Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - This Place Is Still Beautiful

Rating: B

In a rural town in Illinois, the home of a Chinese American family is vandalised after someone spraypaints a slur on their garage door. Annalie, in a panic, calls her tough, older sister Margaret to help them out and come comfort their mother. Margaret immediately defers her internship in a law firm and travels back overnight to help them out, and get justice. Two sisters approach the same topic in two different ways in a contemporary novel that's great for every teen.

I really liked the characterisation of the two sisters - they were vastly different, showing their care in two different ways - Margaret is a woman of action, she's driven, caring, strong and wants to enact change, and Annalie is kind, creative but also shy and gentle. She wants to comfort their mother, move on from the vandalism and just get through high school. The two sisters conflict over this, over their mother's actions and throughout the book, but ultimately do care for and love each other.

The discussion of race ripples through the book in more than just the central act and how Annalie is treated at school, but how she passes as white when compared to Margaret, how she never really speaks Chinese around other people, how she is reflects on her own behaviour and treatment of her friends when it comes to the act and perpetrators; Margaret wanted to escape their home-town as soon as she could and realised that out there in the Big City, no one notices you because everyone looks different. She's appalled by the inaction of the police in the city and even fights her sister on her acceptance of the racism. She also faces indecision when it comes to running into her high-school boyfriend Rajiv.

In the background there's a subplot of deciding your future, forgiveness and love, a little romance and the history of the family. I think that the sisters' father leaving their family was kind of a weak plot point and only brought up to shape their mother's reaction to Margaret dating outside of her race.

Overall, I did enjoy it - it's not that deep but I reckon teenagers would enjoy it.

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clawclawclaw's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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rain_baby's review

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4.0

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actuallyapotato's review

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adventurous hopeful

3.0

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sundayfever's review

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to love this book, but the characters didn't feel 3-dimensional to me and the writing style didn't compel me. The plot is decent and has a hopeful ending but it didn't feel like the author dove as deeply into issues of race as they could have.

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