Title: The Paper Daughters of Chinatown
Author: Heather B. Moore
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Genre: Historical fiction
Year: 2020
Number of Pages: 384
Reviewed by Michelle Llewellyn
Very well researched. This book will open your eyes to what was really going on in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, Chinatown. This R-Rated underworld with heart wrenching stories of rape and drug use that only a wholesome author like Heather Moore could present to us with PG-rated hope and dignity meaning young adult readers can enjoy this book too. “Paper Daughters” is another good example of historical fiction which is where the rating between three and four stars becomes difficult to pin down. The well-researched historical part of the story our favorite author gives us is, once again, a straight-out-of-the ballpark-homerun. The “fiction” part on the other hand, leaves a little more to be desired as these Chinese “Paper Daughters” become blurred in their similarity to each other.
Donaldina (Dolly) Cameron was a real person who died without ever marrying or bearing children, yet she apparently received more marriage proposals than Anne of Green Gables. You root for her but by the end of the book, you may find yourself wondering why. As other commenters have pointed out, it would’ve been nice to know WHY Miss Cameron felt so compelled to involve herself in an alien culture and people who have so little in common with Western values and beliefs without experiencing any kind of culture shock. We admire her for her work but never really get to know her as a person.
Then there are the fictional characters and their arcs. Combining more than one real life victim of human trafficking, naming her Mei Lien, and giving her a happy ending with a fictional male character, Huan Sun, also based on another real life person, felt shoehorned into the story and fake. It was pretty obvious with all these two characters went through-Mei Lien’s daring escape, Huan Sun taking a bullet in the shoulder for her and keeping his promise to return for Mei Lein and the fictional child that may or may not have been his. This is when I sadly realized that this part of the book was NOT based on any one person’s true story like Dolly’s. I kept waiting for Huan Sun to spring a wife and family of his own on this soiled dove, yet, with such a depressing backdrop I understood the need for the author to give at least one victim a happy ending, though she did have plenty of other real life examples to pick from.
I was lucky enough to find this book on the famous “Lucky Day Loan” shelf at the library and was thrilled to get my hands on it. I enjoyed the story very much and it was not a chore to finish in the week allotted to me. I recommend it to everyone, if anything to promote a female character driven story and an issue that gets very little attention which a book like this may help to change. Like “Hidden Figures” this book would make a very good movie…