Reviews

This book raises some interesting questions about the morality/irony of trying to do the best for your children and how that can spill over into damaging them instead. There were dark thought processes that I found very painful to explore for personal reasons, but it was liberating in a way, to hear them.

I will say though that in general the author’s style doesn’t suit me, as there’s a lot of meandering with the thoughts of each character over the same points. Maybe that is true to how we agonise over our problems, but it makes for a dull read in book format.

There was a fantastic interview at the end of my edition and it surprised me how many elements of Angie Kim’s life is in this book, and the context she gave as well as the interviewer/editor’s excellent questions really bring some of the duller parts of the book to life (I do wish the writing alone could have done that). Anyway, I appreciated her describing the need to maintain the “whydunnit” and “howdunnit” for as long as possible, even if the whodunnit became clear. I also appreciated the visual of her at her tiny closet desk with all her research keeping timelines in check above her…best of luck to this author in her second book.

heathcliff's review against another edition

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4.0

A strong showing for Kim’s first novel. As a court room drama and a murder mystery it was thrilling and I sped through the pages quickly because I was dying to find out whodunit. Thematically it is also strong and I was particularly moved by the way the novel negotiates motherhood, especially being a mother to special needs kids.

The one weakness I would say is the novel kind of ends a bit too conveniently and the revealing of secrets kind of happens clumsily. The final chapter between the Yoos also came across as quite cliche and my big pet peeve is when dialogue doesn’t even sound realistic at all.

Also the white guy just gets away with it? I quit.

liinukka's review against another edition

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5.0

This book was so well written! I couldn't put it down. The pacing was quick like a thriller, but you still got so much character development and vivid portrayals of everybody. I think a lot of contemporary writers should take note, because this is exactly how you can write about characters who are terribly flawed but sympathetic at the same time. So often lately, I have read books about characters who were so hateful and annoying, and I had a feeling authors felt incapable of writing "real" people who could also be likable.