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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
Moving, complex and layered portrayal of racism, family and forgiveness.
Cha's straightforward writing style and good pacing makes this a quick and engaging read. I know many tend to avoid "heavy" topics because they fear an academic style of writing, but this is a very human novel.
Cha's straightforward writing style and good pacing makes this a quick and engaging read. I know many tend to avoid "heavy" topics because they fear an academic style of writing, but this is a very human novel.
informative
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It is lifted from real life events and it didn’t pay off. It felt shallow, strip down the characters and do a deep dive into their changing opinions and emotions and it could have been fantastic.
I don't feel equipped to write a review of this book, but I can say that I plan on recommending it to everyone I meet. I want to discuss this book with my friends, my church community, my work colleagues, etc.
This is a story of 2 LA families. An African American family lost a sister/aunt many years ago when she was still a teenager. The story of what happened slowly comes out over the course of the novel. Now another family member is getting released from prison. The other family are Korean American. They own a pharmacy in a different part of LA. One of the daughters is very involved in social justice movements. Something happens, and slowly the story of the families starts to draw together.
This is not the most elegantly written novel, but I loved how the characters were all flawed and real and messy.
This is not the most elegantly written novel, but I loved how the characters were all flawed and real and messy.
It’s rare for a novel to succeed in being both thrilling and thoughtful but Steph Cha’s taut novel Your House Will Pay, which examines both the tensions that arise between black and Korean communities in contemporary Los Angeles and the lingering fallout from the riots that tore the city apart in the early 1990s, manages to walk that fine line.
Focusing on the lives of two families, Cha gradually builds a sensitive and nuanced portrait of race relations in the City of Angels, exposing the fault lines of inequality, injustice, prejudice and tension that threatens attempts to find both reconciliation and redemption.
Shifting between the perspectives of Shawn, a middle-aged black man who feels that he might finally have put his tragic and violent past behind him, and Grace, a young Korean woman who is struggling to reconcile the conservatism of her aging parents with the liberalism of her charismatic elder sister, Your House Will Pay explores issues of gang violence, family, redemption, loyalty, promise and betrayal with sharp-eyed clarity.
Both characters, although flawed in their own way, are sympathetically portrayed. Grace’s confusion over her place in contemporary America, and her initial obliviousness to the fault lines that divide her community will resonate with many readers, as will Shawn’s desperation to create a better life for himself and his family and his fear of falling back into his former life, with its tantilising promise of vengeance and repentance.
Despite both characters coming from very different backgrounds and communities to my own, Your House Will Pay did that thing that all excellent fiction does and made me walk a mile in both Shawn and Grace’s shoes. By the end of the novel I was desperate for them both to find the redemption that they sought and transcend the tragic legacy left by a violent flash point in LA’s history.
The novel also boasts a gripping, suspense-filled plot that will have you racing through the pages. In all honesty, I was worried I’d started this one too late for my blog tour review spot but I raced through the book’s 300 or so pages, desperate to find out what was going to happen to these two families. Blending high-octane drama with sharply-observed humour and a touching portrayal of two sets of everyday family lives, the novel packs one hell of an emotional punch and has a resonance that will linger long after you’ve turned the final page.
Combining the page-turning quality of a crime thriller with the sharp and thoughtful prose of literary fiction, Your House Will Pay is a mesmerising portrait of family life, personal legacies, and race relations. Tackling a subject of huge contemporary relevance with both nuance and sensitivity, this is a novel that will stay with me and that I will be urging friends and family to read – and that I would urge all of you reading this to go and pick up too.
NB: This review also appeared on my blog, The Shelf of Unread Books, at https://theshelfofunreadbooks.wordpress.com/ as part of the blog tour for the book. My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.
Focusing on the lives of two families, Cha gradually builds a sensitive and nuanced portrait of race relations in the City of Angels, exposing the fault lines of inequality, injustice, prejudice and tension that threatens attempts to find both reconciliation and redemption.
Shifting between the perspectives of Shawn, a middle-aged black man who feels that he might finally have put his tragic and violent past behind him, and Grace, a young Korean woman who is struggling to reconcile the conservatism of her aging parents with the liberalism of her charismatic elder sister, Your House Will Pay explores issues of gang violence, family, redemption, loyalty, promise and betrayal with sharp-eyed clarity.
Both characters, although flawed in their own way, are sympathetically portrayed. Grace’s confusion over her place in contemporary America, and her initial obliviousness to the fault lines that divide her community will resonate with many readers, as will Shawn’s desperation to create a better life for himself and his family and his fear of falling back into his former life, with its tantilising promise of vengeance and repentance.
Despite both characters coming from very different backgrounds and communities to my own, Your House Will Pay did that thing that all excellent fiction does and made me walk a mile in both Shawn and Grace’s shoes. By the end of the novel I was desperate for them both to find the redemption that they sought and transcend the tragic legacy left by a violent flash point in LA’s history.
The novel also boasts a gripping, suspense-filled plot that will have you racing through the pages. In all honesty, I was worried I’d started this one too late for my blog tour review spot but I raced through the book’s 300 or so pages, desperate to find out what was going to happen to these two families. Blending high-octane drama with sharply-observed humour and a touching portrayal of two sets of everyday family lives, the novel packs one hell of an emotional punch and has a resonance that will linger long after you’ve turned the final page.
Combining the page-turning quality of a crime thriller with the sharp and thoughtful prose of literary fiction, Your House Will Pay is a mesmerising portrait of family life, personal legacies, and race relations. Tackling a subject of huge contemporary relevance with both nuance and sensitivity, this is a novel that will stay with me and that I will be urging friends and family to read – and that I would urge all of you reading this to go and pick up too.
NB: This review also appeared on my blog, The Shelf of Unread Books, at https://theshelfofunreadbooks.wordpress.com/ as part of the blog tour for the book. My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
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
I found this to be a great read because the author achieves what can be rare: telling a two sided story where both sides feel like fleshed out, real people.
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced