This seemed promising for a good story of family ans sisters and mothers stories. I found it to be overly detailed and I just got tired of reading it. I got so I just didn’t care about the characters. Despite that I liked the style of writing.

This extraordinary debut showcases two sisters that are brought up in Singapore. One was adopted from another family. The book explores sibling rivalry and the many ways they hurt each other while loving each other deeply. The author portrays the family dynamic and how they adjust to abandonment, success, failure and disappointment. The characters are fully formed, warts and all. In some ways, the writing reminds me of Adam Haslett, with the depth of a mid-career author. I am very impressed and love spending time in her world.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for this advanced readers copy.

There is nothing more complicated that the relationship between sisters. Place that dynamic in a family struggling with estrangement, abandonment, guilt and ambition and you have a brilliantly conceived, emotionally rich novel.

The Yang family live in a one room flat, in a lower class neighborhood in Singapore. The culture embodies the morays of the past while showing the cultural restraints and possibilities of the future. There are distinct ways to succeed and failure to achieve them can be personally disastrous.

Genevieve is an only child living with her parents and grandmother. Her grandmother is a sullen, unhappy person who has permanently grieved the loss of her husband. Without warning, a man and his daughter arrive at the flat. He tells them he is the son of the lost husband/ father/grandfather who just died (he brings the ashes to prove it). This new, unheard of, family don’t have the means to take care of his daughter, Arin. He leaves her with them.

There is a slow process of acceptance but Genevieve and Arin ultimately become inseparable, the sister bond never stronger. They form an alliance to weather the expectations of the culture to reach beyond their circumstances. At first, Genevieve does well in meeting her educational goals but doesn’t succeed as Arin does. Then, there is an ultimate betrayal that causes what could be an irreparable estrangement.

But family dynamics never rest on one relationship. They spill out to others in the family. As the book opens, the mother is dying. She wants to see the estranged Arin before she dies and has left it up to the aggrieved Genevieve to contact her. It is from there that we dive into the many layers of love and disappointment that accumulated and finally broke them.

If this is a debut novel, I want to read what comes next. The story peeled back its many layers revealing a story of compassion and understanding, with betrayal and self survival.

I would definitely recommend it and give it a five star rating.

Many thanks to Penguin and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy and provide an honest review.

Wow! Beautiful debut book. I was hooked into Genevieve and Arin's dynamic from the jump. The unfolding of their relationship was sweet, complex, tough, real. I can't wait to read more from Jemimah. Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the advanced copy.

Thoroughly impressed with the prose. Incited to great laughs, big smiles, some frowns, happy almost-tears, this book evoked all the emotions and the excitement that those emotions usually bring. At its core, this is book about family, and who is family, does blood make one family? Can a weak bond be responsible for a strong sibling relationship? This story is well paced with a close to perfect depth of characters thoughts and motivations bringing them to almost real. Ms. Wei strikes a great balance between Arin (the bonus daughter) and Gen, the original daughter. At times they had an admirable closeness, at other times there was a competitive consternation between them. They both exhibited some selfishness and pettiness that hurt their relationship and contributed to long times of estrangement. The mother, often plays one daughter against the other, and both vie for her favor and the favor changes throughout this extraordinary engaging novel. The way she pulls this all together along with glimpses into Singaporean culture is just marvelous. I didn’t want this to end. I was hoping for a complete reconciliation between sisters, to see how close they come to that will require you to dive into this book. Keep in mind my definition of complete may be vastly different from the next person. Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for an advanced DRC. Book drops in May of 2025

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me engaged and it only took a few days to read. I think this is going to be a good book club option for several clubs. I plan recommending to my book friends and I look forward to reading more by this author.

The Original Daughter is a debut novel by Jemimah Wei that depicts a family in Singapore. The story is about two sisters, one of whom was born into the family and was the original daughter. The other who was a cousin was given to them by her father when her grandfather dies. This epic saga follows the two girls from childhood to adulthood. They created a contract ,as children, to always stay together. The story takes you through all the trials and tribulations that prevent that from happening. It’s a very interesting and thought provoking story about family, standards, relationships and love!!

Only child Genevieve lives in a one bedroom flat in a working class town sharing the space with her parents and elderly grandmother. Gen has been taught from an early age that sacrifice is necessary to attain success. Gen is totally devoted to her schoolwork and has a drive to be the number one student in her school. The family's life is turned upside down when a grandchild from their long missing/dead grandfather is unceremoniously dropped at their doorstep by her father. Absorbing Arin into the family means a lot of changes and a lot more stress for everyone but especially for Gen who is now in charge of her "little sister." As the two navigate this new relationship and form a seemingly unbreakable bond, changes within the family and their school lives threaten to tear down their dreams of becoming successful adults.
One child is wildly successful as an adult and the other flounders but refuses to reach out for help. Secrets are kept, secrets are betrayed and those unbreakable family bonds may have been stretched too far.

"The Original Daughter" presents a captivating yet unsettling perspective on growing up in contemporary Singapore. In her debut novel, Jemimah Wei introduces a cast of frustratingly headstrong characters, each brimming with potential and longing for love and connection, yet all hampered by their pride at crucial moments. The narrative unfolds through the eyes of Genevieve, a sharp-witted student whose life takes a dramatic turn when her family takes in an unknown cousin. As the two girls navigate the intense pressures of Singapore's education system—where perfection is demanded of those without the means to secure a place in a top university—they face challenges that test their friendship. When Arin's ambition thrusts her into the limelight just as Gen's academic aspirations falter, both must find a way to move forward.

Linguistically potent and lots of lines to underline. Stressful in the way relationships between sisters can be.

4.5 stars! It is hard to believe this is Jemimah Wei is a debut novelist. This reads like something produced by a far more seasoned writer. This gripping and emotionally heart-wrenching novel features "sisters" Arin and Genevieve who are raised together in a far-from-lavish flat in Bedok, Singapore. Their family struggles, the complexities of the secret pasts and lives of their parents, and the achievement demands of Singapore create an emotionally-intense yet fraught relationship between the two daughters. I will not say more about the plot, to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to ay it is gripping, with much heart-wrenching drama. As an educator who has long taught classes on Southeast Asia and spent many months there on and off over the decades, the portrayal of the dictates and demands on the Singaporean educational system is spot on, as is the portrayal of everyday life in Singapore. As one who has also taught and written about migration, the novel also offers effective glimpses into the loneliness of migration and the ways in which visions of one's life abroad as a migrant do not always measure up to the realities. I plan to recommend this book to my colleagues who teach classes on Southeast Asia and the next time I teach such a class, I will have it on the list of possible novels for students to read and reflect on.

Everything about the first sentence written in the blurb enticed me. I knew instantly I wanted to read Jerimah Wei’s novel:
“In this dazzling debut, Stegner Fellow Jerimah Wei explores the formation and dissolution of family bonds in a story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore”.

My associations to the above first sentence are many:
….I deeply admire anyone who receives a Stegner Fellowship (for creative writing) at Stanford University. Many notable authors have a ‘Stegner Fellows’.
Jesmyn Ward, Adam Johnson, Wendell Berry, Ken Kensey, Larry McMurtry, Raymond Carver, etc.

….I have millennial daughters.

….Our two daughters don’t share a close relationship. One of our daughters is a professional actress living in Los Angeles. The other a Tattoo Artist living in Canada.

….LAST…
….I was very excited to read a book set in Singapore. (the home of a special friend).

Soooo…
… after all my initial excitement to begin this book, it unequivocally surpassed
my expectation.
I couldn’t believe how emotionally wrenching … and indelible the characters felt to me ‘instantly’ from the start.

Before Part I begins in 1996, … we are given a very powerful prologue to read that begins in 2005.

We learn that Mother, Su Yang, has cancer:
Leptomeningeal disease.
She has maybe six weeks to live.
Genevieve, Su Yang’s daughter is the narrator. We know she is angry — actually bitter about ‘something’ and although we don’t know ‘what about’ yet ….
I was already aching about my own situation (reasons my own two daughters don’t speak to each other) …
I don’t have cancer, though .. Thank God….
but this story felt - feels - so real from the start … we must read to the end to get the bigger-fuller- understanding of what happened.
Why does Genevieve sound so cruel towards her younger sister, (one year younger; the sister who was adopted?)

Su Yang practically begs Genevieve to call her sister Arin. (an A-list movie star).
If you were dying, and only had a few weeks left to live, wouldn’t you want to see your adult children? Each and every one of them?

The following dialogue (from the start) stayed with me throughout this story:
Su Yang:
“If you want to help, Genevieve, call your sister”.
“She’s not my sister”.
“I want to see you and Arin
together one last time”.
“I kept quiet, she pushed further”.
“I never ask you for anything”.
“It was another one or her untruths; she was full of request, both vocal and implied”.
“Promise me”.
“No”.
“Then you might as well kill me yourself”.
“She left”.
WOW!!! …. right?
In a weird way - sadly, I related. But I had so many questions. What did Genevieve mean that Arin wasn’t her sister?

It’s clear the sisters a
were estranged.
The story we continue to read from Genevieve, who may or may not be a reliable character, shares old memories of love, loss… other family history.
Genevieve’s ‘character-disposition’ feels like jealousy…. resentful and barbaric at times.

A tragic betrayal we discover is agonizing-upsetting shocking!

This story takes us through many emotions— many different paths — and many new understandings. I realized how much pettiness and ego can literally destroy lives.
And if??? we let go of anger, resentments, what do we have left?

We spend time in
Chrischurch, New Zealand 2010.
Genevieve tells us that she lived her first few days in New Zealand in near violent joy.
“I truly felt as if I entered a kind of second childhood, but one conjured by my imagination. Hard to believe that Mother Nature, had sprinkled everywhere these Linden trees, harboring, countless songbirds and their delicate fluffy plumes; had, like a maestro, collected the sun’s diffuse violet glow each evening into creamy collisions of rose and apricot. … etc etc.
THE PROSE IS BEAUTIFUL!

We’re back in Singapore in the summer of 2015.
I was hanging on by a tread during this last part of the book…
my heart …
was it going to break?
Would I experience relief?
I won’t share more ….
Other than to say, this was a very affecting and beautifully written debut.

The writing is gorgeous—
This passionate tapestry of a fractured family has extraordinary depth, beauty, and rigor.

4.5 stars thank youuu netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review ,i could not believe this is a debut ?? wei paints an amazing picture of singapore and the life of girls whose realities are interwoven yet couldn’t be more different
writing was beautiful, the picture this painted in my dead was so vivid it felt like i could touch it
definitely one to look out for !

I think this book was pretty decent, but there was a few things I would change. I did love theme of sisterhood, family, and how they dealt with family dysfunction. I love learning about a different culture, and how it differs from my own. I do think there was a bit of information overload at points, which made it hard to follow.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Jemima Wei’s book, Original Daughter is the story of two sisters who aren’t really sisters, but grow up together in a dysfunctional household, amidst the cutthroat world of Singapore’s education system— they are close, until they aren’t, and the rest of the book is long, and I liked the story until I didn’t, mostly because the characters were all unlikable and the story just went on too long. The writing was good, the themes of family dysfunction, abandonment, resentment, ambition, and ultimately how you define family were presented well, but for me, the story got bogged down in the details.

This book is a DNF for me after reading 70%. I could have powered through to the end but I was really bored. I liked learning about Singapore culture and the family dynamics were interesting, but I found both sisters so dull that I could not go on.

Wow! The prose in the family drama is incredible. This I Jemimah Wei's first novel and I already am looking forward to reading her next. The novel focuses on a small family in Singapore that adds an unexpected, second daughter, when an estranged father dies. For much of the novel, the sisters are inseparable. Until they are no longer. Genevieve, the original daughter, narrates the novel, and we see her as unforgiving, competitive, insecure, and conniving, yet, we feel compelled to share compassion with her., The adopted sister becomes a famous actress, tries to reconnect with her sister, and ends up leaving the mother to make peace with Genevieve, a peace that never happens. Without giving spoilers, this drama does make a full circle of sorts, and the father, mother, and two sisters are together in the final pages of the novel, and we are left wondering, what more will become of these sisters? The prose is beautiful. The plot compelling. The novel is wonderful.

This was one of the most poignant, beautiful tragedies I’ve ever read. I will never forget it. I’m literally in tears as I write this.

The story starts in 2015, and is told through the eyes of our (unreliable) narrator Genevieve, who is coming to grips with the news of her mother’s terminal diagnosis. We learn about a family estranged through time and circumstance, but we are left in the dark unaware of how it came to be. The story then becomes a memoir flash-backed 19 years earlier to 1996, the very beginning… navigating the naivety of childhood to the clarity of adulthood looking back at old memories, love, loss, trauma and melancholy as we work our way back to the present and unweave the memories past that led them to this point.

Genevieve first met her sister, Arin, at age 8, Arin only being one year younger at the time. My heart pulled for these sisters, this family that had so much affection and care for each other, I was so confused at how things could turn out the way they did. There were so many times while reading, especially towards the beginning that had me wondering where things went so wrong. I was so hooked, as you keep going you start seeing where the edges start to unfurl, the jealousy, family ties/loyalty, competition and social pressure that compounds the snowball bit by bit.

The struggles that they went through that could’ve been avoided if they’d just talked to each other broke my heart. The pettiness and the jealousy… and the fact that I understand where they’re coming from, but the way it still genuinely hurt, driving actual tears like they were real people to me. Everyone is flawed, everyone is a villain… and yet no one is at the same time. This book was an onion, lots of layers and will make you cry once you cut into it.

I wish the ending was more definitive. Gen’s mother was a mirror of Gen’s grandmother, harrowing and extremely heartbreaking. I wish that was explored further. The ending felt very abrupt, like there is more story left to tell. That being said, I know that all stories don’t have to end happily, be wrapped up neatly and tied in a bow to be compelling, I just wish that we had a little more.

If you loved Pachinko or Homegoing or even The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, you might really love this one. I have to thank Jemimah Wei for writing this story so beautifully, for tearing my heart to shreds and stomping on it. And thank you to netgalley for letting me read this.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Genevieve and her family welcome a relative into their lives, and there are complicated aspects of their relationships. When Gen accepts Arin as a little sister, she does so in an overbearing manner and is accustomed to being her sister's teacher and protector. When Arin achieves success of her own, Gen reacts badly. Drama ensues.

I had so many emotions while reading through this book. It was such an emotional ride. The hardships of family, the breaking and healing of hearts, loss and gain. I couldn't put it down. I read straight through.
I believe this is a debut author. I can't believe it. I suspect this book will be much talked about in 2025

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this e galley. All opinions are my own.

From the publisher.
In this dazzling debut, Stegner Fellow Jemimah Wei explores the formation and dissolution of family bonds in a story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

Before Arin, Genevieve Yang was an only child. Living with her parents and grandmother in a single-room flat in working-class Bedok, Genevieve is saddled with an unexpected sibling when Arin appears, the shameful legacy of a grandfather long believed to be dead. As the two girls grow closer, they must navigate the intensity of life in a place where the urgent insistence on achievement demands constant sacrifice. Knowing that failure is not an option, the sisters learn to depend entirely on one another as they spurn outside friendships, leisure, and any semblance of a social life in pursuit of academic perfection and passage to a better future.

When a stinging betrayal violently estranges Genevieve and Arin, Genevieve must weigh the value of ambition versus familial love, home versus the outside world, and allegiance to herself versus allegiance to the people who made her who she is. In the story of a family and its contention with the roiling changes of our rapidly modernizing, winner-take-all world, The Original Daughter is a major literary debut, rife with emotional clarity and searing social insight.