Crossing by Andrew Xiz Fukuda

The book Crossing is the tale of Xing Xu, a young chinese immigrant who is one out of two asians attending an almost exclusively white high school in New York. With the onset of the school year, Xing again faces another period of prolonged social isolation with only his sole friend and fellow asian Naomi Lee for company. What Xing does not realize is that this autumn is going to be rather different than those of the past. Xing's high school is rocked with a series of bizarre disappearances and it is soon evident that a killer is on the loose. As police and the media swarm his hometown hunting for answers, Xing goes on a search of his own. While getting closer to discovering the murderer, an old ability from his past presents him with an opportunity. Xing's ability to sing catches the eye of the school's music teacher, who appoints him as the understudy for the lead role in the school musical. With the sudden disappearance of the lead, Xing is thrust into the limelight as his replacement. With his new position , Xing is given his opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of his peers, and most importantly Naomi. As Xing prepares for the musical, the mystery of the killer remains unsolved, while police suspicion begins to fall on him.


When I first received this book, I thought this novel sounded interesting but feared it would be one of those cliché outcast saves the day kind of book however as soon as I started reading I realized I had picked up a truly unique novel and was quickly drawn into the story. The author did a wonderful job in creating Xing as a believe depiction of a disillusioned immigrant.Through Xing's thoughts, I received valuable insight on the plight of immigrants, as they must learn an entirely new language and customs as well as face alienation by the local populace. Being no stranger to isolation myself, I was quick to empathize with Xing and therefore found the outcome of the novel quite unsatisfactory. Overall, I found the book very enlightening and the storyline was superb except for that darned ending!

Four and a half daggers out of five,

Trooper Cordell