A review by mitskacir
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

3.0

3.5 stars. This was an interesting read, but I wasn’t thrilled by it. Pros: learned about the Akha, a Chinese ethnic minority, that I knew nothing about (it seems like the author did her research, so I hope she painted an accurate picture); learned about Chinese tea culture; the story had good pacing; the story was about the power and resilience of women, and although it dipped its toes into the “I’m a unique woman who is bad at embroidery and likes to read” trope, it managed to be more than that. Cons: overall the writing was good, but characters talked in slightly unnatural ways in order to explain Akha culture and tea to the reader; See used alternate ways of telling us Haley’s story (emails, essays, transcripts from counseling sessions) and I didn’t hate it but wasn’t sure how much it really added to her story; the main character seemed unrealistically competent at adapting to mainstream modern life - I honestly think it would have been interesting to hear more about how she adapted and her opinions on the differences between her new life and her Akha upbringing.