"A terrifying odyssey in present-day China . . . with the protagonist pursued by the Chinese and American governments alike in a global panorama. A...
read full description
reviews
Jan 07, 2012
David
rated it: 
I had no idea what to expect from this book; I was just intrigued by the title and the cover and the synopsis. I was very pleasantly surprised to get a fast-moving, well-written tale with an ex-pat's view of contemporary China.
The first-person narrator, Ellie Cooper, is a young former US Army medic hanging out in China on a semi-expired visa, still shell-shocked by the destruction of her marriage and her ongoing issues with PTSD relating to some really bad things that happened in Ira More...
The first-person narrator, Ellie Cooper, is a young former US Army medic hanging out in China on a semi-expired visa, still shell-shocked by the destruction of her marriage and her ongoing issues with PTSD relating to some really bad things that happened in Ira More...
0 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Dec 31, 2010
C.J.
rated it: 
Terrific book...the first I've read in a long time that kept me up late turning pages.
Brackmann has a lot to say about the perfidy of those in power everywhere who join forces and will stop at nothing to maintain power, about the nasty little deals that governments/corporations/the very rich make with each other, and how their deals affect the rest of us ordinary folk in all the countries of world. If that all sounds a bit too political, then let me put it another way. Brackmann has done More...
Brackmann has a lot to say about the perfidy of those in power everywhere who join forces and will stop at nothing to maintain power, about the nasty little deals that governments/corporations/the very rich make with each other, and how their deals affect the rest of us ordinary folk in all the countries of world. If that all sounds a bit too political, then let me put it another way. Brackmann has done More...
4 comments
like
(5 people liked it)
Dec 25, 2010
Cara
rated it:
This was an excellent political thriller, with many more layers of meaning than I've usually found in this genre. The descriptions of China were vivid and evocative and took me back to my own experience of that fascinating country. The descriptions of a young female veteran's experience of the Iraq war were thought-provoking. The protagonist was unlike any I've yet seen, a breath of fresh air - or perhaps I should say polluted air, which is what made her interesting.
Ellie McEnroe wa More...
Ellie McEnroe wa More...
7 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Jan 04, 2012
Ben
rated it:
If I told you how much I loved reading Lisa Brackmann's words+sentences+paragraphs+chapters, overall serendipitous extraneous story, I'd have to commit murder. But that would go against my ethics. So, I'll just have to draw a little blood from my fingertips furiously typing my new manuscript REGGIE ROCKETSHIP AND HIS BOOM BOOM POW GALAXY OF SECRETS.
Rock Paper Tiger, first person narrative, present tense fascination, refreshed my energy knowing Brackmann created such a creative, urban More...
Rock Paper Tiger, first person narrative, present tense fascination, refreshed my energy knowing Brackmann created such a creative, urban More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 28, 2012
James
rated it: 
Ellie Cooper is a veteran of the Iraq war who got more than she bargained for when she enlisted. Wounded both physically and emotionally, she finds herself in China, living from day-to-day on the fringes of an artistic community. Her best friend is an artist named Lao Zghang. Ellie, who is separated from her husband, sometimes sleeps with Lao, but they are not really lovers.
One day, Ellie goes to Lao's home, looking to hang out and perhaps watch him work. There she meets a mysterious U More...
One day, Ellie goes to Lao's home, looking to hang out and perhaps watch him work. There she meets a mysterious U More...
0 comments
like
(5 people liked it)
Jan 02, 2012
Zhou
rated it: 
I think this author has a lot of friends pumping her book. This effort is neither "thrilling" or 'fast paced". It meanders and slogs. The protagonist is self-loathing and whines too much. While I applaud non-Chinese writers who try and breath some real life into Chinese fiction that is generally lacking work appealing to Western readers, Lisa didn't have enough time on the ground to give her any real gravitas, and it shows in her work. For readers who have spent time in China
More...
Dec 11, 2011
Peggy
rated it:
I had the pleasure of reading Lisa Brackmann's book, Rock Paper Tiger, over the weekend. Well, "gobbled it up" is probably a better phrase -- I started reading it at 2 P.M. on Sunday and read until I was finished. (I should tell you up front that I know Lisa through The Next Circle of Hell at the Absolute Write Water Cooler and love her posts, so there's my bias up front.)
It's not that often a book engages me as fully as this one did, but I'm a sucker for complex character More...
It's not that often a book engages me as fully as this one did, but I'm a sucker for complex character More...
May 08, 2011
Timothy
rated it:
An absolutely terrific first thriller about a female U.S. Army medic, damaged physically and emotionally in the Middle East, who finds herself in Beijing with her husband, whom she met in Iraq and who's on assignment. While still addicted to the Percocet she takes to dull the pain in her patched-together legs, she's putting her world together emotionally when her husband cheats on her. At the beginning of the book she's dodging his attempts to finalize the divorce and hanging out with a colony
More...
0 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Apr 07, 2011
Ms.pegasus
rated it:
Ellie (Chinese name, Yili) describes the dilapidated squalor of her environs in Haidian Qu, and the reader is instantly drawn in. How did she, an American woman, get here? More hints are dropped – her leg hurts so badly that she alleviates the pain with a dwindling supply of percocet. She has some interesting friends, including a serious artist named Lao Zhang, a painter and performance artist in the “Mati Village” district, an artist colony on the norther outskirts of Beijing. Her roommate
More...
3 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Mar 09, 2011
Ellee
rated it: 
The story is compelling. I had to finish it. The main character/heroin has depth but the depth is murky and stale. She is a tortured soul who is stagnant, confused, unmotivated. The story, it drags you through to the end kicking and screaming. About halfway through the book, I was praying for it to end. It is well written but the heroine is just along for the ride. She should have just stayed home. Her lack luster approach to life is translated to her lack luster approach to solving her dilemma.
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Nov 09, 2010
Brian
rated it:
The settings are good: the streets of Beijing, low-life apartments and artiste squatter warehouses, the hard-sleeper trains, the Net cafes filled with smoke and noise and young men living on-line. The sandbox of Iraq and Saddam's old compounds. The Misty Mountain Tea Garden and the Arbors of Serenity virtual environments.
The characters diverse: slouching skate-punk artists, sophisticate art dealers, US Army security contractors, medics, Congressional aides, Chinese students, stre More...
The characters diverse: slouching skate-punk artists, sophisticate art dealers, US Army security contractors, medics, Congressional aides, Chinese students, stre More...
3 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 07, 2010
Stephanie
rated it:
Ellie is a veteran of the Iraq war, suffering from PTSD and a leg injury sustained during her tour of duty. She's living in China after her husband, whom she met while in Iraq, dumped her for another woman. She is living day by day, doing what she can to survive, making new friends, and trying to sort out the mess her life has become. She becomes close to a Chinese artist, Lao Zhang, and though their relationship isn't well defined, she considers him her closet friend. One night, feeling lonely
More...
2 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jun 12, 2010
Jill
rated it:
Character, character, character!
Many of the reviews I've read have focused on the fast pace and fascinating tour of modern-day China Lisa Brackmann renders in Rock Paper Tiger but, for me, what made this debut novel so engrossing was its main character, Ellie McEnroe Cooper. Ellie is an Iraq war veteran physically and mentally wounded by her experiences in Iraq, which Brackmann blends wonderfully in flashbacks throughout the novel. Ellie and fellow comrade Trey Cooper's shared experi More...
Many of the reviews I've read have focused on the fast pace and fascinating tour of modern-day China Lisa Brackmann renders in Rock Paper Tiger but, for me, what made this debut novel so engrossing was its main character, Ellie McEnroe Cooper. Ellie is an Iraq war veteran physically and mentally wounded by her experiences in Iraq, which Brackmann blends wonderfully in flashbacks throughout the novel. Ellie and fellow comrade Trey Cooper's shared experi More...
Aug 27, 2010
Ed
rated it:
I stumbled onto to Rock Paper Tiger after it was named one of the Top 10 Fiction Books So Far (for 2010) and coupled with (at the time) a nearly perfect 5-star average rating, plus having an interest in China since visiting Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, this thriller seemed right up my alley.
I will admit I like to blend into the crowd and can be influenced by the opinion of others, but during and after this one, I was kind of wondering if we had all read the same book. I will say i More...
I will admit I like to blend into the crowd and can be influenced by the opinion of others, but during and after this one, I was kind of wondering if we had all read the same book. I will say i More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Sep 26, 2011
Kate
rated it:
This deserves 3.5 stars and only missed 4 because it is most certainly going to become outdated at some point. The writer includes to many internet cafes, ipods, and sneaker brands not to. That said, this book was a nice surprise and highly enjoyable. One of the things I look forward to in my reading is being transported to another place and the opportunity to be a voyeur or live vicariously through the characters in a story. This book provides ample opportunity for this as well as allowing the
More...
Jul 16, 2011
Jane
rated it:
I was fascinated from beginning to end by this book about a young American Iraq war veteran living in China. Ellie/Yili is married to Trey (who is divorcing her), who she met at "Camp Falafel" in Iraq. As she struggles to live with the "crime" they both committed in Iraq, she becomes involved with the world of visual and performance artists in China, primarily Beijing. The way Brackmann intertwines the war in Iraq, dissident Chinese artists, gaming, lost souls, and global pol
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jul 03, 2010
Gina
rated it:
Not your typical YA. With protagonist Ellie Cooper at the helm, ROCK PAPER TIGER is fast-paced and frightening story set in China. Cooper is an Iraq War Vet with a foul mouth whose husband has left her and whose artist lover has recently disappeared. A chance meeting with an Uighur--a Chinese muslim minority--leads Cooper on a chase around China, from Beijing to Treasure Chicken Village, with various US and Chinese agencies at her heels. A warning for the faint of heart: there are some disturbin
More...
Jun 17, 2010
Ed
rated it:
Overlapping conspiracies in modern, semi-dystopic China, interleaved with Iraq war flashbacks,
make for some dizzying head-trips (and real trips), as Ellie Cooper becomes a reluctant agent of she knows-not-what, struggling against an array of very real, very powerful creeps. Despite its exotic locales, or perhaps aided by them, this story felt a lot like the old Prisoner TV drama, starring Patrick McGoohan. (Who are these people and why are they doing this to me?) Apart from the on-going w More...
make for some dizzying head-trips (and real trips), as Ellie Cooper becomes a reluctant agent of she knows-not-what, struggling against an array of very real, very powerful creeps. Despite its exotic locales, or perhaps aided by them, this story felt a lot like the old Prisoner TV drama, starring Patrick McGoohan. (Who are these people and why are they doing this to me?) Apart from the on-going w More...
Nov 16, 2011
Jpmist
rated it:
Rarely have I gotten half way thru a book and given up out of frustration. Seems the author plays her cards very close because she refuses to give me any hint of story. Lots of back story which if I had any reason to care about her lead character might have kept me in longer than it did.
So far a story about an aimless troubled Iraq drifter careening off one misadventure after another. Her backstory has something to do with a guy even more screwed up than she is and the payoff seems dir More...
So far a story about an aimless troubled Iraq drifter careening off one misadventure after another. Her backstory has something to do with a guy even more screwed up than she is and the payoff seems dir More...
Jan 03, 2011
Not a bad thriller, set in modern China (mostly Beijing) and placing a military veteran (of Operation Iraqi Freedom) in harms way.
Ellie (or Yili) Cooper saw some bad things in Iraq but living in the unfamiliar surroundings of Beijing is helping her PTSD (although her leg still hurts). Involved with contemporary artists, she finds herself questioned by Americans and Chinese alike when one of her friends goes missing.
Although not much happens and the "mysteries" are More...
Ellie (or Yili) Cooper saw some bad things in Iraq but living in the unfamiliar surroundings of Beijing is helping her PTSD (although her leg still hurts). Involved with contemporary artists, she finds herself questioned by Americans and Chinese alike when one of her friends goes missing.
Although not much happens and the "mysteries" are More...
Sep 28, 2010
Kay
rated it:
The narrator is an American ex-soldier living in Beijing, struggling with her husband's desire for a divorce to marry his Chinese lover, and her own PTSD. She's involved with the arts community which allows the reader entry to the struggle of today's artists with censorship and government control. It's very today, a Uiger is an important element and the reason she has to leave the city. She travels to tourist trap after tourist trap but her visits to noodle restaurants and wifi cafes show the in
More...
Jan 05, 2011
James
rated it:
This is a fine book which brings today's China to life. Ellie, the main character, is an expatriate living in China. Her relationship with her husband has gone south, but she's made a bunch of new friends who have a wide diversity of backgrounds. Her normal life gets turned upside down and the chase is on, as a mysterious set of men in suits pursue her for reasons she doesn't really fathom. She leaves Beijing and we get glimpses of other cities and what it's like to travel between them low-ren
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Oct 04, 2010
Lisa
rated it:
In her debut novel Rock Paper Tiger, Lisa Brackman gives us Ellie McEnroe Cooper who narrates the story which includes her time spent serving in Iraq as an Army Medic, her marriage to Trey Cooper, another soldier, and her current, somewhat drifting life in China where she's become friends (maybe more) with Lao Zhang, a painter and artist with knack for building communities, even when his government isn't fully in support of so many people gathering together.
Brackman doesn't waste a More...
Brackman doesn't waste a More...
Jan 09, 2012
Susan
rated it:
Iraq war vet Ellie Cooper is struggling to make some sort of life for herself in Beijing, living with friends in a makeshift artists’ village. A chance encounter over noodles sets off a baffling chase in which she is pursued by both American and Chinese agents. Not sure where to turn, Ellie finds that she is can communicate with someone, she is not sure who, via an online role-playing game. From there the story interleaves her on-line encounters with her harrowing real-world life and flashbacks
More...
Jun 30, 2010
Sia
rated it:
ROCK PAPER TIGER
~Lisa Brackmann
· Hardcover: 368 pages
· Publisher: Soho Press; First Edition edition (June 1, 2010)
· Language: English
Iraq vet Ellie McEnroe is down and out in China, trying to lose herself in the alien worlds of performance artists and online gamers. When a chance encounter with a Uighur fugitive drops her down a rabbit hole of conspiracies, Ellie must decide whom to trust among the artists, dealers, collectors and operatives c More...
~Lisa Brackmann
· Hardcover: 368 pages
· Publisher: Soho Press; First Edition edition (June 1, 2010)
· Language: English
Iraq vet Ellie McEnroe is down and out in China, trying to lose herself in the alien worlds of performance artists and online gamers. When a chance encounter with a Uighur fugitive drops her down a rabbit hole of conspiracies, Ellie must decide whom to trust among the artists, dealers, collectors and operatives c More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jul 02, 2011
Cyndy
rated it:
I've been meaning to read Lisa Brackmann's Rock Paper Tiger since first reading about it on Nathan Bransford's blog (Brackmann's former agent). I kept putting it off (to be honest, while I liked the premise, there was something about the cover I just didn't like and it kept falling by the wayside in my TBR pile.
I finally started reading last night, read until my eyes started closing, and grabbed it again and read for another hour or so when up with a restless child. I was beyond frust More...
I finally started reading last night, read until my eyes started closing, and grabbed it again and read for another hour or so when up with a restless child. I was beyond frust More...
Sep 12, 2010
Ruth
rated it:
I'm not big on mysteries but this one caught and held me. The settings were interesting--the working-class end of Beijing and the lesser cities of China. The main character is a female vet of the current Iraq war who came out with a pile of emotional disabilities plus a bum leg--not the sort that gets much attention. It's an interesting look into the controls used in modern China to keep a lid on too much "togetherness" (a contradiction in a Communist society?) and the downsides of the
More...
Nov 28, 2011
Monica
rated it:
I'm cheating - this is Tim Hallinan's review, but I couldn't say it better. Picked it up at the library because of terrific blurbs from T. Jefferson Parker and Qiu Xao Long. I couldn't put it down.
An absolutely terrific first thriller about a female U.S. Army medic, damaged physically and emotionally in the Middle East, who finds herself in Beijing with her husband, whom she met in Iraq and who's on assignment. While still addicted to the Percocet she takes to dull the pain in her More...
An absolutely terrific first thriller about a female U.S. Army medic, damaged physically and emotionally in the Middle East, who finds herself in Beijing with her husband, whom she met in Iraq and who's on assignment. While still addicted to the Percocet she takes to dull the pain in her More...
Oct 26, 2011
Ramsey
rated it:
This book was awesome on so many levels. Let me just list what I loved:
Ellie - the protagonist is just... wow. Yeah. I guess a lot of other readers disliked her quite strongly, but for me she totally resonated. I've always gravitated towards books with men as the protagonists, because women protagonists always seemed either too emotional or were just men with boobs. Ellie is not me - we have totally different beliefs, different education levels, different life experiences - but she THI More...
Ellie - the protagonist is just... wow. Yeah. I guess a lot of other readers disliked her quite strongly, but for me she totally resonated. I've always gravitated towards books with men as the protagonists, because women protagonists always seemed either too emotional or were just men with boobs. Ellie is not me - we have totally different beliefs, different education levels, different life experiences - but she THI More...
2 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
Robin
rated it:
I fell in love with Rock Paper Tiger on impact. I was expecting an entertaining read, and instead I found literary excellence.
It's the story of Ellie - a 26-year-old ex-military medic living in Beijing. Crazy things start happening to her that can only be answered inside an online game.
Things I love:
The way the book took me to China - to the hip and modern side of Beijing. The story is peppered with social commentary that accents the story with depth and humor More...
It's the story of Ellie - a 26-year-old ex-military medic living in Beijing. Crazy things start happening to her that can only be answered inside an online game.
Things I love:
The way the book took me to China - to the hip and modern side of Beijing. The story is peppered with social commentary that accents the story with depth and humor More...
