From the cover, I expected a breezy coming of age story of a girl I would grow to love. Ugh.

The book began nicely enough about an ugly duckling who had a pet duck, a pet duck which her mom made as a surprise dinner one day. Candace worked in her family's restaurants mainly as the "egg roll girl". It was a coming of age story filled with all kinds of stomach clenching scenes.

I rushed through the story not really enjoying the journey. If it were much longer, it could have really depressed me. But I did get through the book so it must have grabbed my attention enough. ( )

Reviewed by Cat for TeensReadToo.com

Don't let the cover's pink, white, and red color scheme, or chicklit-ish title, fool you. Kim Wong Keltner's I WANT CANDY is not some lighthearted, nostalgic ode to life as a teen in the '80s. Keltner explores life as experienced by fourteen-year-old Candace, who wants more from life than what the larger culture deems appropriate for someone of Chinese descent.

Candace knows the odds of her dream boyfriend, Rick Ocasek from The Cars, driving up next to her as she walks the streets of San Francisco may be slim to none. That doesn't stop her from squirreling away every penny she earns and dreaming of the day when she will be more than the Eggroll Girl at the Chinese restaurant run by her family.

Candace plays sidekick to "hot" girl Ruby (the only other Chinese girl in attendance at Candace's private Catholic school), serves as class treasurer, and harbors feelings of general misanthropy, all the while waiting for her life to begin. But when things actually start happening, Candace faces startling truths about herself, her family, and her heritage that she never even imagined.

Candace isn't necessarily the most likable character, and I spent a great deal of this novel fairly appalled by her behavior, but the contrasts of her personality ring true. Throughout her journey, Candace remains a compelling force, driving the reader to follow her story to its unexpected conclusion.

Kim Wong Keltner weaves into the larger narrative underlying themes related to the history of Chinese women in San Francisco, the cultural gap between immigrants and their Americanized offspring, and the contrast of values between the various worlds in which Candace moves. I was especially pleased by the author's repeated denunciation of the cultural mindset fetishizing and objectifying Asian girls and women.

If you're looking for a novel to churn the gears of your mind, I WANT CANDY is definitely one to check out. ( )

This is pretty much a coming of age book about 14 year old Candace Ong. Having to work at Eggroll Wonderland everyday after school, Candace feel like she is missing out on life.

She is very jealous of her friend Ruby (who likes her own tits), and the guys that she sleeps around with.

While Candance is put into some sexual situations, she never does give in & actually do it. Preserving her virginity maybe until she is older? The book doesn't really say.

The book is filled with a lot of swearing & crude bathroom type humor, calling a penis a one-eyed pinky rat, and other such odd names. When I was 14 we used some crude language, but not ones like in this book.

I did not really care for this book, basically because of the language, and this part of the book where her friend Ruby dies in a fire, but then continues visiting & ridiculing Candace as a ghost.

The ghost portion doesn't really fit with the rest of the context of the book. Ghost Ruby shows her things that don't make any sense to the rest of the story. ( )

Candace Ong knows she and her best friend Ruby will be friends for life – until the end of eighth grade comes and Ruby starts acting really strange. For example, is it right for your best friend to take all your best clothes, toys and stuffed animals and keep them? And is it right for your friend to ask you to come to the pier after school, then hook up with a boy and try to lose you in the crowd? To Candace, these seem like things a friend wouldn’t do, but she can’t quite bring herself to confront Ruby about them. She believes Ruby when she says that Candace is being too annoying, that she looks too fat in those clothes, that Ruby has to get away from her because she keeps copying everything Ruby does.

Candace feels lucky when she has a chance to hang out with Ruby. Most afternoons and evenings she has to work in her parents’ restaurant, frying eggrolls and dumplings and clearing tables. But when Ruby begins to shun her, Candace has to find other things to do with her free afternoons. Sometimes she walks Polk Street, her neighborhood in San Francisco, talking to the copy shop guy who sometimes watches her in the restaurant, or shoplifting jelly sandals from the shoe store when the salesman looks away. No one ever suspects the Chinese girl.

Candace becomes more and more detached from her family and Ruby, until one day it seems she is completely on her own. Would anyone even notice if she disappeared? Would anyone even care? DL

After reading Kim Wong Keltner’s new novel I Want Candy, I am confused as to who the audience is for this book. The overly cutesy adolescent nicknames and pop references cause one to think that the book was written for middle and high-schoolers. That is until you run into its adult language and sexual situations. This is definitely a book for adults. I am too old to have grown up with the Judy Blume books so I can't tell how the marketing comparison fits there. I have read Amy Tan, though, and I think the likenesses are as slight as location and ethnicity and are far too little to tout Ms. Keltner's writing as anywhere close to that of Tan.

Personally, I liked the book. I think that it needs some help in pacing but overall, it kept my attention and entertained me. I would have been happy with far less of the pop references that will surely make this book outdated way ahead of its time. I "got" all of the references but I don't know that everyone will. The basic story is good but it needs to be less tied to a specific time and place. Since this was my first reading of Ms. Keltner’s work, I am sufficiently interested to look up her previous books and see what else she has to offer.

(Review based on complimentary Advance Reader Copy from the publisher.) ( )