Review: Land of Big Numbers

 Thanks so much to the publisher and Bookish First for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for review!

Synopsis

A debut collection from an extraordinary new talent that vividly gives voice to the men and women of modern China and its diaspora

Gripping and compassionate, Land of Big Numbers depicts the diverse and legion Chinese people, their history, their government, and how all of that has tumbled—messily, violently, but still beautifully—into the present.

Cutting between clear-eyed realism and tongue-in-cheek magical realism, Chen’s stories coalesce into a portrait of a people striving for openings where mobility is limited. Twins take radically different paths: one becomes a professional gamer, the other a political activist. A woman moves to the city to work at a government call center and is followed by her violent ex-boyfriend. A man is swept into the high-risk, high-reward temptations of China’s volatile stock exchange. And a group of people sit, trapped for no reason, on a subway platform for months, waiting for official permission to leave.

With acute social insight, Te-Ping Chen layers years of experience reporting on the ground in China with incantatory prose in this taut, surprising debut, proving herself both a remarkable cultural critic and an astonishingly accomplished new literary voice.

Review

★★★

This was a book I didn't remember entering the raffle for, so I was surprised when I won and it showed up at my door. To be completely honest, Land of Big Numbers is a book I would have never picked up normally, so I'm glad that Bookish First granted me the opportunity to review it because I did end up enjoying it.

Land of Big Numbers is a short story collection, each following different characters touching on aspect of Chinese culture. It covers a large range of topics, and most of the stories have a speculative element that I loved. Some have more obvious connections to an element of Chinese history/government, and others have a more broad insight into the culture and human nature in general. I am a Chinese American, so some aspects were more new to me than others, but I think it would be more difficult for someone non-Chinese or someone unfamiliar with the culture to completely understand. That's not to say that this book is hard to follow along, as I think you can still gain a lot from this book no matter where you're from.

If you enjoy short story collections, or something about human nature then Land of Big Numbers is definitely a book you should check out!!

Starfish Review

So I won this book in a giveaway, but I wasn't really sure what to expect from it. I didn't know it was middle grade so that was a nice surprise!

Starfish follows a young girl named Ellie, who faces many bullies at school for her weight. In addition, her best friends moved away leaving her feeling lonely and friendless. Her mother also keeps making snide comments at home, and leaving hints for her to get a weight-reducing surgery that Ellie is terrified to even consider. Fortunately, Ellie has allies in her dad, her therapist, and her new neighbor, Catalina, who loves Ellie for who she is.

My favorite part of Starfish was that it was written in verse. There were short half poem half vignette style snippets that were simple but also extremely profound. I could really empathize with Ellie and her self-hatred, and it was so heartwarming seeing her begin to open up to her therapist and realize her self worth. I think that this will be an amazing book for young girls to read and feel validated.