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A review by paragraphsandpages
This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura
4.0
I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I listened to this one on audio (like I do most contemporaries these days), and it was an overall enjoyable listen, if it didn't connect with me as much as other recent reads.
I want to preface and say that I do think this book touches on a lot of important subjects, and the exploration of all of these within the book was very well done! I liked CJ as a character and her voice as she gave readers a background of Japanese Americans in the US, especially in regards to WWII and internment camps and the lasting effects these had on the lives and careers of Japanese Americans. Suguira also did a really great job of providing a wide perspective on the topic through the voices of varying characters, from the extremes of CJ's aunt and mother (history is everything vs. history means nothing) to the more muted versions of these perspectives in CJ and her classmates. On top of this, there were discussions on teenage and unwanted pregancy, on feeling like a failure/not living up to your parents' expectations, etc. and in the end this gave the book a lot of layers.
Unfortunately, because there are so MANY big topics focused on in this book, it made the discussions of most of the other topics besides the treatment of Japanese Americans feel quite shallow. I thought we would get deeper looks into the other topics mentioned above, but they were more there to give CJ extra depth than to actually be fully explored in the book. It meant that while I enjoyed the book, it didn't feel lasting.
There was also a LOT of friend drama between CJ and literally all of her friends and the people around her, and even the romance was only sort of cute. I loved all the characters individually quite a lot, and loved CJ and the LI together, it was just how they got together and all the friend drama that came with it that I struggled with. It was hard to listen to at points because some things just got so petty and very 'high school' (which makes sense because they're in high school), but it just felt overly dramatized at points.
In the end though, these annoying aspects didn't overshadow the story for me, though I think this might be because I listened to the story and was moving along no matter what. If I had been reading physically, there would've been too many times I wanted to throw away the book, I think. Still, I enjoyed this, and will probably be reading other works by Sugiura!
I want to preface and say that I do think this book touches on a lot of important subjects, and the exploration of all of these within the book was very well done! I liked CJ as a character and her voice as she gave readers a background of Japanese Americans in the US, especially in regards to WWII and internment camps and the lasting effects these had on the lives and careers of Japanese Americans. Suguira also did a really great job of providing a wide perspective on the topic through the voices of varying characters, from the extremes of CJ's aunt and mother (history is everything vs. history means nothing) to the more muted versions of these perspectives in CJ and her classmates. On top of this, there were discussions on teenage and unwanted pregancy, on feeling like a failure/not living up to your parents' expectations, etc. and in the end this gave the book a lot of layers.
Unfortunately, because there are so MANY big topics focused on in this book, it made the discussions of most of the other topics besides the treatment of Japanese Americans feel quite shallow. I thought we would get deeper looks into the other topics mentioned above, but they were more there to give CJ extra depth than to actually be fully explored in the book. It meant that while I enjoyed the book, it didn't feel lasting.
There was also a LOT of friend drama between CJ and literally all of her friends and the people around her, and even the romance was only sort of cute. I loved all the characters individually quite a lot, and loved CJ and the LI together, it was just how they got together and all the friend drama that came with it that I struggled with. It was hard to listen to at points because some things just got so petty and very 'high school' (which makes sense because they're in high school), but it just felt overly dramatized at points.
In the end though, these annoying aspects didn't overshadow the story for me, though I think this might be because I listened to the story and was moving along no matter what. If I had been reading physically, there would've been too many times I wanted to throw away the book, I think. Still, I enjoyed this, and will probably be reading other works by Sugiura!