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timeywriter 's review for:
Dreams of Joy
by Lisa See
Why do I keep eating these books that are tragic emotional roller coasters? Honestly, the first book left me feeling like a wreck since I was so drawn into the lives of sisters Pearl and May. In this sequel, Pearl travels to communist China to bring back her daughter, Joy after she ran away there.
Joy had me aggravated most of the time I was reading, but that was only because she was so well written as a native teenager who thinks communism is the best thing. So not only does she leave America and her family there to find her birth father in China, but she goes a step further by immersing herself in poor rural life once she arrives in China and finds her father. It is so frustrating when a character is so stubborn and you just have to read on as they continue to make the most stupidly human mistakes. While Joy frustrated me, this only made me appreciate the growth she went through all the more as Pearl finds her in China and Joy sees the horrors of communism.
I need an emotional break after this one. I became far too attached to this family and their fate. In the best sort of way of course. Still, these characters are so realistic and their story so heart wrenching that I'm simply happy when any of them find a measure of small happiness.
Joy had me aggravated most of the time I was reading, but that was only because she was so well written as a native teenager who thinks communism is the best thing. So not only does she leave America and her family there to find her birth father in China, but she goes a step further by immersing herself in poor rural life once she arrives in China and finds her father. It is so frustrating when a character is so stubborn and you just have to read on as they continue to make the most stupidly human mistakes. While Joy frustrated me, this only made me appreciate the growth she went through all the more as Pearl finds her in China and Joy sees the horrors of communism.
I need an emotional break after this one. I became far too attached to this family and their fate. In the best sort of way of course. Still, these characters are so realistic and their story so heart wrenching that I'm simply happy when any of them find a measure of small happiness.