Rachel Khong's ambitious debut novel follows three generations of women across decades, beginning with Lily Chen's arrival in 1990s New York as a graduate student, continuing through her daughter May's corporate career, and concluding with granddaughter Charlie's coming-of-age in the 2040s.

The novel's structure is both its greatest strength and most significant challenge—Khong weaves together themes of immigration, scientific ethics, genetic engineering, and racial identity with impressive scope, but the ambitious timeline sometimes sacrifices emotional depth for breadth.

The first section, focusing on Lily's experiences as a young Chinese immigrant navigating academia and early motherhood, feels most grounded and emotionally resonant. Khong captures the subtle microaggressions and cultural displacement with nuanced precision. The middle section following May's rise in the pharmaceutical industry introduces questions about genetic modification and designer babies that feel prescient and unsettling.

However, the final futuristic section with Charlie feels less developed, relying heavily on sci-fi concepts that don't always integrate seamlessly with the family drama. Khong's prose is clean and observational, particularly strong when depicting the small moments of cultural disconnect and the weight of inherited trauma.

The novel excels at exploring how each generation processes their American identity differently—Lily's survival-focused pragmatism, May's assimilationist ambition, and Charlie's more questioning stance. This book will appeal to readers who enjoyed books like 'Everything I Never Told You' or 'The Leavers'—those interested in multigenerational immigrant stories with contemporary relevance. Literary fiction readers who appreciate ambitious scope and social commentary will find much to discuss. However, readers seeking tight plotting or deep character development might find the novel's breadth frustrating. The speculative elements may also alienate readers who prefer straightforward literary realism. Despite uneven pacing and an occasionally unwieldy structure, 'Real Americans' succeeds as a thoughtful meditation on inheritance—genetic, cultural, and emotional—and what it means to belong in America across generations.