A Review of Shaila Patel’s Soulmated (Month9Books, 2017)

[xiomara]

A Review of Shaila Patel’s Soulmated (Month9Books, 2017).
By Stephen Hong Sohn




So, the set-up for this YA paranormal romance is super intriguing because it focuses on a supernatural ability I haven’t seen very often: the empath. Growing up, I remember there was a supervillain called Empath, who was part of the rival team for The New Mutants in the Marval Universe. Empath naturally had the ability to manipulate people’s emotions. Shaila Patel takes up some similar ideas in Soulmated, the first of a two-part series. The second part apparently has been published, but not by the same company. B&N gives us this description of the novel:

“Two souls. One Fate. Eighteen-year-old Liam Whelan, an Irish royal empath, has been searching for his elusive soulmate. The rare union will cement his family's standing in empath politics and afford the couple legendary powers, while also making them targets of those seeking to oust them. Laxshmi Kapadia, an Indian-American high school student from a traditional family, faces her mother's ultimatum: graduate early and go to medical school, or commit to an arranged marriage. When Liam moves next door to Laxshmi, he’s immediately and inexplicably drawn to her. In Liam, Laxshmi envisions a future with the freedom to follow her heart. Liam's father isn't convinced Laxshmi is "The One" and Laxshmi's mother won't even let her talk to their handsome new neighbor. Will Liam and Laxshmi defy expectations and embrace a shared destiny? Or is the risk of choosing one's own fate too great a price for the soulmated?”

The narrative is bifurcated into two first-person perspectives, one obviously given to Liam and the other to Laxshmi. For the most part, each character has very divergent goals and motivations. Laxshmi lives within what might be considered the restrictions of the model minority construct. Her mother expects her to marry within caste and class, while also focusing on a sensible career (such as being a medical doctor). Naturally, Laxshmi finds her interests going elsewhere, like exploring her talents in dance and finding a better balance to her social life. Liam’s perspective is very different, because he holds so much more information about the “world-building” rules of the fictional world. He’s super obsessed to find the one, not only because it will be an important step for his family, but also because his emotions are so wrapped up in the process. As readers discover, Liam’s been on this quest for quite some time and come up on some dead ends. The problem with this quest is that Liam must break the hearts of the young ladies he realizes aren’t the one, while he himself must wrestle with the development of the topsy-turvy emotions that come with these various courtship stratagems. Though Patel is all in with the conceit—that is, Liam’s goal to find the “one”—the narrative spends so much time with the courtship between Liam and Laxshmi that the pacing and the upward arc become muddled. Part of the issue is that Patel may be saving much of the revelations for the second book, but I found my attention meandering even with the unique world-building elements offered. In my opinion, Patel did have more opportunities to expand upon the promise of this book: the political intrigue of the “warring” empath families is little explored. Nevertheless, it’s hard to make a final judgment on the book only insofar as there is still one more installment to go.

Buy the Book Here!

Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Xiomara Forbez

If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don't hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at ssohnucr@gmail.com
Xiomara Forbez, PhD Candidate in Critical Dance Studies, at xforb001@ucr.edu

A Review of Ann Mah’s The Lost Vintage (William Morrow, 2018)

[xiomara]

A Review of Ann Mah’s The Lost Vintage (William Morrow, 2018).
By Stephen Hong Sohn

I’ve been reading a lot of dark material concerning the Korean War lately, so I’ve been turning to books that I think will be a little bit lighter. On first glance, it seemed as though Ann Mah’s The Lost Vintage could be the ticket. B&N provides us this description:

“Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turning novel about a woman who returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy and unexpectedly uncovers a lost diary, an unknown relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since World War II. To become one of only a few hundred certified wine experts in the world, Kate must pass the notoriously difficult Master of Wine examination. She’s failed twice before; her third attempt will be her last chance. Suddenly finding herself without a job and with the test a few months away, she travels to Burgundy to spend the fall at the vineyard estate that has belonged to her family for generations. There she can bolster her shaky knowledge of Burgundian vintages and reconnect with her cousin Nico and his wife, Heather, who now oversee day-to-day management of the grapes. The one person Kate hopes to avoid is Jean-Luc, a talented young winemaker and her first love. At the vineyard house, Kate is eager to help her cousin clean out the enormous basement that is filled with generations of discarded and forgotten belongings. Deep inside the cellar, behind a large armoire, she discovers a hidden room containing a cot, some Resistance pamphlets, and an enormous cache of valuable wine. Piqued by the secret space, Kate begins to dig into her family’s history—a search that takes her back to the dark days of World War II and introduces her to a relative she never knew existed, a great–half aunt who was a teenager during the Nazi occupation. As she learns more about her family, the line between resistance and collaboration blurs, driving Kate to find the answers to two crucial questions: Who, exactly, did her family aid during the difficult years of the war? And what happened to six valuable bottles of wine that seem to be missing from the cellar’s collection?”

I’m a big fan of wine, a love cultivated in part by my sister. We once took a wonderful trip to Sonoma, a bike tour of the area, and it was one of the most enjoyable times I have ever had in my life. I figured that this novel would open a portal back into that kind of world, with picturesque vineyards and yummy varietals. The B&N description does a really thorough job of setting up our main characters: Kate is the narrator and an indispensable gateway into the world of wine tasting and wine quality, but I was wholly unprepared for the political stakes of this work, which does achieve a rich texture through the World War II storyline. Kate’s great-half aunt, named Hélène, is provided her own storyline through journal entries. We’re not even sure where these journal entries are coming from until very late into the novel, but they’re interspersed between the main characters and the primary diegetic level that involves Kate and her quest to figure out about this secret wine cellar and why it exists. Hélène’s perspective is pivotal in portraying the complicated position of French citizens during World War II, especially as families had to make difficult choices in relation to the Germans that they encountered. Hélène’s entire existence shrouds the family history, but Kate as well as her bestie Heather are determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Along the way, readers are treated to the lush landscape of France’s wine country, which is a necessary respite from the increasingly bleak circumstances that Hélène and her family face. I was certainly surprised by the deft ability that Mah shows in mobilizing and complicating what could have been a superficially entertaining narrative and making it something far more weighty. There was obvious research put into the novel, a fact made clear by the acknowledgments that follow the novel’s conclusion. This novel also would have made an excellent candidate for something I discuss in my first book Racial Asymmetries, as the author (who is Chinese American) does not include any significant Asian American characters or contexts, but yet accrues obvious relevance for scholars in this field precisely because of Mah’s attention to forms of disempowerment and social inequality that radiated out of World War II and reverberates across generations to affect this particular family and many others.

Buy the Book Here!

Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Xiomara Forbez

If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don't hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at ssohnucr@gmail.com
Xiomara Forbez, PhD Candidate in Critical Dance Studies, at xforb001@ucr.edu