A review by romcomapologist
The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i don’t even know what to say… this book left me shaking and breathless, its tragedy an absolute force to be reckoned with. the pain and anger and grief of its characters, esp of cecily, is a savage thing, a blunt object placed carefully and deliberately in your hands. the arrogance of imperialists, colonisers, their cursed pride, and also the choices and rage and desperation of their victims, their accomplices, every moral shade in between, all exact a price to be paid and has a boomerang effect, like bullets that ricochet, like a story whose ending we already know. the consequences of war and colonial violence, of power and desire for power, of fundamental, perhaps inexplainable, fractures and inequalities - in the capacity for hope, the distribution of pain and cruelty, the meting out of fate, which has a great sense of irony and no sense of mercy.

the sheer *storm* of all the emotions and conflicts crammed into this novel is enough to knock you off your feet, like the monsoons of malaya. and it is delivered with the precision, imagination, and ferocity of a writer who truly understands her craft: storytelling. brb i’m walking into the ocean
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