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Along The River: A Chinese Cinderella Novel (2010)

by Adeline Yen Mah(Favorite Author)

3.39 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0385738951 (ISBN13: 9780385738958)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Delacorte Books for Young Readers

review 1: In the 1940s of China, a young girl named CC has an accident of falling down a roof and she regains visions and hallucinations of her past life while recovering in rehab. So one day after her doctor has recorded his conversation with her past life spirit (?), he lets her listen. So begins the tale of a young daughter of a nobleman in the capital city and her friend, Ah Li. I started reading this book because I thought it would be interesting, and give me a lot of historical facts, but I was wrong. Even though it gave me some historical knowledge about lives in the Ming Dynasty. I had my book about the history of China by my side while I was reading this book. I could reference some information, but not all-for example at the end of the book, the doctor confirmed that ther... moree were some foreigners in China during the Ming Dynasty. In my book, it was the Song Dynasty. The plot was quite confusing and I felt that the ending was rushed. I thought that the plot could have been improved, and the book is quite peaceful and calm, not that much action except for when the girl tries to escape from her life. I finished this book because I felt obligated to finish this. Honestly I thought that I should have threw (not exactly throw but you know what I mean.)this book onto the couch from where I was sitting. Even though I felt a cultural connection to this book I did not feel like as if I was reading Chinese historical fiction. Time to go back to the European historical fiction. I would recommend this book to Aloka because she doesn't feel a cultural connection to the book, and therefore, she wouldn't be minded by some of the minor details and flaws that I see. And because she isn't as familiar with Chinese history, she would be able to use her imagination more and therefore she would have a more exciting and better experience with reading this book.
review 2: This book was written for young adults, but it seems very basic, compared to other excellent young adult books like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, etc. There wasn't a lot of character development, but even more annoying is that I didn't feel like it really captured any of the flavor of 11th century China. The characters behaved much like modern people and it just wasn't believable to me. I should have stopped reading it, but I'm one of those people who just can't stop reading a book, even if it's awful. This certainly wasn't the most awful book I've read, but I think my time could have been better spent reading another book. less

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