Well written and the author conveyed Genevieve's emotional tumult well, however, I wouldn't say the dynamic between the two sisters and the family were especially revelatory or her reactions to them, yet I was invested in Genevieve. I felt she made a big deal out of life's common occurrences, so I kept expecting more. The great ‘betrayal’ was lackluster. I guess I’m jaded from my own experiences, but her ‘violation’ was meager, yet it incapacitated and traumatized her and it just seemed inauthentic. Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for giving me the opportunity to read this advanced copy.

This is a beautifully written first novel. The way this author explores relationships and emotions in this story is exceptional. The narrative focuses on the bond between two girls in a family, Genevieve and Arin, from its unusual and intense beginnings into its tortured and anguished future.

The main protagonist is Genevieve, who starts life as the only child of hard-working parents, both with complex and tough backgrounds. They are living with Genevieve’s paternal grandmother in a modest apartment. Then one day, Arin comes into their lives, a child relation of theirs who was unknown to them beforehand.

Arin and Genevieve form a strong sister bond, both determined to do their best in school to achieve academic success in the competitive small country of Singapore. However, their futures unfold in ways neither of them had predicted, and the differences in their personalities and the ways they each work toward success lead to a serious rift between them.

Arin, who was abandoned by her family and at a young age understood that she was not wanted by her parents, could not help but to have a different world outlook from Genevieve. While Arin could put up an act and manipulate people, Genevieve’s emotions were more honest, on the surface. She was not as confident and had no talent for faking it.

Meanwhile, Genevieve’s parents are parting ways, and then it seems that these four people who made a family are now scattered. Reading this, I felt the sadness and frustration about the fact that so often, decisions that people make when they are very young, before much perspective is gained, affect the rest of their lives. Despite all that transpires during this story, Arin and Genevieve are still young women at the end of its telling. This does offer some hope.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for providing me with a review copy of this memorable novel. I would recommend it to anyone and certainly read Jemimah Wei’s work again.

Before I forget, since this is an ARC, maybe a couple of corrections can be made (if anyone reads this)? Referring to a visit to a bookstore early in the book, "As I led them to the stationary section..." I'd bet all the sections of the store were stationary. I think you mean "stationery" with an e. Also, the author uses the word "bemused" a number of times, and in virtually every instance, the context makes it seem like she means amused. Bemused doesn't mean amused. It means confused. Someone should do some editing and fix that. Now, as for the story itself...

I cannot understand why I've seen a number of rave reviews on Goodreads for this book. The protagonist, Gen, has early academic success, coming from a drive to succeed. She works hard, and I wouldn't begrudge her that success. But she also, at various points in her life, is just not a nice person. In those early days, when she's trying to best those who come from better socio-economic backgrounds, there are opportunities to be friendly, and she spurns those. There even are those (one in particular who comes to her aid in later years) who make efforts to try to befriend her, and Gen is quite obnoxious in her rejection of the overtures towards friendship. Yes, some of the other girls in her school think she shouldn't succeed because of her background, but she hardly rises above.

In later years, she helps her "sister" Arin (who is family but technically not her sister) succeed, but then she seems to look for reasons to be angry at her and spurn her. She also gives no thought to her mother's suffering. Gen has a gift for seeing herself as a victim. I went back and re-read parts, to see if I'd misunderstood Gen's behavior, but I don't see it. Her sister, Arin, spends time with her and helps her; and yes, Arin uses a little piece of Gen's history as part of a movie she's in. Perhaps Gen even has a right to be upset that she did that without asking, but she blows it all out of proportion. Neither of them is perfect, but Gen destroys the relationship they had and does so in a way that deprives her dying mother of a chance to say goodbye to Arin.

Some may see Gen as a victim, but some friends of hers in her new/temporary home of Christchurch, New Zealand, hit it on the head after the building their theater is in is heavily damaged in an earthquake. Gen goes back there, and is asked, as these people are sitting amid the ruins after a prior quake already had devastated their lives,
"What do you want, Genevieve?"
"I came to see if you were all right--"
"If we're all right? What do you think?"
"I--"
"Go home, Genevieve . . . Haven't we done enough for you? Go home."

But that hit the nail on the head. Gen sees things through the lens of poor Gen. Yes, she has had hardships in her life, as many do, but she handles much of it terribly and hurts people who care about her and have tried to help her.

While I began this book sympathetic to Gen, by the end I truly disliked her. Perhaps some still will enjoy this overly long story of a brat who never grew out of it, but I really didn't like it.

Growing up in a small, working-class house in Singapore with her parents and overbearing grandma, Genevieve’s life changes forever when Arin shows up to live with them. The product of her grandfather’s second family, Arin struggles to fit in but eventually, the two girls become sisters. When a betrayal divides them, Gen must decide what is truly important in life, and figure out how to forgive. The Original Daughter is well-written and Gen’s character is developed and complex, but not enough happens for me and too much time is spent in Gen’s musings and moaning. A good edit and a little more action would have elevated this book, but I enjoyed the Singapore background and the difficulties of the dysfunctional family.

An unexpected addition to the Yang family brings chaos and division. Genevieve Yang lives with her mother, father, and grandmother in Bedok. Her father is a taxi driver, and her mother works at the local university. Her grandmother lives with them; she is a widow—or so they thought. The normal days change when an unexpected cousin arrives at their home. She is to be raised in their family as a sister to Genevieve. Arin clings to her new sister and they both begin to excel at school. Being good students will guarantee the girls good placement in higher education. The better the education, the better the future. Genevieve struggles with the unexpected attention her new sister receives. A school award for Arin causes a fracture in their sisterhood. Their estrangement seems to suit both girls until there is a need for them to reunite. Can they reconcile their differences?

Culture, values, and traditions complicate the story of an unexpected change in life. The girls begin their relationship in simple times when school is their primary focus. They are poor and the lure of making money on social media becomes all-consuming. Success brings new problems. Traditional values aren't applicable, and the people who grew up believing in them feel unmoored. Families and relationships are forced to change as social media boldly attacks tradition. Wei has captured the life and emotions of a family with her well-developed characters. While there are recognizable cultural differences, the love and devotion of a family remain. Genevieve's struggles are understandable and relatable. Her story, while fiction, resonates.

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.