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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
This was recommended to me by an acquaintance on Twitter. Pros: I learned quite a bit of history about Malaya (Malaysia) and Japanese POW camps during WWII. Cons: the style felt detached/cold and I never fully connected with Yun Ling, the narrator. All of the prose was very pretty, but lacked emotion, for what should have been an extremely moving story.
This book was a slow start for me. It took me until I was about 20% of the way through to get into the story. Then I was captivated and moved.
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was an amazing read. I loved the fact that it had a slow (but quite steady) pace. It forced me to slow down and read the pages. The author's descriptions of the times and places were very rich and once I googled some of the locations and theme's of the book I was able to have such a crisp and vivid picture of the characters and story in my mind. Personally I enjoy a book that makes me look up words or use the internet to gain a better understanding. Malaysia, and SE Asia during WWII are topics I have very little knowledge of and are not typically things that draw me in, but the story of Yun Ling was compelling. As I read in another review, this is a book that leaves me wanting more and made me sad when I came to the end. A great read if you want to slow down and learn about a time and place about which you may not know much. I have so much history to look at and read!
I really enjoyed this book. The only problem I ran into was I had a hard time picturing the characters ages. As it bounces around in flashbacks between long past and more recent past I never really could develop a sense of what the characters looked like or how old they were. That being said the other descriptions in the book are picture perfect. The world is beautiful.
To begin with, while I thoroughly enjoyed the beautifully descriptive writing, I felt the pace of the story was far too slow and, as each chapter flitted back and forth through the decades, it was just a little bit confusing. Once into the story though, I did begin to enjoy it. The quality of the writing is superb.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Got the audiobook, which is read by a white British actress. I found the accents she was doing very racist. Quite shocked actually.