The Leavers by Lisa KoMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I went into this one without any idea of what it was- I have no idea how it ended up in the TBR pile, but I suspect I was served some ads and then the ebook was cheap. Initially it seemed like I was in for bildungsroman focused on the Chinese American experience, but the novel unfurls into a really interesting look at a family's migration. Even the word "family" here is suspect, as the book deals heavily in trying to define what makes one.
I appreciated Deming as a flawed and likable narrator, and I learned more than I every expected to about Chinese immigration to and from the U.S., cast yet another critical eye at the white supremacy inherent in much of America's foster care and adoption systems, and grew maybe just a little tired of what felt like forced descriptions of how Deming experienced music. Not bad, on the balance of it.
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