My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reading a book is often for me learning new things- perspectives, cultures, etc. This book pretty much blew my puny American mind by having a Chinese immigrant family live in the Netherlands. It really stretched my horizons, even though people are people no matter where they live. In this story, there are issues of parenting and intentions, as well as expectations and and how that effects the love we show each other. I think one of the saddest things in this book was how no one seemed to truly communicate, and how that not only created misconceptions, but also broke spirits, particularly of Sylvie Lee. This story also makes me wonder how much we truly depend on unconditional love- either from parents, siblings, friends, etc. and how it impacts our self-worth. Despite all these rhetorical, philosophical thoughts though, is a good mystery of what really did happen to Sylvie Lee, so this is a worthy 4 star.