Book review: February Flowers

Ok- So I've mentioned a blog called Mother Talk. Well, I get the privilege to

do my first book review from this book! I'm not good at this, but this is my honest opinion about it.

February Flowers by Fan Wu

From the back cover:
Set in modern China, February Flowers tells the stories of two young women's journeys to self-discovery and reconciliation with the past.
Seventeen-year-old Ming and twenty-four-year-old Yan have very little in common other than studying at the same college. Ming, idealistic and preoccupied, lives in her own world of books, music, and imagination. Yan, by contrast, is sexy but cynical, beautiful but wild, with no sense of home. When the two meet and become friends, Ming's world is forever changed. But their differences in upbringing and ideology ultimately drive them apart, leaving each to face her dark secret alone.
Insightful, sophisticated, and rich with complex characters, February Flowers captures a society torn between tradition and modernity, dogma and freedom. It is a meditation on friendship, family, love, loss and redemption and how a background shapes a life.

Honestly, It was a pretty good book. It wasn't hard to get into. I was interested in the way the story was told in the first person. I always like it when it's coming from a "persons view" rather than someone looking in from the outside observing. I felt very much a part of this book as I read. I couldn't help but imagine myself as Ming and how I would have reacted in certain situations. I liked how Fan Wu was able to bridge the gap between childhood and womanhood so smoothly. She is a very good story teller with and imagination to make you think that it were actually true. I could easily relate with Ming and Yan with their college bound friendship as I've had the opportunity to have a friendship just like it. I kept finding myself wondering why these 2 girls had become friends through all their differences and situations. What was it about each other that kept them friends? There were some answers in her book, and a lot of it is dependant on the culture they were in. But that is one area that I think Fan Wu wanted to leave open for any opinions you wanted to form yourself about the characters and how they reacted and acted towards each other.

I had a hard time with all the Chinese/Oriental words. Being that I'm not familiar with the language(s), it was hard for me to imagine certain people and settings based on their name alone. So I couldn't really appreciate the descriptions to thier fullest.

One thing I like is how open ended this book is. It leaves so much room for discussion and gives the reader a chance to form their own opinions. I'd very much reccomend this book, especially for book club members. Would definitely keep discussions going for a while!

Check out other reviews on this book HERE. And if you are interested in purchasing it, GO HERE.