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soulpromise's review
emotional
reflective
sad
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
4.5
kimapede's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- 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? Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Classism, and Death of parent
Minor: Pregnancy, Car accident, Toxic relationship, and War
cutlet's review
adventurous
sad
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? Yes
4.25
lalaleo's review against another edition
2.0
I think this would be a better read than listening to the audio book. I found it difficult to follow the story, maybe having different narrators for the different characters would have helped.
booknerdjo's review against another edition
5.0
I was lucky enough to receive a proof copy of this lovely book.
It centres around a family - parents and their twins - who have the ability to time travel.
They all have slightly different abilities: one can only travel to Hong Kong (his home city); one can travel to a specific date and time in England after 1900; one can go to London before 1950 and one hears the voices of relatives and ancestors and is drawn back to them.
There are rules to the time travelling, and the main one is that the body can not withstand being in the wrong time for too long.
One day, when the twins are 12, their parents don't come back.
The story then follows each of the twins as their lives and talents take them in very different directions.
We also go back and find out about their parent's childhoods, how they met and their marriage.
Of course, you have to suspend disbelief and accept the premise that these characters can travel through time, but I don't have a problem with that! If you are able to do that, you will find a beautiful and lyrical novel, woven together with a really gentle but magical touch. Much of the writing is almost like poetry, but the dreamlike whimsical style suits the subject matter perfectly.
It is also a story about immigrants and the idea of home, about love and longing, about family dynamics and parental expectations.
I really was captivated by this wonderful cast of characters and their way of life.
It centres around a family - parents and their twins - who have the ability to time travel.
They all have slightly different abilities: one can only travel to Hong Kong (his home city); one can travel to a specific date and time in England after 1900; one can go to London before 1950 and one hears the voices of relatives and ancestors and is drawn back to them.
There are rules to the time travelling, and the main one is that the body can not withstand being in the wrong time for too long.
One day, when the twins are 12, their parents don't come back.
The story then follows each of the twins as their lives and talents take them in very different directions.
We also go back and find out about their parent's childhoods, how they met and their marriage.
Of course, you have to suspend disbelief and accept the premise that these characters can travel through time, but I don't have a problem with that! If you are able to do that, you will find a beautiful and lyrical novel, woven together with a really gentle but magical touch. Much of the writing is almost like poetry, but the dreamlike whimsical style suits the subject matter perfectly.
It is also a story about immigrants and the idea of home, about love and longing, about family dynamics and parental expectations.
I really was captivated by this wonderful cast of characters and their way of life.
arf88's review against another edition
3.0
I want to like this more than I did. But for me it was mediocre on every level. I didn't find the prose particularly striking, what little plot there was went nowhere, and the characters were uninspiring.
This book is not badly written. It's very well written in many ways, with some interesting things done with the rules of the world. But it didn't live up to the sum of its parts in my mind, and the time traveling aspects especially felt like they weren't used to their full potential. Take that part out and this would be just another litfic book about unhappy and unlikable people.
This book is not badly written. It's very well written in many ways, with some interesting things done with the rules of the world. But it didn't live up to the sum of its parts in my mind, and the time traveling aspects especially felt like they weren't used to their full potential. Take that part out and this would be just another litfic book about unhappy and unlikable people.
themermaddie's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
for fans of magical family sagas like The Immortalists, this is perfect. this book is beautifully written and a heartwrenching tale of a family lost in time, and how the threads of fate can tie people together.
this is one of those books that i struggle really hard with summarising, especially because it's so good but it's also just so human that the events in this book are (besides the time travel) extremely ordinary. i think my favourite bits were joshua and lily's story, bc i felt like they were the glue, the intersection of all the stories, and i liked to see them as young adults as well as the parental authority figures. this book is about time travel, but it's also mostly about family. there are so many good depictions of the immigrant experience here, as well as the beauty and pain of being pulled away those you love, due to time or space. it's about the people and times that make us feel like we're home, and the tragedy of not being able to keep those special moments forever is what makes stories like these so bittersweet.
where this book lost that last star for me was the ending. i'm all for am ambiguous ending, but i would've liked at least a little bit more of a conclusion. where it stands, it feels like an extremely open ending with a purple prose finish, and i would much prefer at least some sort of answer to like, every question the book raises. you never find out what happens in josh and lily's experiment, which is what i assumed the driving question of the entire novel would lead up to, you never learn what happens to tommy in the present day, and you never know what happens to peggy. some of those things i can accept as literary tragedies and victims of the genre, but for every single question to be left open feels so... incomplete. maybe it's left like that to replicate how unpredictable and unknowable life is, but i don't accept that. that's not why i read fiction, anyway. i want to know that the wangs are okay :(
for fans of magical family sagas like The Immortalists, this is perfect. this book is beautifully written and a heartwrenching tale of a family lost in time, and how the threads of fate can tie people together.
this is one of those books that i struggle really hard with summarising, especially because it's so good but it's also just so human that the events in this book are (besides the time travel) extremely ordinary. i think my favourite bits were joshua and lily's story, bc i felt like they were the glue, the intersection of all the stories, and i liked to see them as young adults as well as the parental authority figures. this book is about time travel, but it's also mostly about family. there are so many good depictions of the immigrant experience here, as well as the beauty and pain of being pulled away those you love, due to time or space. it's about the people and times that make us feel like we're home, and the tragedy of not being able to keep those special moments forever is what makes stories like these so bittersweet.
where this book lost that last star for me was the ending. i'm all for am ambiguous ending, but i would've liked at least a little bit more of a conclusion. where it stands, it feels like an extremely open ending with a purple prose finish, and i would much prefer at least some sort of answer to like, every question the book raises. you never find out what happens in josh and lily's experiment, which is what i assumed the driving question of the entire novel would lead up to, you never learn what happens to tommy in the present day, and you never know what happens to peggy. some of those things i can accept as literary tragedies and victims of the genre, but for every single question to be left open feels so... incomplete. maybe it's left like that to replicate how unpredictable and unknowable life is, but i don't accept that. that's not why i read fiction, anyway. i want to know that the wangs are okay :(
jsrogers123's review against another edition
5.0
Stunning. There were several points where I had to stop reading to sit with a particularly beautiful passage. Just so lovely and original.
tivara101's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5