Living in El Nido, a privileged community in the hills east of Berkeley, is supposed to mean you’ve made it. So when Jin Chang moves there with his wife and daughters after years of scraping by, he hopes it will finally be the end of his bad luck. What his family doesn’t know is that he’s bending the rules for one final scheme.
On the surface, we have a novel about privileged people behaving badly in the suburbs, with the lesser-privileged caught in the tailwind, and a few delicious moments of pettiness and clever revenge sprinkled throughout—mostly doled out by the teenagers. Going deeper, the coyote metaphor becomes clear ... Fantastic, unnerving.
Electric ... Carefully constructed ... Tenderhearted readers will appreciate the thoughtful outcomes Hua creates for her extensive cast, most of whom manage to learn from, if not profit by, their mistakes.
Witty ... Alternates perspectives seamlessly ... California, Hua acknowledges, is full of natural beauty but also natural terror — earthquakes and wildfires and unneighborly neighbors. Coyoteland ponders that beauty, and what it will take to fight against the forces seeking to limit its accessibility.
