Play Book Tag discussion

3.5 stars rounded up.

Lemmie is a promising, very young author so I am rounding this up rather than down. I want to read more by her in the future.

The excellent--character development overall was very well done--each was thought through well, including the complex ones. Also, she kept most of her characters age 30 and younger, which in this instance was a plus for a first time, 20 something author. This is what I loved best about Lemmie's writing and raised it above the things I thought weren't as good. Also, the first part of the book was so good I thought it might get 5 stars, which I seldom give.

The good--she emphasized the shame of being born a "bastard" as much as the racism, which is very authentic. Having Nori kept hidden when she was kept alive was believable as well. I liked the way her relationship with her half-brother developed although one of the things is in my not-good section. Also, her friend before Alice, and a few things there.

Another good thing is that not everything was predictable, so even though this is a dark novel where many bad things happen to Nori, not everything bad does.

The horrible attempts to lighten Nori's skin are, sadly, believable although extreme.

The so-so--Japanese culture and the history. Since there is no way you'd find a king sized bed in Japan at this time (queen and king sized beds only began to make an impact on the western bed market in the 1950s) I paid heed to some of the other things in the book. Some of it is fine, but not all of it. I am not sure who Lemmie consulted, but it would have been better to have it checked with someone who lived in Japan either during this time or not long after it.

The conflict in older and modern clothing styles was realistic, but having a neglected child suddenly become very physically demonstrative with her brother and him not teaching her otherwise was unrealistic since he would have been raised to not be like that. Obviously there are physically demonstrative Japanese people IRL, but he didn't grow up with that, either and it would have made him more uncomfortable. Also, a few times it made me a bit uncomfortable for a sister of that age.

I am not sure how accurate Lemmie was with Japanese terms, and since I know some of the other things weren't totally correct I checked a few reviews by readers who know Japanese, and she wasn't, but I only.

The not good -- Lemmie read many books on Japanese history, but only focuses on the problems of Nori's hair and darker skin (but those were very authentic!) I'd have loved to have seen another mixed race child where Nori goes after leaving her grandmother's house to really show how horrible it was for all mixed race children no matter how dark or light their skin was--I have known half-Japanese people of that generation and also mine who left there as soon as they were old enough due to overt racism (as overt as it gets in Japan), although in the 21st century things have improved (but it is still more racist than most westerner's realize.)

Yes, things have improved in Japan in the 21st century quite a bit, but because it is such a polite country it is harder for visitors to assess this, particularly since the Japanese government still only recognizes two kinds of people, Japanese and not-Japanese.

The Bad -- overused things like lip biting--so many times in this book. This book gradually veered to the melodramatic as it moved along. Also (view spoiler)[the abrupt ending wasn't believable. A half-Japanese woman wouldn't ever get respect the same way her Japanese grandmother had. It was exceedingly difficult for me to believe she would give up love and the first happiness she ever had to do this impossible task. What I would have believed was if she agreed but then sold things off once her grandmother died and married the man she loved. (hide spoiler)]