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sailingbookdragon's review against another edition
5.0
Loved to hate this book at times, it was so gut wrenching. Where You wanted to root for a character, but at the same time not because it would be something much worse for others.
icygrl7's review against another edition
5.0
Shambala Junction is a great contemporary read. I enjoyed Iris's story. I like that she did a lot of growing in this book. I wasn't sure that I was going to like her at first. She learns a lot about herself and about who she wants to be. I didn't care for her fiance he was a selfish person. I like the fact that Iris was doing what she felt was right even when it could have put her in danger. The friendships she makes along the way are great as well. I would highly recommend Shambala Junction to those who enjoy a good story with a lot of heart.
spinesinaline's review
3.0
Thank you to Read for Review for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Find more of my reviews at https://spinesinaline.wordpress.com!
I know my rating is quite different than others here and I did share a lot of the things other reviewers enjoyed. The story itself was really good! I don't want to give too much away because the blurb here is quite short but just to give you a little more to go on:
Iris is traveling with her fiance to India when she gets lost at a train station. A family takes her in and as she tries to find a way home, this family is facing problems of their own. There are a lot of different perspectives in this book, which I loved. While Iris is our main character, we also get to learn the individual stories of at least 6 (if I'm counting correctly) others and see how all of these fit together into the larger narrative.
Also I loved finding out that the author is a linguist as this is my major in university! It's always surprising when something talks about linguistics, especially correctly, and there's a brief mention of a linguist in this book. So it made a lot of sense when I found out the author herself is a linguist!
So now it's time for what I didn't like. I was expecting that a story set in India, written by an Indian author would escape the stereotypical representation that non-"own voices" stories tend to follow and unfortunately this was not the case. Beginning with Iris, our first introduction to India and its people is through her eyes and she consistently refers to the place in terms of it being backwards and dirty, and how disgusted she is by her surroundings. As well, her breasts are referred to 3 times in the first three chapters (twice by herself!) which felt wholly unnecessary!
I felt really uncomfortable with how the people in this story were portrayed and it didn't end with Indian representation. There was also a Japanese character and while we heard from her perspective at first, the second half of the book only ever saw her through the eyes of another main character. The worst part is that this character would only refer to her beauty in terms of her likeness to a "porcelain doll" and her wide eyes that make her resemble anime. Not good.
While the Japanese representation felt problematic throughout, the stereotypes of Indian people did feel like they were tamed as we progressed through the book, which felt like it was tied to the growth of the characters. However I wish this representation didn't depend on the character's personal journeys. Since we're seeing only through their eyes, we never get the chance to see these characters for ourselves without the biased opinions tainting our view.
Representation was not up to par with the story and I wish the first half of the book matched the second in its portrayal and characterization.
I know my rating is quite different than others here and I did share a lot of the things other reviewers enjoyed. The story itself was really good! I don't want to give too much away because the blurb here is quite short but just to give you a little more to go on:
Iris is traveling with her fiance to India when she gets lost at a train station. A family takes her in and as she tries to find a way home, this family is facing problems of their own. There are a lot of different perspectives in this book, which I loved. While Iris is our main character, we also get to learn the individual stories of at least 6 (if I'm counting correctly) others and see how all of these fit together into the larger narrative.
Also I loved finding out that the author is a linguist as this is my major in university! It's always surprising when something talks about linguistics, especially correctly, and there's a brief mention of a linguist in this book. So it made a lot of sense when I found out the author herself is a linguist!
So now it's time for what I didn't like. I was expecting that a story set in India, written by an Indian author would escape the stereotypical representation that non-"own voices" stories tend to follow and unfortunately this was not the case. Beginning with Iris, our first introduction to India and its people is through her eyes and she consistently refers to the place in terms of it being backwards and dirty, and how disgusted she is by her surroundings. As well, her breasts are referred to 3 times in the first three chapters (twice by herself!) which felt wholly unnecessary!
I felt really uncomfortable with how the people in this story were portrayed and it didn't end with Indian representation. There was also a Japanese character and while we heard from her perspective at first, the second half of the book only ever saw her through the eyes of another main character. The worst part is that this character would only refer to her beauty in terms of her likeness to a "porcelain doll" and her wide eyes that make her resemble anime. Not good.
While the Japanese representation felt problematic throughout, the stereotypes of Indian people did feel like they were tamed as we progressed through the book, which felt like it was tied to the growth of the characters. However I wish this representation didn't depend on the character's personal journeys. Since we're seeing only through their eyes, we never get the chance to see these characters for ourselves without the biased opinions tainting our view.
Representation was not up to par with the story and I wish the first half of the book matched the second in its portrayal and characterization.
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