Hang recalls some harrowing stuff over the course of this novel, however, those moments are buffered with bits of humor and hope and the kind of characters who feel as though they’ll linger in your mind forever in a good way.

LeeRoy is most definitely one of those characters, and a surprise at that. He’s a wanna-be cowboy with no actual cowboy experience (yet way too much confidence in his cowboy abilities), he’s an early adopter of rap music (this story takes place in the early 80’s), sports a mustache and questionable cowboy duds, plus he’s booksmart. In our often horrible real world, a girl like Hang probably would have crossed paths with someone awful, but I’m so glad LeeRoy is the person the author gave her, patient and kind and funny and more impressed by Hang’s feisty personality than put out by it.

It should be noted what hints of romance there are here, are slow in coming and often subtle, that isn’t going to work for every reader, to me though it fit the story perfectly, Hang had more pressing concerns than landing a boyfriend. But if you do like a quieter kind of romance, LeeRoy’s willingness to talk Hang through a certain moment in this book is just about as attractive as someone can get, there’s no need for a steamy makeout session to emphasize the point the author makes right then and there about what Hang and LeeRoy mean to one another.

The settings in this book, toiling in the dust and the heat of Texas farm country, the flashbacks to life in Vietnam altered by the military’s presence, and the treachorous boat journey to the US, these are places and experiences I’ve never come close to having but they’re written in a way that made them easily imagined all without going overboard on description.

Lastly, I have to talk about Hang. She’s so admirable to survive what she survived, to carry the amount of guilt she feels and not let it weigh her down, not let the language barrier or fear or anything else stop her from trying to reunite with her little brother. She is brimming with toughness and soul. If you’re looking for a hero (and don’t mind if she’s fictional) I doubt you could find much better than Hang. ( )

Representation: Asian main character
Trigger warnings: Racism

6/10, this was my first historical book (1915 doesn't count since it's a war book) made by a Vietnamese-American author to boot, Thanhhà Lại, so I had high expectations for this and I was honestly quite surprised that I didn't enjoy this due to some issues I've found but I read her other book Inside Out and Back Again since then and would like to read the sequel, where do I begin. It starts off with the main character Hằng leaving Vietnam after the war ended and she arrived in Texas, US ready to start off her new life and that storyline is familiar so I read on to see where it was going. I found her character to be interesting since she speaks English with a Vietnamese accent as can be seen with her dialogue with other characters, speaking of soon she meets a new character called LeeRoy and at first their character dynamic is not the best however they get along towards the end. The plot is kind of slow with nothing much happening in it except those events but there are a few good moments interspersed. Throughout the book Hằng acclimatises to her new life but sometimes I see flashbacks of her back in Vietnam during the war which I liked and the end, let's just say it finishes on a high note. ( )

A beautiful story about a girls journey from Vietnam to West Texas, trying to find her brother while at the same time trying to find a way to communicate with those around her. It’s also the story of a boy who wants to be one thing and discovers that he something totally different. Very well written, interesting to see all the different ways words are used in the Vietnamese language. Makes me want to go on Duolingo and learn how to speak it! ( )

Hằng's takes her 5-year old brother, Linh, to be airlifted out of Saigon in 1975 (Operation Babylift), with Hằng left behind in Vietnam. She has felt guilty ever since, and gathers enough money to come to the U.S. after six years. Along her arduous route, she is eventually helped by a wannabe cowboy, LeeRoy. They go to a small town in Texas, where Linh (now David) is assimilated, and wants nothing to do with her, and Lee Roy is their only bond. However, for me, the book did not work for two reasons: (1) Hằng's English was much too hard to understand, and (2) the backstory of Hằng's trip to the U.S. as a refugee seemed more important than the family issues and main story. ( )

Two naive (to an irritating extent) 18-year-olds cross paths, one a female Vietnamese “boat people” survivor & a rodeo-obsessed kid from Austin, & end up in Amarillo. She’s looking for her younger brother whom she accidentally “gave away” to Americans fleeing #Vietnam at the end of the war (not a spoiler, it’s on the cover blurb). The pair slowly mature working at a ranch during a hot Texas summer, as we slowly learn about the girl’s trauma during her escape from Vietnam. It’s a lovely story & I’m impressed how the author turned two unlikeable kids making terribly stupid decisions into lovely characters you actually care about. The author nails the descriptions of Texas landscapes and all the idioms we often use (yes, some of us actually do talk that way & I find it endearing & authentic). The book ends with a long excerpt from the award-winning Inside Out and Back Again. ( )