LRC Newsletter: Term 3 2023: Newsletter 2

Written by Clare N. 7B
How We Fall Apart is one of my absolute favourite books so far this year. I enjoy mysteries and this book was full of them, just when you think that you have worked one out another just emerges. The plot was very engaging and will keep you guessing until the end. I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to anybody who wants a good read.

Written by Lorena G, 9R
I received this book on library lovers day and thoroughly enjoyed it. This book was very well written and told the story of a girl who drowned and how that changed her family. The author did a fabulous job at illustrating how tough it was for the family in her eternal absence and also showed some of the flashbacks from the life of the girl who’s name was Lydia. The author also explored the theme of culture and how hard it was for Lydia’s father who was Chinese in America and how he never found friendship or a place to fit in. Another theme that was explored was the pressure Lydia faced from her parents, they were both pushing her in different directions, her mum wanted her to be a doctor and be constantly studying and her father wanted her to be popular, as her parents never got to be these things. Lydia couldn’t do what her parents wanted her to do, but she still wanted to please them because she was the thing that was keeping her family together. I thought is was a really interesting and thoughtful book overall.

Jade is 17 and needs money to pay for her college. She agrees to spend the summer in Vietnam with her younger sister and their estranged father, in exchange for the funds, helping him to build a website for the old house he is doing up for a B&B. Odd things begin to happen. Dead insects collect at the windowsills and then go missing. A young woman appears to Jade in the middle of the night warning her to not eat. Another woman appears, this one menacing and aggressive. Their father starts acting strangely.
Everything culminates on the celebration night of the house opening for business.
The story moves slowly and is an insightful read into Vietnamese culture combined with French and American. It is a dark, sinister tale. There is an element of fear. Of who is telling the truth or not. The house itself seems to be alive and thriving on the spiritual energy of the past and the present family residing in it. It was a beautiful story of family, traditions, acceptance, deceit, supernatural and mystery.