tui_la_dao's reviews
56 reviews

I need to write a review for this book at this odd hour, because I need it. I just found the first two chapters so emotional and real. I relate to it, and sadly, I guess my sister will, too, if she reads this. It is about kids who can't take refuge at home, who can't depend or trust on who they are supposed to trust, kids who have developed unhealthy coping mechanism to get by, kids who nurture themselves with the thoughts and imagination in their own head. Who read the beginning of this book and doesnt want to hold Natsuki dearly and protect her, it's just extremely sad, being someone who doesn't become what society expects from them. I don't know when I came home and don't see the usual cheerful smile in my sister anymore, or to see that she has lost appetite and weight uncontrolably,to the point that she *BIG SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING* finally let me know that she has been suicidal so many times, and I understand so well that she was the unlucky one for being kinder and chooses to stay back while I fled home as soon as I could. I just wish we would find a way out soon, one way or another, like the characters in here. "Survive, no matter what". And then you can choose the happiness that you want, hopefully.

This book addresses numerous deep-seated societal issues in an accessible manner. I haven’t read through a book of this length so quickly in years. I don't feel like I could hate on either Athena or June. Athena has a lot of influence on our main narrator and other characters in the book, but we only ever know her from the memories and impressions of the people who know her when she was alive. What fascinating is the way she mined ideas for her writing, which seemed to be cold-hearted and unempathetic. She carried on interviews, many writers do that, but she never paid tribute to her source of inspiration or information, interviewed people are always caught of guard to see their vulnerable and painful stories and words printed without their permission. She did this even with the people she is the closest to, like her mom, or June, or ex-boyfriend. Athena's brand is something that sells, she is ethnically Chinese, so people perceive her as far as her looks go even though she barely speak any Mandarin.

June, our narrator, is deeply human—confused, greedy, jealous, and flawed. Her actions are undeniably wrong; she stole her friend’s legacy instead of properly applying to be a co-author (if that was even an option). Despite numerous allegations, she never confessed, opting instead to work behind the scenes—writing, researching, polishing, and finishing the novel, as much as she could make the book hers. But it's also true that she did write a significant part of the book, she did do her research, and she did attempt at Mandarin and her struggle visits to Rockville and Chinatown, maybe not good enough, but not nothing, and the novel (with much of her contribution in it) did move Mr.Lee, whose uncle was one of the CLC (he probably thought she belongs to the community, though). June's biggest flaw is her desire to live the literary dream despite not being a naturally talented storyteller.

June justified her actions with how rigged publishing industry is, it's a male-dominant, racist, and unfair, it's where your literary work is chosen to be a winner and worthy of their marketing budget not because you are the most talented writer, but more about what people want to read and see at that point in time, and when it happens that readers want more diversity on the bookshelves, what a white girl like June fumes about and wants to put on pages are simply never good enough. She's already not good enough because of something she cannot choose for herself, race. And she really believes it. This does not excute her action, though.

But given that the novel is June's original work, the question will be: can June write about Chinese history if she is not born in the country, but did the work to understand it? Can she really understand it just by doing her research? Maybe it's a question for readers to judge, as we should not limit any writers from any topics, we should only "critique a work on the grounds of literary quality, and its representations of history". But again, can readers be fair judges?, because if you really think about it, it is really imaginable that the same story be viewed differently if it is written by authors of different backgrounds. Isn't it just easier to trust and feel comfortable reading a Chinese person writing about the Chinese Labor Corps, then to read the same story written by a white person? And it understandably is so, but it does not make this topic any less complicated, and it's not the right way to go about it.

We explore topic of racism, but also reverse racism, the cyber bullying, and the ugly nature of publishing. "Racism is bad, but you can still send death threats to Karens". And we see how social media is really realer than real life. Candice is a really interesting character too, I just love what she said to June during the confrontation. And the ending is good, June has developed into a person who I believe will survive longer in that industry, she got the gut and the thick face and she could write good enough.

I really enjoyed some stories in this book, they were well-crafted, and sent a chill down my spine and left me thinking damn this book has big potential, but unfortunately there are also many mediocre stories, those that were written just to fill up the page ... and eventually, water down the collection to some extent.

Spoilers:
Great stories (4): "The Well" (This one is really good, the moment I realized what happened was golden, but very sad of one), "Rambla Triste" (it's so cool how this made me fear Barcelona, a city that I enjoyed visit, for a long moment, that was how good it was),"The Lookout", "Kids who come back"

Good ones (3): "Our Lady ...", "Back When ...", "Where r u ..."

The other 5 are either ... shallow, or distasteful, or just too surreal which is simply not my taste, or maybe I did not understand them. The book was still worth reading, but I wish that some stories were not included.

I think the book is good, but the writing style is not for me. The pace is too slow. And while it is really poetic and I enjoyed it at times, I absolutely think it is unnecessary to maintain such tones throughout the whole book. This is longer than what it should have been and I don’t think the content would be compromised if certain chapters would be shorter. And less paper is always more desirable if points are still being delivered … otherwise a good book.

It is a touching story with a great plot that left me very emotional throughout until the end. To see and learn about the world via the eye of a very intelligent robot was funner than I thought. The only thing is that the world building is maybe a little limited, which made sense because we see the world through Klara and she could not learn eveything given her environment. But I am not convinced that the world would be so filled with lifted children given such a high health risk, and the mom’s decision to lift Josie … but given the world in the book, such decision may make more sense. But there are just so many metaphores and ways to interpret the story which probably will make it quite timeless, and interesting to read for sure

I find this book and all the characters in it extremely interesting. Mostly because of how they are described in the book and the voice used by the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, to describe himself and the people around him. I has a blast reading the beginning of the book, it was very funny and unique. Later on I slowly realized many disturbances in Holden’s characters and it could get tense sometimes, when he got himself into darker places and reveal the troubleness of his mentality and mindset. All in all, I don’t find Holden unloveable at all, he is his worst enemy (his pickiness into people and his hating for people’s phonieness for example) and may appear to be hopeless to anyone that knows him but essentially a good and kind kid, and I understand when people say that many can relate to this character in one phase or another of their life.