A review by librariandest
Diamond Head by Cecily Wong

3.0

I'm ambivalent about this one.

What I liked: The story centers women's voices. Each woman is a fully realized character with a complete backstory. They're all interesting and the audiobook narrators portraying them were excellent!

What I didn't like: The women's lives revolve around men and the men are kind of flat one-dimensional characters, especially Bohai. I never understood what his deal was.

What I liked: The story stretches from the 1890s to the 1960s, spanning three generations, showing how each woman is impacted by her relationship to her parents -- and also how they're impacted by the Boxer Rebellion and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The story moves around in time, putting the pieces of the puzzle together in a mostly satisfying way.

What I didn't like: Sometimes the writing was on the florid side and seemed to meander. Some of the revelations were not so satisfying to me and ultimately the story doesn't offer a lot of hope (at least not the way I read it), particularly when it came to the theme of finding your "fated match."

Overall, I was a little disappointed but I still liked it.