This is an epic done really well. You can't help but be drawn into Lai's life, and heart and mind. I loved listening to this on audio, because the narrator did such a fantastic job. There are so many challenges that Lai faces as she grows up, and I felt so protective of her after listening for a while. I felt for her when she was traumatized as a young child by the police, I loved her relationship with her grandmother, and had complicated feelings about her complicated relationship with her mother. There were times when I wanted to shout at her that she deserved better. I highly recommend this one on audio.

Thanks to netgalley for the free advanced listening copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#netgalley
#Tiananmen Square

TIANANMEN SQUARE by Lai Wen (which I believe to be a pseudonym for the author).

“Being human is about remembering. We are the sum of all our memories. And yet, everyone forgets.”

I was drawn to this title for the historical significance but absolutely stayed for the character of Lai. The author of the same name has pulled from her own life to create this story which is somewhat of a family saga, screams coming of age and reads as historical fiction meets autobiography.
Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publisher @spiegelandgrau for the audio-ARC.

In this story we follow Lai as she grows up in 1970s/80s Beijing. She learns from a young age after run-ins with the secret police and her father being scrutinized for being a cartographer that the government is to be feared. As she wades through high school, befriends a lonely bookshop keeper and starts reading more dystopian and dissention literature she starts to become radicalized about the injustices in her country. Culminating in the fateful day at Tiananman Square where military brutally murdered student protestors, this story was both important and difficult to read.

Watching as Lai's environment, exposure to new ideas, and influences change her perspective was both a liberation and a liability. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes stories of young people coming into their own about politics, social justice, and activism. Even just her commentary about how her grandmother's dementia affected her grandmother's livelihood and her family was poignant so I will leave you with this quote:

"What my grandmother's dementia taught me - taught all of us - is that it is possible to grieve for the living as well as the dead."

🌸🌸🌸

Do fictional stories based in historical reality draw you in? Or are you more interested in a full on fictional story with no ties to reality to get lost in?

I certainly love both!

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Tiananmen Square was a really interesting and engaging read. I appreciated the character exploration and would read more from Wen. I liked the narrator as well.

Actual Rating 2.5

Lai lives with her family in Beijing during the 1970s, playing with her friends and going to school. But when a prank goes wrong, her idyllic childhood is quickly shattered during an encounter with the police. She encounters a bookseller who gives her access to western literature, and begins to learn more about the world around her. She goes to college, she meets more people who encourage her to think beyond what she’s told as she finds tensions around her escalating between the students and the Communist Party.

This one is a slow historical fiction and coming of age with a focus on Lai’s family rather than on the titular events. I expected more information about growing up in China during this time, more of a focus on the politics and ideology and how that impacted everyone daily. But I hardly got a sense of that, with the focus rather on the relationships within the family and the protagonist’s first love. This made the book feel much more like a very lengthy memoir.

Probably the first 75% of this work focuses on Lai, her childhood, and her education. Despite the length of this, I just never felt connected to the protagonist in the way that I should with a work that is this character-focused. The secondary characters were similarly flat, not serving beyond the role they had to move the plot along.

Overall, this book didn’t work for me the way I hoped it would and almost every aspect felt like it didn’t go beyond surface level. If you’re interested in historical fiction that feels more like a wending memoir, then you may enjoy this one. I used both the ebook and audiobook versions of this work. The narrator did a great job with this story. My thanks to NetGalley, Spiegel and Grau, and Spotify Audiobooks for allowing me to read this work.

This book follows the narrator through growing up in Bejing in the 60s, 80s, and beyond. This is a work of fiction but reads like a memoir. It’s a touching and emotional story.

Lai has an overbearing and mean mother and a distant father. She loves her grandmother, who is the only person who understands her., but who ends up dying of dementia.

Lai goes to college and meets an interesting cast of characters that leads to the confrontation at Tiananmen Square. This is an amazing books and deserves all the stars.

well written coming of age historical fiction. would highly recommend to just about anyone, the cover is 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau by Spotify Audiobooks for the advance audio recording of this title in exchange for an honest review.

When the events of Tiananmen Square occurred, I was a young teacher. I vividly remember a colleague who taught social studies putting up a bulletin board in the hallway that featured the famous photo of the student facing the tanks. I was excited to read this book--but also terrified. I was not sure how much detail of the story I could handle.

I have finally finished listening to it. The narration was excellent, believably narrating the childhood of Lai and her relationships with her parents, grandmother, and brother, as well as her circle of friends. This is a true coming of age story, making me wonder how much directly represents Lai's own childhood. I have seen a review that does describe the book as an "autobiographical novel", which explains the amount of detail present. Lai's grandmother is a particularly memorable character, part of the last generation to have bound feet, but who had rebelled against her parents and unbound them.

As the story progressed, I was sure I knew which character was going to be the student facing the tanks--I was wrong. And the description of the massacre was pretty vivid, yet carefully depicted from Lai's point of view.

This is a really special book. I'm not sure how many first person accounts of the events exist. Clearly there is concern about revealing information, as the author is using a pseudonym. It took 35 years, but it was time to share.

I was an adult when the events of Tiananmen Square took place. Yet, it was an event that barely made a blip in the long-term of my life. It was too far away. It was in China and I didn't understand the politics of China and I was busy leading my life.
So it is with great pleasure that I read Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen. It is called an autobiographical novel meaning, I'm guessing, that the events are true and some liberties may have been taken with her memories. It doesn't matter. It is a clear picture of growing up under Mao Tse Tung and the deadly regime that followed.
Lai is a lovely writer. Thirty years have passed since the events at Tianamen Square and we readers are lucky that someone as eloquent as she is survived it to tell us about it. It is an easy read meaning her prose is simple but I imagine it was not easy to write.
Lai writes about a childhood that is so different than an American childhood., her friendship with a boy who was as smart as her but, in the end, deceived her as many Chinese men do. The hierarchy of man and woman is an old one, one Americans have fought for a long time but the myth of the American family is bringing back some of this. Lai goes to university and becomes involved in politics and that leads to the revolution that ends with the deadly events at TS.
One senses that Lai doesn't come to terms with who she is and the value of her life and beliefs until long after the events in this book.
I recommend this book for the pleasure of reading a good book but also to learn more about growing up in China--which has not changed much since those days.

I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

This gripping work of narrative nonfiction provides firsthand accounts of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in Beijing. Lai Wen weaves together powerful testimonies from student activists, witnesses, and victims' families to create an unflinchingly honest portrayal of this pivotal moment in Chinese history. The raw emotion and haunting details vividly convey the protesters' idealism, the regime's brutality, and the lasting trauma inflicted on survivors. While the subject matter is harrowing, Lai's deft storytelling imbues the book with a strong sense of humanity and hope amid tragedy. An essential and heartbreaking record that ensures the sacrifices of Tiananmen will not be forgotten.

Thank you @netgalley for the ALC of Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen. I really enjoyed the narration and the story. I remember hearing about the Tiananmen Square Massacre on the news, but I was you, about 10, so it was only through tid bits that I heard about the atrocities. The story begins as a coming of age novel of Lai Wen as a child in China. You learn about the times through her story and the story of her grandmother. It turns political as she enters college and becomes involved in the protests. The novel really immerses you into the times of what it was like to group as a woman in communist China. Even though I was a child, the events of that day haunt me and I cannot imagine having been there and living through it.

I was very intrigued with the premise of the book and I was super interested especially due to the time period the book was set in. It felt super realistic and I love how character focused it was. I wish there was a bit more into the political backstory but I enjoyed the book nonetheless!

Well this was a disappointment. With a title like "Tiananmen Square," and the author writing under a pseudonym (presumably because of the contents of the book), I figured this book would go into the politics that lead to the incident known as Tiananmen Square. But alas, this is not the case! With a few references to the Cultural Revolution through the main character's grandmother, that was about as political as it got. Lai, the main character, dates an absolute awful man who is politically radical but also elitist, and wants to make change "the right way." What led to Tiananmen Square? I don't know. What happened at Tiananmen Square? I don't know. Why did Tiananmen Square happen? I don't know. Also, the entirety of the events of Tiananmen Square occurred at about 80% in and lasted for a single chapter, so I am not expecting anyone who read this book to know the answers to any of these questions.

This made me so mad I DNFed at 82%. I feel like the publisher went with this title to trick us into thinking this was a politically-driven book, when in reality it was a fictionalised memoir of the author. I felt lied to.

Thank you to Spiegel & Grau and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I received the audiobook arc of Tiananmen Square through Netgalley. I'd like to first thank Netgalley and Spiegel & Grau by Spotify Audiobooks for the audiobook.

Tiananmen Square follows the life of Lai Wen in Beijing during the 1970s and 1980s. The reader follows Lai through her relationships in school, at home, difficult times, and then when she leaves to go to college. Once at college she befriends a group of students who go to Tiananmen Square to protest. Lai is forever changed by that found family group and the things that they witnessed there.

I enjoyed that this book felt very much like a memoir. It read like a first hand account of Lai's life. You could sense her innocence and naivete towards the beginning and she starts to truly become her own person towards the end. I especially enjoyed the found family aspect in this book. Once she goes to college and she breaks away from her high school boyfriend. I feel like that is where she starts to find herself more and come out of her shell.

I struggled to get into this book in the beginning because it was hard to decipher how old Lai was and what point of her life we were at in the book. There were times that it felt like we lingered for longer than necessary at specific points and then other points in her life that I felt as though there were not enough details. I really think that this novel could have been narrowed down some. I would have really loved to see it start when she was in college and give us details of that aspect more. I felt like the protests and the scenes from Tiananmen Square were lacking.

I loved learning about Tiananmen Square through this book in a way that felt realistic. It wasn't all shown but rather discussed in a way that most people find out about moments that later become historic.

"Every one of us who ever reads a book steals a small piece of it. We take something from it, and what we take becomes a part of ourselves."

Lai Wen is a young girl growing up during the time of the cultural revolution in China.
This novel (which reads like and is most likely closer to a memoir), is much more a coming of age story rather than a political novel as I expected it to be based on the title. The story follows Lai form age 12 through her college years, where she comes face-to-face with the activist movements that led up to and into Tiananmen Square.
I enjoyed listening to the audiobook version of this story, and the narration was very well done. I found the characters to be relatable and for the most part, lovable. The book really makes you feel as if you're peering into the day-to-day life of a young woman trying to establish her self-identity during that time. The book is a bit of a slow burn at times, but I never found myself bored as a reader.
I believe anyone who enjoys a good coming-of-age story will enjoy this book. The novel is about friendship, first loves, family dynamics, activism, and finding your way in the world.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

TW: self-harm

Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel and Grau by Spotify for an ARC of this audiobook.

This is actually a really hard one for me to review. I love historical fiction and really looked forward to learning about the events that took place at Tiananmen Square. Although, the main character does experience being there at the time of the events, this does not happen until near the end of the novel, I found this really disappointing, as I felt that the title was misleading. It is really more of a "coming of age" story (which I generally like), but I really did not find the main character very engaging, so found myself not really relating to her conflicts and problems that she was experiencing in the story. The narrator of the audiobook was adequate and kept the story moving, for the most part. I am not sure that I would recommend this to an historical fiction lover, as I feel that they might be disappointed. Possibly someone who is more interested in a "coming of age" story taking place in China during the 70's and 80's would find this more interesting.

I really wanted to love Tiananmen Square, but even though it’s a great listen and exciting story, it didn’t quite hit home. There was 95% build-up for about 5% of actual Tiananmen Square plot. Which makes me feel like the title is a misnomer. The FMC is an engaging narrator with eye-opening details about growing up in this time period in China. Her experiences were intriguing and I liked listening to them, but overall I wish a lot of this book was written differently or maybe just structured differently.
The voice narrator was good. I liked the way she spoke and her timing, tone, and inflection were on point.

I received this advance listener copy from NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau by Spotify in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Lai Wen, as well.

I really enjoyed Tiananmen Square. It certainly isn't your typical coming-of-age story, and it isn't a typical political novel either. I appreciated that the political turmoil didn't beat you over the head. Rather, it crept up through a family member's experience, an unusual sighting, or word of mouth, which I think is much more realistic.

I read this as a novel, but the end was a surprise. Was a part of this real? And how much? Beyond the interesting story, I was also left with a desire to learn more. I've seen the infamous Tiananmen Square scene quite a few times, but I loved that we learned more about the lead-up to such a historical event.

Overall, I was impressed by this book and think anyone who's a fan of coming-of-age stories or historical fiction will be all over this, too.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Arc of this book as an audiobook.

This is *such* an important story and moment in history—one I was so excited to dig into. I think overall, this was a really interesting story and I liked following the woman’s journey through childhood into early adulthood and how she slowly becomes more politicized. That said—and I feel odd saying this as the book is autobiographical but also fiction (a lil confusing was hard to wrap my head around)—I just didn’t really care for the MC or the supporting characters, and it felt more historical fiction of childhood and family dynamics of that time vs really being about the moment in history the book is supposed to be centered around, especially since the actual conflict/author’s involvement only happens in appx ~10 or 15% of the book’s conclusion.

Admittedly, Literary Fiction isn’t my genre of choice usually but I was so eager to learn more about this period and the conflict. And, I did learn and grow from reading this. But the pacing was too slow and meandering, and overall, I didn’t find any of the characters likable (her on again off again boyfriend was the actual worst). Also, trigger warnings for self harm in a big way…

Overall, I didn’t love this despite really really wanting to. I’m glad I didn’t DNF at the 40% mark like I wanted to, but… this won’t be on my “favorite books of 2024” list.

3.5 stars

An intimate look at a monumental event in world history. The book moves a bit slowly at times, but it is engaging and builds genuine connection with these young people.

Audiobook narrator over-enunciates often, which can be distracting.