Lotus - 4⭐

Quick synopsis: After leaving her rural village at a young age, this contemporary fiction novel follows Lotus, now a sex worker (known as 'ji') in China's city of Shenzhen. Lotus is different from the other workers, with her faith and aspirations, and longs for an education.

I was approved for this book years ago and just happened to pick it up right after the tragic shooting at three spas in Atlanta, where six of the eight victims where Asian women. Keeping this tragedy in mind, I thought the author handled the sensitive subject matter well (think Memoirs of a Geisha, but by an #ownvoices author) and was interested to learn she was inspired to write this after her own grandmother's experiences.

While tough to read at times - between discussion of abortion, some graphic and humiliating sexual encounters experienced, the conversation among the women about their clients- this was a solid book that gave me at least a small insight as to what these women experience while trying to support their families. I loved the relationship between Lotus and Binbing, and found the relationships between the other women and the men in their lives both fascinating and disheartening.

Overall, I thought this was a fantastic own voices novel, that is best suited for a mature reader.

I was not a fan. This book was a slog and I just did not enjoy the style of writing. Once I hit 50% the story picked up, but the ending was really unsatisfying. Poor Bing.

A totally compelling story, I read it in one day and could not put it down. Lotus is an enthralling character. Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company Publishers for the perusal! I am glad she finally found courage to be true to herself.

A tough read for sure. The life of a prostitute is never an easy read but unlike most stories of the genre, there is actual character development which was really nice and unusual to read.

Fascinating tale of a woman in 1990s China trying to navigate the ugly side of a country undergoing major cultural and economic change. This is all the better, I think, for the fact that Zhang has bravely revealed her own family history. Lotus is a woman to be admired for her tenacity in the face of a just dreadful situation. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. THis is an admirable debut from an author I hope writes more fiction.

Inspired by her grandmother's deathbed confession that she was sold to a brothel, Lijia Zhang bring Lotus to life. She's a girl with secrets. She has dreams.

After leaving her rural village of Sichuan, in search of a better life, Lotus rejects the idea of an arrange marriage and instead falters her way through her new life. An uneducated immigrant, she goes through a job at a shoe factory, but after tragedy strikes, she finds a job at a massage parlor.

The reader explores the ideas of morality and humanity through this story.

Thank you Henry Holt and Co. and Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book.

A compelling read, with bits of magical learnings about self-worth and candid slow prose to soothe the ridged reality. I liked this a lot, it is only missing a dollop of perceived links between wishful thinking and the actual characters.
The book is structured by chapters with delightful titles, giving a hint about the atmosphere to come.
The slow pace of the prose matches very well the transformation of the main character, Lotus, from massage parlour ji (low class prostitute) to becoming a teacher and heading a school for the migrants' children who could not afford an education. The transformational factor is Lotus' relationship with photographer Bing. The story is beautiful yet realistic, not pure fairy tale, which I really enjoyed .
The characters sometimes lack though a particular fluency in their actions, usually depending on others more than on oneself. This indecision is probably what makes the flow of action lacking oomph and at times continuity in my opinion.
All in all, this is a superb novel and I highly recommend it to those who are interested in other cultures and societal factors.
Many thanks to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

reviewed in my blog under the title : The One with the Shenzhen Chicks

Title: Lotus
Author: Lijia Zhang
Source: NetGalley
Links: Amazon|Indiebound |Goodreads
Rating: four-stars
Summary: This was a slow paced book, but the character and relationship development were touching and believable.

“Surviving by her wits alone, Lotus charges headlong into the neon lights of Shenzhen, determined to pull herself out of the gutter and decide her own path.” However, she quickly finds herself working as a “massage girl” or prostitute while lying to her family about the source of the money she sends home. The men who notice her provide her many opportunities for a chance at security, but each also presents their own dangers. As Lotus struggles to make a decision, she finds it difficult to envision a life of her own due to the guilt and insecurity she feels.

Initially, I struggled to get into this story. The writing was beautiful, but sometimes became too flowery, and the plot felt slow. Throughout, I was curious about what would happen, without feeling driven to find out. However, in the second half of the book, I suddenly saw what the author had been building. Lotus was a complex character. Different pieces of her personality were slowly revealed as she told her story. The relationship she shared with a photographer and with her brother also both grew in complexity and changed in believable ways throughout the story. In the end, this story had some of the most believable relationships I’ve read. They were at times beautiful and at times tragic in perfect balance. Sometimes extremes in romance seem too clearly fictional to me and this book didn’t have that problem.

I actually did end up with one complaint though. Comments from both Lotus and the photographer suggested that men are essentially victims of their sex drive. This is a myth that drives me a little crazy. It was a small thing though and not enough to ruin my enjoyment. It also often seemed that the photographer cared about Lotus because she was compliant and powerless. This second point might have troubled me more if it weren’t true that many of the characters enjoyed the control they had when they felt like the more powerful person in a relationship. I think this was actually an interesting and non-gender biased theme that the author explored. Overall, I thought that the author’s portrayal of gender and power was thought-provoking and handled well. Recommended.

Does a good job of illustrating Chinese rural vs. urban culture and showing how a young girl finds herself working in a brothel. At times I thought the story was turning out to be predictable, but was pleasantly surprised.

This was a really interesting story making me as a reader feel that these characters were real. There were normal, real emotions: confusions, struggles to make a better life for either a loved one or for one self, hope, love, guilt, shame.

I am looking forward to another book by this author.

It took me some time to get into this book, but once I did I was impressed by the amazing world building. Lotus is an incredibly well drawn characters and her motivations, hopes, dreams, and disappointments are very realistic and intriguing. I really liked her character development and the "supporting" cast, especially the other ji, were interesting as well. I didn't really like Bing all that much because he never really committed to Lotus and seemed rather selfish at times, but I liked how he contributed to Lotus' development even though I didn't really care about him.

If you're looking for a story starring a feisty female protagonist, pick up Lotus. The book will leave you with questions about the choices we make in life, what the things we do for a living say about us as people and the varying complications of marriage, family and friendship. The way in which Zhang makes the cities of Shenzhen and Beijing comes to life is also one of the treasures of this debut novel.

Currently reading and review to come on Goodreads :) Thank you so much for approving this title!!

**Review will be published to blog on 17 Jan 2017 at 10:00AM EST**

I chose this book because:

I’m all for stories about women making their way in the world, especially Asian women. Also, gorgeous book cover. The topic is also interesting to me, because recently my roomie helped organise a screening of the documentary film Save my Seoul with Jubilee Project, which “[explores] the hidden but rampant world of prostitution and sex-trafficking in Seoul, South Korea."

Upon reading it:

The characters fell flat for me, which made it hard to get into the book. To me, the characters felt very one-dimensional and didn’t have complexity. There were hints about secrets from their past, but I didn’t feel that they revealed anything new about the characters. In between the dialogue, the narrative felt more like a research report that simply explained the issue of prostitution in Shenzhen, rather than showing me the complexities and humanity of these prostitutes.

Hu was a sketchy character for me. I was hoping to warm up to him by the end, but I felt the same when I finished the book. He had a saviour complex and acted like he was so honourable, but he came off to me as a womanizer. Underlying all the “altruistic” things he did for Lotus and her friends was his own self-interest to move forward in his career. I was hoping for an inspiring reason for why he started upon this photography project, but I found Shadan’s reason for pursuing law much more moving.

From the blurb of this book, it seemed like there would be many paths for Lotus to choose from that would require deep introspection, but these men would just appear in the narrative and then disappear to give way to another man. Except for Hu, who was always there. Unfortunately I was bored by him, but perhaps that's because I didn’t care for his character.

This is closer to a 3.5 star book. It was decent, even good. I liked and sympathized with Lotus' character and most of the others. I found the subject matter interesting enough to keep me into the book. But the "wow"factor that would take this to a 4 star was missing and I'm not sure why. It's a simple story decently written with good character and plot development, and it has a good message. It felt a bit disjointed toward the end, as if the author wasn't entirely sure how to wrap things up, so while there was closure to the storyline, it just sort of "happened" and didn't feel like it properly evolved from the rest of the story. But as I said, it was a decent, solid read. I think I was just looking for (and expecting) to get blown away, and that didn't happen.

I enjoyed Lotus but it wasn't love at first sight. I had a hard time getting into the prose - Zhang's writing style isn't experimental or dramatic, but it took a while to align the way my mind moves with her words. Once I did I found myself drawn into the story of Lotus, a prostitute inspired by the secret life of the author's grandmother, and photojournalist Bing.

The style is simple and belies the well-laid out plot and deep characterization at work. We meet characters as whole people and learn more about their back story and motivations as the chapters go by. Later information never invalidates a previous action but adds depth and nuance. Over time the characters, including minors ones, become even more real. They change and grow due to later events, pulling us through without the need for a gripping A through B to C plot.

Don't get me wrong, there is a plot. We watch as Lotus makes her way in the world, trying to find the best path among many lousy options. How can she find herself, then be true that person? Who is her ally, and who is better left behind? Bing has choices of his own tied up with money and love, as well as a past that won't let him go.

I was worried that the ending would be overly sad or maudlin but Zhang crafts a satisfying conclusion that took me by surprise while being true to all the characterization that leads up to it. Lotus is interesting for its craft and story and is great for those looking for something grounded yet out of the ordinary.

Thanks to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for providing a review copy.