Reviews

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

hannahboice's review

4.0

This book of two lives coming together is amazing but the abrupt ending happening at the 90% mark completely took me by surprise. I understand why the author didn’t make an epilogue, but I would have loved to continue further in their lives.

shainswain's review against another edition

adventurous reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

shubbard116's review

4.0

Interesting story about tradition, culture, and family heritage. Clearly well researched by the author. Was a bit slow at times but otherwise enjoyed it.

amandasev's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

everamplify's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I just finished, with tears in my eyes, and so many emotions flowing through me. 

Such a beautiful, rich story and I found I couldn't stop reading! 

If you're able, I highly recommend listening to the audio version as the performances add another level of emotion to an already amazing story.

phoenix2's review

4.0

I picked up this book because this topic interests me. I made my bacherol thesis on the odd ratio between women and men in China, and I do wish this book had come out when I was doing my research, because it gives an insight to how is it to be a woman in China, the cultural transformations the country went through, but the adoption issues as well. Actually, I must congratulate Lisa See, because her work was superb. She not only wrote a novel, but also aproached each character differently and in depth. I was especially amazed by the small passages that she devoted on Haley, her parents and that conversation with the doctor and the other girls was splendid. You could see that the writer had studied hard for this one. Other than that, the story was really good, kind of gave me the gaisha vybes, but not to the point where I could say that this one was a cheap face off. The main character was amazing and I loved how she grew up within the pages of this book, dealing with family, culture, lose and overcoming her own boundaries. I can't really say anything else about this book, other than please read it!! It has a slow start, but it gets better and better by the page!!

hillary_charlotte's review against another edition

4.0

4.5 stars! This is the second book I’ve read by Lisa See and I have loved them both! The characters and relationships are so real, and I enjoyed that the story spanned over a long portion of the characters’ lives.

mercapto's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This book didn’t know what it wanted to be. I was unsurprised to read the author say in the discussion at the back that she had a plan for her characters but not the plot. 

I thought that the handling of the Akha tribe was not great. If writing about an ethnic minority you have no connection to, don’t have the main character disparage every practice they do, and be shown as ‘the voice of reason’ and the only ‘educated’ person. I think the twin situation was only included for shock value, and considered from a western perspective. All of the others in the tribe are obviously devastated at having to do the practice, but it’s part of their culture. However, for Li-yan, it’s as if aged 12 she’s learning the customs and beliefs she’s been brought up with her whole life (and would likely be innate to her) from an outsider’s perspective. Like with a-ma saying ‘in our culture we do this’ as if she didn’t grow up in that culture? It’s clearly directed at us as the reader and not her daughter. It just seems sloppy writing. 

There could have been a very interesting story of this tribe slowing losing its traditional values in the face of commercialism, and instead we just skip forward 8 years and endless descriptions of the inflation rates of tea.

I understand that See was trying to represent the racism toward ethnic minority people in China, but when you’re a descendent of Han-majority writing that the highest complement is ‘Han-majority pretty’ it doesn’t really land. 

The story about Haley and giving up a baby under the One Child Policy should have been its own entity. I found Haley just not believable, seemingly making racial faux pas for the sake of it, just little things like ‘complicated Chinese characters’ and calling the ethnic minority tribes ‘primitive’, and once again See brings up the twin deaths out of all possible aspects of Akha culture. 

It reads like a YA novel, and is just so starkly different from the first half. It didn’t need to be connected to the Akha, it doesn’t benefit the narrative to have them together. She could have got rid of the horribly cheesy notes and document format and actually written the story, as awkward as Haley’s first person narrative is. And personally, I hated the group therapy chapter, what an ineffective way of showing how these girls feel. It needed emotions, feeling. 

That what this lacks. The feeling that the characters feel; it might be written that they do, but there’s no longevity, things just happen. Just writing ‘I’m terrified’ doesn’t do anything, doesn’t make you feel it too. It reads too much like she’s trying to tell use everything she learned in her research while shoving a story in on the side. 

mnqmariah's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

alatarie's review against another edition

4.0

One of the best novels I've ever read!