This is a literary fiction novel. The pacing is really slow but builds up in the second half. At times it was difficult to distinguish whose story was being told.

A work of fiction with a languid, dreamy feel that charts the pasts of two childhood friends, Li Jiaqi and Cheng Gong, whose lives have come back together after many years apart. Their pasts are filled with pain, troublesome relationships, and difficult and/or absent parental figures. Their grandfathers continue to exert strong pulls on their psyches and choices; these men have reputations for actions taken many years earlier, whether during WWII, or the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

It is a story of obsession, fear, disconnection, and depression, as Li Jiaqi attempts to discover what happened to her grandfather many years earlier in 1967. Li Jiaqi and Cheng Gogn's families are connected, but how is the mystery.

Author Zhang Yueran's novel has a slow-building, low-grade tension leading to the answer, but it is a challenge to get there. It's hard to maintain one's concerns for the characters, despite the series of bad things that happen. Though well written, this will not be a book for everyone.

Thank you to Netgalley and to World Editions for this ARC in exchange for my review.

DNF - Part ebook format, part storyline, I wasn't connecting or engaging with this story as I had hoped to so I became clear that I wasn't the ideal/target reader. I'm sure it will find readers who will deeply appreciate it.

This much acclaimed Chinese novel is the story of two old childhood friends who reunite after many years apart, and who in alternating chapters tell their stories. In a slow reveal the reader learns their history set against China’s turbulent past. The so-called “thriller” aspect of the novel is an attempt to discover who put one of their grandfathers in a coma, in which he has been languishing for decades. By the time we get to the culprit I’d kind of lost interest, as the “plot” is complicated and convoluted, and although the book is narrated in the first person in alternating chapters, the voices aren’t very distinct and I failed to engage with ether of the two protagonists. As they get to the bottom of the mystery long-hidden secrets emerge which they now have to confront. As a study of family dynamics and intergenerational trauma the book works well, but as in much of Chinese literature, emotions and reactions are extreme, and often noisy and violent, which I always find alienating. The events of the protagonists’ lives are put into context against China’s history although I felt that it might be difficult to understand this without at least some prior knowledge. This a Chinese readership would have, of course, but the book might not be so comprehensible to a western reader. I managed to stay to the end, although I was never fully engaged, the characters didn’t come alive to me, and essentially I didn’t much care what happened to them. But the book does have literary merit and is of cultural interest, and I’m glad to have read it.

I love a well-written book about the ways that friends grow up together and then separate. But this love is sad, harsh, and bleak. I had a hard time getting through it — it felt physically heavy. I didn't enjoy reading it, but I can tell that it's good.

The exploration of the new Chinese generation while exploring the past mystery had me in suspense. The mystery reveal was fantastic and the execution was excellent and retained intrigue.

This book was well written and intriguing, starting from the end and looking back over the lives of two characters as their lives cross and the actions of each affect the whole lives of the other, and beyond. Both characters come from very difficult backgrounds, for different reasons, and both are facing inter-generational trauma which changes how they look and interact with the world.

The book gave insight into the Cultural Revolution in China and the horrific acts of violence that were carried out, setting neighbour against neighbour, tearing apart neighbourhoods with mistrust and long lasting aggression.

I initially struggled to get into the book as it started quite abruptly with no context, and I struggled to place the characters and their relationships to each other and the wider context. Once I pushed past this and settled into it, I became very engaged and wanted to know how each of the characters had found themselves in their current circumstances.

There are some very dark and some very poignant moments through the book, and it is certainly not a light read, but I am glad I persevered through the parts that I found more complicated as the overall story is interesting and showed me a society and time in place that I knew very little about.

I liked this book and I appreciate the chance to read it via netgalley. The writing was very good, as was the translation. The start of the book was a little slow/ confusing, but it came together as I kept reading. It is not a thriller, and not really that mysterious either. You find out the connection and the crime at about 50% into the book. It's more a book about the effects of history on two, actually three, families in China over about 80 years. The main characters are interesting if not likable. The book is set up as basically two friends who haven't seen each other since childhood, who meet up and then talk to each other all night long over a few bottles of wine. Each chapter is a part of each character's story about their childhood memories as well as what has been going on in their life since they last saw each other. As the book/conversation unfolds, they uncover all the depressing connections between their families.

I really did try with this book - I found the premise so intriguing but I just couldn't get into it, and had to DNF at 35%. Not for me I'm afraid.

One of the most gripping tale from netgalley. I really appreciate the author's skill to describe pain, destruction and love in an all-round sketch. Haven't read many Chinese author previously but this one definitely gave me higher expectations.

What to say, what to say...

I don't think I've ever read a story like this, and I'm intrigued to develop my taste in this aspect. Maybe not fully for me, but the characters were well developed and the writing was beautiful.

Wow i loved this book! It took me a little while to get into as the scene was being set, however once it got going it was so hard to put down as i just wanted to know what was going to happen next. I have read many novels by Japanese and South Korean authors, but very very few by Chinese authors. What a fascinating and important insight into the history of China and its lasting impact on its people. I loved the characters in this book, both loveable and a little strange in their own ways! Hugely enjoyable, i cant wait to read more of this author!

What an astounding story this was. The narrative used past and present as a setup to narrate the plot and i found this intriguing. It kept me wanting to read and understand what happened. There are slow parts but the interesting things kept me reading.

Giving this 3.8 stars

This book SPOKE to me in a way I was not anticipating. I am very curious about my parents' experiences during the Cultural Revolution, questions that I haven't known how to ask. This book depicts that time period and generation in an evocative way, providing me with a lot of clarity and insight about how my life may have looked had I grown up and stayed in China.

The translation is superb. The writing is eloquent and descriptive, conveying the setting and context extremely well, never clunky or awkward. The story is told from the perspectives of Li Jiaqi and Cheng Gong, two childhood friends with their own complicated family histories and relationships. Zhang's ability to capture the voice of adolescents is impressive. Their yearnings for familial affection and approval and the disappointments they experience are palpable and genuine to that phase of life. Both characters endure tremendous amounts of instability and abandonment, due to problematic parental figures. And both characters are deeply intrigued by their family histories, which intertwine at pivotal moments.

The stories they tell about their families are compelling and uniquely representative of this tumultuous time period in China's history, interpreted from a more current perspective. The shifting POVs are meant to simulate a conversation, but it comes across as two disparate storytellings to a third party, with some overlap but very little interaction. The narratives are similar enough and told nonlinearly that it can be difficult to follow and distinguish. Each of their stories is winding and unexpected, never able to anticipate what will happen next. The brutality of the Cultural Revolution and the impact it has had on future generations is felt acutely.

I wish there was more interaction between the two main protagonists, rather than just adjacent storytellings. I also found the ending to be quite unsatisfying. Nothing was resolved, and it seemed rather abrupt.

Two childhood friends who reunite and try to figure out the tragedy between their two families against the backdrop of china’s cultural revolution.

It’s very atmospheric, and there’s a lot of pondering/reminiscing about the past. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was shorter. Not so much a thriller, but lots of dark family secret vibes.

Cocoon is a story following two estranged childhood friends, Cheng Gong and Li Jiaqi, as they reunite and try to understand what happened in their parents' and grandparents' lives. They grew up together in the 80s, and now years later are reconnecting and examining what happened in their lives and their families lives. The story covers the 60s and 80s through this, and it explores a turbulent time in China and also a crime that connects the two characters' families.

When I read the synopsis for Cocoon I was immediately intrigued. I don't really know much about the Cultural revolution in China, and the whole idea of the book seemed really compelling to me. This was a story about people, if that makes sense, the two central families are connected by tragedy but the whole story is more complex than that.

As far as the plot goes, that's where I was a bit disappointed. Maybe it was just me misunderstanding the synopsis, but this didn't feel like much of a thriller to me. There was a mystery unraveling and an old crime committed years ago, but I suppose I expected something faster paced, more urgent feeling when I read it was a thriller. I did enjoy the mystery aspect and the atmosphere of the novel. I found the beginning quite slow and it took me a while to get invested in the story, but I was interested enough by the premise and the characters to continue.

In my opinion, the characters are the strong point of this book. My one complaint is that the writing style was a bit too detached, so it made it harder to connect with the characters right away, it seems as though you're kept at arm's length from everything. However, as the book went on I pretty much kept reading to see what the characters would do and how they'd process the emotions surrounding everything. Everyone in the book is flawed and complex, and while the detached writing style never goes away, you are compelled to know what happens to these people. The two families are broken in their own way and the characters are tired and worn, but the story still has a hopeful feeling of redemption somewhere in there.

All in all, I did enjoy this book for its characters and overall the development of the story, but I was a bit disappointed it wasn't the thriller I expected. Again, this might just be me, and even so I found this intriguing and would recommend it!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

There is a lot to like here: a look on relationships, love, friendship through the lives of two friends (families) with a long history of misunderstandings, regrets, reproaches, violence, vengeance, told in a 'you' approach between two long lost friends (each a member of one of the families) who meet again after many years. Yueran creates a world that feels alive, fresh, and where human relations are never forgotten. You learn why the characters behave the way they do, and you understand their motivations.

However, the style is a little bit flat and sometimes feels like listening to a person after talking to them for four or five hours. The biggest problem is that as much as Yueran (and Tiang, the translator) do a great job in creating the atmosphere, telling the motivations of the characters and why they behave the way the do, I had difficulties in finding a big difference between the voices of the two main characters. Maybe is because of the way it is written, with one chapter to each of the characters, who narrates the story to the other in a second person point of view, but sometimes I had to 'remind' myself who was talking, because the style they tell the stories was too similar to my taste.

However, if you want to know more about China, its cultures and families (even if this is a family drama, not a critical approach to its culture), and if you are a fan of family dramas, you will probably like this.

I loved following Jiaqi, haunted by the death of her father, a poet, scholar and later businessman who left the family home for another woman and died a tragic and early death. She meets his former colleagues and friends, looking for answers. We also follow her childhood friend Cheng Gong as he uncovers the reasons behind his grandfather's injuries and disability. The two families are linked by their history and I liked seeing it intertwine.
I found the translation really well written and the tone dark but poetic and nostalgic. The book was slow at the beginning but gained pace later and became more interesting. A really enjoyable, poignant read.

A story of two families in China connected by a crime that took place during the Cultural Revolution. Great portrayal of the pall that the days of the Cultural Revolution still cast over modern China, and beautifully written, but was a bit dark for my taste.

Gripping and mysterious and rather slow paced at times. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a thriller. However I did enjoy the insight into the time period, and would be keen to read more form the author.