Pham’s straightforward, unpretentious prose is used to devastating effect in the latter half of the novel. Its bluntness makes descriptions of visceral horror...even more searing ... There is a secondary love story told in Twilight Territory, quieter but just as powerful: the kinship between Vietnamese women. Tuyet and Takeshi’s star-crossed romance may fuel the novel’s whirlwind plot, but the love between Tuyet and her aunt and daughter is its core, and the ingenuity and resilience of other women always save Tuyet in her most dire moments.
