Book Summary and Reviews of Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

Reader Reviews

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LANI

a heart felt sweeping saga
Once you begin this book, it is hard to not be swept up into this enveloping narrative. Niko, an 8 year old Japanese child is a product of an illegitimate affair or a woman of Japanese royalty and an African American GI officer in the post world war II. I dare you to read this without your heart strings tugging . As a child she was taught to acquiese ,to not have opinions, and to obey orders at all costs. When her mother abandons her, she is sent to her haughty grandmother who houses her to avoid the shame of her skin color and her clandestine birth. She is cooped up in an attic for 2 years practicing her obedience, being the"perfect" child until the arrival of her half brother Akira. He helps her to unravel the rules that she has been subjected her whole life. The deep brother sister love dominates the book along with the controlling" Queen Grimholde."into scenes that deliver anguish. During the time she learns to have a voice, takes charge of her own life, and evolves into the woman who owns her self. A truly moving heartfelt story.

Helen

Loved the story but hated the ending.
If it had a different ending I would have given this novel a 5! The ending was very disappointing and disturbing.

Margot P

Class structure in post war Japan
Only thing that kept it from 5 stars was the amount of unresolved plot lines especially in regards to Nori’s mother, and I am not a reader who requires everything tied up at a book’s end. I suspect a sequel might be in the works. The rich historical and cultural aspects of Japanese life, especially in regards to class structure and racism was fascinating. I did find Nori’s self-injuring tendency a bit overplayed. There are a lot of adult topics here but nothing that would keep it from being a great recommendation for mature teen readers.

WomanReader

Cycles of Destruction
50 Words for Rain is a compelling read, and an honest attempt at using beautifully constructed language to portray a horrendous story of the complete soul-destruction of an innocent child-then-adult. Many reviews praise its surprise ending; I found it sickening because in the world of abused children the perpetrator often does retain the power to destroy their victim who sometimes does continue the hateful family cycle. This bleak book involves the reader entirely from first to last page but it's only fair to warn potential readers of its omnipresent pessimistic power.

Roberta

Needed better editing
I liked this book for about the first 50 pages and after that it went straight downhill. One bad thing after another happens to the main character so much so that by the end of the book it's so over the top that the reader can't even care anymore. If I wanted to read a good tragedy, I'd turn to Shakespeare.

This book is the writer's first book and it's obvious. I had the feeling that the author was trying to throw every single thing she could think of into this book. It needed much tighter editing. On a number of occasions I'd be thinking now what just happened? Also, I'm not well versed in Japanese culture, but even I could tell there were obvious errors that the author should not have made. Sloppy.

Disappointed Reader

Poorly written, overly dramatic
I was so excited to receive this book for Christmas. It came with such high reviews, and touted as a NY Times bestseller, I expected to be drawn into a lovely tragic story. Tragic, it was. Lovely, it was not. The author doesn’t have the natural command of language nor the imperative sense of cultural awareness to write a book with such a plot in such a setting. The book reads like a badly written tween novel, inserting American phrases and idioms into — seriously? — post-war Japan. I suggest that aspiring writers either stick to what they know or do the research required when writing about historical eras and geographical regions in which they are ill-educated.