A review by abookishtype
Northern Girls by Shelly Bryant, Sheng Keyi

3.0

Even though Sheng Keyi’s Northern Girls (translated by Shelly Bryant) is bookended by descriptions of protagonist Xiaohong’s larger-than-usual breasts, Xiaohong is more than her anatomy—no matter what the numerous men who ogle or try to trick her think. None of these men seem to learn how complicated she is or how she operates in a city that doesn’t seem to want her around. I daresay readers will be surprised, as I was, even though we spend more than 300 pages with her, at how Xiaohong constantly rises back up after tragedy and adversity. The woman is a goddamn phoenix...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.