3.5 stars

Thank you to Celadon Book and NetGalley for this eARC!

The first thing I want to say is that when I rate and review a memoir, I’m really focused mainly on the technical aspect, such as the writing style, etc. I never want to make an author feel like their experiences are being rated or discussed in a way that diminishes their story, and that can make reviewing them difficult sometimes.

That being said, I did enjoy this one for the most part. Let’s start with the main issue I had:

I found the storyline to be meandering and a bit confusing at times. An idea/situation would be introduced, then we’d move on, come back to it, move on, go back to a different one, and so on and so forth. It did make it feel a little disconnected and repetitive at times. Because of this, I was struggling to get through this and ended up listening on audio to finish the book.

I really think audio is the way to consume this story - it’s narrated by the author and she delivers the story well. It was much more engaging and I also liked getting to hear the proper Vietnamese pronunciations, both with words and names, rather than struggling to figure them out in my head.

Now let’s talk about what worked for me:

I really loved the story of Susan connecting with her father and how through this journey of understanding her deceased mother, she was also able to find understanding with her father and heal their bond and relationship. You also see growth in all of her family members because of her persistence in learning about her mother and I thought that aspect of this memoir was really great.

Susan seemed to learn a lot about herself as well while trying to learn about her mother and I loved the moment towards the end when she finally directly confronts a family member for making comments about her body. I found what she said to be very simple yet powerful and it very much needed to be said. It was a full circle moment tying us back to the main reason behind her mother’s death (beauty standards) and connecting it directly to Susan herself.

I also loved the stories she tells about visiting Vietnam and her family’s journey from Vietnam to America - they were and are incredibly strong and brave people.

Overall, I do think this is an important story with a lot of things that need to be discussed widely and openly, I just didn’t think it was written perfectly. Regardless, I still recommend this, especially on audio!

I was given the opportunity to review this book per NetGalley (thank you again, and also this is my own personal review and opinion) and this book left me in the feels. I truly felt this authors pain when describing the hurt and suffering she endured for a long time. To the mending and healing that came with so much self acceptance. I do truly believe this was beautifully written and I recommend this book. #TheManicuristsDaughter #NetGalley

THE MANICURIST’S DAUGHTER bu SUSAN LIEU

This is a memoir of a daughter Vietnam refugees and I find reading about Asian cultures especially refugees is very interesting. it is the only way that I can try to understand their trials and tribulations.

Her mother died from surgery when she is very young .

It is a very personal and sometimes heart wrenching book and it helped me understand the Vietnamese culture better. It is a very interesting read.

This was a DNF for me, but I think that's more a reflection of my reading preferences. There isn't anything inherently wrong with this memoir, but the combination of non-chronological storytelling and the repetition of some of the points she makes throughout didn't ultimately work for me. That being said, I think she's a strong writer and the story she's telling is really important

So, a great premise - the author is on a quest to learn about her mother, who died due to complications from plastic surgery when the author was a child. As the youngest in her Vietnamese family, she knew her mother the least and seeks out information from her father, siblings, and her mother’s family, but she runs into one roadblock after another with her reticent relatives.
The first part of the book is the best part, which recounts the author’s childhood living with her immediate and extended family, and helping out in the nail salons that her mother opened and ran.
It slows down after her mother dies, when the story focuses mainly on the author, and particularly once she’s an adult. It just isn’t as interesting.
And ALL of the long, detailed descriptions of food and eating - ugh. I get that the author was probably trying to show how much food and feeding each other is part of the family love language, but it’s certainly not mine, and it was so boring. After a while, I started skimming through all of the food paragraphs just to help move things along.
Thanks to #netgalley and #celadonbooks for this #arc of #themanicuristsdaughter in exchange for an honest review.

Raised in a Vietnamese household, Lieu's family wasn't allowed to speak about her mother's death. With no closure, Lieu struggled to grieve and for the next 20 years, searched for answers to the cascading questions—what led to her mother's decision for plastic surgery? What was her mother's life in Vietnam like? How did this surgeon end up operating on her mother? THE MANICURIST'S DAUGHTER dives deep into the exploration of grief, intergenerational trauma, body image, motherhood, and the weight of inherited family history.

Lieu is an amazing storyteller and a stellar writer. There is so much honesty and vulnerability laced between the pages as she shares her grief journey and her mother's backstory. Fleeing from Vietnam to establishing two nail salons in America to sponsoring and providing for their relatives, Lieu's mother was a powerhouse of a woman and the glue to her family until the family fell apart when she tragically passed.

Losing her mother at such a young age, the loss and absence of her mother and time can be felt deeply through Lieu's story. My heart ached as she shared about the regret she carried for years, the desire for closure and a yearning for a deeper understanding of her mother. When she learned of the reason for her mother's decision for plastic surgery, my heart broke. Throughout the memoir, Lieu also vulnerably shares about her own body image—the familial and cultural impact it had on her self-image and her relationship with food.

There are many heavy and emotional topics discussed in this book. I appreciate Lieu balancing them out well with her humour but never having it detract from her message. The memoir is packed with Lieu's heritage and Vietnamese roots—seamlessly incorporating the Vietnamese language, cultures and traditions, and food descriptions into her story.

Thanks to Celadon Books and Netgalley for the eARC!

The Manicurist's Daughter was a really interesting read. I appreciated the memoir quality and the writing read like fiction at times.

Well told memoir that at times was difficult for me to get through because of the mother/daughter story.

I read The Manicurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu. This ebook was an ARC from the publisher through the NetGalley platform.

In this memoir, Susan Lieu explores her family’s past from before she was born to the present day. Her family being Vietnamese immigrants living in Canada, she felt stuck between both cultures. She had difficulty becoming the woman she now is due to the many opposing viewpoints of both the Vietnamese and the Canadian cultural identities. Her mother died when Susan was a young teen. This impacted the rest of her life, especially because her family members refused to talk about her mom for many years. In this memoir, Susan Lieu takes us on her journey through discovering who her mother was, finding ways for her family to open up, and coming to terms with the life she’s made for herself.

This memoir was beautifully written. The stories being told aren’t necessarily in chronological order, which is fine as the reader always has enough context to understand what’s going on. The author mixes her inner thoughts with the happenings around her, making sure the reader can deeply understand the importance of each moment included in this book. We get to slowly appreciate the author (who isn’t very likeable in the beginning) and her family members (who each have their own issues).

This memoir includes themes of motherhood, death of a parent, mental illness, medical procedures, emotional growth, eating disorders and so much more.

I gave this book a solid 4⭐️.

It came out on March 12th, 2024.

Thank you to @celadonbooks for this copy.

I really enjoyed this memoir from a daughter of a Vietnamese immigrant who owned a nail salon. Her mother died young during plastic surgery and she spent a lot of her young years working on figuring herself out. She attended an Ivy League school, participated in a cult (disguised as a yoga, self-help program), and returned to Vietnam to know her family and her mother better.

I didn’t think that I could read this book. It would be too much for me, as a fatherless daughter, as a woman whose parent was also taken from her with no rhyme or reason. And yet, here I am, having read it and having been deeply and unexpectedly moved by it. THE MANICURIST’S DAUGHTER is an exploration of grief, of intergenerational trauma, and the weight of inherited histories from our families. There is also a lot here about being a woman, navigating body image, and the idea of somehow being too much and yet not enough. Susan Lieu’s writing is somehow profound and poetic but also familiar, like coming home. I am thankful for her vulnerability and determination to tell this story. I prefer not to rate memoirs (because holy cow, what a thing to judge!) but in this case, it’s absolutely all the stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon for the advance readers copy. All opinions are entirely my own.

Thank you to Celadon Books @celadonbooks and Netgalley @Netgalley for the e-arc. And extra thanks to @Celadonbooks for sending me this gorgeous paperback copy. All thoughts are my own.

An emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American Dream and a daughter of refugees who searches for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery.

This was an interesting story and the forward hooked me. I loved that it started out with the author’s own tale of the medical system and took place not far from where I live. I had to cry a little when she checks to see if she could go get emergency care at the ER, it just pains me that we live in a society that this is the norm. I wish that if you were in excruciating pain and needed a doctor you didn’t have to check if you’d owe a ton of money to receive that care. This goes to say that you shouldn’t have to check to see if your doctor carries medical malpractice insurance. I think where this book fell a little flat to me was on “unrealistic” beauty standards. If a woman wants a tummy tuck, or any cosmetic surgery, then they should be able to get it, but they need to be safe when they do so, and to me that is what happened in the case of her mom.

This was an interesting story and told with lots of humor. While it was a tough topic to read about, I did enjoy the manner in which it was told. While I did find some of her anger misguided, there was most certainly a lot to unpack here.

In her recent memoir, Susan shares her experiences growing up in the U.S. as the youngest of 4 Vietnamese children and how her childhood was shaped in the aftermath of her mother’s botched plastic surgery that left them motherless. Susan’s parents fled Vietnam by boat during the turmoil and Susan was the only one of her siblings to be born in the U.S. Her parents started their own business running a nail salon.

But the loss of her mother was so profound that Susan spent much of her life asking questions about what happened but nobody wanted to talk about. This memoir explores Susan’s journey to come to terms with her mother’s unnecessary death, body image pressures, the pressure to have a well paying respectable career and of course, the challenges of being part of an immigrant family.

Thank you to Celadon Books for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

In this memoir, Susan Lieu reflects on her mother’s life. She was an immigrant from Vietnam who ran not one but two successful nail businesses in the USA. But, like many women, she was enthralled with beauty and image, leading her to get a tummy tuck. However, due to an error from the doctor, she passed away due to the procedure. Susan dives into her mother’s past and her relationship with her mother in this informative, wonderfully told novel.

This book had such an outstanding balance. I get about 40% in for some memoirs, and then I’m somewhat bored, but this was not like that. The choice of exploring her mother’s life and her own and mixing them the way she did was flawless. The characters were all vivid, and I felt like I knew them in a way. It can be so challenging looking back on people in your life, especially after they have passed on or when the relationship is a little complex. The author did so with care and curiosity, which I think would leave her mother very proud.

I often learn a lot when I read memoirs, especially if the person has a very different background from me, which Susan does. I especially loved the time spent in Vietnam and seeing the differences between North America and there. And as a warning to anyone interested in reading this one, the description of food is out of this world. Do not read this while hungry; have a snack at the ready!

Overall, I loved seeing the happy and sad pieces of Susan’s life that she was willing to share. It was beautiful to see how she grew up and how her memories grew up with her. If you like memoirs and novels that are very approachable and feel like you’re sitting with a friend, then you need to read The Manicurist’s Daughter!

“The Manicurist's Daughter" by Susan Lieu is a poignant memoir that explores the aftermath of her mother's death during a routine cosmetic procedure. Lieu delves into themes of identity, cultural expectations, and the complexities of family dynamics. Through raw emotion and introspection, she navigates grief and examines the lasting impact of her loss. Lieu's narrative is both heart-wrenching and empowering, offering a profound reflection on love, loss, and the resilience of the human spirit.

The Manicurist’s Daughter, by Susan Lieu, is one of those memoirs that has quickly earned a place in my heart. Although my cultural background is super different from Lieu’s, her deep emotions, her grief, and her quest to fit in within her own family was easy to connect to.

Lieu’s book (and perhaps her whole life) was shaped by the death of her force-of-nature mother, who died at the age of 38 after a botched plastic surgery operation. Lieu’s family was of the mindset that pain is best left unspoken, and this major event that occurred when she was a young kid ended up significantly impacting the rest of her life (including her career, her relationships, and her self-image). Her quest to find acceptance from her family and to better understand who her mother was (and ultimately what led to her death) is heartfelt and moving.

I really appreciated the structure of this memoir. Usually, I like books like this to be told chronologically, but Lieu’s memoir jumps around since pieces of her family history were only told to her as an adult. I felt grateful to get this inside look into an immigrant family’s lives and into the drive that her family had to become successful in the US. But perhaps the element of the novel I felt most impacted by was her descriptions of how food and body image and family were so tied together in her life. The details about the dishes her family members would make for her to eat, and then the simultaneous criticisms they would give her about her weight were heartbreaking but relatable.

Lieu considers herself a performer, and it was her one-woman show that helped inspire her to write this book. However, I hope that Lieu decides to write more books in the future. Her style is insightful and honest, and I gained so much from reading her story.

my fiance's family shares a heritage, a similar story, and the same favorite dishes as this author and her family, so reading about all three was a really lovely way to get to know my future in laws better! this story is packed with emotion, but it felt like sometimes what the author wanted to convey surpassed her writing experience, leaving us with repetitive and showy language.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy of this e book. The Manicurists Daughter was a poignant memoir and intimate look at the family life of refugees trying to make a better life for themselves in the United States.

I was super excited for this book. I love a memoir! The description and cover were really doing it for me.

This book is essentially the story of the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants and her attempts to understand her family, where she came from, and what caused her mother to get a life-ending tummy tuck. We follow the author through her life as she grapples with memories from childhood and tries to handle the loss of her mother.

I enjoyed how honest this book felt. It really gives the impression that you’re reading a bit of the author’s personal diary. However, that personal feel made the story seem a bit more unpolished and unfocused than I typically enjoy in a memoir. I was looking for a bit more depth into her mother’s plastic surgeries beyond that her family and culture forces unrealistic beauty standards.

I would really like to see the one woman show she has done about her life, but I struggled a bit to see what this book was meaningfully adding at times. Lieu is extremely talented and a great storyteller, this just fell a little flat for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of this book!

This is an intriguing and intimate story about the author’s mother, her life, and legacy, but it also explores the author’s healing journey, her relationships with family members, and her path of self-discovery.

Even though this book delves into serious topics such as unattainable beauty standards and intergenerational trauma, the author skillfully incorporates humor throughout the narrative, creating a well-balanced tone that doesn't detract from her message.

I enjoyed the insights into the author’s daily life, such as family gatherings, running the nail salon, exploring Vietnamese cuisine, and navigating often complicated family dynamics. It was interesting to read about the different ways in which people process grief. However, I think the memoir could be a bit shorter as certain sections felt repetitive, especially toward the latter part.

There’s a lot of emphasis on spirituality and psychic abilities which didn’t resonate with me, but I still found it somewhat interesting to read about.

While I admire the author's determination to learn more about her mother and understand herself through her story, I found her conclusion—that it's best to simply “let it go”— confusing and contradictory to the rest of the story. It felt as though the more negative aspects of the story were not fully processed, and as another reader noted, the author's desire to conclude the novel with an inspirational tone, to me felt like a form of toxic positivity.

Overall, this memoir offers valuable insights into the negative consequences of unrealistic beauty standards and the pressures women face, sadly often from other women in their circles. It’s a powerful story about a woman who is trying to heal while also doing everything in her power to make sure her mother’s story is never forgotten.

The cover design is eye-catching and perfectly captures the essence of the story. I especially like the colors and neon lights effect. It would definitely grab my attention at a bookstore.

Thank you, BookishFirst, the publisher Celadon Books, and author Susan Lieu for the ARC copy! I received a free copy of this book, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.