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"Sex is a crime before marriage. Ying-Na did the sex, and it ruined her life."

I can't... XD

I underestimated the level of violence and cruelty associated with someone being disowned. The relationship dynamics in this story are brutal. Is this reality for Taiwanese-Americans?

I had no idea there were all of these inter-Asian controversies. Chinese vs. Japanese. Taiwanese vs. Chinese. I am world citizen of the year, obviously.

"He's Japanese, Mei."
"And?"
"They murdered our family. Orphaned my mother."
"He didn't kill them."

"In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you."

"Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl. And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way."

"I had an empty feeling - and I felt free, wild."

"And I think now that fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. But somehow, when you lose something you love, faith takes over. You have to pay attention to what you lost. You have to undo the expectation."

I don't know what the point of this novel is, but I profess that this will NOT be my last book my Tan Enmei.

... she literally just sat there? Didn't say anything? Didn't do anything? I don't understand. When I was younger than her and my little cousin fell in the water and started to drown, I ran and got help. Why didn't she do anything?

"... we were like two people standing apart on separate mountain peaks, recklessly leaning forward to throw stones at one another, unaware of the dangerous chasm that separated us."

Amy Tan's similes and metaphors are so on point, I could die.

I don't know what it is about this scene where a little girl runs home for her secondhand chess board so she can play against an old man, the two missing pieces replaced by tiny candies. The ritual of old man and young child meeting in the park each day to play and scheme and bond. There's something so beautiful, nostalgic, and melancholy about this scene. Like a loneliness for something that never was.

This story is genuinely fascinating. I can't keep the characters straight yet, but the mothers' backstories are all so fascinating and heartbreaking to read.

"You can't tell me because you don't know! You don't know anything!" And the girl ran outside, jumped on her bicycle, and in her hurry to get away, she fell before she even reached the corner.

This reads like a fairytale or Aesop's fable.

" ... sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh."

My exploration of Asian culture continues in this novel, but this story is already giving me a deeper understanding of the difficulty of unifying western and eastern cultures and rituals, while also educating me on historical events I was completely unaware of. Kweilin? Babies left on the side of the road in an effort to escape the Japanese? I can't even imagine!

before he left,
he wrapped my heart
in layers of
briars & barbed wire
to make sure
that no one else
could ever get in,
but you were
more than willing
to bloody
your hands
for me.
-you never even got pricked

I really do appreciate Lilly's sense of humor and ability to laugh at herself. This book is a great way to start the day each day: A little light reading and therapeutic journaling to start me off on a positive note is just what the doctor (or, in this case, my counselor) ordered.

I feel like, ultimately, this is In-hye's story, not Yeoung-hye's.

Her descent into madness was slow to everyone but her husband.

This is the weirdest story I've ever read.

This story follows brothers-in-law lusting over each other's wives & completely ungrateful towards their own. Will we get to see Im-hye's psychological traumas as well? Will we explore further into what did this to Young-hye?

Oh my gawd. I'll definitely be putting up a detailed review of this book when I'm done.

I'm obsessed.

Plan: Read fantasy novels (yes, plural) in February to boost my motivation to finish my fourth draft.
Reality: I haven't finished a single book yet and I think I'm in the mood for contemporary, (Here's looking at you, American Panda.)

Aaaaaand we've just been introduced to Mrs. Reed 2.0 & a girl who believes she deserves to be punished at all times.

I've recently become obsessed with all things Asian drama - thanks, Maurene Goo! - so if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know!

Jane has just arrived at her new school, met a girl who likes to read, and grown to respect two of the five women who teach there. Things might be picking up, but I feel like that's a false hope as I read this section through the lens of vulnerability.

Still waiting for that KABOOM moment when something really resonates with me. Maybe reading two self help books at once wasn't the greatest idea. Lol.

By the time I'm done with this book, I think I'm going to be required to binge all of Lilly's videos on YouTube. (I've heard there's over 500, so this will be quite the feat.) I love her and I'm learning so much from her. Plus, her sense of humor is EVERYTHING.

The content has certainly been getting darker. All references to assaults and abuses, which probably isn't what I should be reading while trying to start my day off on a more positive note, but it's definitely something that I can reflect on.