Beating Heart Baby

Starred review from May 30, 2022
Min’s debut is a luminous homage to music, art, and the power of found family. When 14-year-old Filipino Santiago Arboleda inadvertently causes his online best friend Memo’s song to go viral, Memo seemingly disappears from the internet, subsequently breaking Santi’s heart. Now 17, Santi has relocated to L.A. to join the Sunshowers, De Longpre High’s award-winning marching band. Though he’s swiftly absorbed into the rambunctious Sunshowers crowd, Santi is haunted by his past as he navigates a future filled with possibility upon meeting Japanese and Korean drum major Suwa Moon, a trans boy who finds Santi as annoying as Santi finds him enchanting. The narrative is split into two parts, mimicking sides of an album. Side A follows Santi’s heart-on-his-sleeve earnestness as he tries to atone for his mistakes; Side B features reserved Suwa’s stumbling efforts to carve his own path in the world. This achingly romantic novel features racially diverse and variously queer characters, each of whom is given ample space to develop. Min’s personal-feeling prose epitomizes the current age, in which lifelong bonds are forged through computer screens and group chats, emphasizing connection in its myriad forms. Ages 14–up. Agent: Dana Murphy, Book Group.

Starred review from October 1, 2022

Gr 10 Up-Seventeen-year-old Santi's life has been a mess since his childhood best friend (a person Santi had only known online as "Memo") ghosted him. With the loss of Memo, Santi also lost a part of himself. To help Santi move on and reconnect with life, Aya, Santi's guardian, moves them to her hometown of Los Angeles and pushes her charge to join the marching band that was so pivotal to her in her youth. There, Santi is welcomed with open arms by nearly everyone, except for one surly boy named Suwa, a musical genius who seems destined for a promising career. When Santi helps Suwa through a panic attack, the two forge a truce, which tenuously turns into friendship before blossoming into love. However, when Santi shares a painful realization, Suwa cuts Santi and their friends out of his life without a word. The love story between Santi, who identifies as Filipino, and Suwa, whose family is of Japanese and Korean descent, builds slowly and vividly, then shatters suddenly, leaving readers as bereft as Santi himself. There is a breadth of ethnic diversity and LGBTQIA+ representation in this book (including Santi, who is bisexual, and Suwa, who is a transgender man), and the supporting characters are so nuanced they could be the leads in stories of their own. This gorgeous debut deftly explores themes around gender dysphoria, abuse, loss, anxiety and depression. VERDICT A must-have for all collections serving older teens-especially those looking to add more high-quality realistic queer fiction to their shelves.-Leighanne Law

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Starred review from April 15, 2022
Music is at the heart of this love letter to Los Angeles, anime, and art. Santi, who describes himself as "mixed" and has a Filipino mother, mistakenly leaked a song by Memo, his online best friend, who ghosted him after it went viral. After the breakup makes him spiral out of control, he moves to LA from Florida for a fresh start with Aya, his mother's queer best friend from childhood and the guardian who has cared for him since his mother died when he was 7. He arrives at his new high school for marching-band camp, where he is welcomed by everyone but Suwa. Suspicious yet enamored by the new kid, Suwa, who is Korean and Japanese, is a singer/songwriter whose family disapproves of his transitioning and his quest for stardom. The two boys soon move from friends to something more. Min writes with finesse and care, grappling with the complexities of navigating the music industry and growing up queer. Santi and Suwa are full-fledged characters whose posturing, developed as defenses against homophobia, racism, and transphobia, is grounded by their chosen family. Like a vinyl record, the story is divided into an A-side, narrated by Santi, and a B-side, narrated by Suwa, offering singular points of view through their tempestuous relationship and fledgling artistic careers. A lyrical, rhythmic, and promising debut, this queer romance is a hit. (Romance. 13-18)

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Starred review from November 1, 2022
Grades 10-12 *Starred Review* After Santi's mother died, Santi found solace in his online friendship with someone he knew only as Memo. When he accidentally betrayed Memo's trust and their friendship abruptly ended, part of Santi's world died, too. When Aya, his guardian and his mother's lifelong best friend, moves Santi to L.A., it's for a fresh start. That's exactly what he gets when he joins the Sunshowers, his new high school's elite marching band. While Santi, who's gay and Filipino, feels mostly embraced by the diverse group of performers, it's Suwa Moon, a singular musical talent, who catches his attention. Their first few interactions don't go well--most of Suwa's Korean Japanese family reacted badly to his transition and he has good reasons to be suspicious--but miscommunications give way to mutual respect, trust, and a tender, blistering first love. But Suwa's musical talents are propelling him toward a spotlight that he both wants and fears, and a chasm begins to open between the boys. The first half of the book ("Side A: The Sunshower Sessions") is told from Santi's point of view; halfway through ("Side B: The Moonflower Sessions"), the book jumps ahead a year and switches to Suwa's voice. It's an effective move, immersing the reader into each boy's psyche and painting a full, aching portrait of their lives, loves, and demons. An artful debut about the joys and heartaches that come with existing as your own self.

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