I think I may be a Celeste Ng fan in theory but not in practice.

I wanted to really love this book. It has all the elements I usually enjoy in a near-future dystopia. Political unrest told as a family drama? Yes please. The importance of words? Give me. Unconventional activism and La Vie Boheme? I can enjoy that...provided it's done well (you see where I'm going with this).

But then, when I finished the book, I found myself drawn to the lower star reviews. I want to echo a few sentiments I saw: something feels off about this book.

I'm not quite sure what bothered me the most. The balance of some of the themes seemed all wrong. The characters made confusing choices. And the narrative tension was drawn out in a way where it was no longer tension. I'm not sure if this makes sense since I can't quite put my finger on it.

I did however like the worldbuilding. I'm biased as I heard similar stories of societal collapse and resistance when I was growing up and my parents told me about living through Poland's 70s crisis and 80s uprising. I found Margaret's storytelling of the crisis compelling, and I conceptually enjoyed the various depictions of resistance. My favourite thing about the book was the exploration of "do you look away when an injustice doesn't concern you" and would have loved a bit more of that.

I feel conflicted, but I think I'll remember this book fondly and some scenes will stick in my brain for the foreseeable future, so let's settle on a 3 star rating.

Recommended if you're not sick of the dystopian genre, looking for beautiful prose, and are ok with a smol plot against a big backdrop.

More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/vMa3vzClYkA