A review by sarahhbeth_reads
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Told through multiple POVs, Searching for Sylvie Lee follows the title character's family after she abruptly goes missing, and the events preceding her disappearance.

 

The daughter of Chinese immigrants living in New York, Sylvie spent the first nine years of her life raised by her grandmother in Holland as her parents struggled to start a life in the U.S. Now an adult, Sylvie has returned to her childhood home to be with her dying grandmother. However, when Sylvie's younger sister Amy receives a concerned phone call from a cousin saying he has been unable to reach Sylvie, Amy and her parents are shocked. Responsible, disciplined Sylvie would have told them if she was back in the U.S. As her family searches for their missing daughter, they begin to question how well they really knew Sylvie.

Language and identity are central to this story. Narration alternates between Amy and Ma seeking Sylvie in the present and Sylvie prior to her disappearance. Through these POVs and language, Kwok explores how others perceive someone and who that person truly is. For example, Amy speaks limited Chinese, Ma speaks limited English, while Sylvie is multilingual. In Amy's chapters, Ma speaks in short, basic sentences, whereas Ma's chapters, (written in English, though she is clearly expressing herself here in Chinese) Ma is eloquent. It is clear the Amy is missing a large part of who her mother is due to the language gap. Sylvie, meanwhile, must bridge cultures. She is often forced to mother Amy where English bars their parents' participation, like attending teacher conferences. In addition to language, there is simply a lot that is unspoken between these women, further dividing them. 

Searching for Sylvie Lee is about both the literal search for a missing person, as well as efforts to discover who that person is. This novel will appeal to thriller lovers as well as anyone who enjoys literary fiction examining topics like race, translation, and immigration.