Ashley Marie 's Reviews > Dreams of Joy

This was a phenomenal follow-up to Shanghai Girls. The themes leaped out at me -- mother-daughter, sister-sister, and overall family relationships tie this whole story together in the deepest of ways, and more than once I teared up while listening; I recently made a pretty big mistake that hurt my parents and my sister, and this turned into such a perfect read when I was searching for a way to mend things, as I listened to Joy and Pearl come back together.

While Shanghai Girls saw Pearl and May growing up and living their lives through the late 30s and into the 50s, Dreams of Joy follows Joy back into what is now Mao's Red China in the late 50s. The research is again impeccable, the descriptions are intimate, and each of the characters are their own person. We come in contact with several old friends and some new ones too. Joy makes mistakes, learns, and grows, as does Pearl. May takes a little bit of a backseat but remains close to the action via her letters to her sister.

The ending was everything I wanted it to be. I actually tweeted the author several times while reading because the book had me so on edge and I was terrified of it not ending positively; so many stories during the Great Leap Forward didn't. Again looking forward to my next Lisa See book!