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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Two weeks after four LAPD officers were caught on camera "arresting" Rodney King, 15 year old Latasha Harlins is shot at point blank range by Korean store owner Soon Ja Du, her death captured on grainy convenience store footage.
It's the inspiration for what Steph Cha calls her social crime novel. Here, Ava Matthew is likewise shot by a Korean shopkeeper. 30 years later, Ava's brother Shawn is trying to move past the tragedy and lives a quiet live in Palmdale working as a mover. Their cousin Ray is just out of prison after a 10 year stint for armed robbery with a toy gun. Their lives are about to collide with Grace Park.
It's a story about processing grief and the possibility of grace. How people work through a tragedy in the moments after and how it lingers decades later. Even now one can see it preface #BlackLiveMatter and echo the LA riots in Watts almost 30 years prior. A powerful read. If you're looking for context, the National Geographic documentary "LA 92", that is comprised completely of footage from that era, is incredibly good. As well, the YouTube documentary "Sa I Gu" that focuses on the Korean women whose lives were irrevocably changed in the aftermath of the riots is equally wrenching.
Full review here: https://youtu.be/OMZOBskPA4c
It's the inspiration for what Steph Cha calls her social crime novel. Here, Ava Matthew is likewise shot by a Korean shopkeeper. 30 years later, Ava's brother Shawn is trying to move past the tragedy and lives a quiet live in Palmdale working as a mover. Their cousin Ray is just out of prison after a 10 year stint for armed robbery with a toy gun. Their lives are about to collide with Grace Park.
It's a story about processing grief and the possibility of grace. How people work through a tragedy in the moments after and how it lingers decades later. Even now one can see it preface #BlackLiveMatter and echo the LA riots in Watts almost 30 years prior. A powerful read. If you're looking for context, the National Geographic documentary "LA 92", that is comprised completely of footage from that era, is incredibly good. As well, the YouTube documentary "Sa I Gu" that focuses on the Korean women whose lives were irrevocably changed in the aftermath of the riots is equally wrenching.
Full review here: https://youtu.be/OMZOBskPA4c
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
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
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was weird because while it added to my list of understanding and gave me some more context, it didn’t have a point. Like yeah, anti black violence will happen again and again, police will suck again and again, prison hurts people, these are all things that are known. The understanding between the black and Korean community of la was kinda new but also...to have the true story of this girls death factionalized felt a little strange. It was just odd
emotional
reflective
slow-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
Your House Will Pay is a clear pick for fans of Attica Locke's work, who enjoy the skilled way Locke creates characters, relationships, and settings, and situates them around a crime. And, like Locke, Cha is interested in building America's history into her character's worlds; choosing to use the LA race riots as the catalyst for this novel's plot, and using flashbacks to make sure the reader gets a strong feel for this period of time.
There's also a lot in this novel that will interest readers who loved Tayari Jones' American Marriage. With Shawn and Ray's story lines, Steph Cha explores how prison life changes two people in very different ways. She puts historic, and present, racial tensions between African Americans and Korean Americans at the centre of her novel. And she cleverly makes family life and relationships into the heart of her story; making sure that readers remember crime is the disruption of the everyday life of complex, ordinary human beings.
While Your House Will Pay is shaped by two violent acts, and one shocking secret, its focus is often on the daily life of the two families connected by these acts. This makes it, despite the shootings which power its plot, a quieter book which takes its time over the minutiae of how various characters live, and rebuild, their lives in different ways. It's fascinating to get inside the heads of the two main characters Shawn Matthews and Grace Park, and to see their daily emotions written with great care in both the slower moments of life and when more direct drama pushes them both to extremes.
Your House Will Pay is definitely a book for readers who like their thrillers to be just as much about people as plot. I'm keen to try Steph Cha's Juniper Song detective series off the back of this book.
There's also a lot in this novel that will interest readers who loved Tayari Jones' American Marriage. With Shawn and Ray's story lines, Steph Cha explores how prison life changes two people in very different ways. She puts historic, and present, racial tensions between African Americans and Korean Americans at the centre of her novel. And she cleverly makes family life and relationships into the heart of her story; making sure that readers remember crime is the disruption of the everyday life of complex, ordinary human beings.
While Your House Will Pay is shaped by two violent acts, and one shocking secret, its focus is often on the daily life of the two families connected by these acts. This makes it, despite the shootings which power its plot, a quieter book which takes its time over the minutiae of how various characters live, and rebuild, their lives in different ways. It's fascinating to get inside the heads of the two main characters Shawn Matthews and Grace Park, and to see their daily emotions written with great care in both the slower moments of life and when more direct drama pushes them both to extremes.
Your House Will Pay is definitely a book for readers who like their thrillers to be just as much about people as plot. I'm keen to try Steph Cha's Juniper Song detective series off the back of this book.
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-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
4.75 stars rounded up- Cha takes the events of a 1991 murder of a Black teen by a Korean store owner after a scuffle over orange juice and imagines where the family members of those involved would be in 2019. This is my sweet spot for fiction: a perfect blend of character development, compelling plot, and commentary on current societal issues. This book demands to be talked about and would be an excellent book club selection.