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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
2.5 out of 5 stars. Did not love it, not hate it. The author was trying to get a message across that I think people should be aware of. Just the plot and the characters were mediocre to me.
the utopian story ends up being much more realistic in China, so much so that it's facing difficulty in publishing, and the original publisher passed on the opportunity of doing so.
i particularly like how Ng uses verbs in her novels, especially in this title. what i don't like are the change of narrators and the endless parallel sentences: does she prefer to tell a story this way, or is she simply unable to write some intriguing in-the-moment sequences?
i ended up finishing the e-book before the audiobook. Lucy Liu's narration is definitely worth listening to.
i particularly like how Ng uses verbs in her novels, especially in this title. what i don't like are the change of narrators and the endless parallel sentences: does she prefer to tell a story this way, or is she simply unable to write some intriguing in-the-moment sequences?
i ended up finishing the e-book before the audiobook. Lucy Liu's narration is definitely worth listening to.
The pacing of this book was a bit slow for me, but man, am I glad to have read it. I haven’t read a lot of dystopian literature, but I’ve read a few, and I always enjoy the way that they make me think and consider our values as a society. I appreciated that this dystopian wasn’t fueled by advanced technology, but rather seemed a very realistic result of a fear-based political system. It’s been the first dystopian where I could very easily see parallels with what is happening in America today, and it was very thought provoking and challenging. I think it’s a very worthwhile read, and it challenges us to examine the thought processes and ideas that would lead to the kind of political environment that exists in this book. It’s easy to say “oh that would never happen”, or “we’d never let it get that bad”… but when you look at our history, we have done stuff that’s basically just as bad because of fear. I really appreciated this story, and I will definitely be encouraging others to read it.
Really 3.25. Like all of her books, it was so well written, but the topic was a scarily accurate account of what we are becoming.
This book didn’t live to the expectations as I thought. Being set in a “dystopian world,” it was more of a Covid world but with a white supremacy factor, which isn’t too far off from what today’s world can feel like. I felt like it had some good themes of adoption but at the same time Bird and Margaret were flat characters. It only centered on them. Bird was a timid and shy boy and while he did find his mom— I thought his journey would be more grandiose and almost like a scavenger hunt. With Margaret being a “creative” type mother, I can see where this relates to reunions like in birth-parent searching. This story wasn’t like Little Fires Everywhere in a beautifully wrapped up piece of mothers and daughters. If you want to read this book, just keep in mind that it may not be as you expect and how very similar it is to Covid times.
So appreciated this commentary. I’m not usually one for dystopia. I couldn’t get into the handsmaid tale, but this one was not that far-fetched. This is so close to the world we live in. Beautifully written, as always.
I guess I'm just not into the dystopian trope at the moment. There was The Crisis, which led to PACT, which led to children being taken from parents on a whim. None of this was clearly explained and none of the characters really had any depth.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes