You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.46 AVERAGE
4.46 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
What stuck with me from this book was Reang's incredibly nuanced reflection on familial duty, sacrifice, collectivism vs individualism and gender roles. She's been the other both in America and in her ancestral homeland of Cambodia, and her sexuality arises as a conflict between her identity and her culture. Her perspective is painful and eye-opening, critical and empathetic - mirroring a story about dualities and how they can coexist.
brilliant writing. complex and layered trauma and well told
I have been thinking a lot about memoirs as a genre(?) form(?) and that they're not really my favourite thing, at least right now. Currently I'm really loving experimental and subversive fiction, which doesn't mesh well with real life narratives, and for non fiction (not that I've read loads recently) I like there to be an argument or a new angle presented on the topic, which again isn't really the point of a memoir. And yet I also cannot critique memoirs because it's someone's life and it feels a bit more treacherous to point out any flaws.
That all being said, this is probably the best memoir I've read so far. it's very thematically tight, it sticks to the synopsis, this is a book about war, family queerness. This strict structure does however mean it's weirdly repetitive in both structure and certain ideas that are mentioned multiple times (maybe it was intentional but I'm not super sure why). I wouldn't say that there's anything too radical here, it's about immigrant identity, about how love isn't enough when your parents wont accept you, but it's all brought together in a very tender and loving way. I also learnt so much about Cambodia and it's history that I wasn't aware of before. And lets be real it's getting bonus points because I really like the cover haha.
That all being said, this is probably the best memoir I've read so far. it's very thematically tight, it sticks to the synopsis, this is a book about war, family queerness. This strict structure does however mean it's weirdly repetitive in both structure and certain ideas that are mentioned multiple times (maybe it was intentional but I'm not super sure why). I wouldn't say that there's anything too radical here, it's about immigrant identity, about how love isn't enough when your parents wont accept you, but it's all brought together in a very tender and loving way. I also learnt so much about Cambodia and it's history that I wasn't aware of before. And lets be real it's getting bonus points because I really like the cover haha.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I wasn't going to rate books this year. But this beautiful memoir had me wanting to both happy and sad cry the whole way through
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Great read on culture acceptance and bond between daughter and mother.
This is such a powerful book, which I know is in part to me also being a queer Asian daughter with an interest in journalism. Reang's writing is so raw that I almost couldn't stand to read about her and her mother's dual pain - Reang not being allowed to live as herself and her mother for "failing" to raise her correctly. There were parts where I was so angry at her family for putting tradition before her well-being, but this never painted anyone as just their bad parts.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, Xenophobia
Minor: War
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced