What do you think?
Rate this book
The Conjoined
On a sunny May morning, social worker Jessica Campbell sorts through her mother’s belongings after her recent funeral. In the basement, she makes a shocking discovery — two dead girls curled into the bottom of her mother’s chest freezers. She remembers a pair of foster children who lived with the family in 1988: Casey and Jamie Cheng — troubled, beautiful, and wild teenaged sisters from Vancouver’s Chinatown. After six weeks, they disappeared; social workers, police officers, and Jessica herself assumed they had run away.
As Jessica learns more about Casey, Jamie, and their troubled immigrant Chinese parents, she also unearths dark stories about Donna, whom she had always thought of as the perfect mother. The complicated truths she uncovers force her to take stock of own life.
Moving between present and past, this riveting novel unflinchingly examines the myth of social heroism and traces the often-hidden fractures that divide our diverse cities.
As Jessica learns more about Casey, Jamie, and their troubled immigrant Chinese parents, she also unearths dark stories about Donna, whom she had always thought of as the perfect mother. The complicated truths she uncovers force her to take stock of own life.
Moving between present and past, this riveting novel unflinchingly examines the myth of social heroism and traces the often-hidden fractures that divide our diverse cities.
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 13, 2016
44 people are currently reading
1967 people want to read
About the author
Jen Sookfong Lee
15 books163 followersJen Sookfong Lee writes, talks on the radio and loves her slow cooker.
In 2007, Knopf Canada published Jen’s first novel, The End of East, as part of its New Face of Fiction program. Hailed as “an emotional powerhouse of a novel,” The End of East shines a light on the Chinese Canadian story, the repercussions of immigration and the city of Vancouver.
Shelter, Jen’s first fiction for young adults, was published in February 2011 as part of Annick Press’ Single Voice series. It follows a young girl as she struggles to balance her first and dangerous love affair with a difficult and demanding family.
Called “straight-ahead page-turning brilliance” by The National Post and shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Award, The Better Mother, Jen’s sophomore novel, was published by Knopf in May 2011. Set in Vancouver during the mid-20th century and early 1980s, The Better Mother is about the accidental friendship between Miss Val, a longtime burlesque dancer, and Danny Lim, a wedding photographer trying to reconcile his past with his present.
A popular radio personality, Jen was the writing columnist for CBC Radio One’s On the Coast and All Points West for three years. She appears regularly as a columnist on The Next Chapter and Definitely Not the Opera, and is a frequent co-host of the Studio One Book Club. Jen is a member of the writing group SPiN and is represented by the Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency.
Born and raised in East Vancouver, Jen now lives in North Burnaby with her husband, son and hoodlum of a dog.
In 2007, Knopf Canada published Jen’s first novel, The End of East, as part of its New Face of Fiction program. Hailed as “an emotional powerhouse of a novel,” The End of East shines a light on the Chinese Canadian story, the repercussions of immigration and the city of Vancouver.
Shelter, Jen’s first fiction for young adults, was published in February 2011 as part of Annick Press’ Single Voice series. It follows a young girl as she struggles to balance her first and dangerous love affair with a difficult and demanding family.
Called “straight-ahead page-turning brilliance” by The National Post and shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Award, The Better Mother, Jen’s sophomore novel, was published by Knopf in May 2011. Set in Vancouver during the mid-20th century and early 1980s, The Better Mother is about the accidental friendship between Miss Val, a longtime burlesque dancer, and Danny Lim, a wedding photographer trying to reconcile his past with his present.
A popular radio personality, Jen was the writing columnist for CBC Radio One’s On the Coast and All Points West for three years. She appears regularly as a columnist on The Next Chapter and Definitely Not the Opera, and is a frequent co-host of the Studio One Book Club. Jen is a member of the writing group SPiN and is represented by the Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency.
Born and raised in East Vancouver, Jen now lives in North Burnaby with her husband, son and hoodlum of a dog.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 294 reviews
September 13, 2016
I was happily surprised at how much I liked reading The Conjoined. It's certainly an odd story, and could have easily fallen off the rails but Sookfong Lee keeps it together really well. I won’t be giving away any real spoilers if I mention that the book starts with main character Jessica finding the bodies of two girls in her parents’ freezer following her mother’s recent death. What’s odd about the story is that this isn’t a mystery or a thriller. It’s really about Jessica’s journey to understanding her mother’s past and the history of the two girls in the freezer, and Jessica’s attempt to recalibrate her sense of herself and her family. I liked The Conjoined because despite starting with such an odd and extreme premise, the characters Sookfong Lee creates are recognizable and their emotions feel real. Love can be really messy and complicated, spiraling into violence and unresolved resentment. Love can also lead people to intense acts of generosity – albeit sometimes with complicated motivations. Again, some readers may feel that there’s a disconnection between the premise and how the story unfolds, but it really worked for me with its strong emotions and complex characters. I especially liked the ending. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
August 10, 2022
3★
Jessica is trying to help her father get over the death of her mother, who had a reputation as a perfect foster mother of many troubled children, from traumatised little ones to rebellious, destructive teens. A woman who filled photo albums and scrapbooks for the kids to show how happy their time with her was. She seldom ‘failed’.
Donna had been an earth mother, the one who grew all her own veggies, made soup for sick neighbours. A bit of a hippy with a “verging-on-manly chuckle that jiggled her belly and shook the grey-blonde curls that fell around her shoulders, riotous. Donna might have dropped stray threads and beads from her clothes while she clomped through mulch and mud, but her touch was always light. Just a fingertip, or the brush of her knuckles across her daughter’s forehead when she was checking for fever.”
Jessica and her father couldn’t stand Donna’s cooking – “slow-cooked pulled tofu” – and sneaked out for hamburgers in cheerful defiance.
We get a lot of do-gooder messages about social justice, crime, domestic violence, bullying. Too many for me.
Jessica’s dad had been an environmental lawyer. Jessica is a social worker (living up to Donna) who struggles with her caseload. Her partner, Trevor, is a sensitive, caring man who struggles on behalf of homeless clients and wants to save the world.
But early in the story, which takes place in Vancouver, Jessica and her father discover the bodies of two young girls in Donna’s freezers in the basement. They were Donna's Chinese-Canadian foster children who had had trouble at school and it was assumed they might have run away again, for good this time.
(Oh yes, multi-cultural issues crop up, too.)
Donna warned her so much about the rapists and murderers around that Jessica grew up terrified walking home from school.
"If Jessica saw a windowless van parked on the street, she ran past it, head down, afraid to even blink because, in the half-second her eyes were closed, a man with a fake beard or a real beard could grab her by the waist and throw her through the rear doors, into a space padded with mattresses and old quilts. Even if she screamed, no one would hear her over the van's starting up. He could stuff a sock in her mouth. He could drug her. He could threaten to kill her parents if she said one word. So she ran, eyes aching with the dry air that pushed at her face."
Now she wonders, if Donna was responsible for the bodies, what kind of do-gooder was she really? Jessica begins to remember some things from when they disappeared when she was only ten.
We go back a generation and meet Donna’s mother, a cold, unfeeling woman from whom Donna was mostly estranged. Then the book moves into her story and we learn Donna’s true back story. Granny had her reasons.
Granny’s story was the best, actually. "I'll never understand why Donna insisted on looking like she was woven out of bran."
I really didn’t care about any of the other characters, Jessica least of all. She wants to lose herself in something, sex, whatever. I understood her – I just didn’t care what happened to her.
Mostly, I was waiting to see what happened, and I was disappointed.
Thanks to NetGalley and ECW Press for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted.
Jessica is trying to help her father get over the death of her mother, who had a reputation as a perfect foster mother of many troubled children, from traumatised little ones to rebellious, destructive teens. A woman who filled photo albums and scrapbooks for the kids to show how happy their time with her was. She seldom ‘failed’.
Donna had been an earth mother, the one who grew all her own veggies, made soup for sick neighbours. A bit of a hippy with a “verging-on-manly chuckle that jiggled her belly and shook the grey-blonde curls that fell around her shoulders, riotous. Donna might have dropped stray threads and beads from her clothes while she clomped through mulch and mud, but her touch was always light. Just a fingertip, or the brush of her knuckles across her daughter’s forehead when she was checking for fever.”
Jessica and her father couldn’t stand Donna’s cooking – “slow-cooked pulled tofu” – and sneaked out for hamburgers in cheerful defiance.
We get a lot of do-gooder messages about social justice, crime, domestic violence, bullying. Too many for me.
Jessica’s dad had been an environmental lawyer. Jessica is a social worker (living up to Donna) who struggles with her caseload. Her partner, Trevor, is a sensitive, caring man who struggles on behalf of homeless clients and wants to save the world.
But early in the story, which takes place in Vancouver, Jessica and her father discover the bodies of two young girls in Donna’s freezers in the basement. They were Donna's Chinese-Canadian foster children who had had trouble at school and it was assumed they might have run away again, for good this time.
(Oh yes, multi-cultural issues crop up, too.)
Donna warned her so much about the rapists and murderers around that Jessica grew up terrified walking home from school.
"If Jessica saw a windowless van parked on the street, she ran past it, head down, afraid to even blink because, in the half-second her eyes were closed, a man with a fake beard or a real beard could grab her by the waist and throw her through the rear doors, into a space padded with mattresses and old quilts. Even if she screamed, no one would hear her over the van's starting up. He could stuff a sock in her mouth. He could drug her. He could threaten to kill her parents if she said one word. So she ran, eyes aching with the dry air that pushed at her face."
Now she wonders, if Donna was responsible for the bodies, what kind of do-gooder was she really? Jessica begins to remember some things from when they disappeared when she was only ten.
We go back a generation and meet Donna’s mother, a cold, unfeeling woman from whom Donna was mostly estranged. Then the book moves into her story and we learn Donna’s true back story. Granny had her reasons.
Granny’s story was the best, actually. "I'll never understand why Donna insisted on looking like she was woven out of bran."
I really didn’t care about any of the other characters, Jessica least of all. She wants to lose herself in something, sex, whatever. I understood her – I just didn’t care what happened to her.
Mostly, I was waiting to see what happened, and I was disappointed.
Thanks to NetGalley and ECW Press for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted.
July 24, 2016
The Conjoined, a book being billed as a mystery/thriller, felt incomplete to me. Up until the very end the book was well-written, fast-paced and interesting. But then, let's just say at the end you are left hanging and the book and story feel totally unfinished. The mystery part is thrown out the window, so what you have is basically a character study, which would be fine, but the character development didn't go quite deep enough for it to only be that.
A promising start, but not enough for me to say this was a great book or to recommend it to others.
Thank you to Netgalley and ECW Press for an advance copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
A promising start, but not enough for me to say this was a great book or to recommend it to others.
Thank you to Netgalley and ECW Press for an advance copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
July 13, 2016
This is not a thriller but I guess it's been marketed that way to get more readers. It's a family drama, and a darned good one. There are two dead girls in the freezer, but this novel isn't a whodunit but more of a whydoneit. Jen Sookfong Lee builds a cast of very human characters, each having flaws and pretty much everyone longing for an elusive happiness and these individual pursuits combo into a deadly result. If you're looking for a breathtaking pageturner a la Gillian Flynn, this isn't it. But if you want to read a finely crafted novel about people who will seem so real to you that you'll forget you're reading a book, then pick this one up.
Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read The Conjoined.
Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read The Conjoined.
November 3, 2018
this is a fucking brutal book. anyone tells you otherwise, they are lying.
this novel starts as a murder mystery (with a pretty good idea of who the murderer is but who knows) then develops into a story about
* the dead-end lives of poor immigrants with no education and bottom-of-the-barrel jobs
* institutional racism and the dilemma of whether or not to call the police when you are not white
* the unforgiving weight of unsupported motherhood, at all social levels
* asian masculinity (this topic has received a lot of attention lately on twitter, so if you want to know more do a search there)
* the disaster that is foster care (i guess canada is not doing much better than the US
* intergenerational trauma
* the abandonment of children
this last is the most devastating aspect of the book. there is not a child, in this entire book, who doesn't suffer violence and whom adults don't fail, faultlessly or not.
inside this murder mystery lee packs a dense story of what it means to be an immigrant in canada (north america), and what it means to be a child who is betrayed at every turn of the way.
i had to stop a number of times to catch my breath.
this novel starts as a murder mystery (with a pretty good idea of who the murderer is but who knows) then develops into a story about
* the dead-end lives of poor immigrants with no education and bottom-of-the-barrel jobs
* institutional racism and the dilemma of whether or not to call the police when you are not white
* the unforgiving weight of unsupported motherhood, at all social levels
* asian masculinity (this topic has received a lot of attention lately on twitter, so if you want to know more do a search there)
* the disaster that is foster care (i guess canada is not doing much better than the US
* intergenerational trauma
* the abandonment of children
this last is the most devastating aspect of the book. there is not a child, in this entire book, who doesn't suffer violence and whom adults don't fail, faultlessly or not.
inside this murder mystery lee packs a dense story of what it means to be an immigrant in canada (north america), and what it means to be a child who is betrayed at every turn of the way.
i had to stop a number of times to catch my breath.
April 18, 2017
Trigger warnings: death of a parent, terminal cancer, miscarriage, domestic violence, and a romantic relationship between a teenage girl and a 40-something man. *shudder*
3.5 stars.
This book has been billed as a thriller, but really it's somewhere in between a thriller and a family saga.
Essentially, Jessica's mother dies of cancer, and when she and her father start to clean out the house, they find the bodies of two teenage girls in freezers in the basement. Girls that they fostered 28 years ago.
So the story cuts between 2016, 1988, and the late 1940s, telling the story of Jessica, the girls who died, and Jessica's mother respectively. And there's QUITE a lot of disturbing content in this book. It deals with children who may or may not be psychopaths, teenage girls who are in romantic relationships with nearly 40 year old men, and the hopelessness of social workers in regards to foster children (and, indeed, the hopelessness of foster children themselves), while also dealing with the difficulties faced by immigrant families.
So it was less of a thriller than I'd anticipated. And the end was kind of frustrating because you never find out what happened to the girls or who's responsible. But if you think of it as a family saga rather than a thriller, it's a pretty freaking solid book.
3.5 stars.
This book has been billed as a thriller, but really it's somewhere in between a thriller and a family saga.
Essentially, Jessica's mother dies of cancer, and when she and her father start to clean out the house, they find the bodies of two teenage girls in freezers in the basement. Girls that they fostered 28 years ago.
So the story cuts between 2016, 1988, and the late 1940s, telling the story of Jessica, the girls who died, and Jessica's mother respectively. And there's QUITE a lot of disturbing content in this book. It deals with children who may or may not be psychopaths, teenage girls who are in romantic relationships with nearly 40 year old men, and the hopelessness of social workers in regards to foster children (and, indeed, the hopelessness of foster children themselves), while also dealing with the difficulties faced by immigrant families.
So it was less of a thriller than I'd anticipated. And the end was kind of frustrating because you never find out what happened to the girls or who's responsible. But if you think of it as a family saga rather than a thriller, it's a pretty freaking solid book.
September 10, 2016
I hate it when you trust an author all the way through a book, and they leave you hanging at the end. Yes, some books benefit from an ambigious ending, but not a mystery! The main character was abhorent, and while I almost always love an unlikeable character, this one was just horrible for no reason. The historical parts of this story were great, but the modern day parts were awkward and sometimes cringe-inducing. That could possibly have been forgiven if the mystery had been solved at the end, but it wasn't. The author couldn't figure out how to solve it, I guess? Not cool.
March 6, 2017
How well do we know our parents? Social worker Jessica Campbell thought, like the rest of us, that she knew her mother pretty well. Then, as she and her father clean out the family home after her mother’s death, they find a body in the bottom of a chest freezer. They call the police, who find a second body in another freezer. Leaving Jessica to wonder what is going on?
This is very readable and things are revealed by various players in the story it progresses. But it is more about the interactions between people, the hidden secrets in everyone’s lives, and the need to live your own life in your own way than it is about the who-dunnit.
If you require a clean ending with all the bits tied up in a neat knot, this may not be a good book for you. If you can enjoy the humanness of the characters in and of themselves, you will find it a better fit.
This is very readable and things are revealed by various players in the story it progresses. But it is more about the interactions between people, the hidden secrets in everyone’s lives, and the need to live your own life in your own way than it is about the who-dunnit.
If you require a clean ending with all the bits tied up in a neat knot, this may not be a good book for you. If you can enjoy the humanness of the characters in and of themselves, you will find it a better fit.
November 30, 2016
3.5 stars.
I picked this book up for its cover. I found the image creepy, and it reminded me of Red Riding Hood and a Donald Sutherland movie ("Don't Look Now"). Neither of those references has anything to do with this book, just thought I'd be honest about my initial reason for noticing the book.
Anyway, I'm not spoiling anything when I say the story begins in 2016 with the discovery of two dead girls, Canadian Chinese sisters, in freezers in the basement of Jessica Campbell's parents' house. Jessica is the main character, and she quickly deduces that the girls are the ones her mother had fostered in 1988 and who had disappeared. Jessica's mother, Donna, has also very recently died at the story's opening, and Jessica and her father are grieving, and are shocked and horrified by the reappearance of the girls.
The question of how the girls ended up in the freezer hangs over the the Campbells, with Jessica and her dad questioning their memories of Donna, and the events surrounding the sisters' time in their house. Donna had fostered other children before these sisters, and was a trusted resource of the city's child protection agency.
Jen Sookfong Lee starts this story off as a mystery, but there are so many more things going on:
-Children removed from their families for a variety of reasons, and ending up potentially more damaged by their transit through the system.
-The individuals working for child protection agencies: their massive workload, and the emotional toll their work takes on them.
-Fostering families and their motives for taking on children: why are they doing this, what are they getting out of this. What are their support systems?
-What is the impact on the fostering family members?
-Families living on the edge, emotionally and financially, and the value judgements we make of their viability and capability.
-1st/2nd generation immigrant families, and how they're perceived by the dominant culture. What kinds of emotional supports do they have, and their perception and interaction with the municipal, judicial and other systems in place. What kinds of fears they have and how that affects their actions, within the family.
-Fostered children, and our value judgements on them as individuals.
-Do we care about runaways?
There is no nicely wrapped up solution to the opening mystery and you will be disappointed if you're expecting one. I found myself not trusting Jessica's reasons for her actions through the book, and felt myself instead heartbroken for Ginny, the dead girls' mother.
I picked this book up for its cover. I found the image creepy, and it reminded me of Red Riding Hood and a Donald Sutherland movie ("Don't Look Now"). Neither of those references has anything to do with this book, just thought I'd be honest about my initial reason for noticing the book.
Anyway, I'm not spoiling anything when I say the story begins in 2016 with the discovery of two dead girls, Canadian Chinese sisters, in freezers in the basement of Jessica Campbell's parents' house. Jessica is the main character, and she quickly deduces that the girls are the ones her mother had fostered in 1988 and who had disappeared. Jessica's mother, Donna, has also very recently died at the story's opening, and Jessica and her father are grieving, and are shocked and horrified by the reappearance of the girls.
The question of how the girls ended up in the freezer hangs over the the Campbells, with Jessica and her dad questioning their memories of Donna, and the events surrounding the sisters' time in their house. Donna had fostered other children before these sisters, and was a trusted resource of the city's child protection agency.
Jen Sookfong Lee starts this story off as a mystery, but there are so many more things going on:
-Children removed from their families for a variety of reasons, and ending up potentially more damaged by their transit through the system.
-The individuals working for child protection agencies: their massive workload, and the emotional toll their work takes on them.
-Fostering families and their motives for taking on children: why are they doing this, what are they getting out of this. What are their support systems?
-What is the impact on the fostering family members?
-Families living on the edge, emotionally and financially, and the value judgements we make of their viability and capability.
-1st/2nd generation immigrant families, and how they're perceived by the dominant culture. What kinds of emotional supports do they have, and their perception and interaction with the municipal, judicial and other systems in place. What kinds of fears they have and how that affects their actions, within the family.
-Fostered children, and our value judgements on them as individuals.
-Do we care about runaways?
There is no nicely wrapped up solution to the opening mystery and you will be disappointed if you're expecting one. I found myself not trusting Jessica's reasons for her actions through the book, and felt myself instead heartbroken for Ginny, the dead girls' mother.
June 27, 2017
This was an un-putdownable book that was part family drama and part mystery (although you don't get the tidy resolution you do in traditional mystery so fans looking for that will be disappointed). The characters were expertly drawn, all authentic and sympathetic, all far from perfect. Jen Sookfong Lee's writing is incisive, thoughtful, and generous. And set in Vancouver! The audiobook voice actor was pitch perfect. Great for fans of Megan Abbott.
September 2, 2017
Yeah, no.
Nothing about this book worked for me. Not the unbelievable storyline, the characters I couldn't get close to at all, nor the writing itself. Then, when near the end I had to endure a pedophile sex-scene, I had enough.
I saw the author speak, and she was interesting, but this book was just bad. Sorry.
Nothing about this book worked for me. Not the unbelievable storyline, the characters I couldn't get close to at all, nor the writing itself. Then, when near the end I had to endure a pedophile sex-scene, I had enough.
I saw the author speak, and she was interesting, but this book was just bad. Sorry.
November 29, 2016
While sorting through her mother's belongings, Jessica Campbell and her father find a horrifying discovery -- beneath resealable plastic bags with frostbitten meat, in the bottom of her mother's chest freezers are the bodies of two dead girls. The two girls are a pair of foster children, Casey and Jamie Cheng, that lived with the family in 1988 -- two of the countless foster children her mother had taken in over the years. Six weeks after the sisters went missing, give their difficult history, everyone assumed they had run away. As Jessica learns more about the girls, and Donna, whom she thought of as the perfect mother, she uncovers dark stories and complicated truths about the life she thought she knew and mother she admired.
While The Conjoined is marketed as a mystery-thriller, it is more of a family drama. It is thought-provoking, well-written, and captivating until the very end. Through complex and realistic characters, and a writing style that flows effortlessly, Sookfong crafted a novel that makes you forget that you're reading a book. Alternating between the past and the present, The Conjoined, is a not exactly a murder-mystery -- the murder of the girls is not the main focus, but rather the exploration into the social work system that is often unfair and ineffectual. It is also about character psychology, trauma, family, self-discovery, and the struggles that immigrants and their children face.
This was a dark novel the further along, as the several layers were lifted. Sookfong's prose brings depth and understanding into the story and characters, it hits nerves and brings forth real emotions that you physically experience. I devoured this in a few sittings, because of the compelling story and rich prose. There was so much that as a reader who was invested into the story and characters, I wanted to know, or at least have confirmed rather than wonder if what I suspected was true. There is no resolution when it comes to the girls murder, or whether Donna committed the crime. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed Sookfong's profound writing that crafted a riveting and disturbing story. If you're looking for a dark thriller whodunit story, this is not it, but if you are willing to go in expecting the unexpected, and want a family drama that is much more, The Conjoined is your next pick.
I received a copy in exchange for an unbiased review from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
While The Conjoined is marketed as a mystery-thriller, it is more of a family drama. It is thought-provoking, well-written, and captivating until the very end. Through complex and realistic characters, and a writing style that flows effortlessly, Sookfong crafted a novel that makes you forget that you're reading a book. Alternating between the past and the present, The Conjoined, is a not exactly a murder-mystery -- the murder of the girls is not the main focus, but rather the exploration into the social work system that is often unfair and ineffectual. It is also about character psychology, trauma, family, self-discovery, and the struggles that immigrants and their children face.
This was a dark novel the further along, as the several layers were lifted. Sookfong's prose brings depth and understanding into the story and characters, it hits nerves and brings forth real emotions that you physically experience. I devoured this in a few sittings, because of the compelling story and rich prose. There was so much that as a reader who was invested into the story and characters, I wanted to know, or at least have confirmed rather than wonder if what I suspected was true. There is no resolution when it comes to the girls murder, or whether Donna committed the crime. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed Sookfong's profound writing that crafted a riveting and disturbing story. If you're looking for a dark thriller whodunit story, this is not it, but if you are willing to go in expecting the unexpected, and want a family drama that is much more, The Conjoined is your next pick.
I received a copy in exchange for an unbiased review from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
June 24, 2016
This book presents itself as a thriller/mystery, but is really more of a family drama. I really enjoyed the author's writing in this book, but I felt as if it ended right where the climax of the story should have been. We're building up to the reveal of who killed the girls and then the book just kind of fizzles out with no explanation. That was my whole reason for reading the book- wanting an explanation of what is essentially a whodunit. The author sets up a really interesting murder scenario and then tells us that instead of solving the murder we're going to delve into the lives of the people and who they really were- so the murder itself isn't important. Solving it isn't important. Such a disappointment.
June 24, 2016
"I come from a family of psychopaths."
(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley. Trigger warning for violence, including rape and child abuse. This review contains clearly marked spoilers, but I tried to be as vague as possible.)
She was on the verge of losing her girls, not to a bearded, smelly man in a rusty pick-up truck, but to a phalanx of people who would look at her and see her mistakes, the gaps of time that she had left her daughters alone, the frank conversations she might have started with them but didn’t. She had worried over the wrong threats. [...]
Ginny picked up the receiver. She might as well call. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that someone would understand.
###
It was easy to say My childhood was normal. It was the sort of thing people say when they want to deflect attention, or when it was the most polite way to explain that you grew up with privilege, that your past wasn’t dotted with evictions and coupons and beatings from a father who could never keep a job. It was what Jessica always said, even though she knew this statement couldn’t possibly be true for anyone.
###
Here are three things you should know about The Conjoined:
1. The book's Little Red Riding Hood /The Handmaid's Tale- inspired cover bears little relation to the story.
2. There are no conjoined twins in this book.
3. It's still a pretty good read anyway, unsatisfying ending excluded.
About a month after losing her mother Donna to cancer, twenty-eight-year-old Jessica Campbell is helping her father Gerry sort through the detritus of their decades-long marriage when they make a truly horrifying discovery. Amid Ziplock bags stuffed with frostbitten bison meat, Gerry finds the bodies of two (very human) girls stashed in his wife's basement freezers. (I own two chest freezers, and the roomier models are most definitely large enough to accommodate the body of a teenage girl. Don't worry; you'll only find homegrown apples and cases of Daiya cheese in my freezers.) The police are summoned straightaway, reopening an investigation into an eighteen-year-old mystery: whatever happened to Jamie and Casey Cheng?
Through most of Jessica's childhood (and beyond), Donna volunteered as a foster mother to countless wayward children. While most only stayed a few days or weeks before moving on to their permanent, adoptive homes, some placements proved more difficult. Jamie and Casey Cheng were Donna's greatest challenge: they skipped school, stole money, talked back, ran away, and were verbally and physically abusive. But just as suddenly as they appeared, they vanished. The police's original investigation (if you can call it that) was brief; they assumed the girls ran away, successfully this time. After all, isn't that what "those" kids - the poor, the unwanted, the abused and neglected - do?
Jessica, now a social worker herself, had long since forgotten about Jamie and Casey. Until now. As she investigates their lives and deaths, memories of that tumultuous month in the autumn of 1988 come flooding back. Yet to unravel the mystery, Jessica must go back further still: to Donna's own troubled childhood, which arguably informed her interactions with her foster kids.
Alternating between the past and the present, The Conjoined operates on two levels. Most obviously, it's a murder mystery; yet the personal is also political, as Lee uses the plot to explore much larger social issues: racism, classism, poverty, assimilation, and education, and the ways these converge in social work to create a system that's inherently unfair and often ineffective (at best; actively harmful at worst).
** Caution: Spoilers ahead! **
This is best accomplished, I think, in the story of Jamie and Casey, who should never have been removed from their mother's care. While horrible things did indeed happen on her watch, Bill and Wayne were almost exclusively at fault. Locking up both men and/or issuing restraining orders and/or mandatory counseling would have been a more productive way of dealing with the abuse. (Was a sexual relationship between a 37-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl really legal in Vancouver circa 1988? Could that be right? Egads!) Not to mention, maybe offer Ginny some financial assistance or child care so she needn't leave them alone overnight? The lady works two jobs, ferchrissakes! Criminalizing poverty is ineffectual and inhumane. Once they were placed with Donna and began acting out, the system failed them (and the Campbells) further by not offering the proper support. In this context, it's not hard to imagine how such a tragic ending might have come about.
Lee also uses Jessica's relationships with Donna and her boyfriend Trevor to interrogate "the myth of social heroism" (to borrow from the back matter), albeit with less success. Let's start with mom. Jessica became a social worker mostly to make her mother happy; had mom been a pediatrician, Jess probably would have gone to medical school. While the pressure to meet parental expectations is a fertile topic, I don't really think it furthered Lee's social commentary.
Ditto: Trevor, who is indeed a pill - but not because he has a caring (read: feminine) job, can't fix the garbage disposal, or likes vegetarian chili and soy cheese. (Real men eat meat? What is this, 1956?) Rather, he's an insufferable know-it-all who tries to force his beliefs on others, including in their most vulnerable times of need. For example, when Jess told him that Donna had chosen to stop chemo and die on her own terms, he was less than supportive. (“You mean she’s giving up?”) You're in a caring profession, f'in act like it! He's also the kind of guy who insists that, if you're not spending 110% of your time helping others, you're part of the problem. Burnout? That's for rich white chicks!
Anyway, the relationship stuff just felt a little muddled and not as coherent as Jamie and Casey's ordeal - and, later, Donna's own childhood trauma, which can also be read as a system-wide failure. Devin was a sexual predator in training and, while Elizabeth's reluctance to seek help - lest Devin wind up in an institution - is understandable, her decision exposed another child to his behavior, which is simply unforgivable.
** End of spoilers. **
The murder mystery proved much more compelling and readable; I devoured most of it in just a few sittings. So it was a huge disappointment when I reached the end, only to find ... nada. There is zero resolution to be found here, not even a hint at one or two possibilities. Heck, we don't even get the autopsy results to see how the girls died! Despite the veritable buffet of suspects, the assumption remains that Donna killed them, but we're no closer to knowing for sure than we were at the story's outset. Keeping your readers guessing is one thing, but ... this ending seriously pissed me off. At least give us a hint, yo!
3.5 stars. During my reading, I waffled back and forth on rounding it up to four or down to three, but the unsatisfying ending cinched it for me.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2016/09/16/...
(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley. Trigger warning for violence, including rape and child abuse. This review contains clearly marked spoilers, but I tried to be as vague as possible.)
She was on the verge of losing her girls, not to a bearded, smelly man in a rusty pick-up truck, but to a phalanx of people who would look at her and see her mistakes, the gaps of time that she had left her daughters alone, the frank conversations she might have started with them but didn’t. She had worried over the wrong threats. [...]
Ginny picked up the receiver. She might as well call. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that someone would understand.
###
It was easy to say My childhood was normal. It was the sort of thing people say when they want to deflect attention, or when it was the most polite way to explain that you grew up with privilege, that your past wasn’t dotted with evictions and coupons and beatings from a father who could never keep a job. It was what Jessica always said, even though she knew this statement couldn’t possibly be true for anyone.
###
Here are three things you should know about The Conjoined:
1. The book's Little Red Riding Hood /The Handmaid's Tale- inspired cover bears little relation to the story.
2. There are no conjoined twins in this book.
3. It's still a pretty good read anyway, unsatisfying ending excluded.
About a month after losing her mother Donna to cancer, twenty-eight-year-old Jessica Campbell is helping her father Gerry sort through the detritus of their decades-long marriage when they make a truly horrifying discovery. Amid Ziplock bags stuffed with frostbitten bison meat, Gerry finds the bodies of two (very human) girls stashed in his wife's basement freezers. (I own two chest freezers, and the roomier models are most definitely large enough to accommodate the body of a teenage girl. Don't worry; you'll only find homegrown apples and cases of Daiya cheese in my freezers.) The police are summoned straightaway, reopening an investigation into an eighteen-year-old mystery: whatever happened to Jamie and Casey Cheng?
Through most of Jessica's childhood (and beyond), Donna volunteered as a foster mother to countless wayward children. While most only stayed a few days or weeks before moving on to their permanent, adoptive homes, some placements proved more difficult. Jamie and Casey Cheng were Donna's greatest challenge: they skipped school, stole money, talked back, ran away, and were verbally and physically abusive. But just as suddenly as they appeared, they vanished. The police's original investigation (if you can call it that) was brief; they assumed the girls ran away, successfully this time. After all, isn't that what "those" kids - the poor, the unwanted, the abused and neglected - do?
Jessica, now a social worker herself, had long since forgotten about Jamie and Casey. Until now. As she investigates their lives and deaths, memories of that tumultuous month in the autumn of 1988 come flooding back. Yet to unravel the mystery, Jessica must go back further still: to Donna's own troubled childhood, which arguably informed her interactions with her foster kids.
Alternating between the past and the present, The Conjoined operates on two levels. Most obviously, it's a murder mystery; yet the personal is also political, as Lee uses the plot to explore much larger social issues: racism, classism, poverty, assimilation, and education, and the ways these converge in social work to create a system that's inherently unfair and often ineffective (at best; actively harmful at worst).
** Caution: Spoilers ahead! **
This is best accomplished, I think, in the story of Jamie and Casey, who should never have been removed from their mother's care. While horrible things did indeed happen on her watch, Bill and Wayne were almost exclusively at fault. Locking up both men and/or issuing restraining orders and/or mandatory counseling would have been a more productive way of dealing with the abuse. (Was a sexual relationship between a 37-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl really legal in Vancouver circa 1988? Could that be right? Egads!) Not to mention, maybe offer Ginny some financial assistance or child care so she needn't leave them alone overnight? The lady works two jobs, ferchrissakes! Criminalizing poverty is ineffectual and inhumane. Once they were placed with Donna and began acting out, the system failed them (and the Campbells) further by not offering the proper support. In this context, it's not hard to imagine how such a tragic ending might have come about.
Lee also uses Jessica's relationships with Donna and her boyfriend Trevor to interrogate "the myth of social heroism" (to borrow from the back matter), albeit with less success. Let's start with mom. Jessica became a social worker mostly to make her mother happy; had mom been a pediatrician, Jess probably would have gone to medical school. While the pressure to meet parental expectations is a fertile topic, I don't really think it furthered Lee's social commentary.
Ditto: Trevor, who is indeed a pill - but not because he has a caring (read: feminine) job, can't fix the garbage disposal, or likes vegetarian chili and soy cheese. (Real men eat meat? What is this, 1956?) Rather, he's an insufferable know-it-all who tries to force his beliefs on others, including in their most vulnerable times of need. For example, when Jess told him that Donna had chosen to stop chemo and die on her own terms, he was less than supportive. (“You mean she’s giving up?”) You're in a caring profession, f'in act like it! He's also the kind of guy who insists that, if you're not spending 110% of your time helping others, you're part of the problem. Burnout? That's for rich white chicks!
Anyway, the relationship stuff just felt a little muddled and not as coherent as Jamie and Casey's ordeal - and, later, Donna's own childhood trauma, which can also be read as a system-wide failure. Devin was a sexual predator in training and, while Elizabeth's reluctance to seek help - lest Devin wind up in an institution - is understandable, her decision exposed another child to his behavior, which is simply unforgivable.
** End of spoilers. **
The murder mystery proved much more compelling and readable; I devoured most of it in just a few sittings. So it was a huge disappointment when I reached the end, only to find ... nada. There is zero resolution to be found here, not even a hint at one or two possibilities. Heck, we don't even get the autopsy results to see how the girls died! Despite the veritable buffet of suspects, the assumption remains that Donna killed them, but we're no closer to knowing for sure than we were at the story's outset. Keeping your readers guessing is one thing, but ... this ending seriously pissed me off. At least give us a hint, yo!
3.5 stars. During my reading, I waffled back and forth on rounding it up to four or down to three, but the unsatisfying ending cinched it for me.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2016/09/16/...
September 4, 2016
Please read all of my reviews at http://ultraviolentlit.blogspot.ca!
Jessica has always admired her mother, Donna – she even became a social worker to follow in her footsteps, helping underprivileged and damaged children who are lost in the system. Now, Donna has just passed away, and Jessica and her father are struggling to clean out the cluttered house. Underneath the frostbitten packages of meat in the basement freezer, they make their most gruesome discovery – the bodies of two teenage girls, foster sisters who lived with the family and went missing in 1988.
Casey and Jamie Cheng were two troubled and wild girls from Vancouver’s Chinatown. Growing up in the city’s dangerous Downtown East Side, the girls struggled to cope with their overworked immigrant mother, their alcoholic father, and Casey’s affair with a much older man. After a violent crisis at home, the sisters are moved into Donna’s foster home, where they act maliciously and try to sabotage Donna’s efforts to help them.
Through flashbacks, we see Jamie and Casey’s upbringing, culminating in the reason they were taken from their home and placed in the foster system. Although their behaviour towards Donna is atrocious, it’s easy to see how it was caused by circumstances beyond their control. The girls’ loving mother was doing her best to raise them, but her struggle to put food on the table is the plight of many on the Downtown East Side. Donna’s good intentions are representative of a social system that swallows up girls like Casey and Jamie Cheng, without accounting for their differences.
Donna is of course the prime suspect for the deaths of the Cheng sisters, especially since she claimed that she never saw them again after they disappeared from her home. To clear her mother’s name, Jessica embarks on an investigation of the Cheng’s past, and she ends up getting romantically involved with the police detective, at the expense of her current relationship. This side plot is a bit superfluous, but it does speak to Jessica’s growth as she becomes more independent in the wake of her mother’s death.
The mystery of the girls’ disappearance propels the novel forward, but it is not its main focus. The Conjoined is more about the characters’ development as they are affected by topical social issues. It is also an exploration of our social systems and their effects on disenfranchised people such as the Chengs – for immigrant families, assimilation into foster care is not always a good solution. It is often ineffective, and sometimes even harmful to the children’s well-being. The Cheng sisters are removed from their mother’s care based on a generic checklist that did not work in their favour, and as Jessica investigates them through her work, she realizes that she is part of a broken system.
The Conjoined is dark and uncomfortable, and it forces us to confront a bleak chapter in Vancouver’s history – a time when women frequently went missing from the Downtown East Side. The novel ended suddenly at a climactic moment, which underlines the message that it doesn’t matter how the girls died – it matters why. Although this is a mystery, especially as the Cheng sisters’ childhood connects to Donna’s, it is most of all a well-crafted novel about people who feel real.
I received this book from ECW Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Jessica has always admired her mother, Donna – she even became a social worker to follow in her footsteps, helping underprivileged and damaged children who are lost in the system. Now, Donna has just passed away, and Jessica and her father are struggling to clean out the cluttered house. Underneath the frostbitten packages of meat in the basement freezer, they make their most gruesome discovery – the bodies of two teenage girls, foster sisters who lived with the family and went missing in 1988.
Casey and Jamie Cheng were two troubled and wild girls from Vancouver’s Chinatown. Growing up in the city’s dangerous Downtown East Side, the girls struggled to cope with their overworked immigrant mother, their alcoholic father, and Casey’s affair with a much older man. After a violent crisis at home, the sisters are moved into Donna’s foster home, where they act maliciously and try to sabotage Donna’s efforts to help them.
Through flashbacks, we see Jamie and Casey’s upbringing, culminating in the reason they were taken from their home and placed in the foster system. Although their behaviour towards Donna is atrocious, it’s easy to see how it was caused by circumstances beyond their control. The girls’ loving mother was doing her best to raise them, but her struggle to put food on the table is the plight of many on the Downtown East Side. Donna’s good intentions are representative of a social system that swallows up girls like Casey and Jamie Cheng, without accounting for their differences.
Donna is of course the prime suspect for the deaths of the Cheng sisters, especially since she claimed that she never saw them again after they disappeared from her home. To clear her mother’s name, Jessica embarks on an investigation of the Cheng’s past, and she ends up getting romantically involved with the police detective, at the expense of her current relationship. This side plot is a bit superfluous, but it does speak to Jessica’s growth as she becomes more independent in the wake of her mother’s death.
The mystery of the girls’ disappearance propels the novel forward, but it is not its main focus. The Conjoined is more about the characters’ development as they are affected by topical social issues. It is also an exploration of our social systems and their effects on disenfranchised people such as the Chengs – for immigrant families, assimilation into foster care is not always a good solution. It is often ineffective, and sometimes even harmful to the children’s well-being. The Cheng sisters are removed from their mother’s care based on a generic checklist that did not work in their favour, and as Jessica investigates them through her work, she realizes that she is part of a broken system.
The Conjoined is dark and uncomfortable, and it forces us to confront a bleak chapter in Vancouver’s history – a time when women frequently went missing from the Downtown East Side. The novel ended suddenly at a climactic moment, which underlines the message that it doesn’t matter how the girls died – it matters why. Although this is a mystery, especially as the Cheng sisters’ childhood connects to Donna’s, it is most of all a well-crafted novel about people who feel real.
I received this book from ECW Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
June 20, 2016
After the death of her mother Jessica Campbell discovers the bodies of 2 missing foster children in a freezer in the basement. Her mother who has taken in countless foster children could not have killed these 2. So starts Jessica's journey to find out who here mother really was and maybe find herself along the way. I would like to thank the Publisher and Net Galley for the chance to read this ARC.
May 21, 2023
I had higher hopes for this book. It ends up an unsolved mystery. The mystery wasn’t the point of the book, but I wish it had been. Feels like the book is unfinished. Read it after reading the author’s memoir Superfan. That was funny and honest and poignant. This was none of that. I feel let down.
March 19, 2018
This book was SUCHHH a disappointment. There was barely a mystery/thriller element and the conclusion wasn't satisfying at all. I just wanna know what happened! *sad face*
March 26, 2019
2.5 stars - I like the idea behind the book but it just didn't work for me. A lot of the characters are over the top so it was hard to take seriously and it hypes up mystery but doesn't really deliver.
July 1, 2022
Just couldn't get into this one. Something about the writing style made it hard for me. Got about 40% through then just never went back. DNF
December 5, 2016
I wanted to read this after reading the synopsis on the back cover that says: "On a sunny May morning, social worker Jessica Campbell sorts through her mother’s belongings after her recent funeral. In the basement, she makes a shocking discovery — two dead girls curled into the bottom of her mother’s chest freezers. She remembers a pair of foster children who lived with the family in 1988: Casey and Jamie Cheng — troubled, beautiful, and wild teenaged sisters from Vancouver’s Chinatown. After six weeks, they disappeared; social workers, police officers, and Jessica herself assumed they had run away."
Based on this, I expected the mother to be a real nasty piece of work. Instead, mom Donna is a gentle, granola, earthy saint of a woman who takes in foster kids. Influenced by her mother, Jessica has become a social worker with a case load of children in crisis and a do-gooder social warrior boyfriend. The story travels back in time to her mother and grandmother's past, the past of the dead girls and their parent's past. Along the way, Jessica discovers that her mother had had a few very dark chapters in her life.
The Conjoined was a compelling read that always made me want to know more, with beautiful writing and interesting characters. Lee captures the feeling of Vancouver very well and makes it a secondary character in the book.
What stopped the novel from being a five star read was that there were a few too many unanswered questions, the main one being that the mystery of the girls' death is unresolved. I understand what Lee was doing artistically, but I think ultimately it lets down the reader.
Recommended for: Readers looking for something a little different, and books that accurately reflect diversity. Readers who need to like or admire the characters in a book might want to skip this one.
Based on this, I expected the mother to be a real nasty piece of work. Instead, mom Donna is a gentle, granola, earthy saint of a woman who takes in foster kids. Influenced by her mother, Jessica has become a social worker with a case load of children in crisis and a do-gooder social warrior boyfriend. The story travels back in time to her mother and grandmother's past, the past of the dead girls and their parent's past. Along the way, Jessica discovers that her mother had had a few very dark chapters in her life.
The Conjoined was a compelling read that always made me want to know more, with beautiful writing and interesting characters. Lee captures the feeling of Vancouver very well and makes it a secondary character in the book.
What stopped the novel from being a five star read was that there were a few too many unanswered questions, the main one being that the mystery of the girls' death is unresolved. I understand what Lee was doing artistically, but I think ultimately it lets down the reader.
Recommended for: Readers looking for something a little different, and books that accurately reflect diversity. Readers who need to like or admire the characters in a book might want to skip this one.
September 7, 2016
The Conjoined paints a telling portrait of the lies we tell ourselves, the truths that need telling and the welcoming weightlessness of letting go.
This read goes way beyond the mystery of the frozen girls found at the bottom of a freezer. Firstly, I grabbed hold of Jessica and was absorbed by her predicament.
Her mother had recently died
She finds bodies in the basement freezer
She is questioning her relationship with her boyfriend
She feels less passion for her job
The reason I connected to this book was definitely through Jessica. She said some things I’ve thought but never brought myself to actually say. It really made me think of why I hold back so much. As the book peels back layers to Jessica’s childhood, seeing it through her eyes was eye opening.
As I got deeper into the novel, it got darker for me. The sufferings that the two little girls faced were very difficult for me to read. The mother’s fears and distress; before and after her girls disappeared was genuinely powerful. Through the girls, we definitely saw the flaws in child protective services. It just made my heart break.
The novel is not a true mystery/thriller per se, it is a profound and honest look into the lives and relationships of the characters within the pages of The Conjoined. I struggled for the first few chapters, but I was fully engaged by chapter seven. It is brutally honest and as a reader you’ll find that there is much that is left unsaid. The hauntingly poignant part is arriving at the end.
This read goes way beyond the mystery of the frozen girls found at the bottom of a freezer. Firstly, I grabbed hold of Jessica and was absorbed by her predicament.
Her mother had recently died
She finds bodies in the basement freezer
She is questioning her relationship with her boyfriend
She feels less passion for her job
The reason I connected to this book was definitely through Jessica. She said some things I’ve thought but never brought myself to actually say. It really made me think of why I hold back so much. As the book peels back layers to Jessica’s childhood, seeing it through her eyes was eye opening.
As I got deeper into the novel, it got darker for me. The sufferings that the two little girls faced were very difficult for me to read. The mother’s fears and distress; before and after her girls disappeared was genuinely powerful. Through the girls, we definitely saw the flaws in child protective services. It just made my heart break.
The novel is not a true mystery/thriller per se, it is a profound and honest look into the lives and relationships of the characters within the pages of The Conjoined. I struggled for the first few chapters, but I was fully engaged by chapter seven. It is brutally honest and as a reader you’ll find that there is much that is left unsaid. The hauntingly poignant part is arriving at the end.
July 5, 2016
The Good
Chinese characters are featured throughout the story, and instead of being portrayed following the usual model minority stereotypes, the characters are shown to be struggling and leading difficult lives. This is a facet of the Chinese Canadian (or Chinese American) experience that I haven’t seen a lot and I appreciated it. The struggles that immigrants and the children of immigrants face were touched upon, if only briefly.
The Bad
The book just stops. The narrative is concerned with Jessica and her relationships with the people around her, including her parents, her boyfriend, and the policeman investigating the case of the dead foster children. However, besides the relationship between Jessica and her boyfriend, little changes in the other relationships and I felt no strong sense of closure when the novel ended. It just finished. Jessica uncovered some details about her family’s past and the foster children’s past, but did not seem to change in any significant way, nor did the details add up to anything terribly significant except for the simple fact that people are complicated.
Full review here.
Chinese characters are featured throughout the story, and instead of being portrayed following the usual model minority stereotypes, the characters are shown to be struggling and leading difficult lives. This is a facet of the Chinese Canadian (or Chinese American) experience that I haven’t seen a lot and I appreciated it. The struggles that immigrants and the children of immigrants face were touched upon, if only briefly.
The Bad
The book just stops. The narrative is concerned with Jessica and her relationships with the people around her, including her parents, her boyfriend, and the policeman investigating the case of the dead foster children. However, besides the relationship between Jessica and her boyfriend, little changes in the other relationships and I felt no strong sense of closure when the novel ended. It just finished. Jessica uncovered some details about her family’s past and the foster children’s past, but did not seem to change in any significant way, nor did the details add up to anything terribly significant except for the simple fact that people are complicated.
Full review here.
August 18, 2017
I absolutely adored this book. Couldn't put it down. Brought it everywhere and snuck pages in while waiting in line at Costco. It's beautifully complex with flawed characters who are totally believable. Hilarious observations about Vancouver and human nature and craft beer. It's everything.
I enjoyed the suspenseful plot, but also how it totally moves beyond the need for a clear resolution. This is not a whodunnit, but rather a contemplative glimpse into a seemingly idealistic world that's actually super grim. I love that almost all of the characters are social services folks who want to help, yet they are tired and the problems they face are insurmountable. The main character, Jessica, is keenly aware that for all her good intentions, she will not be able to save the world. Jessica's relationship with her boyfriend, Trevor, who tries so earnestly to be nice to her is well-captured and believable. Some truly hilarious characterizations of his well-intentioned ambitions and his stretched out underwear and general inability to evoke any sort of erotic desire in Jessica. Bang on!
My favourite line in the whole novel comes in a scene at a pub on Main Street when Jessica says, "There are 38 kinds of beer on the board. I hate this city."
A real gem of a book.
I enjoyed the suspenseful plot, but also how it totally moves beyond the need for a clear resolution. This is not a whodunnit, but rather a contemplative glimpse into a seemingly idealistic world that's actually super grim. I love that almost all of the characters are social services folks who want to help, yet they are tired and the problems they face are insurmountable. The main character, Jessica, is keenly aware that for all her good intentions, she will not be able to save the world. Jessica's relationship with her boyfriend, Trevor, who tries so earnestly to be nice to her is well-captured and believable. Some truly hilarious characterizations of his well-intentioned ambitions and his stretched out underwear and general inability to evoke any sort of erotic desire in Jessica. Bang on!
My favourite line in the whole novel comes in a scene at a pub on Main Street when Jessica says, "There are 38 kinds of beer on the board. I hate this city."
A real gem of a book.
July 25, 2016
DNF at 51%.
I'm sorry but Jessica is one of the worst characters I have ever read. She's absolutely vile and I cannot see any reason for it other than to make the story more interesting. The dialogue in this is sometimes ridiculous and completely unbelievable. I just can't anymore. I may really want to know what happened but I just can't put up with Jessica and her entitled bullshit.
I'm sorry but Jessica is one of the worst characters I have ever read. She's absolutely vile and I cannot see any reason for it other than to make the story more interesting. The dialogue in this is sometimes ridiculous and completely unbelievable. I just can't anymore. I may really want to know what happened but I just can't put up with Jessica and her entitled bullshit.
July 6, 2016
more of a 3.5 but I round up. full review coming soon!
October 14, 2025
Really liked this!!! But …
I feel like if you start the book with two dead bodies in the freezer you have to tell me how it happened!! But I understand and respect the creative decision not to, it just bugs me lol.
I feel like if you start the book with two dead bodies in the freezer you have to tell me how it happened!! But I understand and respect the creative decision not to, it just bugs me lol.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2016
The premise of dead bodies in a freezer grabbed me. It sounds dark and tense. This book doesn't really follow that path though, it's more about people; their lives, the difficulties in doing good, and expectations. In truth the story is a bit mixed, with some impressive highlights and some jumbled problems.
The story delves into a few time periods as it pieces together the backstory. Oddly I much prefered these backstories. The main story is really Jessica digging into the past, unfortunately her chapters are muddled and awkward at times. They jump back to 1988 somewhat randomly, barely meriting a new paragraph at times. That flow between the two eras was jarring and did little to make me warm to Jessica. I feel I could've really clicked with Jessica too - so much about her should be relatable and drawn me in, yet more often she pushed me away. Had the book been just her I feel I may have given up, but the other looks into the past were far better and had me engrossed. When I read a modern Jessica chapter I had no trouble putting the book down, when I read the other storylines I wanted more and would tell myself I could read a little more.
Persevering with the book does pay off. The further back the book goes the more it works. There's a darkness that lets details shine through. We're reminded of a different time and world, a world that we can forget happened so recently. It is not always comfortable, but it is worthwhile and makes the book a good enough read. Read it for those chapters. Read it for the anthropological angle - the look at society, at families, and at people. That's what makes this book.
The story delves into a few time periods as it pieces together the backstory. Oddly I much prefered these backstories. The main story is really Jessica digging into the past, unfortunately her chapters are muddled and awkward at times. They jump back to 1988 somewhat randomly, barely meriting a new paragraph at times. That flow between the two eras was jarring and did little to make me warm to Jessica. I feel I could've really clicked with Jessica too - so much about her should be relatable and drawn me in, yet more often she pushed me away. Had the book been just her I feel I may have given up, but the other looks into the past were far better and had me engrossed. When I read a modern Jessica chapter I had no trouble putting the book down, when I read the other storylines I wanted more and would tell myself I could read a little more.
Persevering with the book does pay off. The further back the book goes the more it works. There's a darkness that lets details shine through. We're reminded of a different time and world, a world that we can forget happened so recently. It is not always comfortable, but it is worthwhile and makes the book a good enough read. Read it for those chapters. Read it for the anthropological angle - the look at society, at families, and at people. That's what makes this book.
December 3, 2016
The Conjoined by Jen Sookfong Lee is one of the worst books I have read this year. Jessica Campbell’s mother, Donna has passed away. Jessica and her father, Gerry are clearing out her things (especially all the health food they cannot stand). Gerry goes downstairs to clear out the freezers (you just know what he is going to find) and finds a body. Detective Chris Gallo comes in to lead the investigation and the forensic team soon finds a second body. Jessica suspects that they are two foster children that disappeared years ago. How did they end up in the freezers? Could her mother have killed them? Jessica is determined to get to the bottom of the story. Jessica must look to the past to get answers. Will she be able to find out the truth?
The Conjoined was a strange story with a disappointing ending. The story focuses on Jessica, her search for answers, and her relationship with her boyfriend, Trevor. The novel is disjointed and jumps around making it hard to read. It starts in the present, then goes back in time, then forward, then back. I felt like a yo-yo. I persevered and kept reading though. I get to the end and I am disappointed (upset, disgusted and so much more). The novel has foul language (too much of it) and intimate scenes. I give The Conjoined 1 out of 5 stars (I really did not like it). Jessica was not a likeable character. She is with Trevor, but spends her time fantasizing about Detective Chris Gallo (and drinking too much alcohol). The Conjoined was just not for me.
The Conjoined was a strange story with a disappointing ending. The story focuses on Jessica, her search for answers, and her relationship with her boyfriend, Trevor. The novel is disjointed and jumps around making it hard to read. It starts in the present, then goes back in time, then forward, then back. I felt like a yo-yo. I persevered and kept reading though. I get to the end and I am disappointed (upset, disgusted and so much more). The novel has foul language (too much of it) and intimate scenes. I give The Conjoined 1 out of 5 stars (I really did not like it). Jessica was not a likeable character. She is with Trevor, but spends her time fantasizing about Detective Chris Gallo (and drinking too much alcohol). The Conjoined was just not for me.
September 5, 2016
This novel contains a mystery--who killed the Cheng girls and buried them in a freezer?--but it is not a mystery story.
This is a story about class, race, gender; a love song to the Downtown Eastside; an exploration of our social systems, how they work, and how they fail; a novel about how unknowable even our most loved ones are.
Lee explores various years, and perspectives, offering us subtle details about this tragedy, and the fallout that inevitably comes.
This is a story about class, race, gender; a love song to the Downtown Eastside; an exploration of our social systems, how they work, and how they fail; a novel about how unknowable even our most loved ones are.
Lee explores various years, and perspectives, offering us subtle details about this tragedy, and the fallout that inevitably comes.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 294 reviews