I had high hopes for this story, but I unfortunately did not enjoy it. Specifically, I did not like the writing style in this novel.

Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but as the cover makes clear that isn't often the case. Two families entwined in terrible ways that cause terrible events. Right and wrong so obscured by race, class, and culture that there can be no meeting in the middle. A powerful story that happened in the past and reverberates into the future. Highly recommended.

Phenomenal.

You know how a book can find you at the exact right moment? This is that book. It originally published last year, but it could not be more relevant than it is today. This story is told from two perspectives: a Korean Family (via Grace's perspective) and a Black Family (via Shawn's perspective). Given the title and the summary, I was wondering if there would be a nod to Romeo & Juliet, but I'm happy that the author (who is fantastic) took it in a different direction completely.

The prologue is slightly confusing, only in that at the beginning of any book you are trying to find your place in time and begin to figure out how characters fit together. I didn't quite understand the consequence, but it later made absolute sense how the prologue fit. (This is no way was a detriment to the book (see my 5 stars), but an observation I want to make regardless. I recommend after you read for a while, that you go back and re-read the prologue. It makes a lot more sense.)

Grace and Shawn are very different and have lived very different lives. Not to keep repeating myself, but I think Ms. Cha's use of telling this story from the perspective of both characters and their family was a brilliant way to present both sides of an event that reverberated for decades. I thought writing a book in the reflection of LA in the 1990s was particularly interesting to see now as an adult. (It was my 9th birthday when Rodney King was recorded being beaten by police), so I saw it on the Nightly News with my parents, but had no understanding of what I was watching. My parents sadly didn't explain it either (that I recall). They probably felt the information was something I didn't need to know about at 9, but I think we are all learning that those conversations are very much needed.)

I'm still working on how I feel about the ending, but that in no way takes away from the experience that is reading this book. This book is a MUST read. It does exactly what every GREAT story does - puts you in a situation/time/place that is different from your own so you can learn and observe without being there. This book is another gift to literature as to provide teaching moments for us all. We all can do better to lift each other up and help work together to fix our country.

Thank you to Netgalley, Ecco Books and the Buffalo Library for providing my copy. Steph Cha - you have a big fan in me.

Review Date: 08/05/2020
Publication Date: 10/15/19

This fast-paced novel takes place in greater Los Angeles 1991 and 2019, revolving around two families tied together by violence and injustice: the Black Halloway/Matthews family, and the Korean Park family. This novel is timely, and is also loosely based off of the 1991 murder of Latasha Harlins in south LA. Cha recommends Brenda E Stevenson's book on that case for further reading.

In this novel Cha touches on racism, injustice, the police and courts, and also family, expectations, dreams, parenting, fear, and love. She also discusses gangs, the prison system, the expansion of Palmdale as a distant bedroom community for LA (with affordable housing and limited gangs), different neighborhoods, and protests.

I found this book to be very well-done and readable.

This book is a heartbreaking and sensitive work about race and class, incarceration and murder, and police and protests that could not be more timely. It is every bit as excellent as you’ve heard.

I do not want to say too much about the plot. I knew a little bit going in and was still surprised at many of the turns - but wish I didn’t know the initial setup.

This book does a great service to the current (and long-standing) racial and police strife by depicting so many of its characters in such a heartfelt way that it is hard to imagine any reader could do anything but love them, especially Shawn. This author puts words and heart and faces to many of the issues confronting us now in the Black Lives Matter movement. It is very hard to imagine any reader not coming away from this book with a greater understanding and feeling for the movement. If the book feels a bit slow at the beginning, it’s because you’re getting the time to know and feel deeply for all the characters.

Ans beyond the important themes that everyone should read, this book is really about two families and the love they have for their own (coupled with pride and misunderstanding of “others.”) It is incredibly moving on that level alone and made me cry. (I’m not a crier.)

You know this book is going to be devastating from the very beginning but the many ways in which it devastates the reader are surprising. And smart. At first I was unsure of how I felt about the ending, but after sitting with it for awhile, I realized it was perfect.

I hope many people will read this beautiful book. It’s a great example of literature that can do good and bring understanding - reading it is an incredibly intense and moving experience and your heart will bleed for some of these characters. I predict an Edgar award for this book. Read it.

Thanks to Harper Collins, NetGalley and Steph Cha for the ARC of this, one of my favorite books of the year.

This is highly rated and has so many reviews already, I cannot add anything more that would be helpful. But I'll recommend it to literary fiction fans.

I really appreciate the review copy!!

A fierce and compelling novel, springing from a powerful premise and peopled by richly crafted characters. YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY confirms this author's mastery of characterization, as he delivers a read simmering with tension and threaded with haunting themes of race, crime, and betrayal.

An amazing book. Starting in the time of Rodney King, we see how events that happened then impact now. 2 families. One Black, one Korean. The murder of a young black girl by a Korean shopkeeper.

Shawn Matthews has got his life back together after being in a gang and spending time in prison. Grace Park has a sheltered background growing up in Koreatown. When violence shatters Grace's life, she learns of her families background and how her family is tied forever into the family of Shawn Matthews. When LA is on the brink of even more violence we see these 2 characters and others cope and learn.

Such a timely book, extremely well written.

Thank you to Harper Collins Publishers and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available 28th July 2020 in paperback.

What a timely, haunting piece! I remember learning about Korean store-owner Soon Ja Du and the Black schoolchild she murdered, Latasha Harlins. I remember the divisive discussions it sparked among my Asian American classmates, the sense of unease as we all sought to distance ourselves from the racism that is present in our community.

Cha expands the narrative forward to consider their future offspring. In an almost Shakespearean drama, the characters in "Your House Will Pay" re-enact the events of that fateful day. The seeds of mistrust, doubt and racism are planted unknowingly in the minds of Grace and Miriam Park, daughters of Yvonne Park who murdered a young Black teenager, Ava. Now, as Yvonne is the subject of a targeted shooting, the daughters must come together and grapple with these poisonous trees in their past. Along the way, we see cycles of intergenerational trauma and irreparable damage caused by the system of US policing and incarceration in Korean American and Black communities.

"Your House Will Pay" is not an easy story to sit through, just like reckoning with your own racist history is not easy to sit through. Cha's unremitting yet gentle exploration of the events, her ability to show both the pain felt by Ava's family and the Parks, shows us a way forward in these tumultuous, racially charged times. Ultimately, we are all victims of a racist statehood and the only way to move forward is to dismantle it within ourselves, our communities and, eventually, our society.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story of two families connected by one horrific and racially unjust event that begins in the 90s but unfortunately mirrors a lot of the racial injustices we see today. Cha does a brilliant job of mixing the historical with the fictional to create a true page-turner. My only qualms would be that sometimes I think she portrayed the woman murderer of the story in too positive of a light for the horrific act she committed. All in all, I could not put it down and was very appreciative of the ways it brought to light the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement.

This books offers no easy answers to difficult questions about race, violence, and justice. The characters are complex and interesting and the author does a remarkable job of making you feel for every single person in the book. I like how she humanizes the struggle so many are going through.

This book received raving reviews and I was excited to be able to read this.

Ava was killed. Her death broke two families apart. Told in two different timelines, 1991 and 2019, and the story went back and forth. And this was based on a 1991 incident in which a 15-year-old black girl was killed by a Korean shop owner.

I must say, this was a bold, and an ambitious effort by the author. It's rare to come across books that give two different races their voices in one single story. I appreciated the message the author wanted to get across about racism and how it causes hatred and revenge. We get both sides of the story from both families who were victimized in very different ways. This cycle of injustice won't ever end if racism continued. This is a timely, important yet tragic story.

There were some great conversations that I thought was the strength of this book. They were succinct, authentic and fueled the story more than its characters. I was hoping for a stronger connection to the characters, though. The caricature was there, and that was about it. I understood their frustration, anger, sadness, confusion, but I just didn't feel it. There was something about the flow/plot of the story too, which I couldn't put a finger on. There were some parts that I find were unnecessary, like Ava's story was a little repetitive, and it slowed down the story. I skipped some parts. And why introduce a new character like Quant, into the story towards the end??

Overall, a bold attempt, definitely an important story. I've read quite a number of novels recently which explored similar themes, and had really high hopes on this one. Maybe this wasn't for me like it was for many others.

Thank you Netgalley and Ecco for the opportunity to read and review this. All opinions are mine.