The Original Daughter: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel

Thank you to the publisher (Doubleday) and author for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy. I loved the way this was written - it was literary, but some of the metaphors and comparisons really made the story jump off the page.

Character wise, the main character drove me nuts as she grew older and held on to things that split her family apart, and kept splitting her family apart. I got frustrated at her tunnel vision a lot of times. I love a good family drama, though, and this seemed to be a great depiction of the themes in Asian families.

I can see someone in their early 20's relating to the main character, and her feeling of being stunted in growth by family, duty, values, etc. Someone like me, a mom in their 40's, really related to the parents in this story, especially the main character's mother, who worked hard to make things "right" and always felt like she was failing and didn't know how to give her daughter what she wanted most.

All in all, I recommend this book and loved learning about this new author and seeing what's next for her!

I was not impressed with this book at all. It is a story of two sisters and their relationship. There is a falling out and eventual reconciliation when the two daughters met at their dying mother's bedside. Arin is an actor in YouTube videos and an influencer. The older sister, Gen, was a serious student, but never qualified for university and ended up in dead-end job working at an ice cream store. Later, she gets a job in New Zealand. She confides her experience of an uncomfortable encounter with a man and is crestfallen when her sister reenacts this in one of her films. Arin is the cousin who came to live with her family when she was just a little girl. She was the daughter of her father's brother.