A review by pinesandpages
Why Didn't You Tell Me? by Carmen Rita Wong

Did not finish book. Stopped at 51%.
Made it through halfway and just realized……I wasn’t enjoying it. I quite enjoy memoirs usually but this one was different than any I have read before. I think because the author is a journalist, this was written in the style of an exposé about her family and their secrets rather than a reckoning/exploration of the author’s life/feelings. Not a lot of personal reflection and an at times bitter/blunt tone. (The bitter tone is obviously valid as she had been through quite a lot but it didn’t contribute much to the book other than me not finding it enjoyable to read.) Also it was written in a very nonlinear way which was hard to follow. Sometimes a paragraph would be written about her time in elementary school and the very next paragraph would be her in her twenties. And because the whole premise of the book is something about family secrets (perhaps that her biological family is not who she thought), I was impatiently waiting the whole time to get into that aspect, but even 50% in that was rarely mentioned so I still don’t know the full situation. A friend recommended I read this and I will be asking her the spoil it for me since I will not be finishing. 

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