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emjay24 's review for:
Dreams of Joy
by Lisa See
Dreams of Joy is the sequel to Shanghai Girls, which I read all the way back in 2013. I didn't realize I waited that long to read this! I love this author. Besides these two, I recomend Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. While the first book was about the sisters getting out of China and building their lives in LA, this book is about traveling back to China, and putting their lives together. It picks up exactly where it left off, with teenaged Joy finding out the family secrets and running away to China to find her birth father and join the Communist movement. This was in the 1950s under Mao. I knew nothing of this time at all. Nothing about these poor people starving because of ruined crops from having to follow the party way, causing many people to resort to cannibalism. The book goes between the points of view of young Joy and her mother Pearl, who returns to try and find her daughter and bring her home. After everything that happened in the first book, it was weird to realize May is only in her early 40's. I didn't like her so much in the first book, but in the second I did. This might be a novel where Joy grows up, but it's also one where May finally does. I can't wait to read more by this author.