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awesomeeallyson 's review for:
Real Americans
by Rachel Khong
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a sprawling generational saga ranging from communist china to the current year of 2021. We follow three generations of Chinese-Americans and Chinese immigrants, following their story and watching them intertwine as they close in on on each other. The plot itself takes a backseat to the character growth, if you can call it that. Character study is maybe a better word for it, as not all the characters change as the story progresses. Normally that would frustrate me, but in this story you can start to understand the history behind the feelings that drive each character.
There is so much history and backstory written into this novel. At times it gets to be a bit hard to follow, especially in the scenes where we switch POVs, timelines, or even the setting from one sentence to the next. I listened on audio and there was a few times where I had to stop and backtrack to make sure I didn't miss anything. But overall Rachel Khong does a stunning job sucking the reader into the story. The storytelling is captivating and the characters are interesting, it's just the technical execution that pulled me out of the world a bit.
There is so much history and backstory written into this novel. At times it gets to be a bit hard to follow, especially in the scenes where we switch POVs, timelines, or even the setting from one sentence to the next. I listened on audio and there was a few times where I had to stop and backtrack to make sure I didn't miss anything. But overall Rachel Khong does a stunning job sucking the reader into the story. The storytelling is captivating and the characters are interesting, it's just the technical execution that pulled me out of the world a bit.