A review by littlelilacsdownthesea
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

I could have sworn this book was about Quan being in love with Anne's sister: Camile. Either way, I was expecting a light-but meaningful romance not unlike the first novel of The Kiss Quotient. Upon reading the he author's note, I understood that this novel was changed to a be semi-autobiographical novel in response to Helen losing her mother. I take it that the mental block that Anne experiences is based on Helen's writers block. This story is important. Helen talks about the fatigue of being a caregiver and the impending mental breakdowns that it caused. Very few individuals ever talk about how difficult it is to be a caregiver. As someone who has experienced the pain of being a caregiver my entire life, I felt seen. I felt my family seen. Helen Hoang is a Vietnamese author, who wrote a story through a Chinese protagonist, which resonated with me: a random girl in a part of the world few have ever heard of. This novel is more like Colleen Hoover's It Ends With us. This story is something more. It is something wonderful.