Butterfly Yellow by Thanhhà Lại

For my next read, I picked up Thanhhà Lại's Butterfly Yellow. I really enjoyed her middle grades novel, Inside Out and Back Again, so I was interested to read more from her. At first, I assumed this novel would be middle grades as well, but I figured out it's actually young adult after reading for a bit and seeing the seriousness of the subject matter. In any case, I was hoping to find another moving and emotional story to fall in love with. For the most part, I did. 

The story is set in Texas around the end of the Vietnam War and it follows two characters. The first, Hằng, is an eighteen year old Vietnamese refugee that has recently arrived in the country. She was separated from her baby brother six years ago during an attempt to escape from Vietnam at an airport. Her brother was taken on board a plane, but she was not. Ever since then, she has worked tirelessly to earn enough money to reunite with him. After years of toil and unimaginable hardships, she finally makes it to the only address she has for him, a town in Texas.

The other character is LeeRoy, a young cowboy with dreams of being a rodeo star. He meets up with Hằng while on a road trip to meet one of his rodeo idols, and unwittingly becomes her driver and guide. He has an uncanny ability to understand her accent and smooth over her prickly demeanor. Even though he is anxious to continue on pursuing his dreams, he feels honor-bound to help her. 

Before long, the pair does manage to reunite with Hằng's brother Linh, but it doesn't go at all the way she'd hoped. Linh doesn't remember her, and he has a new life and family in the United States now. He has no desire to discard everything he knows to go live with a sister he feels no connection to. Hằng is devastated, LeeRoy is grudgingly sympathetic, and they both must figure out the best way to move forward with their lives and find a path to happiness.  

This was a pretty emotional read, and when I reflect back on my experience with it, what I remember the most was how sad it was. Hằng went through so many horrific things on her quest to find her brother that my heart broke for her. Throughout the story, it is clear that she is suppressing some very difficult memories. Lại does a good job of slowly building up to the reveal of these details, and when Hằng is finally able to think through her experiences, it's just gutting. Linh's reluctance to engage with her on top of all that was just tough to read. It was all realistic though, and nicely handled. As I expected, Lại's writing was beautiful and felt very authentic. This was a very sad story, but also very good.

What stopped it from being great for me was LeeRoy. I was just not into him as a character at all. I thought he was a bit too self-centered and too slow to warm up to Hằng. Cowboys and rodeo life also don't really do it for me, so this was not the kind of character I was ever going to fall in love with. While he does eventually become more caring and chivalrous as the story goes on, it came too late for me to form a connection to him. I didn't hate him or anything, but he wasn't my favorite, which is a shame since he becomes a romantic interest for Hằng and I couldn't bring myself to really root for them. I also disliked Lại's description of his constant erections in the presence of some girls, which felt awkward and weird every time they came up (both literally and figuratively). 

Overall though, this was a moving read and another excellent piece of writing from Thanhhà Lại. I think that Inside Out and Back Again is still my favorite out of her books, but this was really good as well. It was moving, authentic, and helped me to learn more about the hardships faced by Vietnamese refugees during the war. Both young adults and adults will be able to take something away from it. It is definitely worth the time.        

Challenge Tally

Clear the Shelves 2021: 24/50 (donate)

Total Books Read in 2021: 49