This book follows Lemie, a teenager in 1950s Shanghai who becomes a reluctant Red Guard Leader in her high school, policing her fellow classmates and ensuring everyone's fidelity to communism and the Chairman. Later she becomes a propagandist for a newspaper that essentially functions as a state mouthpiece, and then her life is ripped apart in the space of one year after she witnesses horrible violence at Tianamen Square and experiences great personal trauma and tragedy. We fast forward to her daughter Lin, who has gone to college in America to fulfill her mother's dream of her daughter living the American dream. The story is told mostly from the perspective of Lemei and Lin, with occasional interludes from other people in their lives.

This book is a pretty brutal read, involving relatively vivid and disturbing depictions of state violence, sexual assault, post-partum depression, racism, Sinophobia, colorism (both external and internalized), and other tough subjects. It's also really moving in its descriptions of what it's like to be a first-generation immigrant: the push and pull between your native country and where you end up, the disillusionment with both countries, the feeling of not belonging anywhere, disagreeing with your parent about your home country and your new country, etc. I found some parts of this book profound, but overall I was confused throughout much of the book and wished the book had more emotional resonance.

Thank you to NetGalley and House of Anansi Press Inc. for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!