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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-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
Shanghailanders promises a story about how "family will always be stubbornly connected by blood, secrets, and longing," told through a backwards-moving plot that follows various members of one central family, as well as others who are drawn into their orbit. It sounded promising, but I was vaguely disgusted by the first chapter, so I should have just stopped there. Instead, I forced my way through this book, and I am not asking for sympathy for not DNFing a book that I was destined to hate, but PLEASE hear me out on why I found this book so repulsive. The first chapter begins with Leo, the patriarch of the family, on a train, reflecting on his relationship with his daughters and his wife. The year is 2040. The chapter switches rapidly between the perspectives of various people on the train, all of whom are vaguely connected to Leo and his family. This was somewhat interesting, and I expected this trend to continue throughout the book, but the device of chapters being told by varying points of view was quickly dropped after the first chapter and not brought back up. Immediately I was grossed out by the book, because the first chapter alone was just completely icky and weird about women. Example: the train attendant's only personality trait is thinking she's fat, and the only descriptors she's given revolve around her weight. Leo obsesses over being stared at by a woman and reflects on how much he enjoys being desired by women, and then reflects more on how little he thinks of his wife. This does an excellent job of setting up the entire book for being weird about women, and I can promise you that the first chapter is not an outlier, it's a perfect representation of how sexist the entire book is.
Every character, especially the women, in this book are sexist. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't even begin to cover every single sexist line of dialogue and internal though that was had, because there are so many. If a woman is being discussed, then the characters are thinking or talking about her in a sexist way, and the author frames the character in a sexist way. There's a particularly disgusting chapter where one of Leo's daughters goes poking around in a woman's bathroom and provides several lines of internal dialogue about how large the woman's vagina is. It is seriously gross. Women are not allowed to exist without being commented on in this book, and I am going to say this just so that my bases are covered even though I don't think this should matter: the hatefulness towards women does not add to the plot at all. Unless, of course, the author's intention was to make everyone in her story seem horrendous, which she did, but even then, why would I want to read a book full of so much hate? I digress. There are way too many mentions of Israel in this book, including a side character who literally served in the IDF. I'm not going to explain why that is atrocious, because you should know. Also, there is a chapter where one of the sisters calls her sister the R-slur literally what felt like thirty times. It was probably closer to 10, and I get it, kids are mean, but this was a lot. Again, added nothing to the story, just hateful language for the sake of it. I seriously could not believe what I was reading.
Aside from the sexist overtones, and the weird obsession with Israel, and the R-slur being used, the plot of this book had me at a loss. I was expecting something like Christopher Nolan's Memento when I read about the backward plot, but it was nothing like that. It was more just static vignettes that were revealed to you in reverse order, and even that sounds cooler than it actually was. I felt like the promise of a story told in reverse was more promising that what actually happened.
Basically, I did not like this book. This seriously should have been my first DNF.
Every character, especially the women, in this book are sexist. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't even begin to cover every single sexist line of dialogue and internal though that was had, because there are so many. If a woman is being discussed, then the characters are thinking or talking about her in a sexist way, and the author frames the character in a sexist way. There's a particularly disgusting chapter where one of Leo's daughters goes poking around in a woman's bathroom and provides several lines of internal dialogue about how large the woman's vagina is. It is seriously gross. Women are not allowed to exist without being commented on in this book, and I am going to say this just so that my bases are covered even though I don't think this should matter: the hatefulness towards women does not add to the plot at all. Unless, of course, the author's intention was to make everyone in her story seem horrendous, which she did, but even then, why would I want to read a book full of so much hate? I digress. There are way too many mentions of Israel in this book, including a side character who literally served in the IDF. I'm not going to explain why that is atrocious, because you should know. Also, there is a chapter where one of the sisters calls her sister the R-slur literally what felt like thirty times. It was probably closer to 10, and I get it, kids are mean, but this was a lot. Again, added nothing to the story, just hateful language for the sake of it. I seriously could not believe what I was reading.
Aside from the sexist overtones, and the weird obsession with Israel, and the R-slur being used, the plot of this book had me at a loss. I was expecting something like Christopher Nolan's Memento when I read about the backward plot, but it was nothing like that. It was more just static vignettes that were revealed to you in reverse order, and even that sounds cooler than it actually was. I felt like the promise of a story told in reverse was more promising that what actually happened.
Basically, I did not like this book. This seriously should have been my first DNF.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This started off intriguing— the story is told backwards across decades, and from multiple POVs. For the first few chapters, I liked the mind puzzle of figuring out characters’ interlocking relationships to one another.
I’m so disappointed that the story goes nowhere. Truly, nothing happens. The book seems to be about a marriage that’s just okay, until it tips to not fruitful, and then reverse outlining the 3 decades of why separation was the inevitable conclusion. Okay. Both characters seemed boring and unhappy together— I had no stake in this.
I saw a few reviewers mention that the book is more about “the characters” but that doesn’t hold water for me either. The sister is cruel, for what purpose? The other sister is smart, so? The husband is a man who hasn’t dealt with childhood trauma— he does not grow by the end, because we start at the end. The POVs from the family driver and nanny felt random.
I felt fine about the book for most of it, enough to keep going. I liked the settings of Shanghai/Paris. But the final third was especially disappointing— why tell the story in reverse if there’s no “aha! it comes together!” at the end? Also, I’m irked that the initial story was set in the near future of 2044…..we didn’t explore technology, or world events, or politics (save the 2020 chapter of course being about the pandemic— but only that a nanny struggled to find a job….not the, yknow, millions of people dying).
I’m so disappointed that the story goes nowhere. Truly, nothing happens. The book seems to be about a marriage that’s just okay, until it tips to not fruitful, and then reverse outlining the 3 decades of why separation was the inevitable conclusion. Okay. Both characters seemed boring and unhappy together— I had no stake in this.
I saw a few reviewers mention that the book is more about “the characters” but that doesn’t hold water for me either. The sister is cruel, for what purpose? The other sister is smart, so? The husband is a man who hasn’t dealt with childhood trauma— he does not grow by the end, because we start at the end. The POVs from the family driver and nanny felt random.
I felt fine about the book for most of it, enough to keep going. I liked the settings of Shanghai/Paris. But the final third was especially disappointing— why tell the story in reverse if there’s no “aha! it comes together!” at the end? Also, I’m irked that the initial story was set in the near future of 2044…..we didn’t explore technology, or world events, or politics (save the 2020 chapter of course being about the pandemic— but only that a nanny struggled to find a job….not the, yknow, millions of people dying).
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It was hard finishing this book. Its a great idea for a book, but I don't think it was propperly executed. My problem is mostly the writing, but I also get that this is Juli Min's first book.
I think the execution would had been better by giving us the 1st chapter from the family's perspective and then going back in time with the POVs of other people. I really liked the chapters about the chofer and the nanny, those were really great.
I think the execution would had been better by giving us the 1st chapter from the family's perspective and then going back in time with the POVs of other people. I really liked the chapters about the chofer and the nanny, those were really great.
Fun to read a story backward and Min handles the structure well. It is interesting to know as we go farther and farther back what the future has in store for these characters. My one quibble is that lots of child dialog can be obnoxious and it is here as well.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated