jannythelibrarian 's review for:

Flashlight by Susan Choi

3.5

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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everything about this book sounds like it was written for me. but holy heck it was a slog. could have been 150 pages shorter

the plot was interesting, especially with the appa's story post disappearance:

life in north korea craziness

but there was too much introspective meandering. descriptions times a million

good/beautiful writing but felt my mind wandering because she goes into too much depth. just get to it pleaseeee. e.g.

the last chapter with louisa meeting her aging appa after he escaped north korea/china. too many feelings

everyone is broken and everyone kinda sucks: the girl was funny as a kid and turned into a very angry person, blames mom for everything. mom and her secret affair child, and has a terrible relationship with her daughter. the secret son and his love affair with japan (i didn't get this). appa treats his wife a korean husband, and he has a lot of internalized trauma but what do you expect when he lived through ww2 as a korean living in japan. happy ending i guess