Believing is a type of magic. It can
make something true.
Rating: 5 stars
After Leigh's mom dies, Leigh receives frequent visits from a beautiful red bird that gives her artifacts and clues from her past. Leigh can only come to one conclusion: this bird is her mother. On instructions from the bird, Leigh sets off on a journey to Taiwan, her mother's home country, to learn about her family and herself. All the while, she is thrown into the memories of all the people she loves, and her own memories as well.
This was a very effective mix of contemporary and magical realism, especially if you (like me) highly prefer fantasy over contemporary reads. I thought the supernatural elements, whether or not you think them to only be within Leigh's imagination, supported the main plot and kept the story interesting. There was something so raw, so lyrical, and so beautiful about the way Leigh's story was told. It wasn't over the top, but it had just enough emotion to make the reader reflect on their own life and relationships.
Memory is a mean thing, slicing at you from the harshest angles, dipping your consciousness into the wrong colors again and again.
Seriously who could come up with a line like that? It's amazing. The best part of this book, hands down, were the Smoke and Memories sections, and Leigh's own memories which are dispersed throughout the main plot. This is how you make a story: you layer in multiple perspectives and multiple timelines to create one moving-forward plot. I wouldn't change a thing about it. Something also must be said for Leigh's development - as a character, and in her relationships. The parent-child relationship in this book is so frustrating for the first 90%... and then it's fixed and that's great. But it's these frustrating realities that make the book believable and relatable and raw.
This was an excellent book; I will definitely be reading more from Emily X.R. Pan.
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