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char_lottereadss 's review for:
You're just too afraid, too embarrassed, to accept your own culture. What's so wrong about it, huh? What's wrong with it? And what's wrong with being me?"
[b:House of Koi|49097966|House of Koi|Lilian Li|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1575513649l/49097966._SY75_.jpg|74535301] Rating : 4.5/5
Reviewing books of my friends always scares me because fundamentally I am always very straightforward in all of my reviews and that is terrifying when it's a book that is written by someone you know. My standard of rating of books has always been different for every genre. Mostly, my five stars read always consists of one line 'does what it sets out to do' obviously this line is extremely blurry considering I will never know what the author wants the book to be. So Instead it becomes what I felt like the book needed to bring out. This book did exactly that for me.
house of Koi have been on my TBR for such a long time that I am so so glad I finally picked it up. it is heartwarming, heart aching, incredibly raw and vulnerable. At least for me.
House of Koi is a Malaysian story feel with everything I loved. From the food, to the rojak languages, to the rich culture and lastly the very identity struggles that is I think unique and yet heartbreaking traits of being a Malaysian.
The characters in this are probably people I've met in my life in some way or another. They are potrayed in a way that makes you go "ah I know these people", they could've been my neighbors, friends from my kampung or simply just one of the people I know from my childhood. This book is rich with Malaysian flavor that makes you feel at home with the 亲切感 that fills you with immense tenderness for this piece of land.
Mila for me was very hard to read and digest, her character reminded me of people around me growing up. I am very lucky in a sense that my parents has always made me have a balance relationship with my own culture, and western culture. I never particularly has a struggle with my chinese identity until my teen years and it has never been in my environment that I grew up in but rather a struggle to make sense of my chinese identity in the world. But in school, there has always been people who have been ashamed of mandarin, or thinking they're more atas for speaking english only. This story provided a more insight to that side. Though I still can't say I like Mila, she was just a very real character that reminded me of some people I've encountered. Some people may relate to Mila some people may dislike her. Sadly, I fell into the latter, the confrontation with Sean in the rain really upsetted me. But honestly every teenager is messed up in ways, we all had our phase where we think that the western world was more 'worthy' to cater to, I hope more teenagers like me get to grow up in an environment that makes us feel okay with us being us.
Sean is just an absolute gem :) He is honestly the sweetest and the most loyal. He reminds me of cousins who has always just given so much with nothing but an open, genuine heart. Every time he calls Mila 'princess' I just go