Reviews

The Year She Left Us: A Novel by Kathryn Ma

nic_m_hud's review

2.0

This book should really be 2.5 stars, it falls in the middle because, while I can enjoy the language and style of the author, I personally did not like this story. Basically Ari was super hard for me to sympathize with. Is she depressed because she's adopted? Is she depressed because she doesn't have a father? Is she depressed because somehow she's afraid her adopted mother is going to abandon her? She didn't seem to enjoy Bangkok yet she plans to go back- she is aimless and makes poor choices and I just can't relate to her. I seems like many people who enjoy this book are adoptees as well - so obviously my review is totally subjective and possibly I'm just to close-minded in this regards. The story was pretty sloppy though, changing view points far to often. I really don't like the change from first-person (Ari) to third person (Les & Charlie).

This is yet again another NPR "Best of 2014" book and I'm wondering whats wrong with me because I don't think I've given one a higher than 4 star rating. For the most part they have all been "eh".