Sonia Patel
ABOUT
Sonia Patel writes out of her experience as a first-generation Indian-American born in New York and raised in Hawaii, an experience lushly and brilliantly explored in her debut novel, Rani Patel in Full Effect. Rani was a finalist for the Morris Award, received four-starred reviews from trade magazines, and was listed on YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults and Kirkus Reviews’ Best Teen Books of 2016. Her YA novels Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story and Bloody Seoul both received the In the Margins Book Award. She is a jury member for the renowned 2021 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist, Patel trained at Stanford University and the University of Hawaii, and has spent over fifteen years providing individual and family psychotherapy to children, adolescents, and their families. She lives in Honolulu with her husband, two teens, and dog.
BOOKS
K-TOWN HEAT
Pitch: When Ha-na Desai, a half Indian, half Korean high school senior, immigrates to Los Angeles to leave behind the painful memories of being viciously bullyied in her birth city of Seoul, she has to escape a dangerous online relationship that finally leaves her free of her worst enemy—her own shame and self-hate.
Summary Without Ending: K-Town Heat opens with Ha-na Desai, a half Indian, half Korean high school senior, immigrating to K-Town, L.A. from Seoul to leave behind the painful memories of being bullied. She’s done cutting herself to survive. She’s done hiding the battle scars. She thinks she’s done being bullied. She throws herself into creating meaningful art and working at her aunt’s Indian market. But Ha-na’s biggest bully, Yi Kyung-seok, has also moved to K-Town, and he wants to be her friend. So does the self-proclaimed “biggest butch in K-Town,” Yun Ji-su. Ha-na gives friendship a shot only to discover that it’s not so easy with an “inner bully that picked up where the kids in Seoul left off,” as her L.A. shrink says. What is easier is falling for a handsome stranger, Cody Lee, who DMs her on the Gram. The online relationship consumes Ha-na. But when things with Cody get indecent and dangerous, will she be able to save herself? Because the truth is, what she knows is how to endure abuse, not escape it.
Synopsis:
Ha-na Desai, a half Indian, half Korean high school senior, immigrates to K-Town, Los Angeles resolute on three things: no more cutting herself, no more hiding her battle scars, and no medical school like her parents insist. Gripping her pencil or paintbrush tightly, she immerses herself in the meditative bliss of sketching and painting to forget the years of being brutally bullied in Seoul. By keeping alive her dream of being a renowned artist, she begins to forget the nightmare of her reality—the fact that the worst of her Seoul bullies, Yi Kyung-seok, has also moved to K-Town.
One hot K-Town evening, Ha-na runs into Kyung-seok. And though he’s apologized profusely back in Seoul, Ha-na freaks out and almost cuts herself again. But thanks to some TLC from Savita foi, Ha-na’s aunt, no blood is spilled. Still, things get tricky when Kyung-seok and his self-proclaimed butch friend, Yun Ji-su, want to be friends with Ha-na.
Ha-na gives friendship a shot only to discover that it’s not so easy with her “inner bully that picked up where the kids in Seoul left off,” as her L.A. shrink says. In fact, the more she opens up to Kyung-seok and Ji-su, the more her head hurls familiar Seoul-style vicious insults at her. Luckily, she finds solace in her art and on Instagram.
Ha-na, Kyung-seok, and Ji-su get comfortable with each other. Unexpectedly, Kyung-seok even begins to lowkey flirt with Ha-na. Eventually, however, he ends up hurting her, not by bullying, but in ways that friends sometimes do. Desperate to avoid cutting and to ignore her screaming “inner bully,” Ha-na stops hanging out with Kyung-seok and Ji-su. Then her creativity abandons her. The only thing that makes her feel better is scrolling or posting on Instagram. The more likes and steamy comments she gets from boys, the better she starts to feel. And then she meets Cody Lee, a handsome stranger who DMs her on the Gram.
She falls head-over-heels for Cody who lavishes her with praise and attention, the “opposite of bullying.” They text nonstop. Her creativity is sparked again. With Cody as her secret online boyfriend, Ha-na feels invincible.
Until he starts asking for naked photos.
Pressured and unable to speak up for herself, she sends him some nudes. He threatens to make her photos “go viral” unless she keeps sending him exactly what he wants. Ha-na’s conflicted yet can’t get herself out of it. Then Cody wants to meet her in person.
By chance, Ji-su catches a glimpse of Ha-na’s phone and that’s how the truth about Ha-na’s relationship with Cody, the naked photos, and the imminent meeting are revealed. Panicked and worried, Ji-su and Kyung-seok help Ha-na by telling Savita foi and the police everything. And just in the nick of time because Cody Lee turns out to be a middle-aged predator who’s wanted in several states for rape and attempted murder.
But even with the predator arrested and locked up, and even with trusted people in her corner, Ha-na hits a new low. This time, however, Ha-na doesn’t turn to cutting or Instagram. She chooses her true friends, her aunt, and her art. More importantly, she chooses herself.