Reviews

The Border of Paradise by Esmé Weijun Wang

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21maximillian's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

sophie275's review

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

bufobufo's review

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challenging dark medium-paced

3.0

I generally like gothic novels but this one left me uncomfortable. Oppressive doom where the intricacies of pain are inspected but not so much the cruelty that bore it.

From reading other reviews, the descriptors ‘gothic’, ‘visceral’, and ‘disturbing’ seem to come up most often, and all are pretty accurate. Seems unfair to rate this at all, it was really a very powerful study on the effect of mental illness on families, as well as a very stressful depiction of childhood isolation, and these challenging topics were written about so beautifully, but despite that (or because of it) I didn’t really enjoy reading it. Looking back, I think the incest taboo may have been a bit much for me - shame on my conservative Western mind.

kabbymaccready's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

meghan111's review

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4.0

Pretty amazing novel, I will be thinking about it for a long time. David Nowak, growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, is the heir to the Nowak piano company. He struggles with mental illness his whole life. After his idyllic relationship with childhood sweetheart Marianne ends, he marries a young woman from Taiwan who goes by Daisy. The story is told from his point of view, and then Daisy's, and then from that of their children.

What was really fantastic was how dramatic and gothic things get in the middle - the story becomes so gripping.

sakeriver's review

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This is easily one of the best books I've read this year. Beautifully written, full of devastating little truths, and with an ending that continues to haunt me, months later. Though the lives of the family depicted in this book are unsettling and often dark, there are moments of grace throughout, as well. I struggle to come up with something tidy that can sum up with this book is "about," but if I had to say, I'd say it's about family, and how we both are and are not defined by the traumas in our lives, and how experiences can resound down through generations. Fantastic book, I highly recommend it.