First published 2022
Danni Quintos grows up as a mixed-race girl in Kentucky, the daughter of a dark-skinned Filipino immigrant. She watches Dirty Dancing at sleepovers and borrows makeup from friends' caboodles like any typical kid of the nineties. She crushes on boys in khaki shorts at Sunday mass. But she also faces the microagressions of neighbor children and the casual cruelties that come with looking different. Her racially ambiguous appearance creates confusion about where she fits. Quintos turns to family stories and Philippine folklore, searching for clues to make sense of an identity stretched between opposite sides of the globe. She navigates the awkwardness of puberty while questioning the line between tokenism and true representation, between fitting in and truly belonging. Her journey spans from girlhood through motherhood as she learns to reject the assumption that American means white. She reclaims pride in her brown body and mixed heritage, declaring her right to exist and belong exactly as she is.
Genres: american-fiction, coming-of-age, autobiography, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Kentucky, Philippines
Period: 1990s
112 pages · Paperback · BOA Editions Ltd.
Content warnings: racism