This is a very well written account of the immigration experience and what it’s like to live in the shadows. The author tells her story with grace, humor, and many memorable scenes. Overall I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about this author’s experience. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this drc available through netgalley.

This was a complimentary copy from the publisher through NetGalley, about a Chinese immigrant family living in New York illegally. Qian writes of her struggles acclimating in school and living in poverty. I struggled to get through the book, not connecting with her writing. It felt choppy. The focus remained on her childhood up to high school and then hardly anything is said about her adult life, which seemed an odd choice.
2 stars from me means I thought "it was OK.".

An all too familiar story about professionals who come to the US and as they are undocumented, have a hard life during menial work as undocumented residents. I felt like I have read a lot of very similar books recently but this one is well written and of course, each family has it's own story that is worth reading.

Wang has crafted an engaging memoir of living as an undocumented child in New York City. Her father had traveled to America first with his wife and child arriving later on a visitor visa. They never left and lived in fear of deportation. It was heartbreaking to read of the manual sweatshop labor her mother had to do after having been a published professor in China. Qian started school without speaking English and suffered childhood forms of discrimination. Life was hard for this family.

This is a well written memoir highlighting the experiences of those coming to America for a better life. Qian's father, while a child, had seen tragedy at the hands of Communists. America was to be a land of opportunity yet their being undocumented limited their options for employment. Qian's experiences are heartbreaking.

Her story pretty much ends at sixth grade. I would have liked to know more about how she came to go through the long process of citizenship. While her memoir gives us a good feeling of the experience of being undocumented, it failed to help explain how she made her way to success in the legal world. Perhaps a sequel is needed.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

This memoir is more than just a memoir. I’m trying so hard to put into words how impactful this story is, which is why I’m recommending this to be required reading.

But before you continue reading, please know this was written on her notes app! She wrote while commuting and I’m that much more impressed right now.

Wang and her parents immigrate to America in hopes of a better life. But as we know, America and our immigration process is nothing short of easy. Because of this, her educated parents are unable to provide for the family, pushing them into poverty along with needing to hide as undocumented citizens.

I must say, this is incredible how much she is able to remember as a child. Each detail and story is so vivid whether it’s her mom’s illness or racist remarks at school, everything she writes paints such a vivid picture (whether I wanted to see it or not) in my mind.

I couldn’t imagine hiding in plain sight all while being told by her parents to not talk to anyone and to keep her head down because it was very understood that with one mishap, their time in America could be over. This perspective mixed with the honesty of her story makes Wang’s story a must read. I know I already said it once, but I’m saying it again.

This book is a reminder of what America claims to be, what it actually is, and partially, what it could be.

A big, big thank you to Double Day and Netgalley for the ARC.

Content warnings: animal cruelty, racism, abuse, xenophobia, abortion, bullying, body shaming

Qian Julie Wang's memoir is at once touching and sobering. To see where she came from and where she is now is truly amazing. The author has a wonderful writing style and I can't wait to read more by her.

A timely, poignant, and heartbreaking memoir. It’s a unique and yet universal immigrant story that is a must read in order to understand the struggles and sacrifices immigrants make for their lives and their children.

READ THIS BOOK. This is so wonderful. Qian comes to America when she is seven years old. In China, both of her parents are professors. Her father in particular had to survive some particularly harsh circumstances under the communist regime, but in America, they slave at sweatshops, their bodies contorted in painful configurations for hours on end doing menial tasks, sometimes in cold so bitter their hands turn purple. There is never enough to eat, and what food they do have is full of sodium and lacks nutrition.

Qian is an amazingly gifted writer. At times she tells this story with a journalistic distance of merely reporting what happened when it should be an opinion piece full of anger at all the inequities and horrors her family survived. I personally was furious with the white male teacher who thought there was no way Qian could possibly write such elegant, error-free essays and assumed she cheated. When she gets into a junior high for gifted students, he essentially tells her that she shouldn’t get big dreams that can’t possibly come true.

At other times this reads as lyrically as a fictional novel, or maybe I just wanted it to be fictional because their mistreatment, lack of medical care, and awful living conditions are too harsh for me to want to believe many undocumented immigrants have to survive this way.

This is such a good book. Highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this memoir.

This is a gorgeous memoir depicting the life of a child and her family moving from their native home of China to America in search of the dream, the beautiful country.

Qian beautifully narrates and writes about the hardships she and her parents endured while trying to make a way for themselves in America. From sweatshops to long ingrained fears of being caught and deported, this is more than a story about immigration. This is about perseverance and love. Strength and selflessness.

Everything about this book is inspiring and just beautiful. I would have loved for there to be more about Qian's college years and her drive to go to law school, getting in, then landing a job with a top firm which is briefly mentioned towards the end but I still enjoyed hearing about her childhood. Her feistiness and the fire that burned within her. Highly recommend.

At seven years old, Qian landed in 1994 New York City with her parents. Undocumented immigrants from China, the three struggle to find their way in their new home, living in constant poverty and fear of being found and deported.

Qian and her family are repeatedly dismissed and brushed aside as ‘less than’ as they strive for their piece of the ‘American Dream.’ Through the struggles and the shifts in family dynamics as their once close knit relationship suffers under the pressure - Qian finds joy in the silver linings, and comfort in books.

Wang has an incredible way with words. I loved the pictures she painted from her point of view as a young girl in a new world, as well as the clarity that came with her reminiscence.

Thank you Doubleday and NetGalley for my gifted copy!

This was a wonderful memoir about undocumented immigrants and what this family went through. I am sure their story is similar yet different to others who have gone through this. It was eye-opening, hard to read, and yet the author was about to find humor at times. I think anyone's memoir is special because it is their story and they felt like people needed to know what they went through. I am grateful people write memoirs such as this to help others understand the struggles and hardships of immigration.

I received a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wang's memoir is an eye-opening look into the sacrifices, struggle, and fear that her family endured as illegal immigrants from China. It was refreshing to read a personal account from a member of a minority group that typically gets less attention in our country when topics surrounding immigration are discussed (as so much of the focus is aimed at Latinx immigration policies). The humiliations and casual racism Wang's family endured in nearly all facets of society, from school to work, is astonishing.

While this is an important work in the canon of memoirs focusing on illegal immigration, I didn't enjoy this memoir as much as I have others. Wang's lens feels narrow and limited. She briefly depicts her life in China as a young child, but the main focus of the memoir is a period of about five years (probably less) during her childhood in New York City. The perspective rarely shifts from that of a child's and I found myself wanting the adult introspection and analysis that could have been mined. I wished she had shared any discussions she might have had later in life with either of her parents about this period of time. This adult perspective - hers or her parents' - is sorely lacking and left me wanting more.

Beautiful Country is a technically well-written memoir, and while it lacks a full scope, it still sheds light on an experience that many Americans are ignorant of.

This one has been a hard one to review. It took me way too long to read, partly because I am moving and partly because the book wasn't calling me to pick it up. I have read several immigrant memoirs, but this was one of the first that I've read from a Chinese perspective. I feel there were a lot of holes in the book. It only really details her life from 7 to 12 years of age and glosses over her later years as a teen and young adult. I rate it 3 stars on Goodreads, but really think it is more 2.5 stars and now that I think of it, I wonder if 2 stars would be more realistic.

Beautifully written, heartbreaking yet illuminating. It's amazing what humans go through and come out the other side better for it.

3.5 stars.
Immigration and illegal immigrants is a hot topic right now. No matter where you fall on the spectrum of beliefs with this subject, one thing I think we can all agree on is that no child should starve or be scared for their life on a daily basis. This point is something that is painfully highlighted in this book. Qian Julie Wang’s parents came to America looking for a better life. Her parents were educated, held high profile professional jobs in China and were even published authors. Yet here they were forced to live the “undocumented” life and worked for pennies in sweatshops. They led a life of poverty, starvation, humiliation, exploitation and trauma. This book pulls back the curtains to give you a glimpse of the horror her family faced just to survive.

It took a lot of courage to write this book. Even though now she is legal, there is still that scared little girl hiding in the shadows who is terrified of being deported. But also, Wang is very open and honest about the good, bad and ugly parts of her and her life. As a mother, my heart broke every time her stomach rumbled with hunger, every time she blamed herself for her parent’s situation, every time she was made fun of for not speaking English correctly, every time she feared her mother or father might not come home, every time she feared she might not come home. This was her life at an age when she should have Barbie dolls and ballet lessons and play dates with her girl friends at the playground.

My criticism of the book is that it really stops with her at 6th grade and jumps to her being an adult. There’s a lot of story there I think would have been fascinating to read and learn. Also, while heartbreaking, at times in the book I didn’t connect emotionally with her the way I feel I should have. Either way, this book made me reflect on the life I’ve had and other sides of the immigration debate I honestly didn’t know (specifically the day to day life of an undocumented immigrant). I am thankful Wang was brave enough to share her story with the world.

My thanks to Qian Julie Wang, Doubleday Books and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While I appreciate the author’s story and experiences, I did not love this book. It felt a bit disjointed, with just smaller stories making up the whole. I wish the best for Ms. Wang and am grateful for her sharing her story, but this memoir just failed to substantially hold my attention. 3 stars ⭐️.

This was a phenomenal and important read! It was a moving experience for so many reasons. One being that I felt that if Qian and I had gone to the same school we would have been friends. We shared the same interests, and we grew up reading many of the same books. Reading the memoir of someone who is my age made me reflect on many childhood moments. On the other end of the spectrum was reading this as a parent, and fuming that she had to experience so much of the struggle that she did. My mama heart ached for her. I loved learning more of the Mandarin and Cantonese language she included as well.

But what I truly loved is that she was vulnerable and brave, and shed a light on so many things that this country has conditioned others to believe as shameful, and brought them out of the shadows. This book is shining a light on the immigrant experience, and I hope it will take root in each of our hearts so that we may make the necessary changes in our national system. Even more so, I believe she will spark others to brave in their stories and share their truths.

I also appreciated that this book was told from the perspective of her as a child because it allows us to see circumstances through a different lens.

I can’t recommend this book enough!

Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang was an eye opening memoir of how undocumented families trying to survive American. Must read.

This is a heartbreaking and powerful memoir about an undocumented Chinese child living in New York. I can’t even begin to fathom the type of childhood she experienced, but through her words she was able to paint a picture of the fear, poverty, and racism she endured.

While she spoke in great detail about her childhood (sometimes it felt like too many words), the story didn’t feel complete. I would have liked to have known more about her entire journey to present day.

Reading this is a reminder that we never really know what anyone is going thru and that we should do our best to view each person with an open mind and open heart.

What a time for Asian female memoirs! I am really enjoying the publication of numerous well-written memoirs about the immigrant experience in America, and many of those experiences parallel my own.

The author paints a vivid picture of her experience immigrating to America as a young child, the harsh realities of living undocumented and in poverty. The language barriers, racism, lack of job opportunities, and legal limitations force her family to endure harrowing hardships throughout many of her formative years. The detailed way Wang is able to recount stories of her childhood is impressive. These are experiences that deeply shaped her as a person, and these are stories that she needed to share with the world.