Dorothy Moy is in desperate need in helping her daughter overcome the pain and trauma that is passed down through generations of the Moy daughters. Especially when it has affected every single Moy daughter from finding peace with themselves. Riddled with pain and trauma, we are brought through each Moy daughter, starting with Afong Moy. The Many Daughters of Afong Moy takes us through generations

Book: The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford
Series: Standalone
Publication Date: August 2, 2022
(Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review)
**While this book has already been out I did receive it early so thank you again NetGalley!**
Tags: Adult, historical fiction, family, magical realism, trauma, pain, racism
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Thrift Books | Abe Books
Read: October 6, 2022 to October 7, 2022

Welcome to my blog tour for The Many Daughters of Afong Moy!

Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living.

As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help.

Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.

As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn’t the only thing she’s inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who’s loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price.

Spoiler Free Review

Dorothy Moy is in desperate need in helping her daughter overcome the pain and trauma that is passed down through generations of the Moy daughters. Especially when it has affected every single Moy daughter from finding peace with themselves. Riddled with pain and trauma, we are brought through each Moy daughter, starting with Afong Moy.

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy takes us through generations of Moy daughters, from Afong Moy, Lai King, Faye, Zoe, Greta, and then we have Dorothy and her five year old daughter Annabel. Each generation we are shown how each woman is faced with racism, abuse, and the lingering trauma that the previous generation felt. Because of this trauma, Dorothy doesn’t want Annabel to go through this, so she goes in search for treatment to help her.

I gave The Many Daughters of Afong Moy three stars, enjoying the concept as well as the writing but I found myself wanting more. I really enjoyed the concept of epigenetics that Jamie Ford introduces to us and how we see, through the Moy daughters, generations of pain and trauma that these women go through but I found their point of views too short. If this book was longer and we were able to see more of each daughters’ lives, I feel like I would have perhaps connected with the Moy daughters better. While we are able to connect with Dorothy more as she searches for the treatment that can help Annabel, I just found myself wanting more of the history.

We only get a few chapters of each daughter but, they were only about two to three chapters of each point of view. I found myself wanting to learn more about Lai King and more about Zoe, Greta, Faye, and Afong Moy. I feel like this was really rushed and because of it, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have hoped. We see the basic trauma of racism and abuse through Afong Moy and each of the daughters but I feel like their point of views were simply cut short.

While I feel The Many Daughters of Afong Moy could have been longer, I did enjoy the concept of pain and trauma being passed down through generations. It was really interesting how we could see some connections between Afong Moy to Faye, for example, or even through Greta and Dorothy. It shows a lot of how Jamie Ford wrote this and plotted this really well and the effort he put into writing a well written book.

Although I gave The Many Daughters of Afong Moy three stars, I still enjoyed reading this and highly recommend you read this as well. It’s different and unique and well written.

Thank you again to Atria Books for inviting me to the blog tour for The Many Daughters of Afong Moy and for NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I hope you guys have a great day, please like and comment down below if you enjoyed this book as well or if you plan on reading it!

Loves,

Veronica Chen