A wonderful premise despite how the plot traversed a perspective of grief with a compelling admirable friendship that also struck me with a touching heart-rending story. Really love the intricacies of its prose; so neat and somehow poetic and I like how it intertwined a coming-of-age narrative to stories of immigrants with an enthralling historical reference to the Cambodian Civil War.

Set in the late 90s in the town of Whitlam, I followed Ai and her friends in their high school journey living the seemingly ordinary lives far from the horrors suffered by their refugee parents. The carefree innocence life took a turn when Ai experiencing an unexpected incident during her last year of school that grappled her into a slump of grief and harrowing trauma. A year later in college has drowned Ai in a series of psychological crisis that soon brought her back to Whitlam to uncover the lump of regrets and sorrow which still hauntingly hanging inside her soul.

It was so emotionally driven than I expected; the friendship drama esp was so engrossingly explored and engulfed me with both warmth and sadness. Lovely dynamics for the characters although I read much of everyone only from Ai’s perspective— love Brigitte, Tin and Aysum also a love-hate for Sying as she mostly stepped on my nerves but I like that her part mainly related to the discrimination issue facing by most immigrants; a perspective that triggered and reflected on societal outlook also the consequences if it was handled too recklessly.

Part 2 was a bit mellow to me as it delved further into Ai’s solitude and psychological musings. Quite rush yet I love how it explored the healing process of Ai in dealing with her estrangement and isolation, of reaching her dreams and hope as well reconnecting back with those she has left behind. It was a beautiful and impactful journey that really hooked me. The love story too was just nicely added and I swooned a lot for the ending.

“I treasured each new epiphany like a jewel in my palm, something shiny and glittering to be admired and examined from every angle and then stored away with the others. Some jewels were more like polished stones. Some were semiprecious. Others were emeralds.”

4.2/5 stars!

Thank you Times Reads for the gifted review copy!