I am unwell- THAT ENDING! 😭😭😭😭😭😭
Izzy is talking to her beloved grandmother Nainai, who is an accomplished woman in Indonesia. Nainai has just entered the Chinese New Year party with a tall beautiful woman on her arm and shared a public kiss. The scandal!
And so the story jumps back to 1996 when Nainai (whose name is Magnolia) is 16 and following her big sister Iris to Los Angeles. Magnolia is smart but insecure, brilliant but impulsive.
Themes of found family, the bond of sisterhood and a gigantic criticism of patriarchal norms and purity culture, this book has a very ambitious goal to hit and knocks it out of the park. It has elements of romance but is truly, instead, Magnolia’s coming of age story. The themes change and attack culture both in the US and in her homeland. The time jumps are seamless and get right to the heart of the questions we ask… what traditions make sense to carry with us and what is best left behind?
Five stars. I usually reserve fives for books that both surprise me and make me cry. This story is extremely engaging. But seriously, is there a genre Jesse Q Sutano can’t write??
Critics will say… “how corny.” SHUT UP CHEESE HATERS SONE OF US HAVE HEARTS
Thanks to @netgalley and Berkeley he for the ARC. Book to be published November 11, 2025.
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