The Fold [Hardcover]

An Na (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Joyce never used to care that much about how she looked, but that was before she met JFK—John Ford Kang, the most gorgeous guy in school. And it doesn’t help that she’s constantly being compared to her beautiful older sister, Helen. Then her rich plastic-surgery-addict aunt offers Joyce a gift to “fix” a part of herself she’d never realized needed fixing—her eyes. Joyce has heard of the fold surgery—a common procedure meant to make Asian women’s eyes seem “prettier” and more “American”—but she’s not sure she wants to go through with it. Her friend Gina can’t believe she isn’t thrilled. After all, the plastic surgeon has shown Joyce that her new eyes will make her look just like Helen—but is that necessarily a good thing?

Printz Award–winning author An Na has created a surprisingly funny and thought-provoking look at notions of beauty, who sets the standards and how they affect us all. Joyce’s decision is sure to spark heated discussions about the beauty myths readers confront in their own lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When Joyce’s image-obsessed aunt Gomo offers to pay for surgery to make Asian eyelids appear more Western, the teen is unsure about going under the knife, even though she dreams of finally wearing eye shadow “without looking weird” and fluttering extrawide eyes at her crush. Her agonized decision making provides readers with the medical nuts and bolts, as well as a balanced look at the issues, with input from a responsible plastic surgeon, Joyce’s outraged older sister, and a peer who has already acquired “the folds” with no regrets. Though just as rooted in contemporary Korean American family life as Na’s previous books, which include Printz winner A Step from Heaven (2001), the author’s third outing is both lighter in tone and less multidimensional—a flaw that isn’t much aided by a hurried revelation about a family member’s sexuality. That being said, few teens exist who have not yearned for a quick-fix transformation, including many for whom surgery may be a real option, and they’ll welcome the solid facts as they, along with Joyce, ask difficult questions about the correlation between superficial alterations and genuine empowerment. Grades 6-10. --Jennifer Mattson

Review

A lighthearted and thought-provoking look at a serious teen issue. -- Kirkus

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (April 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399242767
• ISBN-13: 978-0399242762
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,358,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not nearly as ground breaking as expected., June 5, 2008

By 

Steph "www.reviewerx.blogspot.com" (Blogger Land) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fold (Hardcover)

This book's premise is amazing, and it is the reason I picked it up from the masses. I'm always up for a good YA cultural tale. I'd never even heard of the fold surgery. Part of me has always been curious as to what Asians thought of their different looks (their eyes, in particular) in contrast with Americans. I imagined it would be something that either didn't bother them too much, or if it did, it was only a small bother. I never thought this Asian eyes issue was of this magnitude, with ample surgeries going left and right trying to "correct it". For raising awareness to this topic, this book deserves an A+.

Now...

I didn't love this novel. Why? Joyce wasn't that compelling a character. I'll be the first to say this was an important story to be told (read my paragraph above), but the overall execution didn't do a lot for me. More often than not, I was bored with Joyce's voice. The central issue in her life is this prospective plastic surgery, and while she's off obsessing about it, we've got so many more interesting characters making appearances but never interesting Joyce enough to explore their stories more. Examples:

Joyce's older, more beautiful sister, Helen, is the "perfect daughter". She's got a lot built up inside of her, which is blatantly obvious, but almost none of it is ever explored. Helen, despite always being pressured to do better every time, has an amazing, complex, and mature outlook. I would've read an entire book about her if given the chance.

Gina, the best friend. Here's a girl so sure of what she wants, but who has to work extra hard for it because of her family's financial problems. She works and has to keep her grades in tip-top shape at all times in order to get into college. Aside from all this, she's no more than a secondary character in the entire novel whose only purpose is to aide Joyce in the life-or-death situation that the surgery seems to be.

Gomo, the aunt who offered to pay for the plastic surgery. Far from perfect, but she's always got the best intentions at heart. During the brief point in the book where we're allowed to look into her past, we can see she's got so much compelling history, it's a wonder it didn't pop up more.

And those are only off the top of my head. It would've been easy to implement those characters' stories in with this novel's third-person narrative, but for some reason, all we get is Joyce. I wish she'd realized some time or another that the reason she's so insecure is because she spends interminable amounts of time overanalyzing her every facet. No plastic surgery is going to fix that. What she really needs is a hobby.

The ending was a little forced, but I liked it. I think she chose what she did for the right reasons and maybe it's a step in the right direction for her.

I am giving this three stars because I judged it as an important book, and for that purpose, it fell short. It's a highly readable novel, but it didn't stir me nearly enough as it should've or make as big a point as I was expecting. Maybe it's good for entertainment. I'm afraid I'll never know, because I started it expecting something groundbreaking, and those are irreversible expectations. But maybe.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars somewhat shallow, December 21, 2008

By 

anonymous - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fold (Hardcover)

Of An Na's three novels so far, this is my least favorite. While it does deal with some important topics, it never goes very deeply into any of them. As an Asian myself, it annoyed me somewhat that the majority of Asians with double eyelids were implied to have had surgery. I know it probably seems trivial and perhaps irrelevant, but it really does irk me to think that after reading this book, someone might look at me (I have double eyelids, as does the rest of my family and the majority of my Taiwanese friends) and think "Oh, she had surgery. She's not happy with being Asian." Other than that, though, this really was not a bad book. I did enjoy reading it and getting to know Joyce, Gina, and the rest of the characters.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Teen Book Club REad, April 28, 2008

By 

Teacher Reader "bibliophile" (Montrose, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fold (Hardcover)

The Fold would be a fantastic read for a teen book club. It has many big themes that are relevant for teenage girls, including: racism, romance, homosexuality, peer pressure, friendship, teen angst, etc. Joyce has the opportunity to have plastic surgery to make her eyes look less Asian, but should she do it? This should be required reading for any teen girl considering plastic surgery.