A review by biblio_jordyn
Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

“What is grief, if not the act of survival.”

“This is what it means to lose someone, understanding how, after all these years, memories shift and shape us. How we cannot exorcise someone as much as we try; we must learn the ways in which we preserve parts of them in ourselves.”

This book was a heartbreaking and raw memoir about grief and loss. The loss of a parent. The loss of culture. The loss of language and connection through it. The loss of family. And by the end, it’s a story about somehow piecing things back together even if it takes years and years.

It’s a story of immigration.

It’s a story of family.

This book tackles race and the divide within races and the discrimination they face.

It speaks on depression and the generational differences.

The idea of success, survival, and poverty. Particularly, how poverty effects peoples ability to go to the doctor and peoples relationship with them and distrust.

It speaks on the idea of the “right” way of immigration, which is constantly a battle in the US.

I loved this memoir. It was heavy, but purposeful and I definitely would recommend it for those who can handle the triggers.

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