Portable Magic
Reading, for me, is entertainment and an escape from the real world. But it can also inform and stretch the boundaries of the life I live.
Currently reading
Girl in Translation ★★★☆☆
This was an interesting and well-written story of a brilliant young woman who emigrated to the US from Hong Kong as a child. It describes her experiences working with her mother in a sweatshop under ridiculously illegal labor practices, adjusting to living in a practically condemned, roach infested building, and struggling to succeed in a school system where her limited English proficiency is interpreted as either stupidity or laziness.
The problems I had with this book are ones that I commonly encounter in YA literature. The antagonists are not nuanced or fleshed out, but are sort of cartoony villains. There is more adolescent love angst than I care to tolerate. The main character is a bit Mary Sue-ish, where she is of near-genius intelligence and all the boys want her but she is unattainable except for her first real true love, but there’s a love triangle and she battles her jealousy and wins in the end but tragedy strikes and she must sacrifice herself for love and OMG!!1!1! I almost threw my phone across the room at the conclusion, where it’s revealed that
(show spoiler)WTF, really?
Audiobook version, borrowed via Overdrive from my local library. Competently read by Grace Wey.
8
2