A heartbreaking story about a young Vietnamese-Australian woman named Ky, who returns home when her younger brother is murdered. The story centers around this mystery of what happened to Denny at the Lucky 8 restaurant the night he was killed—there were several people there but no one claims to have seen anything. The book takes place in the 90s and explores how the actions of one person can have reverberating consequences.

But maybe more so than the murder is a story about the Vietnamese community in this suburb of Australia. I had no idea how strong the anti-Asian sentiment was in Australia at this time when countless refugees fled the Vietnam War and settled in these suburbs. I also had no idea about the heroin epidemic that ravaged these communities. When we read from the perspective of Ky and Denny’s parents, we can see how the plight of these immigrants affected the families for generations to come. I did enjoy the book overall, but I thought the two different elements of the story could have been blended better. It often felt like one was just a plot device for the other instead of them blending together to form a seamless story. Ky is primarily our main character, but she was definitely my least favorite. The glimpses we got of her parents’ and her brother’s stories were infinitely more interesting.