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michellewords's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane is a pretty artsy book about mother/daughter relationships at it's core. The book initially follows a young girl named Li-yan, a member of a remote/indigenous tribe in China called the Akha. They are a poor tribe that lives off the land and grows/gathers/sells tea leaves. Li-yan has a rough start to her young life and ends up having a baby before her would-be husband is able to marry her. Akha tradition states that this baby is considered like a fake baby and she should bury it, but Li-yan and her mother decide to give her up. This is super dangerous in China at the time and she could be arrested, but she manages to do it, and her life changes drastically from that point. Enter the second POV, her daughter adopted in America under the American name Haley. Hale struggles with her identity as an adoptee from China. In a lot of ways, her mother Li-yan struggles with her own identity as she navigates modern China at a tea school and building a business in the city.
This book is my first Lisa See book and I'm blown away by her writing. The word selection and narrative is absolutely incredible. I felt like the characters were so well-written and put together I could practically see them in my mind. The plot is pretty basic/predictable in some ways, but the themes are so vast to explore any number: family relationships, growth, identity, etc.
Quick note that the audiobook for this one was A tier for sure (at least as far is Li-yan chapters), although the voice for Haley chapters sounded like a winy teen all the time and definitely not my favorite chapters to listen to.
This book may have taken me a minute to get into it, but when I was in it-I WAS IN IT.
Highly recommend (definitely an adult read). It's probably the perfect book club book selection for the discussion alone.
TW: sexual content, death of baby/children, mention of drug use, gore (tiger attack)
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Gore and Sexual content
Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use
lmfry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism
Moderate: Sexism, Medical content, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Blood, and Alcohol
nikhocharm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Grief, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
daniofthewood's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Classism
Minor: Cancer
mondovertigo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Grief, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Cancer and Infertility
daniellel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Abandonment
Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Drug abuse, and Violence
clemrain's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I want to write a review for this novel, but an analytical essay is coming to me much stronger than my thoughts on what I liked and disliked. It’s a rich read.
The characters in this novel are strong. All fully complicated, dimensional, and show growth in some form. Which is a great achievement for a novel full of this many characters.
The novel mainly follow’s Li-yan. Some of the story also gives us tidbits of Yan-Yeh all of which I thought were clever and proved the need for them effectively.
Li-yan is a beautiful character. Her entire life flowed so effortlessly from the pages to me. I felt as if I were with her every step of her life in this book.
Motherhood as a concept was sincere and flowed from So-sa, to Li-yan to Yan-yeh. I like that Akha men recited thier lineage, and this novel captured the linage of the Akha women. The men have the names of their father, and the women had their story.
Lisa See had a whole website dedicated to the research she’s done for this book. It’s mainly pictures and videos. I’m not sure about the depth of the research but See has spent time on it. This isn’t a textbook, but I think it’s a beautiful introduction to the history of tea and Akha people. I thought See was respectful in presenting the ideas of something that isn’t western. Nothing stood out to me as the author looking down on the Akha traditions.
San-pa was cursed with a horrible death and got one. San-pa and Li-yan were born in days that made their marriage difficult, and even changing the days of thier birth they still had a difficult marriage. These little things could’ve gone any other way, to say “look, see how stupid their beliefs are?” But none of that happened. I was scared of the author contributing to the colonization of the Akha people. But that never happened. Which is amazing.
Ont thing that always took me out of the story was Li-yan’s vocabulary. Sometimes, it felt too modern and didn’t fit in with the rest of her sentence structures. I remember Li-yan mentioning superstition to refer to some of her cultural ideas and I was confused. We hadn’t been introduced to her going to school at the point. And Li-yan was critical of the colonist teaching in her school so I wasn’t sure why she would use the word superstition. This is just one example that comes to mind. Maybe I read too much into it, but I was taken out of the experience.
The story inched slowly and it took me a while to be invested in it. But by part two I can say it was very difficult for me to put down this book. I do think some parts really dragged on and could’ve been condensed but because so much of it is Li-yan’s thoughts, I was fine with some of the on going paragraphs. Li-yan is constantly fighting with herself, with her culture, with her education and with her happiness. I liked reading these thoughts, it just made Li-yan a good main character.
Good ending. I shed a tear. It was so impactful and abrupt. Well executed.
I have a lot more to say but they’re full of spoilers and my thoughts are very muddled. But all that is to say I will be thinking about this book for a long time.
Graphic: Child death and Death
Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Pregnancy
Minor: Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Racism
kcelena's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Blood, and Grief
kendally's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse
jayisreading's review against another edition
4.0
So much of this book is shaped by the idea of choices and coincidences based on circumstances, and goodness, there are so many to consider that are all interwoven with one another. It’s to the point that the plot begins to muddle towards the end in an attempt to have everything connect. It gets a little too ham-fisted, trying to force this idea that everything is connected.
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, and Grief
Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia