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What Members Thought
I loved this book from the start, but by the time I was 3/4 of the way finished I thought it began to read more like non-fiction, and the ending just left me cold. Kimberly Chang and her mother move from Hong Kong to New York where they live in a squalid apartment and work for slave wages in a factory owned by Kimberly's mother's sister and her husband. The descriptions of their life in poverty are heart-breaking. Their salvation is Kimberly's intelligence and her drive to succeed. We see her go
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I liked the writing style a lot, especially how the author wrote the words out exactly as Kim heard them (English mixed with jibberish or just incoherent mumbles for words she didn't recognize). The book did a great job with details and really getting you inside the experience of a Chinese immigrant factory worker. The only drawback for me was how often Kim was portrayed as the most brilliant person ever and how often she got amazing lucky breaks (which were the result of her being so brilliant)
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3.5 stars
Loved all of this book but the end, which I felt was unrealistic.
Jan 06, 2011
Erin
marked it as to-read
Sep 14, 2011
Jessica
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Mar 28, 2013
Karen
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Aug 25, 2013
Destiny
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Jul 10, 2014
Elizabeth
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Jan 19, 2015
Leslie
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Jul 25, 2015
Joanie
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Nov 26, 2018
Heather
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May 20, 2019
Kate
marked it as to-read
Feb 24, 2021
Emily
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