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emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Infidelity
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I found this book very well-written and very profound. Set in the not-so-distant future (it seems like 2050s or 2060s), this book takes place in San Francisco, where it's been raining and flooding for seven years and the majority of people have left the city. Bo is an artist whose mother died two years ago in a big flood: ever since, Bo has felt stuck and unable to leave, even though the rest of her family has already moved away. Then she gets asked to be a caretaker for Mia, her 130-year-old neighbor, and everything changes.
This book reminded me a lot of All the Water in the World, which I read a few months ago and loved. But that was more of an adventure story, while this book is more about how you build a life when the world is falling apart. Bo is completely adrift, lost without her family and her art but also anchored in a way she can't escape. Mia is alone, as well, and she is dying, slowly but surely. Their relationship moves from unease to tenderness to contempt to unease to something like friendship and all the way back, and it's a really moving portrayal of caretaking and finding a purpose when everything is just so messed up. The difficulties of caretaking for both sides weren't sugarcoated, and I loved the complexities of Bo and Mia's different family dynamics and relationship with the past and present.
This book also really explores Bo and Mia's Chinese-American identities and details Mia's life growing up in rural China and living under Japanese occupation, and then moving to San Francisco with a husband she barely knew and trying to make it work. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book - it was interesting to see what Bo learned that she never knew, and it provided lots of space for Bo and Mia to understand each other. I also just feel like I learned a lot, especially as the book was ending.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
This book reminded me a lot of All the Water in the World, which I read a few months ago and loved. But that was more of an adventure story, while this book is more about how you build a life when the world is falling apart. Bo is completely adrift, lost without her family and her art but also anchored in a way she can't escape. Mia is alone, as well, and she is dying, slowly but surely. Their relationship moves from unease to tenderness to contempt to unease to something like friendship and all the way back, and it's a really moving portrayal of caretaking and finding a purpose when everything is just so messed up. The difficulties of caretaking for both sides weren't sugarcoated, and I loved the complexities of Bo and Mia's different family dynamics and relationship with the past and present.
This book also really explores Bo and Mia's Chinese-American identities and details Mia's life growing up in rural China and living under Japanese occupation, and then moving to San Francisco with a husband she barely knew and trying to make it work. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book - it was interesting to see what Bo learned that she never knew, and it provided lots of space for Bo and Mia to understand each other. I also just feel like I learned a lot, especially as the book was ending.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Sexual assault, War
reflective
sad
slow-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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Dementia, Abandonment