If I could give Jemimah Wei's debut novel 10 stars, I would, because it so richly deserves all the stars and more! The Original Daughter will be among the best fiction of 2025, and I feel lucky to have been able to read an advance copy. One of the most nuanced stories I've ever read about a complicated family dynamic across decades and generations, about success and failure and the personal and systemic forces at work in determining futures, about the love and betrayals and jealousy and regret between two sisters, I was captivated and then eventually weeping until the very end.

Escaping poverty, breaking the cycle, is never easy. Generational trauma runs deep, ever ready to rear its ugly head. Jemimah Wei's moving debut novel, "The Original Daughter", is a nuanced, highly charged bildungsroman bound to stay with readers long after the final page is turned.

The narrative is primarily based in Singapore, but not the immaculate, sophisticated, "no gum-chewing allowed" one that we have been taught. Wei's family's existence is centered on the hardscrabble crammed-room, shared bathroom, stuffy, close, everyone in your business neighborhoods of Singapore. Making ends meet is a daily struggle. Educational achievement is the only route out. Competition is fierce, leaving no room for error. Some make it. Most don't.

While the descriptive language of "The Original Daughter" is rich, visual, and ever appealing, the tone is often suffocating, claustrophobic, and ominous. We are rooting for the protagonists, Genevieve and Arin, but are constantly worried lest "the other shoe" drop at any time. Will they make the right choices? Will they navigate our often cruel world?. Key themes of belonging in the face of abandonment thread throughout. Life is hard, often unfair. I easily imagined "The Original Daughter" as a series or a movie. It is that cinematic. Jemimah Wei is a talent to follow moving forward.

Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for the eARC.

"The Original Daughter" offers an engrossing and disturbing view of growing up in modern Singapore. Debut author Jemimah Wei delivers a cast of frustratingly stubborn characters, each with huge potential and a hunger for love and connection — and each with a devastating inability to overcome their pride at some key moment. We experience the story through the eyes of Genevieve, a precocious student whose world changes forever when her family takes in a cousin she didn't know she had. The two girls grow up together in the hothouse environment of Singapore's education system, which demands perfection at each step from those without the means to buy their way to a top university. When Arin's striving places her squarely in the spotlight just as Gen's academic dreams begin to crumble, the two struggle to find a way forward.

The Original Daughter is an engaging debut novel by Jemimah Wei. In this story, readers are immersed in one working-class family's lives and interpersonal relationships in Singapore.

This emotionally charged story centers on Genevieve Yang and how she perceives her family. Young Gen lives with her grandmother and parents in a one-room apartment. Their lives are forever altered when they learn their supposedly dead grandfather has been alive with a secret family.

With his now-real passing, his granddaughter comes to live with the Yangs. Arin, the new sister, becomes dependent on Gen. They grow close while working hard to get ahead in school and create a better future.

This novel is a poignant exploration of how relationships change and evolve over time, for better or worse, as we, too, grow and change.

The Yangs have been deeply affected by the abandonment of those who were supposed to care for them; however, they continue to inflict these hurts on each other. The conflicts often center around a sense of pride and serve as a powerful reminder of the challenges we all face in trying to meet each other’s expectations, much less live up to our own. It underscores how thin the line between hurt and love is, evoking a sense of compassion in the reader.

I highly recommend this compelling read. It will make you reflect on life, regrets, and the possibility of second chances, leaving you with a lot to ponder. Thank you to Net Galley and Doubleday for the ARC.