A review by rhythmvick
Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen

3.0

I had wanted to read this for a long time, as I loved the cover art, loved the Prairie books as a child, and find immigration stories so engaging. But I struggled with this. I think the pace was a little slow for me, with nothing much happening. Like the main character wondering how to use her PhD, I wondered whether this was the author's PhD, repurposed as a novel. The facts about the Ingalls were interesting, and so was the set up of Lee's family and their relationships. But I wanted to focus on one or the other or, if this was really a loosely autobiographical read, that it had been presented as a more traditional memoir. Even as I've come to the end of the book, I can't quite place it's intention and I think that's why I feel a bit unsatisfied.