Lisa Ko

I read this book because I had read "The Leavers" by Ko and enjoyed it. This book was. ambitious and creative. It follows 3 girls of Chinese descent from their pre-teens in the 1980's into the 1990s and then leaps forward into a dystopian world in 2040. The book takes place in New York and Ko does a good job of getting into the heads of each of the characters. She tries to hit on so many topics such as. performance art, immigration, racism, technology, and social activism. The book is told in 3 sections through the eyes of each of the characters. All though the book talks about these 3 friends being bonded and it does. deal with their friendship, I found the connections actually very loose among the 3 of them. The book does bog down in a lot of detail that shows Ko's creativity but doesn't do much for the story. I enjoyed the final section in 2040 the most as it dealt with the negative trends we are seeing with climate change and the rich versus the poor. I would recommend reading "the Leavers" before this. one. Not sure if I would read another book by Ko unless I truly was interested in the topic. This book probably would appeal more to a younger female reader.… (más)

Switching between the POV of Deming (Daniel) a young Chinese American boy suddenly abandoned by his mother at age 11 and eventually adopted by a family in upstate New York and his Chinese mother Polly (Peilan) who made many difficult choices in her life, many that she regretted. The novel puts us inside the heads of the main characters and helps the reader experience their situations and their feeling of never quite belonging.

I like a book that helps me understand the unfamiliar and this story touches on a lot of unfamiliar things: Adoption, immigration, illegal status, non-traditional families. A good glimpse, I think, into a very different American experience and one that feels especially important in today's political climate.

Thumbs up.… (más)

This is a quietly powerful book about identity and acceptance. At first, I struggled a bit to get into this. The pace is fairly slow and I was probably not in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate the depth of this book when I started it. I debated with myself whether I should just DNF, but then felt drawn back into the story and I am truly glad I stuck with it until the end.

I can in all honesty say that for most (if not all) the book, I profoundly disliked Deming/Daniel. He is a difficult character to accept, but at the same time he is a difficult character to relate to, in light of his experiences and profound suffering. Moving along with him, it slowly becomes clearer and clearer that Deming is essentially a lost child, suffering the loss of his mother and of his own identity. No matter how many years have passed, he cannot accept his situation, but even more so, he cannot accept this new persona that was imposed on him by his adoptive parents.

Polly's disappearance hangs as a permanent shadow of Deming's life, hurtful as it is incomprehensible. When we readers, are finally made aware of the truth behind it, it is tinted with the quiet pain of those who are used to seeing things go differently from what they had hoped. Through the struggle and long-lasting pain of Polly and Deming, this book provides a striking commentary of modern society, and the human impact of immigration and integration policies.

Extremely delicate in its weaving of the tale and in its social commentary, The Leavers brings to light the reality of what it means to be foreign, to be different in a society that values appearance and homogeneity above all else; it explores the struggle to rebuild your life from scratch without losing sight of where you come from and who you are; and above all else, it doesn't shy away from the pain and suffering of losing those dearest to you and what it means to never lose hope.

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.… (más)