People don’t die of broken hearts, though relationships certainly do. That was easily one of the best books I've read this year.I don’t think I fully grasped the importance of representation until recently. Seeing aspects of my own life as a Southeast Asian reflected in the pages of books has been a surprisingly joyful experience.Books are magical windows to worlds and lives I'll never experience firsthand. But there’s something truly special about reading stories where I recognize glimpses o...

3.5 starsI wrestled with how to rate this book for a while. On one hand, parts of the story really resonated with me – like Genevieve's journey to find herself and come into her own against a culture that prioritizes family bonds over individuality. Also, the push and pull of resentment and love that shapes Gen's complicated relationship with her mother, Su Yang, felt very real. I think Jemimah Wei, the author, did a great job capturing the angst and the difficulties the characters faced trying ...

Jemimah Wei's *The First Daughter* explores some really interesting themes about ambition and how it can make us push away the people who care about us most. I really wanted to love this book, but honestly, the writing style and how repetitive the plot got kind of killed my enthusiasm. First off, Wei's writing is okay, but it just didn't feel punchy or sharp enough to really hit the emotional notes it was aiming for. There were tons of spots where I could tell Wei wanted me to feel shocked or sa...

3.5 Stars ⭐️ I enjoyed "The First Daughter" by Jemimah Wei. It was a tough read at times, as the mom is terminally ill, creating a real rift between the sisters. But that's also what makes it so relatable. Genevieve starts out as an only child, then discovers she has a sister, Arin. Her drive for success and achievement really warps her, to the point where you wonder if she's gone too far. The writing was good, but in some sections, it felt like things dragged on for pages without much happeni...

I'm honestly baffled that *The First Daughter* by Jemimah Wei isn't more controversial. I'm clearly an outlier here, but I absolutely couldn't stand this book. It dragged on forever, making me suffer through a bunch of unbearable characters with almost no redeeming qualities, and constant, pointless agonizing for the entire novel. Their life circumstances just didn't excuse their actions, their behavior, or their attitudes. I didn't learn a single thing from this book, except that I seriously ne...

Any book that stirs up such strong emotions in me automatically gets a five-star rating. I laughed, I cried, and I was deeply moved by this story. Plain and simple."The First Daughter" is a coming-of-age story about Genevieve Yang, and her sister Arin. It follows them from their childhood in Singapore in 1996 to their lives in 2015. The novel skillfully moves between these different time periods, jumping back and forth to maintain suspense about past events, especially since the story begins wit...

IG review: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKKDhJEAM...3.5 stars. "The First Daughter" by Jemimah Wei is a literary fiction debut set in Singapore that explores the intricate bonds of family, specifically the relationship between two sisters, over a span of two decades. Genevieve Yang lived as an only child until unforeseen circumstances bring Arin into her family. Suddenly, at eight years old, she finds herself as an older sister.I'll be completely honest, I went into "The First Daughter" somewhat ...

I love reading about sisters. And as Sally Rooney once said...we are all so stupid about each other. The characters in *The First Daughter* are so frustrating, as they test each other and push and shove and seek pointless success and prioritize the wrong things and make cruel mistakes and, in other words, spend 350 pages being so unbearably human. This is a slow and hurt and emotional story. It took me ages to read the first half and a matter of hours to consume the second. It f*cked me u...

5/5 stars - This was one of the most poignant, beautiful tragedies I’ve ever read. I will never forget it. I’m literally in tears as I write this. Seriously, grab your tissues. 🌻🌻🌻The story starts in 2015, and is told through the eyes of our (unreliable) narrator Genevieve, who is coming to grips with the news of her mother’s terminal diagnosis. We learn about a family estranged through time and circumstance, but we are left in the dark, unaware of how it came to be. The story then becomes a ...

This epic saga explores the redefinition of family bonds, abandonment, estrangement, resentment, guilt, and the dysfunctional but inevitably tight relationship of sisters throughout the years. If you love complex family dramas, this is a must-read book review!Set in millennial Singapore, it starts in the present day where Genevieve, who can be called the original daughter of the Yang family, finds out her mother has only a few weeks to live after losing her battle against cancer. Her mother keep...