Arson, Abortion, underage sex between teenagers
Chinese minor character
This is my second Celeste Ng book and I’m glad that I finally got to read it. I feel like this had a similar feel to Everything I Never Told You but still a very different and intriguing story. I think for this one, it made me feel better that there weren’t any characters that had a… hmm a not very positive ending I guess is what I can say without spoiling her first novel. This one had me thinking about a lot of things though.
Like for example: seeing how the news sensationalized the custody battle between the McCulloughs and Bebe Chow over Mei Ling. How both sides were trying to show that the other side was in the wrong, and how so many people seemed to believe that since Bebe gave up her daughter in a crisis situation, that she shouldn’t have the right to raise her daughter again. I get that leaving her at a fire station wasn’t ideal, but she did what she had to do to ensure that her daughter survived when there was the very real chance that they both could have starved to death. For Bebe, there was no other option, and especially with how she was told that her lack of “proper English” would prevent her from working in a job similar to what she was doing back in San Francisco – receptionist at a dental office I believe – how would she be able to financially provide for her and her daughter? It was also VERY VERY interesting to see how Linda McCullough basically said with her own mouth that she didn’t actually give a crap about Mei Ling growing up with her Chinese heritage based on the actions that she and her husband did. I mean, she liked to say that she would take her to a Chinese restaurant every weekend or that she would make sure that they learned about it together “in the future” but she changed her name. That right there told me that she really didn’t give a shit about Mei Ling’s heritage at all. She was already given a name. Bebe made sure that her name was given when she gave her up to the fire station, and the McCulloughs still changed it to Melinda. And there was a moment where Linda said that being experts in Chinese culture wasn’t a requirement to being Mei Ling’s parents, only the fact that they love her and can financially provide her a good life.
I had a lot of thoughts about that part and I can see why Mia Warren and Elena Richardson were on opposite sides of the battle.
BUT ALSO, how dare Elena use her manipulation to basically dig into Mia’s life without her knowledge and then use that and something that she was completely wrong about as a basis to mistreat Mia. In the beginning, Elena is made out to be a magnanimous person who wants to use the spare house they have for people that are in need, but then she does something like this and takes away her “good graces” from someone who doesn’t agree with her? Not okay.
Lexi is selfish, that’s all I have to say about that. It’s her fault that Elena made a gross assumption about Pearl which led to what happened at the end of the novel. She was not a good friend to Pearl at all.
Moody was DEFINITELY vindictive with what he said towards the end. What kind of best friend does that? Sheesh, how rude.
I know that Ng doesn’t normally write sequels or anything, but the way that this book ended makes me hope that certain characters end up seeing each other again in the future. However that may be.
Sometimes Leelynn Reads 