In British-colonised Malaya, frustrated Cecily meets Japanese General Fujiwara and, seduced by his vision of an “Asia for Asians,” steals secrets from the British; a decade later in 1945, Cecily’s family is crumbling under the harsh reality of life under Japanese occupation…

This was fine for what it was - essentially generic WWII fiction, but set in Malaysia. Whilst the setting was refreshing, the author tried to do too much and the result was too little of everything. Firstly, the story has both a split timeline and multiple POVs - one or the other would have sufficed. The different POVs didn’t feel very distinct, plus I wasn’t quite convinced by the child narrator, who read as too simple, too dumbed-down. Secondly, between the espionage, kidnappings, building the railway, comfort stations and various (shock value) revelations towards the end, there was a lot going on and the impact of each storyline was diluted.

Undoubtedly, these were all things that happened, but I got the distinct impression that Chan researched the Malaysian WWII experience and then tried to include everything she’d learned. Focussing on just a few aspects, rather than flitting around all of it, would have allowed for more depth and might have made for a stronger, more satisfying story.

It’s unfortunate, because WWII fiction about civilians tends to focus on women swanning around France on a bicycle, so it’s good to see a WWII story set not only elsewhere, but centring non-white characters. And it’s not a bad story, per se, it simply lacked depth and wasn’t quite for me.

Because I’m petty, I have to mention that there were two instances of characters releasing a breath they didn’t know they were holding - TWO. Surely by this point, the only acceptable use of that phrase is as a joke.

A broad but surface-level story of the horrors of war, family and a woman caught up in the brutal consequences of her previous choices.