Could not read past the first 50 pages. I love books that engage me from the beginning but this book thrust me into a world that was confusing and hard to keep track off that I couldn't continue reading. Which is sad, because I really wanted to read more about the Japanese internment camps during WWII, albeit, a fictional interpretation of it.

A beautifully written book. These are events during World War Two that I knew nothing about. The story of Lily's life is heartbreaking and very memorable. It is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

Sadly, for me a 2.5. Rounding up only because the writing was decent.

I was looking forward to this read but was very disappointed. The blurb was enticing. I have read a few other book on the Japanese internment [most recently the superior Requiem, by Frances Itani, which takes place in camps in Canada; in this book, the camps are in California]. And the extremely compelling Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson.

But this book was disjointed and all over the place. It never grabbed me. The writing was good enough. The only time I felt jarred by the prose was the description of moments between Rita and Mark late in the book--when they were not involved in looking for Lily, or doing research. Then it felt very much out of sync--I wondered what?! Is this the same author? Why is it even in this book--not necessary [at least it felt that way to me].

The book jumped around too much and left bits unsatisfied. When the story was in the camp it was more fulfilling. But too much of a mishmash. Beauty pageants? Leave it out. Family history-- parts dangled too long -- sort of kept me guessing, filling in the blanks, but I just didnt care.

So good because not awful.

I was unsure when I started reading this book. There is not much public information about the Japanese Internment. It's not a proud moment of our past.
The story is about Lily who suffered and survived the camps well enough to raise her children but was no longer whole when she came out. She was always looking for the one man who held her heart.. It was at a Redress meeting that she remembered something he gave her and that memory drove her to go off without telling anyone.
The story is also about her daughter Rita's quest to find her mother and how she also found her past.
I was confused in the beginning until it became clear that Lily and Rita were taking turns telling the story. It was a good read.

A haunting DEBUT NOVEL which tells of Japanese encampment during WWII. During the ensuing years, there are memory confusions and dissociative tendencies and secrets about the experience. Lily's daughter, Rita, is unexpectedly drawn into the story when Lily disappears one night and Rita tries to piece together her mother's life enough to find her.

I read this EARC courtesy of NetGalley and Dundurn Press. Pub date 05/09/17

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1896276387

My mother is 88 years old. When asked about what happened in the 1940s, she is a very unreliable narrative. When she writes out her memoirs, they are not right, out of order, and make no sense. But that is my mother. I have no control over how I write her story, as this is real life.

Lily, the mother in this book, who was interred in a camp set up for people of Japanese decent during WWII tells half of the story of this book, and her daughter tells the other half. The daughter, Rita, is telling the story in the 1980s. And Lily is telling it in the 1940s. Reading Lily's side of the story of her time in the camp is like having to watch paint dry, but not being able to look at the paint. It is very slow and painful and you can't quite figure out what is really going on, or if you can, you want Lily to notice so you can move on.

There are some good points made in this novel, which is why it is a three instead of two star. The point about how those who have been forced to leave everything to go off to camp, or have to escape their homeland, will forever after fear it is going to happen again. They do not trust the present government not to do so again. And they probably are right not to.

It is not a YA, NA or middle school book. This is what is often called Literary fiction. It is a little slower than I am used to, since I tend to gobble up Middle School and YA, and a bit longer. It is good for pointing out what wrongs happen to people when the government does things that it shouldn't to people it shouldn't. But, if you are used to the faster paced YA and Middle School, I would steer away from this.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Rita is a Canadian of Japanese ancestry, her parents were interned at a fictionalized camp called Matanzas and now the mother, Lily, is missing. The generation-spanning mystery involves psychology which is vague yet intriguing. In a misery-loving-company sense, I "liked" learning that Canada shares America's guilt in having imprisoned its Japanese citizens also, in reaction to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Along the same lines, it was interesting reading such a negative perception of the role of the Japanese American Citizens League, which I'd always considered to be the good guys. So I guess I would say I found the book to be revealing, although unsettling.

I got an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The premise of the book, how the Japanese were interned during WWII interested me, as I didn't know too much about this part of American history. I found Lily's story during the war confusing and very hard to follow. Rita's story looking for her mother was somewhat easier to follow, but it still left many questions in my mind. I found the conclusion of the book very strange and the coincidences too unbelievable also. Overall, I struggled through the novel, as I don't easily give up once I start it. This book was a disappointment for me, do not recommend.
Thanks NetGalley , the publisher and the author Leslie Shimotakara for the advanced copy.

I wanted to love this book; I really did. It just had too many problems. The premise is so applicable to the present atmosphere in the United Stares--a group of people are deemed to be a threat to our country because the actions of a group totally unrelated to them, except by culture. This is a very scary premise, and our country should learn its lessons from the events in this book.

Unfortunately, the author just misses the mark. I like stories that go back and forth between two times, but this book does it such a confusing way. Most authors choose to use this technique by dividing chapters. The time jumps all over the place in a few paragraphs in this story.

The book could use some severe editing. Any time a reader feels the need to scan, the story is overdone. The story was good, but the details just dragged the book down. (For example, there was no nice car available at the airport, so they take a clunker. The clunker has a flat, etc.). After so many of these useless scenarios, I just lost interest.

Also, does every main character have to have a handsome love interest? That has a way of cheapening the story, if it is not central to the movement of the story. Rita did not need to have a relationship with the archeologist to help the story along.

This is a very important story that needs to be told, but I wish the author had found the basic story to be strong enough to stand on its own. The story of Rita, Lily, the doctor, and Kaz was a good one. The other characters could be left out.

“Everyone, perhaps, had these faint, staticky shadow selves following them around, like degraded clones. Yourself, but not yourself. Things you’d done, but couldn’t believe you’d done, would never acknowledge. Parts of yourself you couldn’t bear to own.”

It is summer in 1980s Toronto when Lily Takemitsu vanishes. Her daughter Rita is familar with her mother’s wanderings but never have her absences lasted this long. When she decides to find out what happened to her mother, as the police aren’t taking it seriously, she ends up excavating her family’s secrets from their time spent interned at a Camp in California during World War II. Her father is an unknown, a question mark that forever hovers over her life, a wide gap. Her mother never seems to tell things straight and certainly glosses over any memories of the internment camp. It isn’t long before Rita begins to understand why her mother wants to forget and how her mind has lasting damage.

The story follows Lily from past to present, at a tender age she falls stupidly in love as any 18 year old might. Normally the consequences aren’t as dire for the rest of us, we get burned in young love and move on. But blindly loving a ‘bad seed’ during dangerous times when your own country has imprisoned you can set a young woman on a path of destruction. Guilt is a rotten shadow to follow you the rest of your life. It touches Rita long after her mother has left the camp, poisoning her mother’s future. It’s hard to understand for those of us that have never lived through these experiences. It’s interesting to me that children today don’t even realize Japanese Americans were sent to camps, that they lost businesses, homes… it isn’t often something shouted from a mountaintop in the way other unconscionable events in history are. Much of that reason is Japanese culture itself, which I learned so much more about living in Okinawa for 3 years. They don’t spend much time complaining, it isn’t done in their culture, but don’t forget they were denied basic rights, rounded up and sent to live in military style barracks. Imagine that today, regardless of where you come from, you are an American citizen and you are taken from your community, your home, losing your successful businesses or careers all because you are the ethnicity that is now the enemy. Much of what I learned was outside of school, I remember this moment in history was glossed over during my early years. The paranoia remains, people still afraid to speak about reparations, because you never know when the tide will turn and again someone will be out to get you.

In After The Bloom, Rita starts to understand why her mother doesn’t seem to fully function. Full of shame from that time, actions taken in her fiery youth, her heart’s confusion she keeps so much of herself hidden. Denial has become her coping mechanism, but the gaps in her mind will out all the trauma of her past. That Lily’s new husband doesn’t really know Lily, or that she was once interned at a camp in the USA speaks volumes of her denial. She hasn’t been the best mother, but in closing herself off has been her way of existing sadly it has clouded Rita’s own mothering skills. War is a beast, not just for those fighting battles but for generations long after it’s end. For some it is a silence, a gaping hole in the family’s history. There is a zone in families where no questions are asked, but much like a ghost there is a looming presence that pulsates with all things unsaid. Deep down, you know there is something huge missing but you don’t know what it is, it’s simply felt in the silence.

Rita was in the dark ‘not knowing’ as much as her mother was in the dark full of knowledge. That Lily disconnected from her truth may well be the reason her memory is flawed. Don’t come into this novel expecting happily ever after where ‘EUREKA’ now everything is out and mommy is fixed. When Rita’s father becomes a person with each uncovering, what does it change for Rita? What does understanding finally mean for the absence in her life? Lily’s life is heartbreaking, we can only understand such an existence on the periphery and it’s the same for her daughter. But I dare anyone to think they would make wiser decisions in Lily’s shoes. What I always try to do when reading novels of this sort is imagine myself at 18, in the same situation older now I realize it’s easy to speak from wisdom but at 18 with that dreamy naivete I imagine I’d be just a stupid with love, blinded and trusting in the wrong things.

Lily’s family is a dysfunctional mess before everything that comes to pass, and it is disturbing. This is a sad tale that is about more than just transgressions against Japanese Americans, it is also about how we wrong our families, and ourselves with consequences that can last for generations.

Publication Date: May 9, 2017

Dundurn

4 and ½ stars

Rita’s mother, Lily, has gone missing. This is not the first time she has disappeared, but it is the longest she’s been gone. Rita’s brother, Tom, shows up later and gets into the act. Lily’s husband has only been married to her for a year, so he wasn’t aware of the “missing” parts of Lily’s life.

One of the missing parts is a concentration camp during WWII when all of the Japanese people were interned. Lily flatly denies ever having been there.

(As an aside here, the pantyhose described in the 13% of the book did not exist during the war. Oops.)

After a horrible childhood, the book tells Lily’s story from the mid - 1980’s during her internment camp days. Interred at about 18 years old, Lily is already setting herself up for the denial of the whole experience. While in the camp, Lily meets Kaz. She is a naïve young woman and quickly begins to set up a fantasy life for herself. She sadly deludes herself by believing her own version of reality. She begins to have memory lapses.

The story moves back and forth between Lily and Rita. Rita, beset by doubts about her fitness as a mother and all the time Lily is missing learning more about her mother that she didn’t know. She finds out stunning things.

What touched me particularly was when Ms. Shimotakahara talked about Lily being unable to throw anything away or would stoop to gather a flower in someone’s overgrown yard. My mother-in-law lived through Nagasaki before she married my American GI father-in-law and moved to the United States. Ms. Shimotakahara’s words describe Tomoko to the letter. While she has passed away now, I am grateful for the memory and sad smile Ms. Shimotakahara brought to me.

This is a remarkable book, both touching and suspenseful. Well written, well researched; it is a tour de force in literature.

I want to thank Netgalley and Dundurn for forwarding me a copy of this wonderful book to read.

Alternating between the mid 1980's Canada and a Japanese internment camp in the US during World War II, the novel tells the story of Lily and her daughter, Rita. Rita didn't know about her mother's internment, and how the impact of that experience caused much of her mother's disassociation. Lily goes missing, and in the search for her, Rita uncovers both her mother's past and the key to her own u happy upbringing. The Kindle version of this galley was difficult to read, and there were transitions within chapters that didn't make sense. Needs further editing but an interesting story.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Normally, I love multi-generation tales that include WWII Era. After the Bloom, however, never grabbed me and I gave up after reading about half the book.

Most titles set in the Japanese internment camps present a far more traditional family structure. Lily's family is dysfunctional at best and her psychological problems have a very real foundation. The dysfunction carries through to Lily's daughter, Rita. And that's when I gave up. No character mattered to me.

After the Bloom by Leslie Shimotakahara is a story about a mother and daughter and the dark history the family struggles to overcome in the search for peace and absolution. Lily Takemitsu, who suffers from a memory and dissociative disorder, wanders away from her Toronto home one day in the mid 1980s. Rita, her daughter, not satisfied with the police's investigation, starts her own investigation into her mother's disappearance. Along the way, she uncovers many secrets about the father she never knew, the family’s unspoken history of being interned in a California desert camp during the Second World War, and readjusting to life in Toronto after immigrating.

This book was well-written and descriptive with well developed characters and plot. I especially liked the switching timelines between Lily's past and her daughter, Rita's present which kept the story moving along, although at times there were lulls in the story. The details of Japanese internment in America during WWII was certainly interesting to read about, especially since I knew so little about it. The author even added a "of related interest" section at the end of the novel. A great debut novel. I rate it 4 out of 5 stars.The only issue I had was a formatting issue with the Kindle advance copy I received in that it was slightly off throughout most of the novel and quite distracting in places, but I'm sure that will be taken care of by the release date.

Thank you NetGalley and Dundurn Publishing for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

Reviewed: January 10, 2017. Novel Publish Date: April 15, 2017.