Early Review – The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: August 2, 2022
ASIN: B09JPHK66Q
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living.
As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help.
Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.
As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn’t the only thing she’s inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who’s loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this book from NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this book; it is well written and engaging. I loved following the different stories of all of Dorothy’s ancestors; they were engaging and fascinating. The topic of epigenetics is central to this book and is an intriguing theory. Epigenetics is the theory that emotional trauma of previous generations can manifest itself in future generations.
This story jumps between the main character Dorothy and a number of Dorothy’s ancestors. Dorothy keeps having issues with ending up in her ancestor’s thoughts and memories and it is very disruptive to her life. When Dorothy sees signs of this in her daughter, she decides to undergo an experimental treatment to help her deal with and understand her ancestors’ trauma.
This was well done and all of the stories of the different women we meet are incredibly fascinating. We end up in the 1800’s in the past in China, in the near future in Dorothy’s 2040’s Seattle, and many times and places in between. The times are well described and intriguing and the women’s stories are heartbreaking.
I did have some issues with this book as well. The stories are heartbreaking, making this a pretty depressing read. Every single woman in this story is hurt catastrophically by the men in her life. This got a bit repetitive and seemed unbelievable (of course I think the point is that these women are ancestrally cursed to make bad decisions about men). There are a few bright spots and some closure at the end.
The second issue I had is that the ending is confusing. You can’t really tell what is happening with Dorothy and her journey through the other women’s pasts. I am not really sure what happened at the end. Was the past affected or was Dorothy affecting only her own memories of her ancestors’ pasts? It was unclear and because of this confusion that book didn’t really give any good closure for these characters (or the reader).
My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this. I loved looking both forward and back at all of these women’s lives. The stories of these women are incredibly engaging and heartbreaking as well. I also really enjoyed the glimpses into history and the glimpse into our near future as a world. There were a couple areas I didn’t like and that was how depressing all of the women’s stories were and how confusing what actually happened at the end was. I would still recommend this if you are intrigued by the history of Chinese migration to the US and the women who made that trip and if you find the idea of epigenetics fascinating. Just don’t come to this book if you are looking for an uplifting read.
