Full Review from my blog Owl Eyes Reviews
This book has been buzzing around for awhile, so I was really excited to pick t up. This is usually where I would say something “Unfortunately, I didn’t like this book…”, but I don’t really think that applies to this book. Yes, it is true that I didn’t really enjoy this book, but I am glad that I read it. I feel like it gave me perspective.
Here are the things that hindered me from enjoyed this book as much as I hoped:
1) This book was written in third person present tense. *sigh* I’ve ranted over and over about third person present tense. I have the hardest time reading books in this tense. Which, in turn, makes it hard for me to connect with the characters. With the length of this book and the way it was written, I was unable to connect with the characters in the way that I wanted to.
2) Lydia died before the book started. I have a really hard time feeling sad about a character when I didn’t know them. The book focuses on the family and their emotion after Lydia’s death, but I didn’t know her. There were flashbacks to when Lydia was alive, but that didn’t make me feel more towards her death because I already knew she was dead. It frustrated me.
One thing I really enjoyed about this book was the fact that it gave me perspective on something I’ve never read/learned about before. I’ve never read about a mixed race Asian American-white family before, but for some reason I felt connected to them. This book brought up lots of questions about what it means to be an American as a person of a minority. Many things, especially when it comes to the way that the police handled Lydia’s death, reminded me of the world I live in today. Which made me a little sad because this book is supposed to be historical fiction. I didn’t think that I would be able to find so many parallels to our world today.
This book was not my favorite in the world, but I’m really glad I read it. It is important because it gives a voice to a story that doesn’t get the same exposure as other books may get.