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A review by michellewords
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
- 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
Sometimes it is very difficult for me to review literary fiction. How does one sum up a book and put their feelings down in a way that gives the book justice? *shrug* I guess I have to try.
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)
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)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Gore and Sexual content
Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use