Author: Lisa See
Genre: Historical Fiction, Sequel to Shanghai Girls
Published: 2011
Personal Rating: 3.5/5 (good)
Format: Audiobook
Yearly Count: 70
In this sequel to Shanghai Girls, the saga continues when Joy flees to China to seek out her roots.
This was seconds away from becoming a DNF. I felt absolutely no connection to Joy and thought her reception in China was not believable. It took almost half the book for me to get invested and actually care about what happened to any of the characters. The only reason I kept with it was because of the ratings I have seen it receive. I couldn't understand what other readers saw in it and figured I was missing something. Finally, I released my disbelief from the beginning and let the story take me to China. I'm so glad I finished it, because the second half was really very, very good. I'm astonished at the amount of history I learned and what a perfect way to do it - through an interesting story.
I just read my first Lisa See book - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - and loved it. I'll have to remember that this one starts out slow.
ReplyDeleteBermudaonion ~ If you believe in the beginning, you'll have a better start than I did.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way you did with the first half. And I was so disappointed because Shanghai Girls was my favorite book whatever year it came out. I never dis finish this though only because I had promised it to someone and wasnt motivated to finish first. I'll have to find a copy just to read the end!
ReplyDeleteJenny ~ I loved Shanghai Girls, too! I was extremely disappointed and that's why I decided to glance at some reviews before giving up. The second half really was good, but I don't like that I had to suffer through half a book to get there. That's just too much.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I didn't really care too much for Snowflower and the Secret Fan, so I'm not sure I want to suffer through an entire first half of a book to get to the good writing. I'll probably pass on this one.
ReplyDeleteLes ~ Oh, I really enjoyed Snowflower. I just looked it up (before blogging) - I gave it a 4/5. Shanghai Girls was better in my opinion. And, this one, well you can see that it wasn't everything that I had hoped.
ReplyDelete