Well this was another Did Not Finish for me. After reading only one chapter and looking at other reviews I knew this was not the book for me. 

For one, the main character is bisexual which was unexpected considering it is supposed to be a love story between a girl and boy (which I think it still is) but in the first chapter there was already a reference to girls she had previously dated and based on other reviews, it sounds like there are a lot of bisexual-type comments. 

For two, half the reviews I read I did not even understand what they were talking about. I had to look up slang terms and abbreviations and they were critiquing generational references within the book that meant nothing, positive or negative, to me. This was a YA book and I often enjoy those, but sounds like this was possibly more niche than others in terms of references and relatability. 

For three, the other half of the reviews I read that I DID understand mention that even though there is no spice or smut there is talk about sex a lot, even between the main character’s younger sisters and a man they don’t know as if to normalize it and I am not about that. I would still like to normalize teenagers not having sex at all.

For four, a lot of the people that really liked the book talked about relating to and loving the aspect of the main character’s taking care of and providing for her family at a young age and that’s not really a character trope that I’m super interested in, especially at the teen level. I felt like it worked for Hunger Games, but I’m struggling to think of another book where I enjoyed that trope and can’t think of one at the moment. 

I’m already hesitant about reading any book that has romance in it because I prefer to avoid sex stuff so all of these things combined— and the fact that no other review compelled me to continue—made it hard to justify pushing on when I already have so many other books on my TBR list. 

So, I have read one Ali Hazelwood book, Love Theoretically, which I review at length HERE. In my review I said I would LOVE if Hazelwood would put out some PG-13 version of her writing because there were aspects about it that were really good, including the humor but I didn’t want all the sexual content or swearing. 

I think that’s why I had Check & Mate on my TBR. I thought this was what I was waiting for. Turns out, it wasn’t quite the PG-13 version I was hoping for. Maybe we should try again for PG-13 version with adult characters. I don’t know. It may just be that Hazelwood and I have too many core belief differences that would keep putting me at odds with her writing. I might just have to come to terms with that. 

Recommendation

I’m not sure how to recommend this book. It was the Goodreads winner in 2023 for YA Fiction so there’s obviously a lot of people who disagree with me. 

Some of the reasons for not finishing may not be problems for teenagers since it’s written for their age group, but other reasons make me think it shouldn’t be read by teenagers either. 

If you like to be careful about what kind of romance books you read, then I would say look elsewhere. 

If you are a teenager and you already enjoy Hazelwood’s adult books, then I suppose this one would probably be in line with what you like. 

If you are an adult and you already enjoy Hazelwood’s adult books, I can’t promise you’ll like the ‘youth’ version because I’m not qualified to evaluate the references and lingo to determine what is cool (is that what I’m even evaluating??) or not… 

Basically… I’m probably not much help in the recommendation department. 

I rarely leave a book unfinished, but I had to do that with this one.

This isn’t how I wanted my first book and review of the year to go.

But I read 34 pages of this book and I was upset. Disturbed.

So I asked a Facebook reading community for insight on whether or not I should continue based on the concerns I had. Turns out a few people agreed with me, but most of the people loved this book and author and encouraged me to continue, even saying it was one of their favorite books though didn’t really say why or give any concrete reasons for finishing.

Ultimately, I decided not to continue reading it.


Here’s where I’m at:

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird starts out in a mountain village somewhere in China, the home of the Akha tribe.

We learn about a variety of their cultural practices including spirit worship, the superiority of males over females, and all the superstitions surrounding these elements. For example, they encourage husbands to climb trees a lot because they think that will help their pregnant wives have a boy.

Within the first 34 pages the main character, Li-yan, is helping her mother, the village midwife, deliver her sister-in-law’s baby. She is having a hard labor. They call the village shaman who says that an outside spirit was insulted when Deh-ja made a mistake in her ancestral offerings. So they make her— during labor while she is in severe pain and bleeding— get up and sweep the room with a broom to sweep away the “malevolence.”

She eventually delivers a baby boy. Great news! But then they realize she has another baby inside her. Twins. Bad news. The worst news. Here’s what they say:

“Twins. Human rejects… Twins are the absolute worst taboo in our culture, for only animals, demons, and spirits give birth to litters.”

“These are our rules… Human rejects need to be sent to the Great Lake of boiling blood. This is how we protect the village from idiots, the malformed, or those so so small they’ll only prolong their own deaths. it is us— midwives— who keep our people pure and in alignment with the goodness of nature, because if human rejects are allowed to do the intercourse, over time an entire village might end up inhabited by only them.”

And so they murder the twin babies. And then they banish the parents of the human rejects and burn their house down.

Just. What in the actual heck??

Yes, I’m a mother of twins. Twins who came early and were very tiny and are now four and thriving. That is part of my disgust with these cultural practices. But killing ‘undesired’ humans across the board is wrong. Period. Regardless of circumstance or culture.


And bottom line is: I didn’t feel good about reading a book about it.

I asked the online community if this was going to be a book that tried to portray the Akha culture as beautiful and valid because I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle that. I didn’t get a lot of clear answers on this. At least one person claimed that the characters acknowledge the wrongness.

Li-yan eventually has a baby of her own (out of wedlock) that would also require murder, but she decides to rebel against her culture and give her baby up for adoption. The story then (based on the summary) follows the daughter and the mother’s life and their yearning for each other.

Honestly, I don’t know a lot about the book. Maybe what I read is such a small snippet and not the main focus of the book at all.

I don’t know what kind of redemption is found or not found in this book. It could be that I should have given this book a full chance.

But I have too many books to read to spend my time reading one that makes me upset. I largely read because I ENJOY reading. This book did not bring me joy.


I do like reading a variety of genres and historical fiction is one of them. I have read some hard books that talk about hard things. I fully understand that history is not neat and tidy. I do think it’s important to read about things or people that are different from me.

However.

Murdering babies is not just something ‘different’ than me and my beliefs. It’s evil. The worship of spirits is evil. (Which is why I avoid horror books and books with devils and witches and stories that glorify their existence)

I decided that it would be wiser for me to forgo the rest of the book than to endure more of the same thing.

The summary says the mother and daughter both look for meaning in studying the tea that shaped their heritage. If that is the only hope this book provides, I’m still not seeing anything worth sticking around for. I can’t imagine there’s much deep and solid meaning for broken people in a farming process.

Further, it’s not really just reading the history of something that happened but is no longer a thing. Wikipedia says this culture ‘stopped’ this practice only 20 years ago and now puts the babies up for adoption instead. It also says that people from Laos claim the practice isn’t completely eradicated.

I will pray for the Akha people and for all the babies growing in the wombs of the Akha women that they will see life, but I cannot read this book.



I’m not saying this specific book does this (because I didn’t read the whole thing) but I often feel like there is this idea held by lots of people that all cultures are equally valid. That we can’t critique another culture. Who are we to say what other people do or believe is wrong?

‘Fascinating’ and ‘interesting’ can be words used to describe the way the Akha tribe builds their homes or cooks their food or how they make tea. They cannot be used to describe their other cultural practices that are evil.

Culture has to be able to be critiqued. My own American culture has to be critiqued. There is no culture that should be immune from the questions- Is this right? Is this good? Is this true? I hope that people write about the American and European culture of killing babies via the method of abortion as abhorrent. Essentially abortion is the same thing the Akha tribe is doing and we should be equally disgusted by it because life is something to be treasured. Always.

If there is ever a book that tries to portray the evil elements of culture as purely ‘interesting’ or ‘worth learning about’ and then moving on with our day, I will gladly never read it.

This may or may not be that book, but I didn’t want to take the chance.

Is this decision perfectly consistent with my reading choices in the past? Probably not. I don’t know. I think it’s impossible to really read consistently across time. I can only do my best every time I pick a book to read.

I chose this book originally because it fit my reading challenge prompt of ‘a book set in a different culture than your own’ and it definitely qualified, but there are plenty of other cultures that I would rather read about and I think that’s okay.



Recommendation

I don’t really recommend this book based on what I read.

There is clearly many people who feel differently about this book and that may describe you. If you feel you can handle reading it, you are now going into it more informed and you can make the best decision for you. Maybe you can separate out the evil from the good and focus on other elements.

But let my review be the permission you need, if you feel similarly to me, that NOT reading this book is okay too. It does not mean you don’t care about the Akha people or other cultures in general. It does not mean you choose to be ignorant about hard things. It just means you won’t enjoy the book and have chosen something different.


[Content Advisory: as of 34 pages there is spirit worship and the killing of infants]