Reviews

This Place Is Still Beautiful by XiXi Tian

sonaea's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Okay ... so. It was a fine book.
The story is important and had to be told, I do think that. And it's a good story, a good setting to get the point across that the author wants to make. That's all been done really well.
What I didn't like about the book however were a few things (though keep in mind it's Jammern auf hohem Niveau, it's complaining about something that is good, only still has some issues):

• It is a very character-based book, it's all about the different views on the issues discussed in this story. However, for it being such a character-based book, the characters seemed kind of ... shallow. Not that the author didn't put much thought into who the different characters are, but it didn't really get across. The story is about Annalie mostly, but there's also a pov from her sister Margaret. And I like her, she's a great person. However, she came across as really annoying in the beginning just because of the way the book was written. I do think I agree more with Margaret than with Annalie, however I still prefered Annalie's pov, because Margaret just wasn't made out to be a character to be liked, even though she's a really likeable character, if that does make sense (or, well, it doesn't. Which is kind of the whole point I was making). It does get better while the book continues on though, at least with the main characters. The side characters (esp. Violet) just seemed to ... well, be NPCs. They were there if needed but they weren't if the story just didn't need them right now. Like, Violet is said to be Annalie's best friend at the beginning of the book and that they met every day (and once the job got in the way every second day). And suddenly things - very important things - are happening and Violet's nowhere to be seen? Only to just suddenly be at a diner with Annalie and Daniel just to disappear and create an awkward situation with Thom? And then to disappear once again until the end of the book? yeah, no.
• Kind of intertwined with that is the plot. It seemed like the author had a fixed idea of a story (or rather discussion of a topic) in her head she wanted to tell and took what she needed for it without really thinking if that really made sense as a plot. It was fine enough however, that it didn't interfere too much with the reading enjoyment.
• The pacing was fine, only at the end I was like: why that scene at that moment? Wouldn't another make much more sense? It seemed kind of forced there. Also, all of the end was kind of ... might have needed a bit more time to reach the level that the rest of the book had (and by end I don't mean the solution, the show-down but rather the ending scenes where everything is calm again, the kind-of epilogue).
• There were some sentences in there where I was like ... huh? What's your point? Like "Ice cream at the park. It was a regular date for us the way other people go to dinner and a movie." What does that even mean? Like "no, we didn't do the most basic thing, we did the other most basic thing"? It sounds a bit like "oh, we did do that but no one else did it and it's so special to us" like no it's really not. Everyone does that. And another sentence was: "I imagine a future of us doing sister trips, going to Italy and eating gelato" uh ... where did that language switch come from? Gelato literally means ice cream. Why can't you just say ice cream? No one says gelato if they don't speak Italian and why is that the first thing you think about when thinking about Italy? Can't you eat ice cream anywhere else? And I'm not against language switches in books, I actually love them - if they're done for a reason. It's cool e. g. that there are Chinese phrases and sentences dropped in the book (in romanized letters of course, it would be difficult and far more expensive to produce the book if the typesetter had to use two differend kind of alphabets) but they do make sense because the family is Chinese-American. They do actually speak Chinese in those moments. But why would you say gelato in a random English sentence?

So, yeah. That were the points I didn't like. All in all however, I still enjoyed the book and really liked that there were (two) very different characters and opinions taken and kind of compared and contrasted with each other without (at least later on, as said I felt different about the first half of the book) really devaluating either of those viewpoints. So, like, the contents were really good, I just didn't really like the handicraft all too much. Still, a good book. Go, pick it up!

lastpaige111's review

4.0

I loved the relationship between sisters and the moral challenges the plot presents them.

izzys_internet_bookshelf's review

3.0

3/5

Overall this was a great book about how two people decide to deal with a problem and learn how to let go

naisdayz's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia

chronicallyhanreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

arasulgil's review

5.0

how do I even begin to describe this book?

rookierebirth's review

adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs

Minor: Sexual content

miss_fantasy's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed reading this book a ton. It was an easy read, but also helped me understand hie microaggressions and racism hurt and affect people’s lives. 

The only problems I had with this book was that I feel like the writing did more “telling” than “showing” at times, but it’s understandable as it’s a debut novel. I also think some of the characters made decisions that didn’t make sense at the time which cause some whiplash in mood shifts. 

Other than that, I thought the characters were charming and the plot was intriguing. Hope to read more of Tian’s books :)

dhishfish's review

4.0

really enjoyed, especially since it talks about Asian racism, microaggressions and family relationships.

julitheweirdo's review

hopeful inspiring

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I forgot what happened since I read this a while ago but uh love it when things work out!!
some “side” characters or whatever you wanna call them were pretty annoying