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kcfromaustcrime's review against another edition
3.0
It's taken an age to get this review to the point where it can be published, because it's it's been so hard to clearly identify what about SAIGON DARK really worked for this reader, and why there were some niggling doubts remaining.
A seemingly straight-forward story where Lily, a competent, respected surgeon has returned to her native Saigon, two children with her - leaving behind a failed marriage to an American Vietnamese man. When her young daughter dies in a drowning accident, she buries the body in her garden - never telling anyone what happened. Then grief-stricken Lily kidnaps (rescues) an abused child from the house next door, raising her as her dead daughter. Suddenly not so straight-forward.
Guilt, sadness and paranoia abound in this novel, which quite often feels like a long-running train crash, as Lily spirals out of control. The portrait of this woman is interesting and particularly well done as you have a seemingly competent, assertive woman in her professional life, who, from the moment she finds the body of her daughter, does so many inexplicable things. But it's not just the daft decisions, it's the absolute refusal to take stock / to consider the potential consequences / to stop and breathe until, as the reader just knows will happen, reality turns around and bites back hard.
Obviously there's an unreliable narrator at the centre of SAIGON DARK. Or is it perhaps the sinister echo of the ex-husband or her the best friend, miles away and somehow complicit in something. Perhaps this is where the niggling doubts come from. There's a lot of belief being suspended here. Sure you might think a little boy would accept a sudden change in sister without dropping his mother into it too deep, and you might sort of expect that an isolated, recently arrived family could hide a switch like this. And you can live with the idea that the guilt would be partly because Lily's dead daughter was a handful, and the hiding of her death by a seemingly intelligent, educated woman was all explainable. And the flitting, and returning, and the new husband, the ex-husband, and the odd interventions from the best friend, and and and. The batting away of disbelief is undoubtedly helped by the pace of the novel, and the cleverly sympathetic nature of the woman at the centre of it all, and fortunately, the unravelling starts early enough to give you hope that any doubts you might be experiencing aren't completely unreasonable.
All in all it's an interesting one this. SAIGON DARK is styled as a psychological thriller, with a central highly unreliable character who is oddly sympathetic and utterly infuriating all at the same time. Bought up in America, but with Vietnamese ancestry, she's both an insider and outsider. She's isolated without many friends or strong local connections, and she's profoundly impulse driven. With each wrong-turn she erects more and more hurdles to the point where you just know she's going to trip. And for most of SAIGON DARK this reader could not decide if that was a good or a bad thing. Definitely worth reading if you're looking for something that's outside the box by a long way.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-saigon-dark-elka-ray
A seemingly straight-forward story where Lily, a competent, respected surgeon has returned to her native Saigon, two children with her - leaving behind a failed marriage to an American Vietnamese man. When her young daughter dies in a drowning accident, she buries the body in her garden - never telling anyone what happened. Then grief-stricken Lily kidnaps (rescues) an abused child from the house next door, raising her as her dead daughter. Suddenly not so straight-forward.
Guilt, sadness and paranoia abound in this novel, which quite often feels like a long-running train crash, as Lily spirals out of control. The portrait of this woman is interesting and particularly well done as you have a seemingly competent, assertive woman in her professional life, who, from the moment she finds the body of her daughter, does so many inexplicable things. But it's not just the daft decisions, it's the absolute refusal to take stock / to consider the potential consequences / to stop and breathe until, as the reader just knows will happen, reality turns around and bites back hard.
Obviously there's an unreliable narrator at the centre of SAIGON DARK. Or is it perhaps the sinister echo of the ex-husband or her the best friend, miles away and somehow complicit in something. Perhaps this is where the niggling doubts come from. There's a lot of belief being suspended here. Sure you might think a little boy would accept a sudden change in sister without dropping his mother into it too deep, and you might sort of expect that an isolated, recently arrived family could hide a switch like this. And you can live with the idea that the guilt would be partly because Lily's dead daughter was a handful, and the hiding of her death by a seemingly intelligent, educated woman was all explainable. And the flitting, and returning, and the new husband, the ex-husband, and the odd interventions from the best friend, and and and. The batting away of disbelief is undoubtedly helped by the pace of the novel, and the cleverly sympathetic nature of the woman at the centre of it all, and fortunately, the unravelling starts early enough to give you hope that any doubts you might be experiencing aren't completely unreasonable.
All in all it's an interesting one this. SAIGON DARK is styled as a psychological thriller, with a central highly unreliable character who is oddly sympathetic and utterly infuriating all at the same time. Bought up in America, but with Vietnamese ancestry, she's both an insider and outsider. She's isolated without many friends or strong local connections, and she's profoundly impulse driven. With each wrong-turn she erects more and more hurdles to the point where you just know she's going to trip. And for most of SAIGON DARK this reader could not decide if that was a good or a bad thing. Definitely worth reading if you're looking for something that's outside the box by a long way.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-saigon-dark-elka-ray
originaltomc's review against another edition
4.0
Well written but I hoped for more suspense. Good read in general, but (for me) it just isn't one of those books that you can't put down. I liked that the story is told in first person as we get an insight into Lily's head. Loved the last chapter, not so much the ending.
yvo_about_books's review against another edition
4.0
Finished reading: June 28th 2018
"Closure? When I hear people use this word, I dismiss them as idiots, or worse. Just the idea is a travesty, like you could close a door on your love, lock it up tight, and paint over it. Real love is a part of you, like your heart or your liver. You might survive massive trauma but you won't ever be the same."
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
Spoiler
I always enjoy reading books with a foreign setting, especially when I haven't been there myself as it feels like a mini-vacation just being able to read about it. Between the promise of a setting in Vietnam and an intriguing premise, I knew I had to give this story a go. Saigon Dark is a mix of a domestic drama and a psychological thriller set in a timespan of roughly ten years. The story jumps forward a lot between chapters, but if you keep track of the dates mentioned the story isn't that difficult to follow. I liked the writing style, which flowed naturally and easy on the eye. The plot is an interesting one with just the right amount of secrets and twists. Did I understand the reasoning behind the things the main characters? Not always. Do I think she should have said something when it happened all those years ago instead of doing what she did? Yes. But I guess there wouldn't have been a story otherwise. I did feel there were some holes in the plot, or at least bits I would have liked to see more developed. And I kind of struggled with the ending, which felt rather abrupt. I was left wanting to know more and learn how things continued since a lot was left unsaid. Saigon Dark has a few pretty decent twists, although I did guess part of the final reveals early on. But in general I can't deny Saign Dark was a very interesting read with a foreign setting I was able to explore thanks to the story. Trigger warnings are in place for abuse and violence though.
Lily is a successful plastic surgeon and the single mom of two small kids. Then one day her life changes forever as she finds her little daughter has drowned in the backyard. She is unconsolable and stricken by grief, and that might explain the split-second decision to take in her neighbor's neglected and abused daughter and whisk her away from her home. Lily spends the next decade living a lie, telling everyone the girl she practically kidnapped is her own dead daughter. Just as she remarries and starts to feel safe, she receives a threatening note... Will she able to keep her past a secret?
Saigon Dark is without doubt an interesting read. The main character Lily's situation is a very complicated one and while I don't agree with her actions, I can see how grief can make people do things they normally wouldn't. There is no doubt she saved the girl from more abuse and neglect in the years that followed, but denying her the truth about her past isn't exactly ethical either. It was interesting to see how things slowly started to unfold though, although I still would have wished a less abrupt ending. I'm having a feeling especially fans of domestic thrillers will enjoy this one.
P.S. Find more of my reviews here.
ianayris's review against another edition
5.0
Lily is a single mum, living in Vietnam. She has two children – Dunc and little Evie, and a repeated dream about her ex-husband throwing her from the top of a Ferris wheel. Lily is also a doctor, a professional – a job in which the suppression of emotions is a positive pre-requisite.
And that is really what this taught, suffocating, brilliant novel from Elka Ray is about – suppression. And choices. Because life is all about choices.
So, what do we do when our life is ripped apart in a single moment of tragedy, through no fault of our own? Even then, we have choices. Lily has choices. Lily chooses.
The choice Lily makes has consequences – as all choices do. And as we follow Lily as the consequences of her choice unfolds, the sense of foreboding becomes almost unbearable. It became so real for me at one point, this impending terror, I had to physically force myself not to long down the page at what was to come.
Ray's prose is tight and utterly unforgiving. Here is the first paragraph:
'I'm woken by the sound of breaking glass. A woman screams. It's the neighbours, again. A boy - one of the older kids - yells, and a younger child starts to sob. I roll over. If only it would stop. Their youngest is smaller than my daughter.'
When I teach my students about writing in the first person, I say the aim is for the reader to feel exactly as the narrator feels. Ray achieves this, and more. I read most of this book feeling an elephant was sitting on my chest. Just great, great writing.
Otto Penzler once said ‘noir stories are bleak, existential, alienated, pessimistic tales about losers--people who are so morally challenged that they cannot help but bring about their own ruin’.
Lily may not be a ‘loser’ in the sense Penzler means, but she has suffered loss unimaginable. The remainder of the definition holds utterly true, making, in my mind, Saigon Dark a modern noir classic, and Elka Ray a name to watch for anyone who likes dark, psychological thrillers of the highest quality.
And that is really what this taught, suffocating, brilliant novel from Elka Ray is about – suppression. And choices. Because life is all about choices.
So, what do we do when our life is ripped apart in a single moment of tragedy, through no fault of our own? Even then, we have choices. Lily has choices. Lily chooses.
The choice Lily makes has consequences – as all choices do. And as we follow Lily as the consequences of her choice unfolds, the sense of foreboding becomes almost unbearable. It became so real for me at one point, this impending terror, I had to physically force myself not to long down the page at what was to come.
Ray's prose is tight and utterly unforgiving. Here is the first paragraph:
'I'm woken by the sound of breaking glass. A woman screams. It's the neighbours, again. A boy - one of the older kids - yells, and a younger child starts to sob. I roll over. If only it would stop. Their youngest is smaller than my daughter.'
When I teach my students about writing in the first person, I say the aim is for the reader to feel exactly as the narrator feels. Ray achieves this, and more. I read most of this book feeling an elephant was sitting on my chest. Just great, great writing.
Otto Penzler once said ‘noir stories are bleak, existential, alienated, pessimistic tales about losers--people who are so morally challenged that they cannot help but bring about their own ruin’.
Lily may not be a ‘loser’ in the sense Penzler means, but she has suffered loss unimaginable. The remainder of the definition holds utterly true, making, in my mind, Saigon Dark a modern noir classic, and Elka Ray a name to watch for anyone who likes dark, psychological thrillers of the highest quality.
originaltomc's review
4.0
Well written but I hoped for more suspense. Good read in general, but (for me) it just isn't one of those books that you can't put down. I liked that the story is told in first person as we get an insight into Lily's head. Loved the last chapter, not so much the ending.
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