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msbedelia's review
3.0
This book is about death (and a family coping with it, among other things). It is very beautifully done, but it is difficult, and it won't be for everyone or for all times. I am not sure I am satisfied with the ending, but I am glad I went on the journey.
kat07's review
4.0
This felt so authentic and was so sad! I didn't cry, but the story (and definitely little Natty) broke my heart!
Gavin is a 5th grader in Alaska whose parents came from Taiwan. He is the second oldest out of four until his youngest sister dies from meningitis. The parents appear to sweep their grief under the rug, but Natty, who is too young to understand, keeps asking when Ruby will come home (so heartbreaking!!) While the family tries to move forward, the father is then sued for improperly installing a septic tank, causing harm to a little boy. The family continues to lose even more...
Topics addressed:
-So much of the novel takes place in the beautiful woods of Alaska.
-The motif of stars and exploring space represents the desire for freedom.
-The hope of the American dream is shattered to pieces.
-Death is mourned in so many different ways and can be hard to get through as a family.
Gavin is a 5th grader in Alaska whose parents came from Taiwan. He is the second oldest out of four until his youngest sister dies from meningitis. The parents appear to sweep their grief under the rug, but Natty, who is too young to understand, keeps asking when Ruby will come home (so heartbreaking!!) While the family tries to move forward, the father is then sued for improperly installing a septic tank, causing harm to a little boy. The family continues to lose even more...
Topics addressed:
-So much of the novel takes place in the beautiful woods of Alaska.
-The motif of stars and exploring space represents the desire for freedom.
-The hope of the American dream is shattered to pieces.
-Death is mourned in so many different ways and can be hard to get through as a family.
emalieroy's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
happy_stomach's review
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
tanmai's review
4.0
rly endearing. a beached whale rescued by nothing but the tide and hopeful waiting eyes, days of playing in the woods bw houses - knowing where to step so as not be swallowed whole, a loss that becomes a haunting bc u hide it away instead of grieving . there's a lot of echoes of something familiar too - a mother prone to mercurial moods, anxieties specific to being a kid, taking to observation and noticing everything around you
ljjohnson8's review
3.0
In a desolate part of Alaska, the youngest daughter of a Taiwanese immigrant family dies of meningitis, while her oldest brother - the narrator of this book - survives the same illness. This is a quiet, restrained, well-written book about isolation, the immigrant experience, the search for "home," and devastating grief, particularly the grief of these particular three surviving siblings who attempt to navigate this loss with little understanding or help. A word of warning - unrelentingly sad from beginning to end.
anneke_b's review
4.0
This book sneaks up on you. It is the slowly accelerating downfall of a Taiwanese immigrant family in Alaska through the eyes of 10-year-old Gavin. Haunting, painful and so beautiful too.
Recommended.
Recommended.
jocedun's review
5.0
I am probably biased because I grew up in Anchorage in the 1990s and 2000s, so this setting was unbelievably nostalgic and realistic to me. I loved it.
myjourneywithbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I find that a child narrator, if written well, lends a certain simple and innocent perspective to the story that I really enjoy reading. In The Unpassing, the main character, the eight year old second child of an immigrant Taiwanese family in Alaska, contacts meningitis and falls into a sort of coma. He wakes up to be greeted by the knowledge that his beloved younger sister Ruby had caught meningitis from him but, unlike him, she had not survived.
The story that follows chronicles how each member of the family deals with Ruby's death. The father, a hard-working but beaten down man who works as a plumber and repairman, is sued for a mistake he makes at work. This, compounded by Ruby's death, leads to a rift between him and the highly emotional mother. The children in their turn each display their grief in their own individual ways.
The Unpassing is a melancholic coming-of-age story where not a lot happens; it is definitely more character driven than plot driven. I did initially wish I could feel a deeper connection to the characters but in retrospect I felt that the distance that is always maintained between the reader and the characters reflects to some degree the distance the narrator feels when it comes to his parents.
On the surface it is the story of a family dealing with the loss of a child, but on a deeper level it also deals with the feelings of isolation, inadequacy and not belonging that immigrants might feel, about how the golden dream might actually turn out to be a mirage and what this could mean for the children of parents who leave their homeland to pursue a better life.
I felt like this last part was beautifully captured in this quote from the book: "It was a kind of violence, what my father had done. He had brought us to a place we didn't belong and taken us from a place we did. Now we yearned for all places and found peace in none."
.
It did take me a while to get into this book and I did give up on it once only to pick it up again a few weeks later and get engrossed in it after a few chapters. Beautifully written and a worthy debut.
The story that follows chronicles how each member of the family deals with Ruby's death. The father, a hard-working but beaten down man who works as a plumber and repairman, is sued for a mistake he makes at work. This, compounded by Ruby's death, leads to a rift between him and the highly emotional mother. The children in their turn each display their grief in their own individual ways.
The Unpassing is a melancholic coming-of-age story where not a lot happens; it is definitely more character driven than plot driven. I did initially wish I could feel a deeper connection to the characters but in retrospect I felt that the distance that is always maintained between the reader and the characters reflects to some degree the distance the narrator feels when it comes to his parents.
On the surface it is the story of a family dealing with the loss of a child, but on a deeper level it also deals with the feelings of isolation, inadequacy and not belonging that immigrants might feel, about how the golden dream might actually turn out to be a mirage and what this could mean for the children of parents who leave their homeland to pursue a better life.
I felt like this last part was beautifully captured in this quote from the book: "It was a kind of violence, what my father had done. He had brought us to a place we didn't belong and taken us from a place we did. Now we yearned for all places and found peace in none."
.
It did take me a while to get into this book and I did give up on it once only to pick it up again a few weeks later and get engrossed in it after a few chapters. Beautifully written and a worthy debut.
rhae_t's review
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5