mikolee 's review for:

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes

1.0

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Hmmm. At first I was pulled in by this novel focused on dual stories of a Chinese American woman in the Orcas island around the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act and a contemporary white woman who has inherited the property and wants to turn it into a luxury hotel.

I generally appreciate historical novels. And I like the focus on API stories. Also the construct of finding an embroidered silk sleeve and unraveling the history behind it is quite poetic.

Then as I read more I was irritated and thought, wait a Chinese woman wouldn’t say that, do that. What? There is a whole part when she wonders over her “slanted eyes”. What? We don’t do that. This is who we are. Augh!

And this is also the white male savior trope all over again.

And the contemporary sections were like a cheesy harlequin romance.

Then I looked up the author, who isn’t API and then it made sense why it doesn’t culturally represent a Chinese american woman. This is why people should write what they know. This is why cultural appropriation is not ok.

And the corporation with the evil history (ie most corporations) and the apology. Sigh.


Much better Chinese american woman historical piece is “1000 Pieces of Gold.”
Much better dual storyline set in NW is “A Tale for the Time being”