Customer Reviews

Fresh Off the Boat

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I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone, not just Asian people. The characters are very real and the story is great. It shows how hard high school can be, even for nice people. The main character is very smart and funny and likable.

There was a time when fourteen-year-old Vicenza "V" Esmeralda Rodriguez Arambullo lived a life that most girls only dream of, complete with servants, chauffeurs, unlimited shopping sprees to all of the great designer stores - Chanel and Burberry included - and luxurious, tres expensive haircuts. But that was back in Manila. Back, during a time, when her family had more money than they could count. Her mother, the owner of a booming restaurant in which the Manila president ate at herself, and her father, a businessman with all the right connections. But then, inexplicably, everything was different. Suddenly, Vicenza's parents, who always seemed quite content in their Manila dwellings, abruptly decide to leave for America, "the land of the free and the home of the brave," where countless opportunities will come their way. Unfortunately, here we are, months later, and things aren't going as smoothly as the Ambrullo family originally hoped. Sure, Chips Ahoy cookies are dirt cheap here in the States, but everything else is fairly expensive, including the rent on their home. Vicenza doesn't have it easy either. Luckily her problems don't really revolve around money, instead, they revolve around your typical, run-of-the-mill dilemmas, like being the new girl. As a brainiac, Vicenza didn't have any trouble landing a great scholarship to Grosvernor High School. Surviving there is another story. Every girl is blonde and beautiful, with money oozing out of their pores, and private planes to jet them off to the South of France whenever they feel like a little topless sun-bathing. Basically, everyone is beyond snooty, and refuse to even give Vicenza the time of day. After all, no one swathed in Gucci would ever dream of hanging with a girl who spends her afternoons working at the Sears cafeteria her mother set-up, or rifling through the sales racks at the Salvation Army, searching for a cashmere sweater that is devoid of holes. But all that changes when Vicenza meets Isobel Saint-Pierre, a French math wiz, with a love for the offbeat. Isobel becomes Vicenza's solace, and confidant, something that she hasn't had since she left her best friend, Peaches, behind in Manila. And even though she and Peaches confer through e-mail, everything Vicenza says is a lie, trying to make her life sound better in America. But then things actually do get better, when Vicenza meets Claude Caligari. Claude is the most gorgeous boy Vicenza has ever seen - aside from Tobey McGuire - and she's determined to get him to ask her to Grosvernor's yearly Soiree d'Hiver, a beyond fancy dance that gives everyone the chance to dress up in expensive gowns, and dance the night away. Unfortunately, Vicenza is nothing more than a clueless geometry partner to Claude. Someone he ignores three days a week, as he speaks over the teacher, and manages to earn the lowest geometry grades Vicenza has ever seen. Still, Vicenza finds him dreamy, and, with a little help, she believes she'll be able to snag the guy of her dreams. But when she learns that the flirty fox is harboring a girlfriend, Vicenza sees her chance quickly slipping through her grasp. And it will only be through a little self-realization that she'll be able to see what's truly lying right before her eyes.

Immigration is such a large part of today's society. However, we rarely get to see the effects of immigrating to a new culture through the eyes of a present-day teenager. Melissa de la Cruz seems to have embraced that idea within the pages of FRESH OFF THE BOAT, and turned it into a fun, inspirational, humorous learning experience. Vicenza is reminiscent of Meg Cabot's Mia Thermopolis - of THE PRINCESS DIARIES. She's awkward, and attempting to fit in at a new school. Of course, there is one extreme difference between the two, Vicenza is an immigrant, learning to navigate the streets of San Francisco, and find her niche in the American world. Vicenza isn't your typical teenage protagonist. She spends much of her time with her head buried in a book, and is hardworking. Not everything is handed to her on a silver platter, and she does what she can to please the people around her. Sure, Vicenza likes guy-watching, and gossip fests, but she's more brainy than many, and is quite goal-oriented and determined. She must contend with her lottery-obsessed parents, who seems to be in the midst of the biggest culture-shock of their lives, and is often made fun of by her wealthier classmates, yet she never really lets the ridicule get her down. Her relationship with Isobel Saint-Pierre is one of the aspects of FRESH OFF THE BOAT that adds a humorous touch to an otherwise sensitive, slightly harsh subject. Isobel is quirky and cool, and could care less what anyone thinks of her. She's obsessed with lycra, and feathers, and rides - dangerously, I might add - all over the place atop a Vespa. Isobel is like Vicenza's rock. She's supportive and carefree, and honestly cares about Vicenza, and any problems she may encounter. While Peaches was Vicenza's best friend for years in Manila, the reader may notice that her relationship with Isobel is much stronger, simply because she doesn't feel the need to lie about her social standing to her, as she does with Peaches. Together, Vicenza and Isobel make an indomitable pair, as the two work side-by-side to adjust to the harsh realities and rules the United States has to offer. Riddled with humorous episodes, and interesting flashbacks to Vicenza's days in Manila; along with a few very unexpected revelations, FRESH OFF THE BOAT is a FRESH addition to the de la Cruz collection.

Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer

Vicenza is having a hard time adjusting to life in San Francisco. She was unfairly torn from her well-off life and friend in Manila, Philippines, and forced to emigrate to California, where she now shops at the Salvation Army, works in her family's cafeteria in Sears on the weekends, and is ignored by the snooty girls at her new school. Her life gets so bad that she actually goes to the movies with her family on a Friday night. Finally, V, as her friends call her, befriends Isobel, the French exchange student, who helps V see that if the other girls don't want her, she doesn't want them, and also helps Vincenza snag the boy she wants. With excellently written characters and sprinkled with emails of her new "glamorous" (fictional) life to her friend back home in Manila, this book will be relatable for any girl who has ever felt out of place.

Melissa De La Cruz is such a talented writer that the reader begins to relate to the main character(herself)instanly from the very beginning of the book. Almost all readers will relate to some of the trials of adolescence, but how many of us go through these stages immediately upon immigrating from another country and culture, along with a concommitant change in socio-economic status from upper class (elite) to lower-middle class (struggling)?
The jacket of the book notes that the author is a Filopina immigrant. Like many great novels, one can detect strong autobiographical traces throughout. Maybe that is one of the reasons this book is so entertaining--the characters and scenes literally jump off the pages!
Fresh Off the Boat was one of the most engaging and hilarious books I books I have read in some time.

Vicenza's family moves to California from Manila, hoping to start a better life after a family friend embezzles all their money; but it gets a lot worse. At Vicenza's new school, Grosvernor High, she gets picked on for not wearing the newest fashion trends. Her only friend Isobel doesn't wear the newest fashions but styles of her own and still look hot in it. Vicenza's family television shoe video smuggling gets caught by the police,and is shut down. Now her family suffers with money and have to work extra hard at their cafeteria to earn more money. Once things calm down, Vicenza makes the top five slut list at Grosvernor School, as the number one slut after she is caught in the bathroom with Whitney's boyfriend Claude Caligari. Vicenza goes on her first date with Paul, a boy who works at Sears, after the aproval of her parents. They already knew him from their cafeteria, so they easily accepted the date. It was at the movies when Vicenza got her first kiss during the Stephen King Movie. I recommend this book for teens or adults who are fit for a wild narrative of a foreign teen.

The book Fresh Off the Boat is realistic fiction. In this book there are stores like Sears, Mc Donalds, Outback Steakhouse,and Hechts, and movies like Stephen King and Bruce Almighty. There are also television shows like American Idol, The Real World, Fear Factor, and Primetime Live. More realistic themes in this novel are the trends. From ballroom-dancing to foxtrot, cha-cha, and the tango. Another realistic part in this book is how the characters in this book talk, act, and dress, like the teenagers actually do in real life middle and high schools. Everyone in Grosvernor High dresses in the newest trends, or at least the middle class and rich teens did. If you weren't seen in the latest trends or styles, then you are considered invisible.

Vicenza parents were way over protective when it came to shopping, boys, cell phones, looks, and being totally cool. They gave Vicenza a cell phone but only because everyday they want to find out what time Vicenza was going to get to the cafe from school. Also when she was picking out a dress for the Montclair Academy-Grosvernor School for Girls Annual Soiree'd'Hiver. Vicenza's mom picked out a flashback to the 1980's dress, wtih three layers of ruffles, alternates pink and black, and has a butt bow. Instead of a more mature drees like a strapless mini dress with sparkes or a formal tank and frilly mini skirt.

Whitney, Georgia, and Trish the popular Grosvernor girls did anything to pick on anyone who didn't dress in the latest trends,were recieving more attention then they were, or did anything really bad to humiliate themselves. Like when Vicenza was having trouble balancing a ball on a paddle they mimicked her all day, causing her to hide in the bathroom for the next class period. Or like when Vicenza got caught in the bathroom with Claude, Whitney's boyfriend, and they posted her name on a website, www.topfiveslutsatgrosvernorschool.com, as the number one slut at Grosvernor School for Girls. When Claude asked Isobel and Vicenza to tutor him in Geometry so he could stay captain of the lacrosse team, he was spending more time with them than Whitney. So she called them Claude's "loser girl study group," or the L.G.S.G., as Isobel and Vicenza called it.

Fresh Off the Boat was a very well written realistic fiction book for teens or young adults. Whitney, Georgia, and Trish did anything they could to make sure everyone uncool stayed uncool and invisible. Even Vicenza's parents kept her from being cool, they never let her wear mini skirts or shop at the botiques for the hottest new trends. Instead Viecnza steadily worked at her families cafeteria business at Sears to occupy her social life, that she didn't have. Since she moved to America her life became a nightmare.

T.Brown

Vicenza decides to lie in e-mails to her friend back in Manila named Peaches to impress her with details of her new life in America. Vicenza is a girl who came from Manila to America in hope to start a new life with the mother, father, and sister. When they get here they are forced to change and the go from high to low class in almost an instant. She pretends to have tons of friends and be popular when e-mailing her friend, although it is not true. She really only has one friend and no one really wants to talk to her. In the end, she ends up slowly telling Peaches the truth about her life and starts excepting the things that she has. This is a good book for people who like girly books because it was mainly about a teenage girls' life and how coming to America changes it.

When Vicenza comes to America her life begins to change drastically. Vicenza and her family start to shop at the Salvation Army when they moved here and they used to shop at the Neiman Marcus. Her mom used to own a big restaurant now she owns a mall worker's cafeteria slot. He father used to own a big business but now he owns a one-man shop.

She would lie in e-mails to Peaches telling her that her life was more glorious than it really was. At first she lied about going to the movies with popular girls, but really just went with her family. She also lied about buying clothes at the mall when she really got them from the Salvation Army. Vicenza lied about Claude, the popular boy, asking her the her school's annual Soiree when a geek named Freddie really did.

Vicenza only had one true friend at her school. Her only friend was a French girl named Isobel. They went everywhere together and were even in many classes together until Isobel got switched out because she was very very
smart. Isobel and Vicenza also got in trouble many times together like when they snuck out and went to Claude's house or a party.

This book is mainly about a girl whose life changes when she arrives in America, therefore I would recommend it to people who like the girly type of book. Fresh Off the Boat by Melissa De La Cruz was a very good book because it showed how w girl transitioned and strived to act popular although she really wasn't.

This is a good book about a fourteen year old girl who came from the phillipines for her first year of high school. She goes through different changes and tries to adapt to the American lifestyle, and also by trying to be popular at school too. This is a good book if you want to read something good or just want to read about highschool life.

Vicenza is a new arrival in the land of the free...and she's not exactly loving it. After having to leave her wealthy home in Manila for questionable reasons, she's having a hard time adjusting. Her parents are totally clueless, and so obviously immigrants. No one at her school will talk to her, and she has to struggle to keep up her grades for her scholarship. Vicenza has one friend, a quicky french girl who is an outcast just like her. Between working for her parents all the time and school, V has no life. Then she starts crushing on one of the most popular guys around. V sends emails full of lies about her"fabulous" life to her pals back home. On top of everything, the big formal is coming up, and V has the ugliest dress and the biggest loser for a date. Will V overcome her "fresh off the boat" status and adjust to life in America?