Overall, I really don't think this was the book for me. I can see a lot of other people who come from families with traumatic history connecting with, but as a white person who's family goes back more than 10 generations in Canada, I obviously didn't connect with it on a personal level. There's also a heavy presence of topography as Lee explores Taiwan, and a lot of history of the native botanical life on the island. This went right over my head, I honestly just think I wasn't smart enough for it. 
I did see a bit of a connection between these topographical descriptions and the history of colonizers ignoring the native plant life on Taiwan and Lee traversing that very landscape while grappling with her grandparent's history there. But that's as far as my brains got me, and I often found myself confused at the structure of the narrative and the order of topographical descriptions combined with stories of family history that just didn't seem to flow into each other as seamlessly as I would've liked. 
The writing itself, however, the words Lee wrote, are beautiful. And when we were in a narrative of family history, or Jessica telling of a particular bike ride on the coast, or hike to a new lake, I found myself falling into the storytelling and really enjoying it. 
The experience, for me, of reading this book was riding the line between trying to understand the Latin words for a type of tree and its history and falling into the narrative of Lee's grandmother leaving her family behind in China. 
Overall, I'm giving this book a 3/5 stars because I loved the writing and some aspects of the story being told, but overall I had issues with the structure, and honestly, I just think some of it went over my head.