A review by just_one_more_paige
The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 
I won an ARC of this through a Goodreads giveaway, which is honestly a surprise to me because that never happens - there are so many entries for those! But yea, that was cool. Though then I waited to be able to combine reading it with listening to the audiobook, because having both is fast turning into my whole personality as a reader. 
 
Cecily Alcantara is living in British-occupied Malaya with her mid-level bureaucrat husband and their young children, when she is approached by an undercover Japanese agent, General Fujiwara, and is pulled into helping him under the promise and dream of an "Asia for Asians," without western colonization and oversight. Who wouldn't want that? But when her assistance is successful, the Japanese occupation that follows is nothing like Cecily was promised. A decade later, Malaya is now under the foot of a new, even more brutal occupier situation. And Cecily watches as her oldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house visited mostly by Japanese soldiers, becomes more and more upset, as her son Abel is disappeared, with no indication of where he's gone if if he even lives, and as her youngest daughter Jasmin is confined to the basement of their home every day for her own safety/protection from the Japanese soldiers who would press her into service at a "comfort station." Through all of this, Cecily herself becomes more and more wracked with guilt, as she contemplates her own role in history and does everything in her power to protect her family.  
 
I was originally pulled to this book after reading the blurb because of what seemed like a really unique perspective. That Cecily was trying to help make her country strong and independent, in a way I assume everyone hopes for for their nation/population, and ended up helping usher in yet another occupier, is a perspective I don't think I've ever read. And what an intriguing, and deeply heartbreaking, one it turned out to be. Let me start with that, just to be clear from the get go. There are content warnings for all sorts of violence, physical and sexual and psychological/emotional, that is very explicitly written. There were many parts of this that were difficult to read/listen to and I definitely caution readers to be careful, and know that, before picking up this book. That being said, I felt like Chan did everything she could to make it an authentic portrayal of British and Japanese-occupied Malaya, being true to history, while not indulging in anything just for easy shock value or other cheapened reasons.  
 
The story itself was told from multiple perspectives: Cecily herself (during the period of British occupation) and all three of her children - Jujube, Abel, Jasmin - and their experiences of living under the Japanese occupation. I thought the multiple-POV style worked well for this novel, allowing the reader to learn about and get exposure to a number of different experiences of Malayan life, depending on who you were/the role you had, during these time periods. Plus, since these narratives happened in different years and/or locations from each other, this was a simple way to tell the story without forcing anything into a different kind of structure. There is also an extra bit of connection that the reader can form with characters when they are telling their own story in this way. Getting to hear from all four narrators really brought extra life to each of their perspectives, and I felt very bound to each of them, as a result.  
 
Topically, I've already touched, a bit, on the intensity of the story. But I'd like to go a bit more in depth with my reactions to some of the themes. The biggest, most overwhelming, reactions I had were related to Cecily's POV, and the extremity of the letdown she experienced, after the promise of the future that Fujiwara sold to her. All the abuses at the hands of the Japanese, after all the hope that their overthrow of the colonial British powers brought...it’s that much worse because it came with such potential for better, for more, than what had been. And for Cecily individually, the guilt she holds cuts through everything, it ravages her, as she watches the way (in her eyes) her choices (made with the best intentions) "created" the situation (of devastating consequences) in which her children and community are suffering so much. It also just hurt so much to read, on top of everything else, how one's passions and physical attraction can harm so many beyond oneself; it felt so unfair, because it's out of your hands that you feel that way, but you have to then control that nature for the greater good/benefit/fairness of everyone around you. I felt deeply for Cecily. And yet, she also did make some choices that, really, did nothing to grow my sympathy towards her (to put it nicely). And isn't that just what being human is? So, then, obviously, as a reader, we know that, while she had a part, the roll of history would happen with or without her, and, as the victim(s), none of these abuses are her fault in any way. But as a human, we know that not how the brain or emotions actually work. We also see a cataclysmic portrayal of the myriad collateral damages of war, the choices it forces, and the “ambiguity of right and wrong when survival is at stake.”  And, oh, the way that innocence, both metaphorically and literally, is the most universal, and most tragic, loss that comes from war is shown in depth and with nuance. This is wrapped up with a fine literary bow through that unspeakably tragic ending. 
 
There was a lot of history that I haven't really been much exposed to in these pages. I am more likely than not to argue that WWII is overdone in literature these days. But, as always, and as is shown with potency here, only from a certain (white/western) perspective. This is decidedly not that perspective, and, therefore, was such a valuable read. On top of the fact that, just objectively, this is a really well-written and developed novel. 
 
“Yet perhaps this was what a woman’s idealism is: not the reach for a utopia - everyone had lived long enough to know that perfection was beyond reach - but the need to transform one thing into something better.” 
 
“Perhaps this is what growing up was [...] To give up one's ideals in exchange for comforts, to understand that one of these cannot exist in tandem with the other.” 
 
“Perhaps this is what love is, she thought - a relationship that didn't require constant vigilance.” 
 
“Or perhaps, Jujube thought, there was recognition that the first time something like this happened would be the hardest, but subsequent tragedies were supposed to get easier - like a scabbed-over wound that split open - you were already supposed to know how to feel; you did not need the salve of extended sympathy.” 
 
“Every animal, no matter how fierce, how feral, can become a cowering shadow of itself if stoned sufficiently.” 
 
“…she was fortunate enough to have space in her heart for empathy.” 
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