The realistic fiction novel, Troublemaker, by John Cho is a wonderful coming-of-age story about a young Korean American boy as he attempts to keep his father safe and fix their troubled relationship. In Los Angeles during the spring of 1992, people are rioting in Koreatown over several recent cases of gun violence. Amidst this, Jordan, our main character, has just been suspended from school for cheating. Jordan, whose father has always found him lacking when compared to his older sister, attempts to find some way to fix the two’s relationship, and when the LA riots grow in intensity, he gets his chance. Jordan, in the hope of keeping his father safe, and maybe even making him proud, makes the decision to bring his father, who is at their family liquor store, the gun he had left behind.
Cho’s novel is a superbly profound novel about familial love, the pressures of not being good enough, and the inherent wrongness of violence. I personally enjoyed this book; it’s written in a compellingly simple way that makes it easy to relate to Jordan. It’s also a refreshingly easy read compared to some of the more advanced books you might have to read for school. While I’d recommend this book to almost anyone, if you don’t enjoy reading high-pressure situations then you should probably steer away from this book as it has no shortage of those. Overall, I’d rate this book a four and definitely recommend you read it!