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One Hundred Days
One day, a boy in a nice silver car gives sixteen-year-old Karuna a ride. So Karuna returns the favour.
Eventually, Karuna can’t ignore the reality: she is pregnant. Incensed, her mother, already over-protective, confines her to their fourteenth-storey housing-commission flat for one hundred days, to protect her from the outside world – and make sure she can’t get into any more trouble. Stuck inside for endless hours, Karuna battles her mother and herself for a sense of power in her own life, as a new life forms and grows within her.
One Hundred Days is a fractured fairytale exploring the fault lines between love and control. At times tense and claustrophobic, it also brims with humour, warmth and character. It is a magnificent new work from one of Australia’s most celebrated writers.
Eventually, Karuna can’t ignore the reality: she is pregnant. Incensed, her mother, already over-protective, confines her to their fourteenth-storey housing-commission flat for one hundred days, to protect her from the outside world – and make sure she can’t get into any more trouble. Stuck inside for endless hours, Karuna battles her mother and herself for a sense of power in her own life, as a new life forms and grows within her.
One Hundred Days is a fractured fairytale exploring the fault lines between love and control. At times tense and claustrophobic, it also brims with humour, warmth and character. It is a magnificent new work from one of Australia’s most celebrated writers.
256 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2021
129 people are currently reading
8369 people want to read
About the author
Alice Pung
39 books369 followersAlice was born in Footscray, Victoria, a month after her parents Kuan and Kien arrived in Australia. Alice’s father, Kuan - a survivor of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime - named her after Lewis Carroll’s character because after surviving the Killing Fields, he thought Australia was a Wonderland. Alice is the oldest of four - she has a brother, Alexander, and two sisters, Alison and Alina.
Alice grew up in Footscray and Braybrook, and changed high schools five times - almost once every year! These experiences have shaped her as a writer because they taught her how to pay attention to the quiet young adults that others might overlook or miss.
Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem, is an Australian bestseller which won the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award and was shortlisted in the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards. It was published in the UK and USA in separate editions and has been translated into several languages including Italian, German and Indonesian.
Alice’s next book, Her Father’s Daughter, won the Western Australia Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction and was shortlisted for the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards and the Queensland Literary Awards.
Alice also edited the collection Growing Up Asian in Australia and her writing has appeared in the Monthly, the Age, and The Best Australian Stories and The Best Australian Essays.
Alice is a qualified lawyer and still works as a legal researcher in the area of minimum wages and pay equity. She lives with her husband Nick at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, where she is the Artist in Residence.
Alice grew up in Footscray and Braybrook, and changed high schools five times - almost once every year! These experiences have shaped her as a writer because they taught her how to pay attention to the quiet young adults that others might overlook or miss.
Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem, is an Australian bestseller which won the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award and was shortlisted in the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards. It was published in the UK and USA in separate editions and has been translated into several languages including Italian, German and Indonesian.
Alice’s next book, Her Father’s Daughter, won the Western Australia Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction and was shortlisted for the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards and the Queensland Literary Awards.
Alice also edited the collection Growing Up Asian in Australia and her writing has appeared in the Monthly, the Age, and The Best Australian Stories and The Best Australian Essays.
Alice is a qualified lawyer and still works as a legal researcher in the area of minimum wages and pay equity. She lives with her husband Nick at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, where she is the Artist in Residence.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 533 reviews
March 18, 2022
I don’t have much to say about this one. Putting it plainly, this wasn’t my kind of story, but that’s definitely a me problem, according to the abundance of 5-star reviews I see here.
Reading about Karuna’s teen pregnancy, and, subsequently, the actions of her overbearing mother, made me frustrated and angry for the most part, which was a reaction had by many readers, I’m sure. I simply don’t enjoy hating on characters as intensely as I did here, regardless of the quality of the writing and the story being told.
I’m sure the usual response to this story is to acknowledge and accept the vastly different experiences and world-views of varying cultures, such as Karuna’s mother, which helps to explain why she behaves the way she did throughout the book, possibly even garnering sympathy for her actions to a degree, but my current anxious mood, paired with the oppressive themes of the book, resulted in an unpleasant reading experience for me.
I also took issue with one specific notion in this book: that emotional abuse, and (to a lesser degree here) physical abuse, can be brushed aside as acceptable, if the person abusing you is claiming to love you. This is a very personal reaction, and potentially not one all readers will agree with, but for me, regardless of Karuna’s mother’s life experiences, her behaviour at times during this story, was simply deplorable, definitely toxic, even if she did what she did because she supposedly loved so hard. It was just wrong.
It should be noted that I read this book to tick off a tricky reading challenge topic, so in truth, it probably isn’t something I would have picked up at my own accord anyway. With that in mind, take my review with a grain of salt, as I’m sure my reaction will remain that of an outlier.
Reading about Karuna’s teen pregnancy, and, subsequently, the actions of her overbearing mother, made me frustrated and angry for the most part, which was a reaction had by many readers, I’m sure. I simply don’t enjoy hating on characters as intensely as I did here, regardless of the quality of the writing and the story being told.
I’m sure the usual response to this story is to acknowledge and accept the vastly different experiences and world-views of varying cultures, such as Karuna’s mother, which helps to explain why she behaves the way she did throughout the book, possibly even garnering sympathy for her actions to a degree, but my current anxious mood, paired with the oppressive themes of the book, resulted in an unpleasant reading experience for me.
I also took issue with one specific notion in this book: that emotional abuse, and (to a lesser degree here) physical abuse, can be brushed aside as acceptable, if the person abusing you is claiming to love you. This is a very personal reaction, and potentially not one all readers will agree with, but for me, regardless of Karuna’s mother’s life experiences, her behaviour at times during this story, was simply deplorable, definitely toxic, even if she did what she did because she supposedly loved so hard. It was just wrong.
It should be noted that I read this book to tick off a tricky reading challenge topic, so in truth, it probably isn’t something I would have picked up at my own accord anyway. With that in mind, take my review with a grain of salt, as I’m sure my reaction will remain that of an outlier.
May 14, 2023
The story is set in Melbourne, Australia in the 1980s.
Karuna (Chinese-Filipino-Australian), is fifteen-years-old.
She becomes pregnant. Her mother (an overly protective mother/immigrant from China) decides to lock Karuna up in their house (inside their fourteenth story public housing flat) for a hundred days….
The idea was to keep Karuna safe until the baby was born.
The balance and strife between love and control between Mother & Daughter is at the heart of this story.
The question of who will have ownership of the baby is a real issue.
Karuna’s father had left years ago— divorcing his wife.
The feelings Karuna has for her father are complicated. There is fairytale idolization mixed with dark realties.
But now Karuna is pregnant….stuck with her mom’s control — (and love)
Karuna begins to write notes to her unborn baby in a journal. She writes in English, because it’s not a language her mother reads or speaks.
Mother and daughter argue over television shows, clothes, makeup, hair styles, vitamins, food, milk — everything!
We feel Karuna’s frustration and loneliness—and understand her edgy-irritable disposition.
Plus - add those real hormones that are firing up.
Karuna thought she understood her mother - (from the old country) - but she flipped back and forth between feeling sorry for her mother and being angry.
“Your father ruined everything for me. I left my country and family for him and his fake photo, and he left me alone in a foreign land to raise a child by myself! This was her side of the story - her life had had momentum, responsibility; it had been leading somewhere, and then, suddenly, it was over. ‘When you get married, choose carefully. Don’t do it just to escape your parents’”.
“She thought she knew everything that her suffering had given her some sort of wisdom, when all it had done was make her bitter. As if I would choose marriage as an escape. That was just swapping one owner for another”.
There are many wonderful scenes— and sharp dialogue scenarios.
This was my first book I’ve read by Alice Pung. Her writing is lovely — the complexities are explored with warmth and humor.
It was heartbreaking to see how easily family members hurt one another.
Alice Pung captured the struggles between mother, daughter. family, community, cultured and generational differences with a compassionate tender understanding that it’s not easy growing up — forgiving — and finding one’s own voice.
I look forward to picking up other books by this wonderful Aussie author!
Happy Mother’s Day!!!
Karuna (Chinese-Filipino-Australian), is fifteen-years-old.
She becomes pregnant. Her mother (an overly protective mother/immigrant from China) decides to lock Karuna up in their house (inside their fourteenth story public housing flat) for a hundred days….
The idea was to keep Karuna safe until the baby was born.
The balance and strife between love and control between Mother & Daughter is at the heart of this story.
The question of who will have ownership of the baby is a real issue.
Karuna’s father had left years ago— divorcing his wife.
The feelings Karuna has for her father are complicated. There is fairytale idolization mixed with dark realties.
But now Karuna is pregnant….stuck with her mom’s control — (and love)
Karuna begins to write notes to her unborn baby in a journal. She writes in English, because it’s not a language her mother reads or speaks.
Mother and daughter argue over television shows, clothes, makeup, hair styles, vitamins, food, milk — everything!
We feel Karuna’s frustration and loneliness—and understand her edgy-irritable disposition.
Plus - add those real hormones that are firing up.
Karuna thought she understood her mother - (from the old country) - but she flipped back and forth between feeling sorry for her mother and being angry.
“Your father ruined everything for me. I left my country and family for him and his fake photo, and he left me alone in a foreign land to raise a child by myself! This was her side of the story - her life had had momentum, responsibility; it had been leading somewhere, and then, suddenly, it was over. ‘When you get married, choose carefully. Don’t do it just to escape your parents’”.
“She thought she knew everything that her suffering had given her some sort of wisdom, when all it had done was make her bitter. As if I would choose marriage as an escape. That was just swapping one owner for another”.
There are many wonderful scenes— and sharp dialogue scenarios.
This was my first book I’ve read by Alice Pung. Her writing is lovely — the complexities are explored with warmth and humor.
It was heartbreaking to see how easily family members hurt one another.
Alice Pung captured the struggles between mother, daughter. family, community, cultured and generational differences with a compassionate tender understanding that it’s not easy growing up — forgiving — and finding one’s own voice.
I look forward to picking up other books by this wonderful Aussie author!
Happy Mother’s Day!!!
August 5, 2021
I loved this book on so many levels for so many reasons. I so loved the fraught and complicated mother/daughter dynamic between Karuna and her mother.
Karuna finds herself pregnant at 16, upon this discovery her mum takes action in her unique and interesting style her controlling and overprotective nature goes into overdrive she decides to protect her daughter by keeping her confined, her way of showing love is by constantly criticising and keeping her locked up for “her own good” of course this only causes more tension and the animosity builds and builds, you feel every ounce of frustration and suffocation she suffers at the hands of her overbearing and controlling mother. I was so impressed with the authors ability to disperse Karuna’s sad story with warmth and humour taking the edge off from the complexities of this bizarre mother/daughter dynamic. I found so many humorous moments that I was simultaneously horrified and amused at the same time! I didn’t know whether I wanted to hug or slap her Mum. She was so over the top exasperating! I’m so elated I came across this gem of a book, a firm favourite discovery of the year.
Karuna finds herself pregnant at 16, upon this discovery her mum takes action in her unique and interesting style her controlling and overprotective nature goes into overdrive she decides to protect her daughter by keeping her confined, her way of showing love is by constantly criticising and keeping her locked up for “her own good” of course this only causes more tension and the animosity builds and builds, you feel every ounce of frustration and suffocation she suffers at the hands of her overbearing and controlling mother. I was so impressed with the authors ability to disperse Karuna’s sad story with warmth and humour taking the edge off from the complexities of this bizarre mother/daughter dynamic. I found so many humorous moments that I was simultaneously horrified and amused at the same time! I didn’t know whether I wanted to hug or slap her Mum. She was so over the top exasperating! I’m so elated I came across this gem of a book, a firm favourite discovery of the year.
September 22, 2021
Pung does a great job projecting and oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere and the dialogue felt very realistic. The downside is that it becomes almost unbearable to continue listening to the abusive coercive control of the relationship between this mother and daughter. It goes on and on never seeming to progress. I’m not sure ... perhaps it just needed to be a bit shorter. There is no light just shadow.
September 18, 2023
While this book triumphed via an easy, free-flowing writing style, it was at times uncomfortable to read. The book depicts a mixed raced family living in Australia. The mother is of Chinese origin while the father is a much older Australian. The mother maintains a beauty studio in the home where she transforms brides into perfection with her makeup expertise. The husband works on cars. They have nothing in common and constantly clash on parenting styles with their daughter Karuna. At around the age of 15, Karuna's father finally checks out of the marriage. Karuna and her mother's living situation changes drastically when they must move into a small apartment while the mother works two jobs to make ends meet.
I admired the mother's work ethic and survival instinct, but her personality was disastrous. I found her conduct to be so mentally abusive towards her daughter, and wasn't surprised at all that the husband left her. I found myself getting stressed out as I experienced the crazy ass interactions with her daughter. The main thrust of the book occurs when Karuna gets pregnant at sixteen and the aftermath of this life-altering development. From the beginning, the book reads as if Karuna is writing to her child about the whole situation, which was a clever mechanism. I found the book very interesting as I simultaneously recoiled at the mother's abusive behavior.
Thank you to the publisher HarperVia who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
I admired the mother's work ethic and survival instinct, but her personality was disastrous. I found her conduct to be so mentally abusive towards her daughter, and wasn't surprised at all that the husband left her. I found myself getting stressed out as I experienced the crazy ass interactions with her daughter. The main thrust of the book occurs when Karuna gets pregnant at sixteen and the aftermath of this life-altering development. From the beginning, the book reads as if Karuna is writing to her child about the whole situation, which was a clever mechanism. I found the book very interesting as I simultaneously recoiled at the mother's abusive behavior.
Thank you to the publisher HarperVia who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
June 27, 2021
This was really, really uncomfortable to read, so kudos to Pung for nailing the claustrophobic atmosphere and sense of being trapped associated with this story. Pung also writes teens really well - as always - and gets what it’s like to exist in that liminal space between child and adulthood. But, this book failed to address the extensive gaslighting and emotional abuse Karuna experiences in a meaningful way for me. This book feels about 50 pages too long, but also leaves the mother’s attempted redemption far too late, and left me with the unsettling message that abusing your child is ok as long as you love them deep down, which is not a message I can get on board with in any cultural context.
October 18, 2023
Karuna a rebellious teen girl ends up pregnant and her superstitious overbearing mother has plenty to say. Backstory…mother is Chinese who moved to Australia from the Philippines after agreeing to marry a man based on a picture and he wasn’t who she expected. After a few years they go their separate ways.
This book, and I’m sad to say, is very realistic on mother/daughter dynamics in different cultures. The writing is unique, where the whole book is written from Karuna to her daughter, recalling her memories and stories leading up to her arrival.
Overall sad and depressing no real light at the end of the tunnel but I have to appreciate the truth in the story. Thank you to NetGalley & HarperCollins Publishers for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book, and I’m sad to say, is very realistic on mother/daughter dynamics in different cultures. The writing is unique, where the whole book is written from Karuna to her daughter, recalling her memories and stories leading up to her arrival.
Overall sad and depressing no real light at the end of the tunnel but I have to appreciate the truth in the story. Thank you to NetGalley & HarperCollins Publishers for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 11, 2021
A powerful book of mothers and daughters.
Having loved Laurinda, I looked forward to this one and read as an ebook from my local library. Not always easy to read. Karuna's mother, Mar is a difficult woman. Coming from the Phillipines with Karuna's father to Australia was not an easy journey for her and they split when Karuna is 15 or so. In finding herself pregnant, living with Mar on the 14th floor of a housing commission flat, things go from bad to worse. Her Mar locks her in the flat for 100 days during her pregnancy and after to 'keep her safe.' Their relationship is fraught to say the least.
Karuna narrates the entire story to her future daughter. A powerful read well worth the time. Another gem from Alice Pung.
Having loved Laurinda, I looked forward to this one and read as an ebook from my local library. Not always easy to read. Karuna's mother, Mar is a difficult woman. Coming from the Phillipines with Karuna's father to Australia was not an easy journey for her and they split when Karuna is 15 or so. In finding herself pregnant, living with Mar on the 14th floor of a housing commission flat, things go from bad to worse. Her Mar locks her in the flat for 100 days during her pregnancy and after to 'keep her safe.' Their relationship is fraught to say the least.
Karuna narrates the entire story to her future daughter. A powerful read well worth the time. Another gem from Alice Pung.
September 16, 2021
Melbourne 1980s.
Karuna is the only daughter of an Australian man and a Philipino mother.
Her parents divorce when Karuna was fifteen, so the mother and daughter move into a crappy apartment.
Bored out of her mind, Karuna finds herself at the local community centre where she meets nineteen-year-old tutoring students. She enjoys his attention and the car rides. Things happen. Karuna becomes pregnant.
Written in the first person, as a letter from Karuna to her daughter, this novel looks at a fraught mother-daughter relationship. There's codependency, emotional blackmail and abuse, ignorance, innocence, loneliness and poverty thrown in the mix. The mother is a simple woman, who still hangs on her Philipino old wives' remedies and customs, which she imposes onto Karuna. One of those customs is that mothers and newly born babies should not leave their house for 100 days, which is what the title refers to.
The mother is overbearing in every way possible. But she's also a survivor, who provides for her daughter.
Some revelations towards the end of the novel allowed Karuna, and through her, the reader, to feel more benevolent towards the mother.
One Hundred Days was an interesting novel with an authentic voice.
Karuna is the only daughter of an Australian man and a Philipino mother.
Her parents divorce when Karuna was fifteen, so the mother and daughter move into a crappy apartment.
Bored out of her mind, Karuna finds herself at the local community centre where she meets nineteen-year-old tutoring students. She enjoys his attention and the car rides. Things happen. Karuna becomes pregnant.
Written in the first person, as a letter from Karuna to her daughter, this novel looks at a fraught mother-daughter relationship. There's codependency, emotional blackmail and abuse, ignorance, innocence, loneliness and poverty thrown in the mix. The mother is a simple woman, who still hangs on her Philipino old wives' remedies and customs, which she imposes onto Karuna. One of those customs is that mothers and newly born babies should not leave their house for 100 days, which is what the title refers to.
The mother is overbearing in every way possible. But she's also a survivor, who provides for her daughter.
Some revelations towards the end of the novel allowed Karuna, and through her, the reader, to feel more benevolent towards the mother.
One Hundred Days was an interesting novel with an authentic voice.
August 23, 2023
3 stars = Good and worthwhile but something held it back from being great.
Sometimes the beast and the prince are the same person...
I picked this one up because the synopsis hints at a difficult mother/daughter relationship and I typically enjoy books that include this topic. While that was definitely a theme, it is mostly a running narrative of a teenager that becomes pregnant and struggles to find herself and independence while simultaneously being in great need of her mother’s assistance.
I feel as though I have fallen in a hole and can’t get back out. People - teachers, friends, doctors - have peered at me from above the hole, but their arms are not long enough to haul me up. They wave and think they are helping but all they are doing is blocking out the light.
The book trudges along at a slower pace but the author has a talented writing style. The blurb on the back states this novel can feel tense and claustrophobic which is exactly how it made me feel, and I cannot honestly say I enjoyed that. I never considered DNF’ing and wanted to see how it ended for the family, but it is definitely an emotionally exhausting read.
Your Grand Mar and I - we have been like two puzzles that someone dropped on the floor. We didn’t know which bits belonged where. We were too frantic putting ourselves back together again that we just grabbed at pieces of each other. We were hasty, pressing our sharp corners down whether they fitted or not.
-------------------------------------------
First Sentence: Ever since your Grand Par left, your Grand Mar and I share the double bed.
Favorite Quote: I don’t go back searching for the Once that started this Upon a Time.
Sometimes the beast and the prince are the same person...
I picked this one up because the synopsis hints at a difficult mother/daughter relationship and I typically enjoy books that include this topic. While that was definitely a theme, it is mostly a running narrative of a teenager that becomes pregnant and struggles to find herself and independence while simultaneously being in great need of her mother’s assistance.
I feel as though I have fallen in a hole and can’t get back out. People - teachers, friends, doctors - have peered at me from above the hole, but their arms are not long enough to haul me up. They wave and think they are helping but all they are doing is blocking out the light.
The book trudges along at a slower pace but the author has a talented writing style. The blurb on the back states this novel can feel tense and claustrophobic which is exactly how it made me feel, and I cannot honestly say I enjoyed that. I never considered DNF’ing and wanted to see how it ended for the family, but it is definitely an emotionally exhausting read.
Your Grand Mar and I - we have been like two puzzles that someone dropped on the floor. We didn’t know which bits belonged where. We were too frantic putting ourselves back together again that we just grabbed at pieces of each other. We were hasty, pressing our sharp corners down whether they fitted or not.
-------------------------------------------
First Sentence: Ever since your Grand Par left, your Grand Mar and I share the double bed.
Favorite Quote: I don’t go back searching for the Once that started this Upon a Time.
April 24, 2024
This one didn’t work for me. I wanted to give it 3 stars, but I just really can’t think of anything that I liked.
Karuna gets pregnant at sixteen after telling a guy, for no reason, she is on the pill. She actually wants to get pregnant. She hides her pregnancy and then her mother finds out and loses it, then keeps her in the house for a while. (The premise made it sound like she was locked inside for 100 days, and that’s not like it exactly.)
The mother is supposed to be unlikable and the setting claustrophobic, but I honestly empathized a lot more with her than I did Karuna (she was still extreme). I just didn’t get anything Karuna did or thought, it just was a frustrating read. Karuna is whiny and nonsensical, she does nothing but complain and feel entitled. Also, Karuna keeps comparing EVERYTHING to the Labyrinth movie and I just don’t get why. I love Jareth too but I don’t compare everything in my life with him.
An example of what happens:
It’s a hot day. Karuna calls emergency services to tell her she’s locked and dying because of the heat.
Emergency services: Call your mother.
Karuna: NO YOU NEED TO SEND SOMEONE AAAAAAH.
Emergency services: Ok, we’ll have to send the police to open the door.
Karuna: NOOO, NOT THE POLICE *hangs up*
Girlie pop you called emergency services, who else is going to come? You think they’ll get Saint Peter to come down from heaven to open the door for you?
I don’t know, maybe I’m too old to get this, I just found Karuna immature and nonsensical. If this was a thread on Reddit’s r/AmITheAsshole, everyone would get the Asshole crown (except the grandpa).
Karuna gets pregnant at sixteen after telling a guy, for no reason, she is on the pill. She actually wants to get pregnant. She hides her pregnancy and then her mother finds out and loses it, then keeps her in the house for a while. (The premise made it sound like she was locked inside for 100 days, and that’s not like it exactly.)
The mother is supposed to be unlikable and the setting claustrophobic, but I honestly empathized a lot more with her than I did Karuna (she was still extreme). I just didn’t get anything Karuna did or thought, it just was a frustrating read. Karuna is whiny and nonsensical, she does nothing but complain and feel entitled. Also, Karuna keeps comparing EVERYTHING to the Labyrinth movie and I just don’t get why. I love Jareth too but I don’t compare everything in my life with him.
An example of what happens:
It’s a hot day. Karuna calls emergency services to tell her she’s locked and dying because of the heat.
Emergency services: Call your mother.
Karuna: NO YOU NEED TO SEND SOMEONE AAAAAAH.
Emergency services: Ok, we’ll have to send the police to open the door.
Karuna: NOOO, NOT THE POLICE *hangs up*
Girlie pop you called emergency services, who else is going to come? You think they’ll get Saint Peter to come down from heaven to open the door for you?
I don’t know, maybe I’m too old to get this, I just found Karuna immature and nonsensical. If this was a thread on Reddit’s r/AmITheAsshole, everyone would get the Asshole crown (except the grandpa).
February 2, 2025
Karuna Kelly was born to a Filipino mother and an Australian father. Her mother raised her as a tiny, light-skinned Asian princess, complete with earrings, full make-up, and hand-sewn clothing too old for her age. When she was 15, her father left and Karuna and mom had to move into a small, dingy apartment.
Since being on their own, Mom has become very needy and controlling, even insisting Karuna sleep with her in the double bed. Mom is superstitious about EVERYTHING, and paranoid!! She starts locking Karuna in the apartment when she goes to work each day, so is it any surprise Karuna rebels and (unfortunately) becomes pregnant?
When Mom suspects, and demands to see her stomach, she rants and raves, then starts doling out some very peculiar advice. Here’s a small sample:
There were times I considered DNF-ing the book, but only because I couldn’t stand this mother!! She was absolutely unbearable!! At one point, I wanted to throw my e-Reader across the room! But I’m glad I didn’t. It really was a satisfying read and, in the end, it made me so proud of Karuna.🤗
4 “They-have-their-own-thoughts” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✴️ As an aside, I'd like to NOTE that, despite the "jokey" tone of my review, it was NOT my intention to mock, or make fun of, those IRL with beliefs like this mother. This book is FICTION, and is meant to be humorous. In real life, there are those who may share the same or similar superstitions but, again, this is simply fiction, and the mother only voiced them in an attempt to control her daughter, IMO.✴️
Since being on their own, Mom has become very needy and controlling, even insisting Karuna sleep with her in the double bed. Mom is superstitious about EVERYTHING, and paranoid!! She starts locking Karuna in the apartment when she goes to work each day, so is it any surprise Karuna rebels and (unfortunately) becomes pregnant?
When Mom suspects, and demands to see her stomach, she rants and raves, then starts doling out some very peculiar advice. Here’s a small sample:
🔸“Drink lots of milk so the baby will have white skin. No coffee or chocolate unless you want the baby to be dark.”😏And then finally—and somewhat by accident—Karuna does something kind of extreme but, thankfully, it settles Mom down a bit, allowing Karuna a bit of independence. At least she’s not locking her up inside anymore!🙄
🔸“You shouldn’t have sharp objects like pens in the bed. The baby might be born with a cleft lip.”🤔
🔸“For goodness sake, don’t start crying now if you know what’s good for you. Childbirth weakens the liver, which is linked to the eyes. Stop it or you’ll go blind when you are older!”😆
🔸“No cold drinks!” she yells.... “These are the only liquids you need right now. Soups.” She also won’t let me eat bananas, coconuts, figs, rockmelons, watermelons. They are all “cold” fruits... and if I don’t follow her rules apparently I will have backaches, headaches and joint pains later in life. I can’t even drink water from the tap. (Later, mom gives her a bowl of boiled watermelon.)😝
🔸Now the baby’s getting sick: Your nostrils whistle like a myna bird. “Maybe she needs to see a doctor,” I say anxiously. “Nonsense.” Your Grand Mar lifts you up to her face. She puts her mouth over your nose and sucks. I am horrified. Then she spits into the kitchen sink. “All cleared up,” she says. “Now try feeding her.”🤢
There were times I considered DNF-ing the book, but only because I couldn’t stand this mother!! She was absolutely unbearable!! At one point, I wanted to throw my e-Reader across the room! But I’m glad I didn’t. It really was a satisfying read and, in the end, it made me so proud of Karuna.🤗
4 “They-have-their-own-thoughts” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✴️ As an aside, I'd like to NOTE that, despite the "jokey" tone of my review, it was NOT my intention to mock, or make fun of, those IRL with beliefs like this mother. This book is FICTION, and is meant to be humorous. In real life, there are those who may share the same or similar superstitions but, again, this is simply fiction, and the mother only voiced them in an attempt to control her daughter, IMO.✴️
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November 3, 2023The Amerie’s Book Club selection for the month of November is ONE HUNDRED DAYS by Alice Pung!
Follow @AmeriesBookClub on IG, and join me and Alice Pung on my IGLIVE (@Amerie) Nov. 29 9pm EST/6pm PST (Since Ms. Pung is in Australia, we'll be having our chat in the evening instead of the afternoon!). Bring your questions!
In ONE HUNDRED DAYS, Alice Pung delivers an epistolary novel that is full of anxiety and claustrophobia, and heaping with humor and poignancy. Sixteen-year-old Karuna’s pregnancy leads her through a journey of examination as she explores her relationship with herself, her mother, and her unborn child. In this page-turner, which is a long letter to her baby, Karuna explains how everything came to pass, including her mother’s determination to raise the baby as her own, with Karuna as the baby’s sister. With an immense love, Karuna recounts both caring and harrowing interactions with her parents as she wonders what kind of mother she will become. Can she be enough for her child? How does she manage her loving relationship with her mother when her mother is so set upon controlling her? These questions continue right through the story’s climax, during which Karuna and her mother’s dynamic is at its most stressed. Through laughter and tears, I came away loving both women, and full of hope for the future of their new family.
@AmeriesBookClub #AmeriesBookClub #ReadWithAmerie #AlicePung @harperviabooks #OneHundredDays #AlicePung
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ABOUT ALICE PUNG
Alice was born in Footscray, Victoria, a month after her parents Kuan and Kien arrived in Australia. Alice’s father, Kuan - a survivor of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime - named her after Lewis Carroll’s character because after surviving the Killing Fields, he thought Australia was a Wonderland.
Alice grew up in Footscray and Braybrook, and changed high schools five times - almost once every year! These experiences have shaped her as a writer because they taught her how to pay attention to the quiet children and young adults that others might overlook or miss.
Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem, is an Australian bestseller which won the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award and was shortlisted in the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards. It was published in the UK and USA in separate editions and has been translated into several languages including Italian, German and Indonesian.
Alice is a qualified lawyer and still works as a legal researcher in the area of minimum wages and pay equity. She lives with her husband Nick and three children at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, where she is the Artist in Residence.
In 2022 Alice was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her services to literature.
Follow @AmeriesBookClub on IG, and join me and Alice Pung on my IGLIVE (@Amerie) Nov. 29 9pm EST/6pm PST (Since Ms. Pung is in Australia, we'll be having our chat in the evening instead of the afternoon!). Bring your questions!
In ONE HUNDRED DAYS, Alice Pung delivers an epistolary novel that is full of anxiety and claustrophobia, and heaping with humor and poignancy. Sixteen-year-old Karuna’s pregnancy leads her through a journey of examination as she explores her relationship with herself, her mother, and her unborn child. In this page-turner, which is a long letter to her baby, Karuna explains how everything came to pass, including her mother’s determination to raise the baby as her own, with Karuna as the baby’s sister. With an immense love, Karuna recounts both caring and harrowing interactions with her parents as she wonders what kind of mother she will become. Can she be enough for her child? How does she manage her loving relationship with her mother when her mother is so set upon controlling her? These questions continue right through the story’s climax, during which Karuna and her mother’s dynamic is at its most stressed. Through laughter and tears, I came away loving both women, and full of hope for the future of their new family.
@AmeriesBookClub #AmeriesBookClub #ReadWithAmerie #AlicePung @harperviabooks #OneHundredDays #AlicePung
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ABOUT ALICE PUNG
Alice was born in Footscray, Victoria, a month after her parents Kuan and Kien arrived in Australia. Alice’s father, Kuan - a survivor of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime - named her after Lewis Carroll’s character because after surviving the Killing Fields, he thought Australia was a Wonderland.
Alice grew up in Footscray and Braybrook, and changed high schools five times - almost once every year! These experiences have shaped her as a writer because they taught her how to pay attention to the quiet children and young adults that others might overlook or miss.
Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem, is an Australian bestseller which won the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award and was shortlisted in the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards. It was published in the UK and USA in separate editions and has been translated into several languages including Italian, German and Indonesian.
Alice is a qualified lawyer and still works as a legal researcher in the area of minimum wages and pay equity. She lives with her husband Nick and three children at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, where she is the Artist in Residence.
In 2022 Alice was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her services to literature.
July 21, 2021
This one took me a little while to read, only because Alice did too good a job of imposing a sense-reading; conjuring a feeling of claustrophobia and struggle in her protagonist that absolutely read viscerally on the page.
From the blurb;
“In a heady whirlwind of independence, lust and defiance, sixteen-year-old Karuna falls pregnant. Not on purpose, but not entirely by accident, either. Incensed, Karuna’s mother, already over-protective, confines her to their fourteenth-storey housing-commission flat, to keep her safe from the outside world – and make sure she can’t get into any more trouble.”
This is something Alice keeps coming back to; thoroughly, beautifully. Trying to slowly loosen the ties that bind and tell a family saga from all sides - through the faultlines of that family. Mothers and daughters circle one another in this book, both on very steep learning-curves and each trying to hold onto their identities. It makes for sometimes quietly thrilling and heart-palpitating reading, before flinging you back to a place of paranoia and claustrophobia. It’s an uncomfortable and fascinating place to be as a reader; the tide of this story coming in and out, the waves of emotion crashing against you and Karuna. It just goes to show - Alice Pung is a master storyteller, shining light on the places others don’t talk about.
From the blurb;
“In a heady whirlwind of independence, lust and defiance, sixteen-year-old Karuna falls pregnant. Not on purpose, but not entirely by accident, either. Incensed, Karuna’s mother, already over-protective, confines her to their fourteenth-storey housing-commission flat, to keep her safe from the outside world – and make sure she can’t get into any more trouble.”
This is something Alice keeps coming back to; thoroughly, beautifully. Trying to slowly loosen the ties that bind and tell a family saga from all sides - through the faultlines of that family. Mothers and daughters circle one another in this book, both on very steep learning-curves and each trying to hold onto their identities. It makes for sometimes quietly thrilling and heart-palpitating reading, before flinging you back to a place of paranoia and claustrophobia. It’s an uncomfortable and fascinating place to be as a reader; the tide of this story coming in and out, the waves of emotion crashing against you and Karuna. It just goes to show - Alice Pung is a master storyteller, shining light on the places others don’t talk about.
May 29, 2021
I possibly should not have read this while confined to my home 22 hours per day (or maybe it made for the ideal reading of this book). Written as a kind of letter to her baby, 16-year-old Karuna tells the story of her emotionally abusive and coercive mother. What Pung does so well here is bring the reader along to SHOW why Karuna behaves and thinks the way she does and why her mother behaves and thinks the way she does. Within the framework of these characters and their lived experience it all makes perfect sense. But it makes for tough reading and Karuna being left locked inside their housing commission flat with a newborn baby in sweltering heat and a mother with outdated views about babies and the postpatum period pushed it a little too far for me and I would have loved this book to be 5–10k words shorter (but I could say that about most books). Pung’s intention was clearly to evoke claustrophobia and in that she was successful. Pung is very good at writing about teen girls and societal notions of beauty and demeanour and she has kept to this territory in her first work of adult fiction. Watching Karuna fight to be allowed to be the mother of her baby and not erased and switched to its sister is quite harrowing yet powerful.
May 17, 2021
A wonderful, hard story about mothers and daughters. I was really challenged by the character of Grand Mar, whose extreme controlling behaviour is excruciating to bear witness to. Her semi-redemptive qualities (which are mostly based on her being less shit than everyone else in Karuna’s life) were just not enough to make me sympathetic to her, even though I knew I was meant to be. I loved the way Pung writes about new motherhood. Through the lens of a drop-out teenager in the 80s, the experience of becoming a mother is stripped back and raw and beautiful.
Read
October 4, 2021The dynamic between mother and daughter made me extremely uncomfortable and I became rather anxious while reading. I could imagine reading this many years ago as a young woman and coming to the conclusion that abuse is acceptable if the abuser loves you.
I know books are not always written to be educational, but they do always send some message, and I feel the message in this one is potentially dangerous and harmful to some readers.
Would not recommend to anyone young, impressionable, or who hasn't developed an understanding of appropriate behaviour or relationships.
I know books are not always written to be educational, but they do always send some message, and I feel the message in this one is potentially dangerous and harmful to some readers.
Would not recommend to anyone young, impressionable, or who hasn't developed an understanding of appropriate behaviour or relationships.
June 13, 2021
I will read anything by Queen Alice.
Read
March 9, 2022I listened to this, read by Sun Park, who did it beautifully. It popped up on an Adelaide Writers' Week collection through Borrow Box (I've branched out in my library apps) and it has made me thankful all over again for the wonder that is the South Australian public libraries service.
Described in the blurb as 'a fractured fairytale exploring the fault lines between love and control' I found Alice Pung's narrative completely believable and was totally drawn into Karuna's world. The characters were not entirely likeable, but I found I still had sympathy for them all, and especially for Karuna as she attempted in her own way to carve out some sort of independence and forge a path into adulthood.
I would love to have seen Alice Pung talk about it at this year's Writers' Week but will have to be content with this listen and memories of seeing her talk previously.
Described in the blurb as 'a fractured fairytale exploring the fault lines between love and control' I found Alice Pung's narrative completely believable and was totally drawn into Karuna's world. The characters were not entirely likeable, but I found I still had sympathy for them all, and especially for Karuna as she attempted in her own way to carve out some sort of independence and forge a path into adulthood.
I would love to have seen Alice Pung talk about it at this year's Writers' Week but will have to be content with this listen and memories of seeing her talk previously.
February 7, 2025
I taught Alice Pung’s earlier novel Unpolished Gem to an HSC EALD class and twelve months ago I read “The Coconut Children” by Vivian Pham. I have an interest in the migrant experience genre.
Interestingly this book is written in second person with the main character, Karuna telling her baby the story of her pregnancy and the baby’s life in its first few months.
Alice has a subtle, fluent writing style. Her stories flow and bubble along like a small brook. There is the occasional scene where Pung captures some very Australian scenes. Her description of how men look at attractive schoolgirls, the two older blokes calling out to Karuna and her mother.
Karuna’s father typifies a middle aged working class Australian. Pung’s scene description, metaphors and similes sometimes cause pauses to be appreciated. She is a literary craftsman.
Karuna herself is a ½ ABC, (Australian Born Chinese) having a Chinese-Philippine mother and a stereotypical Australian father.
The ‘Grand Mar’ seems initially as a dominating Asian tiger mum but as the story evolves, and especially in the prologue the reader sees what has made her such a protective and dominating person.
I did struggle with the slowness of the story, and I felt that it was a feminine novel, undoubtedly more appreciated by a female audience. Nevertheless, I am glad I read it and I hope that Pung becomes part of the widening range of Australian women writers of quality.
Interestingly this book is written in second person with the main character, Karuna telling her baby the story of her pregnancy and the baby’s life in its first few months.
Alice has a subtle, fluent writing style. Her stories flow and bubble along like a small brook. There is the occasional scene where Pung captures some very Australian scenes. Her description of how men look at attractive schoolgirls, the two older blokes calling out to Karuna and her mother.
Karuna’s father typifies a middle aged working class Australian. Pung’s scene description, metaphors and similes sometimes cause pauses to be appreciated. She is a literary craftsman.
Karuna herself is a ½ ABC, (Australian Born Chinese) having a Chinese-Philippine mother and a stereotypical Australian father.
The ‘Grand Mar’ seems initially as a dominating Asian tiger mum but as the story evolves, and especially in the prologue the reader sees what has made her such a protective and dominating person.
I did struggle with the slowness of the story, and I felt that it was a feminine novel, undoubtedly more appreciated by a female audience. Nevertheless, I am glad I read it and I hope that Pung becomes part of the widening range of Australian women writers of quality.
November 13, 2021
One Hundred Days - Alice Pung
I don’t think I have ever read such an atmospheric and anxiety inducing book ever! Alice Pung does a fantastic job of setting the scene, getting under your skin and making you feel suffocated. It’s haunting!
One Hundred days explores some very strained relationships. I felt so angry and sad for Karuna and her dismal situation. Between her completely overbearing and controlling mother and her float-in-and-float-out-when-convenient-for-him father, Karuna and her baby were literally trapped in a nightmare.
Karuna’s mother (Grand Mar) is a jarring example of coercive control. The superstitions and unreasonable expectations she has of her daughter are hard to read about at times. Despite her behaviour coming from a place of hurt, it is still very disturbing. The dynamic of this mother-daughter relationship reminded me of Sisters by Daisy Johnson.
I can’t say anymore without spoilers but there was the most unexpected feeling of resolve at the end and it shocked me a little.
Overall this was a brilliant read as it was powerful enough to make me feel uncomfortable and that’s the sign of some great writing!
4/5 ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️
There are sensitive topics throughout that could be upsetting for some readers. Feel free to DM me if you need to ask any questions before reading yourself!
I don’t think I have ever read such an atmospheric and anxiety inducing book ever! Alice Pung does a fantastic job of setting the scene, getting under your skin and making you feel suffocated. It’s haunting!
One Hundred days explores some very strained relationships. I felt so angry and sad for Karuna and her dismal situation. Between her completely overbearing and controlling mother and her float-in-and-float-out-when-convenient-for-him father, Karuna and her baby were literally trapped in a nightmare.
Karuna’s mother (Grand Mar) is a jarring example of coercive control. The superstitions and unreasonable expectations she has of her daughter are hard to read about at times. Despite her behaviour coming from a place of hurt, it is still very disturbing. The dynamic of this mother-daughter relationship reminded me of Sisters by Daisy Johnson.
I can’t say anymore without spoilers but there was the most unexpected feeling of resolve at the end and it shocked me a little.
Overall this was a brilliant read as it was powerful enough to make me feel uncomfortable and that’s the sign of some great writing!
4/5 ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️
There are sensitive topics throughout that could be upsetting for some readers. Feel free to DM me if you need to ask any questions before reading yourself!
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March 31, 2024
Sixteen and pregnant, Karuna finds herself locked in her mother’s Melbourne apartment. Tensions are high and arguments ensue over who will raise the baby. In order to fill the endless hours, Karuna begins to write to her unborn child determined they know the truth. It’s a really engaging story and as Karuna narrates her dual-heritage upbringing we come to see why her mother is so overprotective.
September 20, 2021
"You are the song of yourself."
April 25, 2022
So much acute insight to ache over in this brilliant heartbreaker of a book about a controlling and superstitious migrant mother and her seemingly powerless daughter; who falls pregnant, at 16, to a boy with a lovely silver car.
At page 61: 'Every evening I'd tuck the book in the space between the wall and the cupboard. I suppose it didn't really matter if your Grand Mar saw the Whitman, because she'd just assume it was a schoolbook. But when you have been raised to cough up everything you have, you get pretty good at hiding things you don't want taken away.'
At page 121: 'I knew that she loved me, but I didn't think she liked me very much.'
At page 238: 'Yet I hope that she might realise, this second time around, that love is not all about control. She loves you as much as I love you, but you are our visitor from tomorrow and neither of us can claim you.... You are the song of yourself.'
Hoovered this up in a state of pained recognition.
At page 61: 'Every evening I'd tuck the book in the space between the wall and the cupboard. I suppose it didn't really matter if your Grand Mar saw the Whitman, because she'd just assume it was a schoolbook. But when you have been raised to cough up everything you have, you get pretty good at hiding things you don't want taken away.'
At page 121: 'I knew that she loved me, but I didn't think she liked me very much.'
At page 238: 'Yet I hope that she might realise, this second time around, that love is not all about control. She loves you as much as I love you, but you are our visitor from tomorrow and neither of us can claim you.... You are the song of yourself.'
Hoovered this up in a state of pained recognition.
May 23, 2021
Karuna is a sixteen year old, writing the story of her becoming a teenage mother under the eye of her domineering, maybe well-meaning, but certainly full of old ways and wives tales and superstitions from her home country, immigrant mother.
A tale of diaspora, with mixed parents, finding her own ways, her own path, and walking the trapeze line of Australian culture and her mother's heritage.
Grand Mar, as Karuna writes her, is a fascinating character, full of flaws, caustic barbs, and a story of her own.
The writing is so good, you feel claustrophobic with Karuna, when she is locked up in the apartment, before and after baby comes.
I read this with high anticipation, after seeing Maxine Beneba Clarke laud it with the prediction that it will win all the prizes next year. Alice Pung is certainly an automatic author purchase for me.
A tale of diaspora, with mixed parents, finding her own ways, her own path, and walking the trapeze line of Australian culture and her mother's heritage.
Grand Mar, as Karuna writes her, is a fascinating character, full of flaws, caustic barbs, and a story of her own.
The writing is so good, you feel claustrophobic with Karuna, when she is locked up in the apartment, before and after baby comes.
I read this with high anticipation, after seeing Maxine Beneba Clarke laud it with the prediction that it will win all the prizes next year. Alice Pung is certainly an automatic author purchase for me.
July 7, 2022
I learnt a lot of rather strange superstitions in this book. Whether they are true or not I’m not sure but I can imagine they can be. Karuna has a Pilipino mother and an Australian father. Her mother is very domineering and Karuna adores her father. Throughout the book you find her mother Grand Ma becoming more and more weird for want of a better word especially after her Grand Pa leaves as he can’t stand her mothers nagging any longer. Sadly Karuna finds out he’s not the saint she has thought he was when he comes to her celebration near the end of the book. Without going into too much detail in case you read this,, her mother is ‘stuck’ in the old ways and traditions which borders on abuse towards Karuna. She won’t let her out nor eat what she wants and makes very strange foods for her and bans other food supposedly for her own good. It’s not until near the end you find out why she does this as she did not have a very good life or childhood in the Philippines and really doesn’t know how to show affection towards her daughter when she needs her the most. It truly is a very sad situation. Her mother used to have her home salon but after Karuna’s ‘fall from grace’ she loses that and works two jobs just to try to keep their tiny apartment and look after Karuna during the time she really needs her. She’s very controlling though and goes about it in the only way she knows which damages their relationship until the 100 days after the birth of Karuna’s daughter. Such a fractured relationship between mother and daughter until that point when her Grand Pa (father) comes to the celebration bringing a much younger version of her mother with him and drinking too much … then she realises he’s not the wonderful father she’d put on a pedestal. By the end of the book you find mother and daughter trying harder to be a family and Grand Ma realising despite Karuna only bring 16 she has now become a woman and now has her own responsibilities. It just shows how you can ‘smother’ your daughter in the only way she knows to show how to care!
September 22, 2021
2.5⭐️ Has a YA feel, so likely not meant for someone as old as me; the writing style being just a little too simplistic. Mar is unbearable, and I wanted to get out of Karuna’s world as much as she did, which is laudable, as is Pung’s ability to evoke the emotion and attachment between mother and newborn. The ending is ethically perplexing and its failure to question or explore Karuna’s stance, even briefly, was disappointing.
June 8, 2021
It is impossible to read this highly emotional novel and not be disturbed by the emotional abuse suffered by 16 year old Karuna, now pregnant and literally locked in her housing commission flat by her over-protective, superstitious, and fearful mother. To the teenager, her mother's South Asian mindset, her "medieval world, with its stone walls", allowed no bridge for Karuna into the Aussie world around her, not into its culture or into its protection from the fear and anger that consumed her mother. The first-person narrative, written as a monologue between Karuna and her unborn child, connected the reader almost immediately to the teenager struggling for some independence, who "knew that [her mother] loved [her], but...didn't think she liked [her] very much."
I desperately wanted to understand what was behind the mother's fear and need to control every aspect of her daughter's life. It saddened me to hear the mother say to Karuna that "I don't know what sins I've committed to be so cursed. You've cursed my life." But, unfortunately, Pung left that significant psychological profile until the very last pages of the novel. I was disappointed overall in the lack of depth in the author's characterisations and, thus, viewed the novel as perhaps more of a Young Adult text than the literary and analytical narrative I expected from an adult novel.
Pung focused on the conflict between migrant parents and their children, the racial and cultural discrimination that still exists within our supposedly multicultural society, and the lines that distinguish love from control. However, I found the characterisations stereotyped, which diminished their impact overall by missing an opportunity to delve more into the complexities of her characters.
I desperately wanted to understand what was behind the mother's fear and need to control every aspect of her daughter's life. It saddened me to hear the mother say to Karuna that "I don't know what sins I've committed to be so cursed. You've cursed my life." But, unfortunately, Pung left that significant psychological profile until the very last pages of the novel. I was disappointed overall in the lack of depth in the author's characterisations and, thus, viewed the novel as perhaps more of a Young Adult text than the literary and analytical narrative I expected from an adult novel.
Pung focused on the conflict between migrant parents and their children, the racial and cultural discrimination that still exists within our supposedly multicultural society, and the lines that distinguish love from control. However, I found the characterisations stereotyped, which diminished their impact overall by missing an opportunity to delve more into the complexities of her characters.
September 14, 2021
The title ‘One Hundred Days’ refers to the amount of time that Karuna, a pregnant 16-year-old, is confined to her housing-commission apartment in the height of an Australian summer by her over-protective mother. It is a deeply thought-provoking story that explores teenage pregnancy and the distorted way that the love of a mother can manifest itself in her relationship with her daughter, particularly within the harsh disciplines of Asian culture. I thought the second person perspective, as Karuna writes in the form of a letter to her unborn child, was unique and rightfully youthful. It is difficult to process and heartbreaking when you’re hit with glimpses of Karuna’s innocence despite her momentous circumstance, but also when Pung challenges you to understand the generational and cultural impacts that are the root of her mothers controlling behaviour. I would recommend the physical copy over the audiobook if you have the option, as the narration was over-articulated.
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Content warning: emotional abuse
Review originally posted via Instagram @twogirlsonebookshelf
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Content warning: emotional abuse
Review originally posted via Instagram @twogirlsonebookshelf
June 4, 2021
I’m a fan of Alice Pung’s writing. This short novel shows her ability to write clearly and craft a good tale. Set in 1980s Melbourne, this is a very intense portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship between 16 yo Karuna and her Chinese Phillipino mother.
It’s received a lot of praise for its focus on teenage hood, and on different cultural practices between generations. I hope it does well.
But….I think I’m accepting of other cultures but this novel showed me I’m not. I absolutely reject what I think of as superstition. To me, the relationship was not a loving one. I found it a compelling but very uncomfortable reading experience.
It’s received a lot of praise for its focus on teenage hood, and on different cultural practices between generations. I hope it does well.
But….I think I’m accepting of other cultures but this novel showed me I’m not. I absolutely reject what I think of as superstition. To me, the relationship was not a loving one. I found it a compelling but very uncomfortable reading experience.
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