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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
Phantoms by Christian Kiefer is a story that follows John Frazier, our main character, while he reluctantly chases ghosts in order to investigate the disappearance of Vietnam Veteran Ray Takahashi, whose family were neighbors and friends with John's Aunt Evelyn years prior. John becomes the bridge between truth and fallacy as well as memory and guilt as he tries to piece together the events of the past.
Phantoms is a story that really affected me. As you experience this journey, you become aware of how every single action of the people in this story, big or small, is culpable in the disappearance of Ray. You feel the weight that each decision, lie, and mistake has and it devastated me. This book has a handful of characters and though the main character is John Frazier, Ray Takahashi is the real star of this story.
Ray's story (and fate) is not unlike so many other Japanese Americans, not only at the time of the Vietnam War, but all throughout American history. I try my best for spoiler free reviews, so all I will say is that I was definitely in tears by the time I reached the last page of this book.
There's not much else I can say, considering the fact that this is a story that you need to just experience yourself while reading. The only reason that this isn't a 5 star rating is because I do not believe that we needed to see Ray's story through the lens of a white (savior) narrator. This is a common theme that occurs throughout historical fiction and it is so unbelievably outdated.
Otherwise, this is such a good read. Have some tissues ready!
Phantoms is a story that really affected me. As you experience this journey, you become aware of how every single action of the people in this story, big or small, is culpable in the disappearance of Ray. You feel the weight that each decision, lie, and mistake has and it devastated me. This book has a handful of characters and though the main character is John Frazier, Ray Takahashi is the real star of this story.
Ray's story (and fate) is not unlike so many other Japanese Americans, not only at the time of the Vietnam War, but all throughout American history. I try my best for spoiler free reviews, so all I will say is that I was definitely in tears by the time I reached the last page of this book.
There's not much else I can say, considering the fact that this is a story that you need to just experience yourself while reading. The only reason that this isn't a 5 star rating is because I do not believe that we needed to see Ray's story through the lens of a white (savior) narrator. This is a common theme that occurs throughout historical fiction and it is so unbelievably outdated.
Otherwise, this is such a good read. Have some tissues ready!
Oh, wow. This one was hard to rate. The subject matter definitely needs to be talked about and the plot was solid. My main problem was the author's style. He uses a weird POV switching style that when used in this way, really just distracts from the main story. There's really nothing you get from switching view that way, and quite a bit of the drama of the story is lost in the going back and forth.
So I was on the fence about what to rate this and I was thinking about 3 stars, you know, kind of mediocre, but had its good parts. But then I thought about the fact that it barely touches on the Japanese internment camps at all. Like, why set your book with a Japanese character in that time period and barely deal directly with the subject matter at hand? Was he trying to be coy? Why shine a light on a subject only to immediately after hide it under a bush? It makes no sense. So in the end, I had to knock off a star for that. If you're going to take the time to set a period piece during an important time in our history, you have got to show that history, warts and all, and you aren't doing anybody any favors by white washing or avoiding events.
So I was on the fence about what to rate this and I was thinking about 3 stars, you know, kind of mediocre, but had its good parts. But then I thought about the fact that it barely touches on the Japanese internment camps at all. Like, why set your book with a Japanese character in that time period and barely deal directly with the subject matter at hand? Was he trying to be coy? Why shine a light on a subject only to immediately after hide it under a bush? It makes no sense. So in the end, I had to knock off a star for that. If you're going to take the time to set a period piece during an important time in our history, you have got to show that history, warts and all, and you aren't doing anybody any favors by white washing or avoiding events.
This book is really sad. Initially, I liked the story from the point of view of the Takahashis more than John’s story, but eventually they blended together and I no longer resented the shifts in narrative. It’s a sad book about Japanese internment and racism in the US and the terrible effects that war has on soldiers who come back from any war.