A review by annaboudinot
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

C. Pam Zhang’s first novel, How Much of These Hills Is Gold, is one of my favorite books of the past five years, so I was ecstatic when I found out she’d published another book. 

I love a good dystopian novel, though billionaires eating caviar while the rest of the world suffers can hardly be called fiction. The dystopia described in the book was too real for me to get lost in the fantasy; as such, it was hard for me to feel anxiety about high stakes — or feel any sense of relief, for that matter. 

Zhang has a beautiful imagination and is such an expert at descriptive language that she transports her readers through time and space with ease. I could easily picture life inside the compound and the crossroads at which the chef found herself. Not to mention that the way Zhang wrote about food was spine-tinglingly sensual. Yet the romance between Aida and the chef lacked sufficient detail to make me invested, and I didn’t ever feel like I  connected to the chef well enough to be engrossed in the decisions she made. The last chapter of the book was where Zhang’s mastery of prose really shone through, but it didn’t come soon enough. 
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