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A review by mags_gcs
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
4.0
I really liked this book and found the story compelling enough to overlook the dual timelines (not my favorite method of storytelling in historical fiction). I don’t know a lot about Vietnam and this book was an excellent jumping off point for further learning. At the same time, the story itself was juicy enough that it didn’t feel like a textbook.
The reason for four stars instead of five is that I didn’t love the writing style itself. Half of the book was told in the format of Grandma telling Huong about her life story, so there was a lot of telling versus showing. Huong’s chapters ended up feeling very similar on account of her character being incredibly naive. It was interesting that we were told she was the smartest in her class despite her seemingly not knowing anything about how humans interact at the age of 15. I found myself feeling endeared to her as a child and then remembering that she’s 15, not 10. Her chapters felt a little simplistic for the content of the story.
But that’s the thing, the content of the story was very good! The narrators just weren’t my favorite. There were times it really felt like the author was speaking directly to the reader. I am intrigued enough to read more of her books and see if the characters are stronger in those, because the story was good!
The reason for four stars instead of five is that I didn’t love the writing style itself. Half of the book was told in the format of Grandma telling Huong about her life story, so there was a lot of telling versus showing. Huong’s chapters ended up feeling very similar on account of her character being incredibly naive. It was interesting that we were told she was the smartest in her class despite her seemingly not knowing anything about how humans interact at the age of 15. I found myself feeling endeared to her as a child and then remembering that she’s 15, not 10. Her chapters felt a little simplistic for the content of the story.
But that’s the thing, the content of the story was very good! The narrators just weren’t my favorite. There were times it really felt like the author was speaking directly to the reader. I am intrigued enough to read more of her books and see if the characters are stronger in those, because the story was good!