This book was complicated. The characters, the plot, and the settings were multilayered and I would suggest that you make sure you are ready for a story that will make you think before you pick this title up. Maybe I would have liked this one more if I was in a different headspace when I read it? The Red Lotus has about half of its scenes set in Vietnam, a country I am curious about. However, Bohjalian, the author, focuses a lot on how the country has been impacted by the war in the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. While this event continues to impact the country, I was kind of turned off by this focus as I am not a huge fan of military literature. This aspect of the book plus that there is a whole plotline about a global pandemic coming to a head just made this one too heavy for me. Read at your own risk.