sineadw9 's review for:

Shanghailanders by Juli Min
2.5
emotional reflective slow-paced

I might’ve missed something but this just didn’t have a real impact on me. The premise and structure is interesting, but I found that by switching between characters so much, it never gained any momentum. In some ways, the creative structure worked against itself. I expected more to fall into place in the end.

Some scenes stood out as memorable and special
- like when the three girls run away with their ponies, the nanny returns home, or the mom has a mini-affair
, but I don’t feel like they came together enough. Min is a strong writer and I got some distinct imagery from her descriptions of the various settings, but the characters didn’t develop in a compelling way for me.

Curious to read other reviews-maybe this just wasn’t for me.