... suspenseful ... Lien’s novel, by turns gripping and heartbreaking, makes room for forgiveness and understanding. Ky knows all about her people, and to know all is to forgive all.
Lien embeds the reader in a tight-knit Asian community within the small town of Cabramatta, highlighting the cultural distance between recent immigrants and their native-born children. Ky mostly narrates, with Lien allowing witnesses to the crime to step in and explain the events leading up to Denny’s murder along with their own personal backgrounds and biases. Using Ky’s journey to better understand a single, tragic night, Lien lets readers experience the shifting demographics and cultural attitudes of this small Australian town. Fans of Roselle Lim and Sonya Cobb will appreciate Lien’s keen exploration of the cultural impulse to close ranks after a tragedy, and the power of clarity.
Lien’s insightful, emotional debut intelligently incorporates cultural concerns into a tightly focused mystery ... Lien skillfully blends xenophobia and the Vietnamese residents’ suspicions of outsiders into a scintillating plot. Readers will eagerly await Lien’s next.
Lien's debut communicates the specific operation of generational trauma with nuance and insight ... If Lien goes a bit too far in carrying out the mission of the book's title, giving more emotional accounting and exposition in dialogue than is ideal, this book is nonetheless memorable and powerful ... A fictional tragedy evoked with such clarity and specificity that it will linger in your memory as if it really happened.
