"The Original Daughter" marks a remarkable debut novel by Jemimah Wei, showcasing exceptional writing skills and a captivating narrative. This poignant tale explores the complex emotions inherent in a family saga centered around siblings. Genevieve Yang, the only child of a Sinapote couple, finds her world transformed with the arrival of her sister, Arin. As they grow up together, their close bond faces the challenges posed by societal pressures that begin to drive them apart. The story is rich with deep-rooted themes and intricate layers, leaving a lasting impression. If you appreciate family drama, this novel is definitely one to add to your reading list.

This family drama explored the lives of Genevieve Yang and her cousin Arin who shows up when Gen is 8 years old as her long-lost family member. Set to the backdrop of Singapore in the 1990s-2000s, Genevieve and Arin grow up together despite the rocky start to their relationship. The push and pull of their “sisterhood” propels the book, which is highly character driven. There were parts of the story that felt too drawn out, but overall I really enjoyed this book and think it’s a stunning debut novel!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The "sisters" were both interesting and complex. Good writing and good story.

Genevieve Yang is an only child to a working class Singaporian couple; until a new sibling, Arin, comes to stay with them. The two girls grow closely together, but a society that values perfection and competition begins to tear them apart.

It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel. It’s deep and shows complexities within sibling relationships. There’s so many layers to this story and while it may be slow paced at times, it never loses heart or meaning. This is a powerfully emotion story that doesn’t necessarily end on a happy note, true to life and the damage of jealousy and competition within families.

“Our violent amputation took eleven years. My independence from her was hard won, it was the most precious thing I owned. But if she came home, I wasn’t certain I could leave her again.”

The Original Daughter comes out 5/6.

I really wanted to like this book, the set up was interesting and the writing is fluid and engaging, but I am afraid that ultimately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped
Jemimah Wei writes very well, this is a very nice first novel. The characters develop over the course of the book in interesting ways. My issue is that the pace is slower than it needs to be and several sections felt stagnant. The protagonist kept making poor choices or getting the wrong end of the stick. The constant negativity without much justification felt suffocating. I wanted to see some hope or reasoning in her misery but it was simply frustrating.
It is a nice book and I am sure many readers will enjoy it, but it did not work for me as much as I had hoped. Wei is very talented and I would like to see what she does next as she matures as a writer.

I received a copy of the book, "The Original Daughter" by Jemimah Wei from NetGalley. it starts out in the 1990s Genevieve lives with her family in Singapore. When she is about seven years old her family gets a surprise. Her grandmother was told that the husband she thought died in a war in Malaysia had lived and started a second family. The son of her husband from this surprise family shows up with a six year old girl named "Arin" the girl is heartbroken for being left behind and it is Genevieve who helps bring her out of her shell. Arin considers "Gen" to be her big sister. Though out their childhood they grow up close. But in Gens senior year of school and she faces the college entrance exams she his disappointed in the results while her life seems to go downhill Arin's is going very well with good test results. Eventually Gen moves away hoping for a different life. Meanwhile Arin becomes a famous actress. Their sister relationship becomes damaged with Gen resenting her own life. the sister bond becomes strained. When Gen's mother becomes very ill and on her deathbed, Gen knows she has to try and get Arin to come to say her goodbyes. This is a good story of sisters and their relationship over the years. The author did a fine job with her debut book.

Immediately needed to get my hands on this after reading Roxane Gay's review on Goodreads, and I was not disappointed. There were many times while reading this book that I felt like I was appreciating it more than enjoying it. The writing is fantastic, the character studies are BRILLIANT, and the exploration of one ambitious young woman's life not turning out the way she and everyone around her thought it would, and how the shame, embarassment, self-loathing and resentment that crops up from that completely alters the course of her life was sometimes so unflinchingly real it sometimes felt like a gut punch. But for all of their realness, the characters can be slightly infuriating, and the pace does take a few up and down turns throughout (from totally gripping to "how many pages are left in this chapter?") If you're a plot-focused reader you might find this unbearbly slow, but if you're interested in following characters over the course of several years, almost too-close-for-comfort explorations of women's lives, the expecations versus reality therein, and how women whose lives take both similar and wildly different paths relate to one another, you'll find so much to love in this one.

While I wanted to scream at Genevieve most of this book, I also could not put it down and loved reading about her relationship with her sister.

There was a lot of character development and backsliding throughout this book and you will be able to connect in some way or another.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

"The Original Daughter" by Jemimah Wei is a well written, powerful, and poignant debut.

Genevieve Yang spent the early years of her life as an only child in Singapore, where she lived in a one room flat with her parents and grandmother. Then seemingly out of nowhere, the family learns that her grandfather had a second family and that this family is sending Arin, a girl just a little younger than Genevieve, to live with the Wangs. The novel follows the relationship between the girls as they grow from school children to adulthood. As they grow, the girls face complications of family, relationships, their sense of self, and their need to achieve. There are tensions created by beliefs and culture, external events, and the needs of family members as well as by the way the girls see themselves reflected in each other's personalities and their perceived importance in the other's life. Eventually the girls become estranged and each is forced to take a hard look at what matters most to her.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have finally finished this book! The concept was interesting but I honestly ended up skipping paragraphs and then a quick skim over a page or two and then read a few chapters, skipped again and so on. I couldn’t relate to either daughter or their lives. Mmm just not my type of story. But I did finish the book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest review.

Elegant prose that screams for a heaping helping of levity and an edit for length. Genevieve and Arin, bonded as young girls through familial scandal, develop a competitive but co-dependent relationship. While I appreciated the depiction of quotidian Singapore that wasn’t through the lens of cartoonish wealth, halfway through, I struggled to keep going (although I did complete the arc; thanks to the publisher and net galley). The dialogue felt stilted and unrealistic in parts. The surface tension between the narrator and each member of her family begged for even a modicum of lightheartedness. Overall, well-written but didn’t need to be 80 chapters long.

THE ORIGINAL DAUGHTER by Jemimah Wei follows Genevieve, the older sister of Arin, as she recounts their unconventional coming together in Bedok and eventually, what causes them to come undone. Trekking through vivid landscapes and cultures of Singapore and New Zealand, we travel the world with a family filled with people constantly wondering about their potential and ambition.

The themes of love, jealousy, betrayal and regret that filled the lives of these characters from page one was masterful. I can’t overstate the sense of melancholy I felt and heartache that crept in slowly at first then crashed as I finished the last page. I’m also admittedly not a big crier when it comes to books, but as I scurried through the last few pages I couldn’t fight the tears! I desperately wanted to change Gen and Arin’s lives for the better and mend what was broken in the family.

The whole way through I fought the urge to text my own sister, and by the end, that’s exactly what I did (swipe for photos of me and my big sis). Families aren’t easy or simple. I haven’t read a book recently that’s woven such a dynamic tale of sisterhood and the circumstances that might force us apart.

Also!! I feel like people are not going to be a fan of my girl Gen, and hear me out, does she make bad choices? Yes. Could she be a better sister? Absolutely, but she is just a girl!! And she’s living with the choices she made - with regret and remorse. I think people that turn away from the complicated and messy feelings we have with the people who are supposed to be closest with us aren’t engaging thoughtfully! People make choices and decisions we don’t agree with, and then they live with those choices. I hope people read this story and allow themselves to sit with the choices Gen made and feel how she feels rather than criticize what she did or didn’t do. Personally, I’ve never needed to “like” characters to love a book - but I truly did love Gen and Arin and the whole family!

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

In this impressive debut novel by Jemima Wei, a Singapore native now living in San Francisco.. we meet two half sisters who come together when one of them is given up by her family. Their intense, relationship forms the heart of the novel, with the two girls sharing space in a tiny flat with their grandmother, Gen’s mother and father. They are devoted to each other, but the relationship (and all of the relationships in this family) is fraught, due in part to their unusual living circumstances, in part to the academic pressures they face in Singaporean society, and, as we gradually learn, the psychological baggage each one brings to the relationship. This leads to a (probably) inevitable break in the relationship, which is only partially healed by the time the book ends.

The story is told through Gen’s eyes (“the original daughter”). I came to believe that her relationships, and indeed all of her life with school, work and friends has less to do with her circumstances and more to do with her inner demons. She is unable to keep good jobs or form healthy friendships, and she frequently questions Arin’s motives for decisions. It is this trait that leads to what Gen believes is a supreme betrayal that threatens to sever the sisters’ relationship forever. Throughout, I wondered if Gen’s psychological issues magnified Arin’s actions in her mind. I also wondered how much of the relationship between the sisters, and between the sisters and their parents, was cultural. Would the story have been the same if the girls lived in Michigan, or if Gen had access to a good school counselor? The complexity of this is, I believe, what we as readers need to grapple with.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This complicated family drama and coming of age story is set primarily in Singapore. The author does a great job fleshing out the characters and making you feel the tension of the academic expectations of the parents and girls. The relationships between the mothers & daughters and the two sisters are layered with love and expectations, that are strong and complex. The ending is sad as the selfishness of the main character plays out, but the final resolution was satisfying.

The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei is a well-crafted debut novel that explores generational trauma in a very specific place and time. Set in Singapore at the turn-of-the-century, the original daughter, 8-year-old Genevieve (Gen) Yang is joined by a 7-year-old cousin (Arin) whose family has abandoned her. The girls share a grandfather who deserted Gen’s father and was presumed dead. Gen’s grandmother, who lives with her family in a small apartment in Bedok, the largest city in Singapore, makes the decision to accept Arin into their family without consulting any of the others. Arin’s arrival is understandably disruptive but in time the two girls form a close bond and become very dependent upon each other as they pursue academic success to better their situation in the rigid “caste” system of Singaporean society. As they get older and progress in their studies, their grandmother dies, and their father walks out on the family after his participation in an emotional affair was revealed publicly. When Gen fails to thrive in Junior College and Arin flourishes as an online influencer, the pair begin to grow apart. Their dramatic rupture occurs after Arin seemingly betrays Gen to further her career as an actress. When their mother is dying from complications of breast cancer, she desperately tries to get the girls to reconcile. The family reunites but true forgiveness and reconciliation remain elusive.

While the story was engaging, it was over long and could have benefited from tighter editing. The characters were carefully drawn, yet all seemed to suffer from untreated mental illness. In particular, the wife and mother (Sue Yi) was so positive and optimistic as to be delusional. The husband and father was extremely depressed and both daughters – the original and the spare – were petty, selfish and without personal insight. Sue Yi’s mother, who makes a cameo appearance in the story, was a classic case of narcissistic personality disorder.

Based on reviews from early readers, I am an outlier.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the eARC in exchange for this review.

A beautiful debut, but I will say I kept finding myself thinking, "this is SO LONG."

I think the problem was I wasn't expecting this book to be quite so EPIC. It meticulously explores the vast majority of these sisters' lives and the way their relationship changes over time. Ultimately, it's a fascinating story of inter familial power-dynamics, backstabbing, and jealousy between sisters--all meaty stuff to explore in a plot.

Perhaps the reason the book felt long to me is we spend time in the head of only one sister, Genevieve (ostensibly the one that has the less dramatic life--upon the book's opening we learn that her adopted sister Arin, has ultimately become a famous movie star.)

Gen at times behaves atrociously, at other times, inspiringly. She's fully human and we can both understand why she carries so much pain and shake our heads at the bewildering choices she keeps making to shut people out of her life. But it is at times hard to like her since her struggles seems, at face value, not as challenging as her sister's (but maybe simply being "the less interesting sister with the more aimless life" is challenge enough.)

Ultimately, the book is interesting, well written and moves at a nice clip. And I loved this quote: "love is an action word, I thought. It can be committed, like a crime." Nicely sums up this challenging sister dynamic.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Based on reviews from early readers on this 2025 release, I am definitely in the minority. The story took hold of me right from the beginning but became a bit drawn out and so depressing. This debut novel is the story of a Singaporean working class family in which eight-year old Genevieve (Gen) Yang is an only child. When seven-year old Arin, the granddaughter of Gen’s presumed deceased grandfather arrives at their apartment, the Yang family must take her in. The girls become sisters, forming a close bond but as they grow older, tensions arise from the academic and social pressures put on them. This story is a deep exploration on the relationships within families, with an emphasis on the sister’s betrayals toward one another and the subsequent effects on the family.

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the opportunity to receive a digital copy of The Original Daughter in exchange for my honest opinion. Publication date: May 25, 2025

Outstanding, impressive debut novel. So many layers (sisterhood, mother/daughter, father/daughter, family, career) and an ending that tied up the story without sugar-coating the relationships or characters.

Impressive debut novel, The topics of ambition, sisterhood, family ties, guilt - all combined in one book! Great character development and complicated and emotional interactions.

An 8 year old only child suddenly acquires a 7 year old younger sister; a cousin who has been abandoned by her family. Set in Singapore, this is the story of their bond and their eventual estrangement. Beautifully written, it is also the story of complex, brilliantly rendered characters, their relationships, life choices loves, despair and human needs and foibles. This is a powerful debut novel.