sharpen the knife. There is a boy, the rain, and a bowl of shared ramen. There is a humiliation at the feast that cracks the floor beneath her. And there is the night Jiy finally runs - straight toward the truth her family has been hiding under the floorboards her whole life. To win, she'll have to stop translating herself for everyone else. She'll have to stop apologizing for being two things at once. "I know who I am, " Jiy says at last.
"I just stopped needing your permission to be it." The Girl Between Cultures is an achingly honest YA coming-of-age novel about identity, belonging, family secrets, first love, cultural pressure, and the courage to claim a self that was never one thing or the other. Perfect for readers who love Frankly in Love, The Astonishing Color of After, dual-heritage stories, tender first-love romance, and emotional YA about finding home in yourself.
A standalone novel with a hopeful, healing ending.