Scan barcode
drlainie's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Medical trauma, Excrement, Vomit, Child abuse, Classism, Xenophobia, Deportation, and Animal death
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Body shaming, Animal cruelty, Grief, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Cancer, and Racial slurs
Minor: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Misogyny, Stalking, Abortion, Bullying, and Sexism
george_tte's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Animal cruelty
adrienne_rennie's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Classism, Deportation, Chronic illness, Medical content, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Bullying, Racism, and Cancer
Minor: Hate crime, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic relationship
hollydyer328's review against another edition
3.0
Because the story is so focused on these ~5 years of her life in the US, the memoir came off as her processing childhood trauma. It's pretty bleak throughout with little redemption or coming of age, except it is slightly mentioned by the very end. This story almost feels too personal for the general public to read (and purchase), and I'm not sure what the takeaways are other than awareness and empathy for one account of the undocumented immigrant experience.
I listened on audio read by the author, and the narration was helpful for the pronunciation of Chinese phrases, but the tone lacked the emotion that would have enhanced the story.
Graphic: Vomit and Deportation
Moderate: Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Cultural appropriation, and Domestic abuse
mrsdarcylynn's review against another edition
3.0
I think this was a pretty middle of the road memoir for me. The author narrates the entirety from the perspective of her childhood self and hits on some important issues with being the child of undocumented immigrants.
For me, the lack of contextualization made this a weaker memoir. There is no hindsight, the author doesn’t bring any of her present understandings to bear on these past memories. You kind of just get the stories. Which is fine, but doesn’t make it a standout for me. I didn’t get a sense that there was a call to action, any insight, just observation.
I also thought she lingered too long on some of the animal violence and excrement pieces of her childhood memories. There wasn’t much of a point to those parts of the stories.
Overall, an okay read.
Graphic: Excrement, Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, and Racism
taylorfield's review against another edition
2.5
Long Story Short: At 5-years-old, Qian Julie Wang and her mother left China for the “Beautiful Country” to reunite with her father, who’d been in the US for two years already. This memoir follows the strife, sacrifice, and resilience of the next five years through the lens of a child’s eyes.
<blockquote>“There was a Chinese idiom I came to know later because Ma Ma and Ba Ba would repeat it to me in those moments: “Purple comes from blue but is superior to blue.” It was inevitable, they seemed to believe, that I would one day outshine them in the best and worst ways.”</blockquote>
I greatly admire Qian Julie Wang’s bravery to share her childhood trauma and the imperfections of her family, and as a random reader I’m not owed any further acknowledgement or explanations of her life’s story and experience in America. At the same time, because so many explanations were left out, I found myself having to guess about catalysts, intentions, and reasonings. <i>Beautiful Country</i> reads more like a child’s diary, which is fine, but not what I expected based on the blurb and “How It Began” sections. So many things were glossed over despite them feeling really important.
Enjoyment: 2/5
Craft: 3/5
Overall: 2.5/5
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Racism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Domestic abuse
Poverty, hunger, child labordominicangirl's review against another edition
Minor: Animal cruelty and Domestic abuse
anniover's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Racism and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Body shaming
Minor: Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, and Injury/Injury detail
diraclotus's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Racism and Animal cruelty
sprucewillow's review against another edition
4.5
I wish there were more good things that happened but who knows if that was due to the author excluding them or good things really did just rarely happen.
Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, Medical content, Child abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Genocide