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boba_n_books's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
I loved how this beautiful memoir took its genre to a new level by including some of the history of Okinawa amongst personal stories. It was a creative way to juxtapose her mother’s immigration journey with the past.
This book also made me question American military presence in other countries like Okinawa. It seems to have caused more harm than good and continues to do so.
This book also made me question American military presence in other countries like Okinawa. It seems to have caused more harm than good and continues to do so.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Rape, and War
Moderate: Cursing, Racial slurs, Cultural appropriation, and Racism
kathshiroma's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, and War
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Rape, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Racial slurs, Self harm, and Murder
spookyzeeko's review
dark
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
A story about culture, transmitting cultural heritage, life in post-colonialism, the relationship with have with our heritage, the heritage of our parents, our parents, our privileges....
Although the story seemed interesting since the beginning, the writing style made it hard to get caught up. There’s a lot of repetition in the sentence structure, I guess meant for a dramatic or serious tone, that were just really annoying to me at first.
Secondly, some passages were hard to empathise with. In an attempt to be honest about her ignorance, the author portrays how spoiled and privileged she actually was, recalling how poorly she viewed her family and herself.
On the other hand, some passages were very emotional and the book had me teary-eyed several times. The family stories are beautiful and intricate. The portraits are sincere and authentic. I really enjoyed the more informative passages about the story of Okinawa, the war, the people that I found super interesting and quite well written (although again, the repetition of structures were a big turn-off to me).
The ending made me very emotional but in a good, hopeful way. I do not regret reading this book at all and I think of marking the chapters that were the most interesting and informative to me, that I’d like to go back to.
Although the story seemed interesting since the beginning, the writing style made it hard to get caught up. There’s a lot of repetition in the sentence structure, I guess meant for a dramatic or serious tone, that were just really annoying to me at first.
Secondly, some passages were hard to empathise with. In an attempt to be honest about her ignorance, the author portrays how spoiled and privileged she actually was, recalling how poorly she viewed her family and herself.
On the other hand, some passages were very emotional and the book had me teary-eyed several times. The family stories are beautiful and intricate. The portraits are sincere and authentic. I really enjoyed the more informative passages about the story of Okinawa, the war, the people that I found super interesting and quite well written (although again, the repetition of structures were a big turn-off to me).
The ending made me very emotional but in a good, hopeful way. I do not regret reading this book at all and I think of marking the chapters that were the most interesting and informative to me, that I’d like to go back to.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Sexism, and Racial slurs
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