Date Finished: November 23, 2017
Page Count: 357
Genre: Realistic Fiction
I am disappointed.
I should have paid attention to the cover art and the fortune cookies message, “Don’t
even bother” as this book is something I’d rather have not read. I really
should raise my expectations for books and not be afraid to drop them when they
suck. As much as I hate to be crude about L. Tam Holland’s The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong, it severely
missed my expectations and I don’t recommend it to anybody simply out of spite among
other reasons (mostly spite however).
The thing I
hated most about this book was Vee himself. He’s an ungrateful sophomore that
wanted to get with the hottest senior girl, and lives a pitiful life not
knowing who his family aside from his mom and dad. Spoiler alert, his mom grew
up in Texas and got divorced before marrying his father because she didn’t want
to be unhappy like her parents who have been sticking to their mirage even
though they hate each other because they’re extremely religious. Also, his dad
ran away from China because he wanted free speech and stuff like that, because
when he was a kid the communist revolution was going on. This upsets Vee and
give him identity issues so he’s an ungrateful little brat for the majority of
the book. It’s not that I hate characters with identity issues and parents with
problems and their own lives are focused on meaningless material desires, but when
you have that going on and it’s a realistic fiction novel then I’m probably not
going to enjoy myself. It reminds me of myself in some cases, but most of the
time it reminds me of this one pessimistic friend I have that is a long way
from perfect (then again, I guess we all are). It’s not that I can’t handle
depressing subjects in books, it’s just that I need some surrealism to balance
out all the realism so I don’t get too bogged down with my own problems. This
book was lacking that. Aside from that I found Vee’s character to simply be
boring and repulsive at times especially when he was having fantasies of
Adele or that one time he actually had some “fun” with her, like I find
most sophomores and high scholars in general which is a bad thing. Realistic/relatable
characters are nice but the negativity of Vee stood out far too much and
overshadowed any redeeming qualities he had so I just despised him for the
majority of the novel. I think this is one of the realistic fiction topics I
have to avoid from now on.
The actual
plot was a disappointment as well, for reading the one review on the back of
the book made me think this would be a funny adventure about some half Chinese
kid that tricked his goofy parents into going to China to meet his relative and
it was a whole bunch of craziness with a bit of likeness to the events of Summer Wars. Obviously that didn’t
happen with the characters and it surely didn’t happen with the plot. The majority
of the first three-fourths of the book was Vee complaining about his history
teacher, Mr. Riley, and plotting to expose him as a pervert (which he wasn’t),
Vee trying out for the basketball team before failing and becoming the manager
of the girls’ basketball team, Vee screwing up his relationship with his Chinese-American
friend Madison (they get together at the end of the book though), Vee trying to
get with Adele, and Vee feeling guilty about all the lies he tells his parents.
Then when Vee, his mom, dad and Madison went to China the story still didn’t
really pick up and failed to be interesting. The only time where I read intensely
was when there were just a few pages left and even then I skimmed much of the
text due to being so bored. When Vee actually was in China it wasn’t any better
as his grandpa was in a care home and had kind lost him mind. That is hardly a satisfying
ending but whatever, so long is the story is over I’ll except it.
Overall,
you should even bother with this book as the main character was depreciable and
relatable at the same time which, if you’re like me, can bring you spirits down
to the deepest parts of the abyss. It did inspire me to be grateful for the
large family I’m with right now (cause it’s thanksgiving and my aunt invited my
dad and uncle plus family to her house for thanksgiving) and the pride I have
for my people (African Americans) buried deep down, hidden and well-guarded
part of my heart. This book was a total waste aside from that and I’m only glad
I finished it so I can bury it my suitcase and get ready to discard it back at
the library to be hidden on the shelves for all eternity like it belongs. Don’t
read it unless you like snarky teenagers who complain about their live and only
realize how good they have it till they’ve bent over backwards while playing Beethoven’s
Fifth symphony and doing a handstand for Satan (more or less). On a much
happier note, happy Thanksgiving America and everyone else look forward to my
next, much happier, book review.
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