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A review by imlaurenshelton
A Pho Love Story by Loan Le
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
A tale as old as time, boy and girl of warring families fall in love and either make it, uniting their families, or break up, causing further division. Nothing will ever compare to Romeo & Juliet, as Shakespeare is the ultimate Drama King and had to just kill them off instead of giving us a logical ending. I won’t spoil this book’s ending for you, as I think you will be very content with how the author wrapped up the plot here.
What was particularly unique about this book is that it let us, the readers, get to know each character individually and together, while giving us generational background as well. Learning the families’ histories was just as important to me as learning about what the main characters wanted to do with the rest of their lives (they are in high school). It was also great to see artistic talents featured and encouraged in a predominantly Asian-American cast of characters (well, and just in general).
The only nit-picks I had was that the book was a bit slow and used a bit more cursing than necessary (IMO). I loved hearing about all the Vietnamese dishes and the beautiful sense of community among the characters. I also love reading about other cultures; this was my first fictional novel about Vietnamese-Americans. I saw some reviews complaining that some lines were written or spoken (for audiobook listeners) in Vietnamese and how they had to use Google Translate (which isn’t really effective in general btw), which was an annoying comment to see. It is very easy to read between the lines to understand what is being said in Vietnamese, but also it’s translated back to us in what the kids say most of the time. Of all things to gripe about, that’s just a ridiculous one.
I definitely enjoyed this read and hope to see more novels by this author because her writing style was engaging. I think it would be fun to play off all the main Shakespearean titles now, Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, etc… I would read or listen to those in a heartbeat.
What was particularly unique about this book is that it let us, the readers, get to know each character individually and together, while giving us generational background as well. Learning the families’ histories was just as important to me as learning about what the main characters wanted to do with the rest of their lives (they are in high school). It was also great to see artistic talents featured and encouraged in a predominantly Asian-American cast of characters (well, and just in general).
The only nit-picks I had was that the book was a bit slow and used a bit more cursing than necessary (IMO). I loved hearing about all the Vietnamese dishes and the beautiful sense of community among the characters. I also love reading about other cultures; this was my first fictional novel about Vietnamese-Americans. I saw some reviews complaining that some lines were written or spoken (for audiobook listeners) in Vietnamese and how they had to use Google Translate (which isn’t really effective in general btw), which was an annoying comment to see. It is very easy to read between the lines to understand what is being said in Vietnamese, but also it’s translated back to us in what the kids say most of the time. Of all things to gripe about, that’s just a ridiculous one.
I definitely enjoyed this read and hope to see more novels by this author because her writing style was engaging. I think it would be fun to play off all the main Shakespearean titles now, Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, etc… I would read or listen to those in a heartbeat.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Death, Cursing, and War
There is a moderate amount of cursing throughout the book. Racism is minor theme in the book, the family is Vietnamese dealing with people telling them to “go home” and the parents hint to worse interactions than that. There is brief mention of the Vietnam War (I can’t remember if it is specifically stated that is what they are referring to, but that was my understanding). This book addresses the racism and War/immigration issues with class and ease.