Shadow Child is a haunting tale of two sisters and their mother. From internment camps, lush Hawaii, the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the streets of NYC, this is a story of family and finding one's own identity.

A set of Japanese twins are the focus of the book and a narrative on the side centers around a young Japanese woman who upon marrying is whisked away and is having to live a life she never pictured far away from what she knew.

I loved the historical storyline so much. Lillie is an orphaned Japanese child who is adopted and raised by a white couple. She ends up marrying a Japanese man and is quickly ingrained in his family who don't even speak English. The few quick chapters that I read of Lillie and Donald were just so interesting. I was so intrigued by her wonderment of how she defined herself and where she felt she belonged. I could see her struggle to fit in even though she looked the part, but wasn't raised with the history of the Japanese culture. I wanted so much more of their story in this book.

The twin storyline was just ok for me. There were a few parts where I was into the storyline and wanted to find out what would happen to each girl and then there were chapters of their story where I was plain confused and couldn't figure out where this all fit in into the bigger picture. I wish I had liked this one more.

After finishing the book, I went and read a few reviews just to see if my thoughts aligned with anyone else and it was so interesting to read that readers either really loved the historical storyline and wanted more of that like me or loved the twin storyline and wanted just that. I agree with most that the storylines didn't seem to exist together well and that a reader would enjoy one or the other. I absolutely wanted more of one and could have read a full book with just Lillie and Donald.

Have you ever read a book that you know is beautifully written, has everything going for it, and is right for so many people, but just not you? This book fit that profile for me. Told in alternating periods of time, but connecting the family members together by a painful past, Shadow Child would be the perfect book for fans of historical fiction. The stories of the Japanese internment camps were difficult to read. The fact that they stuck so closely to accurate recollections of historical details made it even harder to read. The writing in this book is beautiful, and my rating has nothing to do with my own issues in trying to get through it. I have separated my own inadequacies from the true beauty of this novel. It was not a page-turner, and I feel times in my own personal life made it even more difficult to read. Perhaps those familiar with the story Unbroken might breeze through this novel, but it definitely was not an easy, breezy read for me personally.

I included this title in my weekly roundup this week and will also be sending in feed back directly to the publisher concerning this title

(link is live May 8)
This novel is not a story that you can put down and expect to come back to a few days later. There are so many threads of the story of two generations of women that weave in and out throughout the entire novel that you need to be on your toes to keep up otherwise you're not going to get it. This is a haunting novel that speaks of traumatic events as it skims the surface of insanity. Lost children, nuclear bombs, tidal waves and jealous friendships are just a slip within the novel.



The novel is difficult to put into a tiny box, hence the long synopsis. The twins' mother is a survivor on all levels and yet her girls know very little about her. It turns out they don't even know her real name though clues are given away as bedtime stories. Growing up in Hawaii sounds like it would be ideal but tragedy makes one twin feel forced to get away as far as possible as she is a loner. The story opens up to what you think is going to be a crime solving novel but twists and turns through moments in time of through World War II and back again make you sometimes wonder whose narrative belongs to who. There is a bit of a psychological element here as well especially when you never know if the mother is here or there, and the author purposely trips up the narrative of the twins to show how closely they are connected.



I really enjoyed the story itself and how it kept me guessing. There are events that are slowly unraveling in the book that made me think that's not how I would have done it and the tone was overall depressing especially when it ends a bit abruptly once all the threads are lined up in a neat row for us to see. I would have liked there to be a redeeming note to end on, but we just have to hope that there actually was one when the pages ended.