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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
medium-paced
I fell in love with Lang Leav’s writing over a decade ago and her hold on me is still just as strong. The storytelling of Ai, Bridgette, Bowie, and the rest their gang was so descriptive I was hooked!
This book really showcases the feeling of being young, impulsive, and all the highs and low of being a teenager. This is a great coming of age story about friendship, dating, but also touches on other themes like mental illness, grief, racism and more that shows just how complicated life can get at a young age!
This book really showcases the feeling of being young, impulsive, and all the highs and low of being a teenager. This is a great coming of age story about friendship, dating, but also touches on other themes like mental illness, grief, racism and more that shows just how complicated life can get at a young age!
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Death of parent
I’m just really not feeling this book. After setting it aside in favor of other books multiple times and coming back (trying to see if it was the book or just me/my attention span), I’m DNFing. The author does more telling than showing which I never enjoy, give me credit as a reader for being able to understand what’s happening. It’s also slow for my taste, I don’t mind character driven stories but then I need to get inside the characters heads and that’s just not happening. The characters are flat and the pacing is all over the place. We don’t really get to see their motivations and get to know them very well and I’m over 100 pages in, I should feel more connected or have a better idea of the purpose of the story.
Just when it started getting interesting, it got slow and boring again by the next chapter. I really wanted to like this one and learn more about what it was like for POC communities in Australia during the 90s. But I can only try to read a novel for so long before realizing it’s just not for me.
Just when it started getting interesting, it got slow and boring again by the next chapter. I really wanted to like this one and learn more about what it was like for POC communities in Australia during the 90s. But I can only try to read a novel for so long before realizing it’s just not for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Toxic friendship
emotional
reflective
sad
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
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-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
This was such a heartwarming book. For the initial 15 pages, I found it to be too lyrical and poetic and thought I might end up not liking it. But gradually, the plot started taking hold and I liked reading about Bowie and Ai. Sying was absolute monstrous and her mind games were shown aptly. Everyone should have a friend like Brigitte and a mom like Lucille. The duo was amazing and inspite of their hardships, they were so kind to all.
Others were Emeralds brings out many pertinent topics like racism, loss of family member, handling tragedy, grief and confusions of adolescents. All of this has been handled by author so sensitively. Midway through the book when the twist came, I was not prepared for it at all and was shocked as to how to handle it.
Lang Leav has done a tremendous great job on her debut novel and am looking forward to read more of her other works.
Others were Emeralds brings out many pertinent topics like racism, loss of family member, handling tragedy, grief and confusions of adolescents. All of this has been handled by author so sensitively. Midway through the book when the twist came, I was not prepared for it at all and was shocked as to how to handle it.
Lang Leav has done a tremendous great job on her debut novel and am looking forward to read more of her other works.
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Lang Leav’s debut adult novel Others Were Emeralds is a quiet contemplation of youth, identity, and finding one’s place in the world. This short novel follows a high schooler who navigates the daily struggles of social and love life, all amidst the backdrop of being the daughter of Cambodian refugees who fled the Khmer Rouge. As if the struggles of being a girl on the cusp of womanhood weren’t enough, Ai has to contend with the violence her community faces from white Australians.
This is a solidly character-driven novel that does a good job of exploring the tensions felt by kids just trying to be kids even though racism often forces premature adulthood. Leav considers what it means to move forward after something precious has been violently snatched from you. It was fascinating to see Ai pursue her passions in college despite still not fully having come to terms with her grief and trauma.
This is a short book that was easy to read and, I found, quite engaging. I would’ve liked to see further exploration of Ai’s more militant friend Sying vs her less confrontational best friend Brigitte, as throughout the novel there is the question of how best we should approach racism: ignore it as best we can to avoid people harming us and our loved ones, or tackle it head-on regardless of the cost to our community? This is a question many POC have struggled with so I liked that Leav explored it but I think there could have been more there, especially as racism and identity is a huge theme of this book.
All in all, though, this was a solid coming-of-age novel from a perspective I sadly don’t read much of—I’d love to explore more works from people from Cambodia/those whose lives have been forever altered by the violence of the Khmer Rouge.
Thanks so much to Harper Perennial for the gifted ARC!
This is a solidly character-driven novel that does a good job of exploring the tensions felt by kids just trying to be kids even though racism often forces premature adulthood. Leav considers what it means to move forward after something precious has been violently snatched from you. It was fascinating to see Ai pursue her passions in college despite still not fully having come to terms with her grief and trauma.
This is a short book that was easy to read and, I found, quite engaging. I would’ve liked to see further exploration of Ai’s more militant friend Sying vs her less confrontational best friend Brigitte, as throughout the novel there is the question of how best we should approach racism: ignore it as best we can to avoid people harming us and our loved ones, or tackle it head-on regardless of the cost to our community? This is a question many POC have struggled with so I liked that Leav explored it but I think there could have been more there, especially as racism and identity is a huge theme of this book.
All in all, though, this was a solid coming-of-age novel from a perspective I sadly don’t read much of—I’d love to explore more works from people from Cambodia/those whose lives have been forever altered by the violence of the Khmer Rouge.
Thanks so much to Harper Perennial for the gifted ARC!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief
Minor: Domestic abuse