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eyedrop's review against another edition
3.0
3/5
What Lies Between Us is about a Sri Lankan girl who moves to the US after a tragic event occurs. However, we start off with this unnamed girl in a jail cell. This book is her story of how she ended up where she is now.
I really liked the author's writing style. Her descriptions of Sri Lanka really set the atmosphere and I loved it. I am willing to check out her other book, Island of a Thousand Mirrors, for that reason alone. I also liked the theme of exploring sexuality, as well as how the title can be interpreted two different ways.
I think the main reason I did not like this book as much as other readers is the fact that I did not connect with the main character. For a character-driven story, I could not care enough to sympathize. Early on, I already had an idea of what crime she was going to commit from context. In my opinion the rest of the story did not excuse it. I think I might have related more to her if I was older. (Possible plans to revisit this book.)
OVERALL: What Lies Between Us is a fascinating story with lush descriptions of Sri Lanka, but I could not attach myself to the main character.
wendys_lit's review against another edition
4.0
4 Stars.
A Sri-Lankan girl and her mother try to find solace in each other as the world around them seems to shatter. A woman who breaks in front of her child, but does her best to do so behind closed doors. A daughter who cannot seem to understand the terrors occurring to her, and wants nothing more but her mother's love. The time passes and a new story unfolds, and yet again history is caught repeating itself. Motherhood, often painted gently with extravagance, is instead presented here in its rawest, truest form from the perspective of the mothers who would truly do anything for their child.
Absolutely heart wrenching. A novel that takes you by the throat and commands you to listen. I had heard plenty of good things about this pick from several booktubers, and thought I would give it a shot. I have never been the biggest fan of poetic, flowery writing, simply because a) I get lost in too vivid of an image/passage, or b) I feel it is extraneous and unnecessary. In What Lies Between Us, Nayomi Munaweera tells a story that comes to life with some of the most beautiful, entrancing writing I have ever read. From the chilling prologue to the perfect epilogue, a masterpiece on every page.
A Sri-Lankan girl and her mother try to find solace in each other as the world around them seems to shatter. A woman who breaks in front of her child, but does her best to do so behind closed doors. A daughter who cannot seem to understand the terrors occurring to her, and wants nothing more but her mother's love. The time passes and a new story unfolds, and yet again history is caught repeating itself. Motherhood, often painted gently with extravagance, is instead presented here in its rawest, truest form from the perspective of the mothers who would truly do anything for their child.
Absolutely heart wrenching. A novel that takes you by the throat and commands you to listen. I had heard plenty of good things about this pick from several booktubers, and thought I would give it a shot. I have never been the biggest fan of poetic, flowery writing, simply because a) I get lost in too vivid of an image/passage, or b) I feel it is extraneous and unnecessary. In What Lies Between Us, Nayomi Munaweera tells a story that comes to life with some of the most beautiful, entrancing writing I have ever read. From the chilling prologue to the perfect epilogue, a masterpiece on every page.
tejaswininaik's review against another edition
4.0
Going through that phase of binge reading an author because I just can't get enough of Munaweera's prose. The theme is the very familiar immigrant experiences that you read by Chitra Banerjee or Jhumpa Lahiri added with psychological flavor of the kinds of Celeste Ng. An amazing blend of the above themes interspersed to form a beautiful concoction that you end up craving for more.
It is a story told in first person by a person who is in prison and she takes us through her journey of a girl brought up in Sri Lanka and forced to move to US under certain circumstances and how she feels an alien in US with a lot of cultural differences. Something in her childhood which has deeply affected her and how it causes a havoc in her future is the essence of the novel. Its a 4/5 from me and I already have a new favorite "immigrant American" author
It is a story told in first person by a person who is in prison and she takes us through her journey of a girl brought up in Sri Lanka and forced to move to US under certain circumstances and how she feels an alien in US with a lot of cultural differences. Something in her childhood which has deeply affected her and how it causes a havoc in her future is the essence of the novel. Its a 4/5 from me and I already have a new favorite "immigrant American" author
elkcariboubiologist's review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
So much happens before we are born. We come into being in the middle of the narrative, midway through stories that have been unfolding long before us. We totter in on our fat infant feet and attempt to take our places on the stage, but we know only a fragment of the bewildering plotline, only a sliver of the odd characters we encounter. The big people have been practicing their lines and playing their parts for decades.
This book is going to sit with me for a long time. From the the most intense prologue I have ever read and the first chapter, you pretty much know what is going to happen, but you just don't know why. And even knowing from the first pages what is going to happen, when it comes, it is horrible and gut-wrenching. And yet I couldn't put the book down, ignoring all my other chores today just to finish it. That says something about the brilliance of this author. The book follows the unnamed (until the very end) narrator from birth through...as another review wrote: a broken child becomes a broken adults becomes a broken mother. Which is a perfect description. The writing was beautiful and the pace of the book was fitting for the story that needed to be told in my opinion. I was dropped into these lives and these places and I felt like I was there.
This is a hard one to recommend though. Because as beautiful as the writing is, the palpable pain and disastrous consequences are likely very triggering to some.
This book is going to sit with me for a long time. From the the most intense prologue I have ever read and the first chapter, you pretty much know what is going to happen, but you just don't know why. And even knowing from the first pages what is going to happen, when it comes, it is horrible and gut-wrenching. And yet I couldn't put the book down, ignoring all my other chores today just to finish it. That says something about the brilliance of this author. The book follows the unnamed (until the very end) narrator from birth through...as another review wrote: a broken child becomes a broken adults becomes a broken mother. Which is a perfect description. The writing was beautiful and the pace of the book was fitting for the story that needed to be told in my opinion. I was dropped into these lives and these places and I felt like I was there.
This is a hard one to recommend though. Because as beautiful as the writing is, the palpable pain and disastrous consequences are likely very triggering to some.
bpdcat's review against another edition
4.0
The novel What Lies Between Us by Nayomi Munaweera follows the life of a character named Ganga from her childhood in Sri Lanka to her adulthood in Northern California. The story consists of many traumatic events that the character goes through, and the main theme of the book is the character repressing her trauma until she reaches her breaking point and commits an unthinkable act. Ganga displays an unconscious desire to not acknowledge and process her trauma, and the way it affected her behaviors structure all of the events of the novel. It is through the lens of this trauma that all of her actions must be viewed.It is a good book, and it shines a light on mental illness and what trauma can do to a person and in how they act. However, I felt like it was trauma corn because of all these traumatic things happening to the character back to back. I will be reading this again this year several times as this book was assigned reading material. I might come back and edit my rating.
Edit: I still feel the same way about this book. Some of the trauma could have been left out in this book and it still would have the same effect and same plotline. With that being said, I have come to appreciate this book a lot more. This book gives awareness and perspective on topics that are widely not discussed in today's society. Because of this I even learned some things about my past behaviors that I had not realized until reading this novel. I feel like the novel itself is unique because its underlying theme is what unprocessed trauma can do to a person. This topic is not widely talked about today let alone the overarching theme in a novel. I appreciate that because trauma is something that most of us humans will go through at some point in our life, so more awareness and information regarding the effects of trauma and what it can do to a person if left untreated should be talked about more.
Not to mention that not only does the book talk about trauma, but it also talks about what it is like and the experience of leaving everything behind to become an immigrant in America. That in itself is traumatizing, and as someone who grew up in a predominantly white town that had no immigrants in West Virginia, it was unique to gain some insight. I would recommend this book as a reader. It is not for the faint-hearted, but neither is life. I love the topics and issues that the author included in this novel.
Edit: I still feel the same way about this book. Some of the trauma could have been left out in this book and it still would have the same effect and same plotline. With that being said, I have come to appreciate this book a lot more. This book gives awareness and perspective on topics that are widely not discussed in today's society. Because of this I even learned some things about my past behaviors that I had not realized until reading this novel. I feel like the novel itself is unique because its underlying theme is what unprocessed trauma can do to a person. This topic is not widely talked about today let alone the overarching theme in a novel. I appreciate that because trauma is something that most of us humans will go through at some point in our life, so more awareness and information regarding the effects of trauma and what it can do to a person if left untreated should be talked about more.
Not to mention that not only does the book talk about trauma, but it also talks about what it is like and the experience of leaving everything behind to become an immigrant in America. That in itself is traumatizing, and as someone who grew up in a predominantly white town that had no immigrants in West Virginia, it was unique to gain some insight. I would recommend this book as a reader. It is not for the faint-hearted, but neither is life. I love the topics and issues that the author included in this novel.
poodletoesrn's review against another edition
5.0
This book is beautifully written, the kind of book where individual sentences can be so delicious that you to read them over and over again, not just for the meaning, but because of the beauty of the words themselves. . I can't remember the last time a book left me so heartbroken.