val
i loved sourdough so i was disappointed. this just made me feel like rushing through to get to the end :( totally can see the comparisons to ready player one. it started out really promising and fell flat as more characters were introduced and the puzzle became unveiled. the main love interest felt like it came out of nowhere and only for the convenience of driving the plot.
3.5
perhaps it's simply because i read this immediately following a little life, but something about it felt incomplete — like there was so much to the story that could have continued, but it was ended short. other than the main plot of the novel, nothing really felt solved in deming/daniel's life. perhaps that is the point of stories, to just plonk you into the most important point of someone's life and leave the rest of it up to your imagination.
but i did love the way the book portrayed how white couples exoticise the adoption of chinese kids they feel need to be “saved.” peter and kay weren't exactly likeable, but they were earnest.
i put off reading this book for a long time because of all that i've heard of it, but ultimately it was beautiful and heart-rending. although it was long, it felt like the kind of story that i never wanted to end — and when it finally did, i still found myself yearning that “the happy years” had been longer. the prose was gorgeous, and while the subject matter was difficult it was never as graphic as i thought it would be.
this is one of those books that i instinctively felt repulsed by during and immediately after my initial read, but has stuck to me months after reading. a unique perspective on the chinese diaspora and on the coming-of-age genre which broaches explicit subjects usually avoided by other middle grade and young adult perspectives. i appreciated how every story tied together, and the glimpses of each story protagonist's opinion of another.
a bookstore owner and i discussed how this was a truly niche collection: too local to be completely understood by westerners, written in a way that's too flowery to appeal to most malaysians.
exactly the kind of stories i crave to write. ‘house of the aunts', which i stumbled upon before the book's release, was what made me realise how much appeal there is in writing and reading about things closer to home.
