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mellabella 's review for:
Dreams of Joy
by Lisa See
I liked Dreams of Joy better than it's predecessor. At the end of Shanghai Girls, Joy runs away to China. It is the worst thing she could do. But, she thought she was smarter than, and knew more than her mother, aunt, and father Sam. Sam was not her biological father. He was her father in all the ways that counted. He committed suicide at the end of Shanghai Girls. Her real father (Z.G.) lives in China. After over hearing that her mother Pearl is really her aunt and, her aunt May is really her mother... She runs away to China with money saved for her college education. Her journey is partially fueled by guilt she feels for her fathers suicide. It's partially wanting to meet her father. It's partially from idealizing China. A place she has never been. Pearl follows, worried sick about her daughter. At first everything is fine. Joy meets her father, meets a boy named Tao and gradually gets to learn about the China she has thought about while in the states. Her and Pearl reunite. The book alternates between her and Pearls point of view. Pearl goes back to her family home. The boarders are still there from 20 years ago. They have let the house go. It's dirty and run down. But she develops a relationship with a man who was a young student at the time she left. Joy was not a very likeable character. She became likeable towards the end. But, it was after she was humbled. After she marries Tao, he shows his true colors. She realizes that Pearl and Z.G. were right about him. She gets pregnant and has a girl. Her daughter is not valued by anyone in the village collective she chose to live with Tao but her. Under Mao's rule, China has a horrible famine. A famine that almost kills Joy and her daughter. She is saved by the mother she took for granted. There is drama at the end involving Tao. He was a traitor to the people that helped him. I almost thought they would not escape. It was a "happy" ending. But, not without a lot of turmoil before hand. Plus, we finally get to read about what happened to Pearl and May's father.