A review by icedpinecones
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wandering souls ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

It is not often a book leaves me speechless and haunted. In recent memory, only Sound the Gong (Joan He) & Pachinko (Min Jin Lee) have left me in such a state. This book joins those rankings. 

I am deeply uneducated when it comes to history, I didn't take it at GCSE because I found it quite boring, and it's left me with little to no knowledge of other cultures and experiences (not that an English education would've enlightened me to such). Last year, I read Pachinko by Min Jin Lee; it'd been sitting on my shelves for just over three years and I just went for it. I lived in the cover of that book for weeks, and it made me sob, and I decided to read more historical fictions. I knew nothing of the Vietnam war, of the horrors and atrocities and lingering damage to this day. This book taught me so much and more. 

We follow three children, in the perspective of the sister Anh, as they flee from their village to have hopes of a better future. Crossing in two groups, Anhs parents don't make it. She is alone, to raise her siblings in Thatchers England and it is a devastating, hopeful and touching tale. Chapters are interdispersed with factual accounts of different topics in relation to the Vietnam war, with operation 'wandering Souls' and the rapes occuring on Koh Kra island being informatively discussed in varying formats (articles, letters, anecdotal tales). 

Anh is a strong, flawed but brilliant protagonist to follow behind, an eldest sibling who I saw fragments of myself in (despite our very different situations). She was easy to relate to, easy to read about, understandable in her behaviour and mannerisms. Other characters such as her siblings or those who support her small family as they try to get a start in life again are endearing and you're just as invested in the small tales and information you get from them as you are in Anh. 

The writing style is similarly easy to follow, while I did split my reading between an audiobook using the Everand app and the physical copy I purchased, both formats were wonderful. Finding out Cecile Pin is a debut author was astounding, as this work of fiction is something I'd expect from a seasoned writer of several books. It is amazing, the work and labour of love this book is clear in every single word of every single page.

I deeply enjoyed this story, I fell in love with it, and these characters will haunt me. I will remember them in small everyday life in England, and I will be learning more about the Vietnamese war. I am so glad I was able to read this story, and I hope to read more from Cecile Pin should she decide to continue in writing (which I duly hope she will).

Jessie (she/her)

[email protected]
www.instagram.com/icedpinecones
www.goodreads.com/icedpinecones
https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/icedpinecones