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rynniereads 's review for:
Red String Theory
by Lauren Kung Jessen
Rooney Gao is anonymous conceptual artist Red String Girl whose works center around the Chinese legend of the red string of fate tying people together. Jack Liu is a NASA scientist who stumbles across Rooney and her work on a trip to New York and spends the day with Rooney not knowing she is behind the art. When Jack has the opportunity to help select an artist in residence for NASA he suggests Red String Girl and he and Rooney are reunited. Jack is a man of science who strictly does not believe in fate, but is interested in Rooney’s belief and the pair spend time together learning about each other’s philosophies.
Both of Lauren’s books (this and Lunar Love) are wonderful celebrations of Chinese culture and interesting tales of the traditional elements the younger Chinese-American characters choose to embrace. I do thing Lunar Love worked a bit better for me, but I still enjoyed Red String Theory. I personally am not a big believer in fate so I was happy that this book was dual POV and I could see my views reflected in Jack. I do think the book got bogged down by the repetitive philosophizing about fate and I did find myself skimming sections. I absolutely loved the side characters and would happily read whole books about Jack’s grandfather and Rooney’s mother. I love the works of Christo, and was lucky enough to see one of his installations in person so I had context for the type of art Rooney was known for and enjoyed the artist aspects of the book. This book does come with discussion questions and recipes which would make it a great book club book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Both of Lauren’s books (this and Lunar Love) are wonderful celebrations of Chinese culture and interesting tales of the traditional elements the younger Chinese-American characters choose to embrace. I do thing Lunar Love worked a bit better for me, but I still enjoyed Red String Theory. I personally am not a big believer in fate so I was happy that this book was dual POV and I could see my views reflected in Jack. I do think the book got bogged down by the repetitive philosophizing about fate and I did find myself skimming sections. I absolutely loved the side characters and would happily read whole books about Jack’s grandfather and Rooney’s mother. I love the works of Christo, and was lucky enough to see one of his installations in person so I had context for the type of art Rooney was known for and enjoyed the artist aspects of the book. This book does come with discussion questions and recipes which would make it a great book club book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.