Reviews

The Whitewash by Siang Lu

Only show reviews with written explanations

thecaffeinatedlibrary's review

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challenging funny reflective fast-paced

4.5

kowl's review against another edition

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funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

I think this novel had a really fascinating concept and the structure underpinning it was thoughtful and well executed, but unfortunately the transcript format let it down.

It sounded like a good idea at the time- A Hollywood spy thriller, starring, for the first time in history, an Asian male lead. With an estimated $350 million production budget and up-and-coming Hong Kong actor JK Jr, who, let's be honest, is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but probably the hottest, Brood Empire was basically a sure thing. Until it wasn't.

This book was nothing like anything I’d read before. After loving Ghost Cities, I just had to check out this book, especially when I realised this was where Baby Bao made his first appearance!

As someone who’s more into plot-driven stories, I never thought I’d love a very character-driven, relatively-thin-on-plot, told-in-interview-snippets book like this. But I did. This book pretty much covered my entire childhood’s experience of watching Asian action movies by popular Hongkong actors in the 80s and 90s. I felt seen! Also, who would’ve thought I’d need a historical lesson of whitewashing events through the decades.

I listened to the audiobook which won the ABIA 2023 Audiobook of the Year award, and deservedly so as it was a fantastic production. The (mostly Asian) casts were top notch and the attention to details (including the creation of yee-haw theme song specifically for the audiobook) was top quality - a very good reflection on Siang Lu’s meticulousness, I’d say.

If you’re into fresh, unique, bizarre storytelling, I’d implore you to read this (or anything by Siang Lu).

elleji's review against another edition

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funny informative lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.0

lachillman94's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.75

hpiper's review against another edition

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funny informative reflective medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Footnotes can be a bit hit and miss and the eBook format I read this book in made them super annoying. A couple of them were properly hilarious though.
The characters were all lovable and well-realised. I need to start finishing emails with “Hot regards”