I'd like to thank NetGalley and Doubleday (publisher) for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 4 stars.

This is a memoir that takes the reader through Qian and her family's experiences in China and emigrating to the US. It tells of struggles, hardship within and without the family, as well as in each of their members.

As an immigrant myself, I related quite closely to rejection for being a foreginer, emotional issues because you're mourning your old life and your own country, the people you left behind. However, Qian's family had problems I've never had to go through, such as arriving to a place whose language you don't speak, being treated inhumanly for the colour of your skin or inner family struggles that I never suffered when travelling because I have no family. I reckon everything has its positive side.

It also shows that people don't really change, but adapt or not to new situations in life which, at some point, shows other aspects of their personality that had not been seen before. We all have the good, the bad and the ugly inside; it's up to each individual and the tools they have to cope, what side comes to the surface.

Back to the book, the writing style made it an easy and fast read, not being simplistic at all, but blunt and honest.

There were only two objections for me. One is I cannot understand how she could continue loving her father. I totally get that family is sacred in certain cultures and you cannot just unlove them, but there are limits to things. Anyway, that's just a personal opinion and she has every right to love him has much as she wants.

The second thing was that were were given some details that were unnecessary for the reader, but I also get why Qian deemed them important. It is her life anyway that's being told.

All in all, I do recommend this memoir, even if you're not used to reading them.

This was one of the best immigrant stories I’ve read. Qian writes in a style so vivid and moving. This is one I’ll be thinking about for a long time.

Lately I feel like immigration memoirs have been providing me with such a powerful learning tool. Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang is most certainly one such case.

Qian came to the United States as a young child when her father had to leave the country due to his lack of ability to express himself freely. He had left first and then Qian and her mother followed later. When Qian arrived she was taught to say she was born in the US and could not let anyone find out her true status or she could be deported. Her parents were both well-educated professors in China but in the US they were forced to work in menial jobs and sweat shops to survive. Qian would also work in the sweat shops when she was not in school. Qian worked very hard and taught herself English despite being put in classes for very low functioning students for a period of time in school. As she went through the educational system she had to learn to play the game where she couldn't turn in papers that were too good for fear of being accused of cheating. She was able to survive and in the end thrive becoming a Yale educated lawyer.

As I teacher I feel this book was so very enlightening and provided me with so many takeaways. I also teacher a class for future teachers and this is a book I have referenced many times throughout reading to the course. I defintely recommend them picking it up to read.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed reading it the plot was interesting and the characters made me want to know more about them. I highly recommend.

This is an essential and truly American story, one that shows us the importance of treating all we meet with kindness, especially those coming to the country to start new lives.

This is a DNF at 40%. I appreciate the struggles of Wang as an undocumented immigrant, but the writing feels childlike with a lot of metaphors. The timeline is stuck on toys and hunger and it hasn’t moved much out of her primitive years. There is not much mention of the parents struggles, just of the toys the author couldn’t have. I think it is just not the memoir/style of writing for me. I appreciate the opportunity to review this title.

LOVED! I loved this book. What an emotional, devastating roller coaster. I think this is such an important read when we talk about immigration in the US. It makes me so sad how this family had to go to Canada to receive any real assistance, whereas America was fine to watch this family and young child suffer or face deportation. The authors prose was poetic and lovely to listen to.

Beautiful Country is a raw and real memoir. From beginning to end, I was fascinated by the authors family journey and story. I think it is important for more stories like Qian’s to be published. Her story was written beautifully and I hope to read more from her in the future.

This is not only a story of immigration and growing up undocumented. It is a moving and often heartbreaking tale of dreams, fear, and survival. The way in which Qian Julie Wang describes her personal journey makes it impossible not to feel the emotion and pain depicted on the pages. Highly recommend this powerful memoir.

Qian Julie Wang’s debut memoir Beautiful Country, is about a child who has no hand and no control in an immigration decision, a child who perhaps has no knowledge of that decision, a child whose mother hides an illness for fear of what a doctor's visit will mean for her undocumented family, a child who has no home other than the known neighborhoods of New York. What is to become of this undocumented child as she becomes an adult? Where is home?

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/12/beautiful-country.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

I’ll never tire of reading another person’s life story. I love memoirs, and this one was no exception. I learned so much from Qian’s story: a life I can only imagine. Thanks to netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I guess I was expecting something else when I requested this book. I pictured more of a non-fiction memoir that examines the trauma of immigration and poverty. However, for me, this read more like an autobiography in which the author's life details were laid out chronologically and her life events weren't that interesting or unique. Not to invalidate her experience as I'm sure she encountered many challenges and trauma but it wasn't portrayed or carved out very well in the book.

It would've been more engaging to write a biography of her dad or mom or even her grandparents as those tidbits were the parts that I wanted to know more about.

This book just didn't work for me although the author did a nice performance on the audio version. Lots of high praising reviews so might be a story worth trying for yourself.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A story of love, a story of survival, a story of immigration and heartache.

A story if strength and one I won’t soon forget.

A wonderful debut novel. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this copy.

It is so hard to judge a memoir, and even harder being written from a childs side.

It wasn't fair for her and her mother to be going through, when the father knew the routine and still letting their visas expire. If he's working with people today know the routine, it's not impossible and they don't always get rejected. If her parents had great jobs where they lived, what enticed him to come here and then become "illegal:"?

I did feel sorry for the way she was treated as a child. Children are so cruel to other children and not being taught my many. Her mother should not have never been sweat shop worker, along with herself the times she was in there. People running those need to be stopped.

I am glad that life highly improved for her and her mother, it was just hard to keep the book going without putting it down many times.

I thank the author sending me the link before the book came ot though Netgalley.

Memoirs are usually tough to rate and review because it’s the author’s life and experience, but Beautiful Country is an exception- it’s a beautifully written memoir! Ms. Wang takes us through her childhood arriving in New York City at seven years old, full of wonder and curiosity but also overwhelming and daunting. Not speaking the language and just trying to adapt & adjust to new surroundings. She writes about her parents’ struggles with parenting and working just trying to survive in a new country. It’s raw, emotional, and honest about being an immigrant. I highly recommend this book! Thank you to Doubleday Books for a gifted copy.

I loved this book! It's an amazing portrait of an undocumented Chinese girl living in the nineties in NYC. Qian Wang is resourceful, determined, and creative. Her writing is honest, humorous, and intimate. There is an immediacy to her voice that puts the reader in her shoes as she strives for every success and suffers many disappointments. This is an American story that is unforgettable and heartbreaking. It brings to light uncomfortable truths about the experience of undocumented immigrants and how much determination and fortitude it takes to survive.

Seven year old Qian is brought to America from China with her parents who are fleeing political persecution. Though they were successful professionals in China, they are forced to start at the lowest rung in their new country, living in New York City. They are only able to take on menial jobs that aren’t scrutinized. Qian starts school and begins to learn English and cultural norms. Wang describes her day to day life as a child so well. You really understand her thoughts and experiences as a child who is forced to be invisible while she suffers from hunger and isolation. Her parents do what they can to get by and improve their circumstances, but it’s so difficult. Beautiful Country is an important story about what it’s like to live in poverty in American in a family that is undocumented with extremely limited resources.

Thank you Doubleday Books for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

This is a touching memoir of a Chinese American woman raised in America under the critical expectations of her Chinese mother. The story is vivid and explicitly describes her struggles trying to adapt to American culture. She slowly begins to resent her mother who is resistant to changing her Chinese traditions. Unfortunately, her children are raised suffering the consequences. Her mother was a proud, educated and highly respected doctor in China before moving to America to join her husband.
It’s a bittersweet story of family, resilience, honor and courage.

I would like to thank Doubleday Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. My review is my voluntary unbiased opinion.

An incredible, eye opening, insightful debut memoir. It was vivid and I found myself grieving for Qian. A difficult but beautiful read.

A vivid, and powerful memoir that tells the story of a young Chinese girl who immigrates to America, but discovers terror and struggle that comes with being undocumented in a country whose language you do not speak and who does not provide resources or safety to those in her family's position.

Seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994, after her father has escaped China 2 years before. Her parents were highly educated professionals, but in America they were reduced to working in sweatshops and other low-paying jobs that allowed them to remain in the shadows, with the constant fear of their illegal status being discovered hanging over them. Over the next 3 years, the stress and living conditions that their toll physically and mentally on everyone in the family.

This is a story of how secrets destroy families, how little is done to acknowledge or help those living in horrific poverty in the United States, the struggles that people of color have finding/keeping/discovering their identity in a country that holds whiteness as the ideal, and the resilience and persistence of those who work their whole life to break free of the outside forces that hold them down.

***Thank you to Doubleday Books for providing me with the e-ARC for free via NetGalley for an unbiased review.