Priya Mishra

It is gorgeous book. Deals with a bunch of topics, like the war, addiction, LGBTQ as well as mental health problems. The book is supposed to be a letter from the author to his Vietnamese mother who couldn't read. It covers multiple aspects of the life of the author as he grew up in an immigrant household with a single mother. I might be biased but I really liked the story of Little dog and Trevor as 2 teen boys discovering love. As a child, the writer was exposed to a lot of life stories that he saw and heard, and this book is like a memoir. I don't know if anyone can relate but if something happens, it is a child's first instinct to tell it to their mother. This book feels like that, like a child has come to their mother and told them about all they have loved and lost and how things made them feel. Somehow as we grow up, we stop doing that. We stop sharing about the things we saw and heard, we stop talking about how it made us feel. The way I see it, his mother not being able to read makes this all the more beautiful, because sometimes we only speak our hearts out when we know we aren't being heard. Maybe the story isn't for the mother to hear or maybe she has lived it too much to hear about it. Maybe she is too attached to not break reading this letter. It is heartbreaking sometimes, but immensely beautiful.

I am an emotional person and this book touched my soul. Would one hundred percent recommend this one. I had little idea what this book was about as it randomly popped up when I was looking for what book to read next. It is a heart-felt story of a woman who is estranged from the society for being peculiar. The story covers her past trauma that she still struggles with, while simultaneously trying to fit in. I loved how the story somehow depicts her as delusionally optimistic while still being extremely self critical. The characters have depth, the storyline is unconventional. As much as I love some boring old wallflower romance, I am really glad this is so much more than that. To everyone who is having second thoughts, go read the book already. To everyone who read it and didn't like it, please go check if you have a heart.