Shanghai Girls

I happened upon Lisa See's books when I was searching for historical fiction that was well liked. She had very good reviews, and I was not at all disappointed by her books. The more interesting thing is that she drew me into her books when I hadn't read much Chinese historical fiction at all, and didn't know much about it. I completely recommend all of her books, but this review is on her newest novel, Shanghai Girls.

It starts in Shanghai, thus the name, and it follows the lives of two sisters. Like so many stories, it begins tranquil enough, with a snapshot view of how their lives currently are. Then conflict arises when they discover that their father is now broke, and they have been sold as wives, and must travel to California.

At the same time, war breaks out in Shanghai, and even though they were planning on avoiding it, they end up fleeing to California after all. See draws you into the story with vivid without excessive gore of these war scenes.

Once they make to California, they have to wait on Angel Island for an extended period of time. I found this part of the book fascinating. I, like so many others, have heard extensively about Ellis Island on the East coast, and everything that the immigrants had to go through to get there, but I had never before heard of Angel Island, which was apparently the equivalent on the West Coast. You experience with these sisters how much immigrants had to go through before they were allowed into the United States, and it helped me appreciate my immigrant ancestors who went through it as well.

Without ever getting boring or dull, you watch as they become part of the Chinatown community, and the relationships that they have with each other, and with their arranged marriage husbands. One of the sisters becomes involved in the movies, while the other focuses on running businesses in the city.

The hours literally flew by as I read this book (on an airplane), I was so wrapped up in the story. There are twists and turns, and unexpected surprises throughout the book that I don't want to ruin for you, but I know you will enjoy. My biggest disappointment in the book is where it ended the story, but I can hope that Lisa See decides to write a sequel, continuing the story.

Out of 5* possible-
***** Overall
***** Hooking me into the story
***** Desire for a sequel
*** How far removed from this world- historical fiction always seems to suffer here.