Possibly 2.5 stars for later scenes, specifically that air-clearing argument between Pearl and May.

Throughout the book I kept thinking that the narrator was telling rather than showing; it’s clear that a lot of good research was done and displayed through the immense detail, but I felt distant from characters, setting, and plot alike. (Third-person limited POV, told in the past tense to account for the rationalization and foreshadowing of various developments, might have worked better, in this case.)

It reads like a middle-grade novel in its simplified themes (the Chinese/American binary, clinging to sisterhood as an unbreakable “forever” bond, whether May or Pearl is Joy’s “real” mother, Pearl’s sudden shift to believing wholeheartedly in the Chinese zodiac, etc), spelling-out of the significance of certain scenes (e.g., Pearl’s outburst after Sam’s death being explained away by Pearl herself as misdirected grief), certain stereotypes and overused tropes/cliches of the genre, and various surface-level minutiae that paint a picture but don’t necessarily add to the story. There were only brief moments of suspense; the majority of the narrative drags, and I can barely sympathize with the emotions Pearl says she’s experiencing. (Also with Pearl — I was put off from the first mention of her “perfect” English.)

So yeah, yay for Chinese and Chinese-American representation, but this isn’t the best example thereof.