Sandi Tan

I had watched an interview with the author and was very interested to read this novel. Unfortunately, it was not was I thought it would be. I thought it was be a portrait of Loa Angeles County?San Gabriel Valley, where I grew up, and Korean Americans. Those two aspects play minor roles in this story centering on three households on a street in the "town" of Alta Vista. There are no sympathy characters. The men come off slightly more negatively than the women. There is a lot of sexual acts informed by the watching of pornography by the teenagers in the novel. There is perhaps one or two characters that are in resolved circumstances. A rather disappointing novel.… (plus d'informations)

I have to tell you that I really struggled with this book. While the blurb sounded interesting, the book was not. It was filled with violence, anger, foul language, and sex. Nothing really that makes a great book in my opinion. It didn't make the characters memorable. It made them caricatures of people everyone should strive to avoid in their lifetime.

I have always felt that good writing doesn't need foul language in excess to get one's point across; and I am far from a prude, but I'd rather read something with substance, which this book does not have. What it does have is a group of people who are afraid of life. They are stalkers and avoiders, and I just couldn't get into the book. People who obsess over little girls are repulsive, as are people who "lurk" outside others windows. Who on earth wants to be with someone who thinks that's okay to do? Ugh. I also didn't care for the fact that the author obviously hates men, as she creates male characters that are sexual deviants, and not a single decent guy among them.

There really isn't a solid plot to the book, it just rambles throughout, just a bunch of people who do all the things normal people wouldn't consider, and there isn't a single likable character among them.
Unfortunately, this wasn't a book I will remember.… (plus d'informations)

I was in a Chapters with my Grandmother when I spotted this book for the first time and I waited months to read it. I practically dreamed about the cover and how good of a story it must be and how much I was going to love it. I won't lie, I'm still trying to figure out if I loved it or not.

The book wasn't at all what I expected. From the description I was expecting it to be a lot more fantasy than it actually was, but maybe that was just my misconception. It had a heavier focus on the history of the island and the family issues that arise from that time.

The characters I quite liked. There were a lot of them that weaved in for a chapter than faded out, but no one was placed within those pages without a specific purpose and you could tell.

All in all, I think I would recommend this book. Not because I loved it, but because it's something completely different from the historical books and the fantasy books that I've read before, which makes me want to high five the book for being awesome.… (plus d'informations)

I gave this book a real try. I read half of it but I couldn't force myself to pick it back up to read the other half. I received the ARC through work and was initially pulled in by the blurb stating that it was about the Japanese occupation of China. As someone that has a great interest in Asian history I thought this would be a great addition to my collection. Unfortunately, the story was a bit too...well different for my taste. I need to feel something for the narrator of a novel and I honestly didn't care for her at all. Also, some of the sexual stuff was a bit too weird for me. I don't want to have to cringe when reading a book because the subject matter is just disgusting. I have a high tolerance for romance-type content, but this was far beyond the normal limits. I'm sure some will love the creepy world but it wasn't for me.… (plus d'informations)