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A review by bookshelfbyla
The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
4.5
“Grief sucked everything with it, left holes in the body that nothing, not even music, could fill”
In Vanessa Chan’s debut novel ‘The Storm We Made’ we are taken to Malaya (now Malaysia) in 1945 where the Japanese forces invaded and occupied in WWII.
Teenage boys are going missing and we follow the Alcantara family as their son Abel is the next to disappear. We find Cecily suffering from immense guilt as she feels not only responsible for the disappearance of her son but also the reason for the Japanese occupation. We find out she has been playing double duty — an unassuming housewife to a mother of 3 and a spy to General Fujiwara of the Japanese Imperial Army.
“It should not be the way of the world that the white men win everything”
This is a complex story from the backdrop to the characters. Most of the time we read stories where your enemy is your polar opposite, but what happens when your enemy looks like you? We see the same people who suffer pain, also inflict it on others. Your trusted friends can betray you and even your family can become people you don’t recognize.
I was gripped from the first chapter. I love that we followed the POV of Cecily and her 3 children. It is so well written and crafted with the dual timelines (of 1945 and ten years prior) to see the cause and effect of Cecily’s actions. Despite the heavy horrors the characters face, I read majority of this in a day.
Stories like these are my favorite. I am introduced to a history I unfortunately knew very little about and it reminds me how much havoc war and struggles for power ruin people and turn them into their worst selves. And sadly, as shown in the story the innocent tend to pay the heaviest price.
This is a phenomenal debut. I cannot wait to read more from Vanessa. I highly recommend picking this up especially if you enjoy historical fiction.
In Vanessa Chan’s debut novel ‘The Storm We Made’ we are taken to Malaya (now Malaysia) in 1945 where the Japanese forces invaded and occupied in WWII.
Teenage boys are going missing and we follow the Alcantara family as their son Abel is the next to disappear. We find Cecily suffering from immense guilt as she feels not only responsible for the disappearance of her son but also the reason for the Japanese occupation. We find out she has been playing double duty — an unassuming housewife to a mother of 3 and a spy to General Fujiwara of the Japanese Imperial Army.
“It should not be the way of the world that the white men win everything”
This is a complex story from the backdrop to the characters. Most of the time we read stories where your enemy is your polar opposite, but what happens when your enemy looks like you? We see the same people who suffer pain, also inflict it on others. Your trusted friends can betray you and even your family can become people you don’t recognize.
I was gripped from the first chapter. I love that we followed the POV of Cecily and her 3 children. It is so well written and crafted with the dual timelines (of 1945 and ten years prior) to see the cause and effect of Cecily’s actions. Despite the heavy horrors the characters face, I read majority of this in a day.
Stories like these are my favorite. I am introduced to a history I unfortunately knew very little about and it reminds me how much havoc war and struggles for power ruin people and turn them into their worst selves. And sadly, as shown in the story the innocent tend to pay the heaviest price.
This is a phenomenal debut. I cannot wait to read more from Vanessa. I highly recommend picking this up especially if you enjoy historical fiction.
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape