Reviews

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

madi22w's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

it took me two attempts to get into How Much of These Hills is Gold, and dare i say that was one attempt too many lol. i committed myself to the prose, at first, waiting for it to take me over and immerse me in this world of western hills and valleys. and at times, in the beginning, it did! and zhang’s words were hauntingly beautiful, and i was lost in lucy and sam’s world. 

however once we got to

ba’s section

, the third section… i was over it. even before, i had found myself getting bored halfway through paragraphs, my eyes jumping to the next page to see when the action might be, but i found lucy and sam’s relationship to be riveting. for me, it was probably the best part of the book. i was so interested in their differences, sam’s courage and trans-ness and lucy’s silence and girlhood. like i identify with both of these narratives, i was so excited to see the different complexities of their relationship!

only to be met with… nothing. like i thought zhang’s depiction of the fetishization that they experienced was adequate, and their description of lucy’s struggle with beauty was.. okay? although i thought that both didn’t go far enough. but how are you not going to talk about

how abusive ba was towards lucy?

and how that was probably the reason

why she thought it would be okay to give her body for sam’s?

and how sam still idolized ba? 

or how are you going to depict

charles’ pursuit of lucy

, but not how her beauty changed how she perceived the world and how the world perceived her entirely? or how that changed

after her nose broke again?

(also… dont even get me started on that lmao. as an ugly kid, i would have dreamed for someone to

break my nose

if it would make me beautiful again. take-away: that doesn’t happen!)

all in all, i think that this book is good! it’s just like… first or second draft good lmao. it’s not even necessarily that i hate the prose but more-so that i wish zhang did more with it, that it could have prompted us to reflect on the characters and their actions or revealed something more than just the filler it felt like it was. i would say that their chinese heritage was one of the strongest parts of the book, although more in the way it affected them as characters than the actual role china/the ship had in the book. basically, if the plot intrigues you and you find the prose bearable, i would say read on! just be prepared to skim lmao. you won’t really miss anything

bookwormandtheatremouse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

gromithorror's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

sincerelylogan's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

Zhang’s prose is otherworldly. In many ways, this book reminded me  of “Four Treasures of the Sky”  - a memorable tale of the Chinese immigrant experience in the West during the gold rush. The two kids, who we meet on the day their father has died, are three-dimensional and leap off the page. It’s short - less than 300 pages - and a great read for anyone looking for something that packs a punch.

jess_ob's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

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

3.25

mitskacir's review against another edition

4.0

As far as I know, this book is marketed as historical fiction - however it is not historical fiction as I have ever read it. This book is told through a strong first-person narrative with little scene setting and no omniscient narration to explain the historical context, stripping it of window dressing I’m used to in the genre. Furthermore, there is an element of magical realism - or perhaps simply the story telling that is woven into the characters and plot. Or perhaps it is simply metaphor that brings the tigers into the story of the American west. There is a strange naturalness and unnaturalness of Chinese Americans saying “pardner”, a strange acceptance of and prejudice against the perceived foreigner and the denied indigenous, a strange balance between becoming what you already are and not knowing who you are that is explored in this book. This is a book that keeps you at a distance with its heavy metaphor, but one that I would like to explore more deeply because of it.

daumari's review against another edition

4.0

A solid debut that really captured the dry loveliness of the western landscape in a time when the land didn't love you back. Lucy and Sam scramble to survive after their Ba dies. About halfway through we see a couple years prior when they're younger and Ma is still around, and then from beyond the grave Ba tells his tale as a youth carrying his own secrets.

Not a cheerful ending, but contemplative.

alisonoreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.75

I loved this book. One of my favorites this year. It’s a new take on the old west, and the way it’s structured adds to its beauty. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse

mazeman's review against another edition

4.0

This book WILL be made into a movie. Immigrants... sexual identity... an imperfect America.

The movie WILL be worse than the actual book.

zosia's review against another edition

4.0

3.5 rounded up.