A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Jackie Oh is done being your model minority.
She´s tired of perfect GPAs, PSATs, SATs, all of it. Jackie longs to become a professional chef. But her Korean American parents are Ivy League corporate workaholics who would never understand her dream. Just ask her brother, Justin, who hasn´t heard from them since he was sent to Rikers Island.
Jackie works at her grandparents´ Midtown Manhattan deli after school and practices French cooking techniques at night-when she should be studying. But the kitchen´s the only place Jackie is free from all the stresses eating at her-school, family, and the increasing violence targeting the Asian community.
Then the most unexpected thing happens: Jackie becomes a teen contestant on her favorite cooking show, Burn Off! Soon Jackie is thrown headfirst into a cutthroat TV world filled with showboating child actors, snarky judges, and gimmicky "gotcha!" challenges.
All Jackie wants to do is cook her way. But what is her way? In a novel that will make you laugh and cry, Jackie proves who she is both on and off the plate.
Patricia Park´s hilarious and stunning What´s Eating Jackie Oh? explores the delicate balance of identity, ambition, and the cultural expectations to perform.