I’m in the minority on this one, as I just didn’t enjoy it. With multiple timelines and viewpoints, it just felt disjointed and I had a hard time staying interested. The characters were interesting but I just wasn’t invested in their story. This one was not for me, but judging from the other reviews it was well received.

KALEIDOSCOPE by Cecily Wong has such a melancholy tone that I had to put it down for a while. Wong writes about two sisters: Riley, who is just finishing high school and Morgan, who is older and uses her intuitive fashion sense to help build the family import and retail business, named Kaleidoscope. Beginning with an extremely well-written tale of a medically induced abortion, Wong forces readers to contemplate the many issues faced by these biracial, Chinese American young women. Sadly, one is involved in a horrible accident while the other embarks on a journey to India and Thailand for more understanding. Multiple narrators and numerous shifts in time add complexity. Tough to read, but filled with insightful perspective, KALEIDOSCOPE received starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.

This book has been sitting on my NetGalley shelf for a bit and I don't know why I delayed in reading it, but I am delighted that I finally got to it. Riley, Morgan, their parents, and James populate this literary fiction story. The beginning draws you right in with the power of the writing and immediately you come to care about Riley and Morgan. Throughout the story each is trying to find their way to themself and in being themself how that will blend with their family. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book that is available now.

I hadn't read Cecily Wong's previous book, Diamond Head, before I picked up Kaleidoscope, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. The summary also doesn't really capture what this book is really about. I thought it would be a story of sisters building their relationship amidst an international backdrop, but it actually deals with grief and family dysfunction, and the travel part actually doesn't really begin until around the last third of the story.

This book feels very intimate, very raw. Wong has a skilled way of letting us into the head of her narrator, Riley Brighton. What I found a little lacking was the development of Riley's arc as a character - it was a little unclear what her journey was and where she stands at the end of it. Overall I enjoyed this book!

Sisters Morgan and Riley's parents go from humble beginnings in Oregon to found a very successful chain of import stores (think early Anthropology.) The girls move to New York for college and their parents follow them there to grow their business. Morgan and Riley are very close and are not completely comfortable being in the NY spotlight. When tragedy strikes the family, the remaining members must decide what is important to them and how they will go on.

This book is solidly literary fiction. I really liked the characters and the storyline. I was righteously angry at some of their actions, but I loved the character development and the unique story. However, it was very dense and HARD to read. I really had to stick with this one to finish it and it was at times incredibly slow. I will definitely remember these characters and would recommend this book to those who really wants to see inside a family and can embrace a slower and more character-based book that goes from Oregon to New York City to India.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

If you enjoy sibling stories, family stories, or stories with complicated family dynamics, I would definitely try this one. I didn't love how it skipped around between present day/past tense because I thought it was kind of confusing especially at first, but overall it didn't take away from the reading experience. A unique story that while sad, ended in a hopeful way.

Sometimes you simply fall hard into a story and that’s exactly what happened to me with 𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐈𝐃𝐎𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐏𝐄 by Cecily Wong. Hers is a book I flew through in a single day, and then was left wishing I hadn’t yet finished. It's one of the best books I’ve read this year and one of my two July book hangovers.⁣
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This is a difficult book to describe without giving too much away, but I’ll try a few basics. Above all, this is a story about the relationship between two sisters, Morgan and Riley, daughters of very successful entrepreneurs. It’s about the reasons they're so close, why they drift just a bit, and how one reacts after she's left on her own. It’s also about both sisters’ relationships with their parents, who treat the two very differently. It’s about crossing boundaries, and about being lost and finding yourself again. Ultimately, 𝘒𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘦 is a love story in which love takes on many different forms.⁣
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I know I’ve given you little to go on, and the story may even sound a little grim, but it really isn’t. Yes, there is sadness and pain, but also hope and renewal. The last thing I want to say is, “𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐭!” 𝘒𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘦 is a book I highly recommend! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣
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Many thanks to @duttonbooks and @hellocecilywong for an electronic copy of #Kaleidoscope.

𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁, 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻, 𝗜 𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝗶𝘀, 𝘄𝗮𝘀, 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲, 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀.

With a sunny yellow cover, it is misleading to imagine this will be a light read. It is a heavy tale about the bond between sisters that is both comforting and limiting. I spent a bit of time thinking about how in many families, our position molds us. If one child is outgoing, the other siblings appear reserved. It’s comparison, a silly notion when you really get down to who people are. Weighing the beauty, intelligence, talent, and personality between things has consequences. It is often the case someone must glide along in the background. In this tale, there is a life altering moment, and Riley Brighton must discover who she is after the separation between she and her glorious sister Morgan, who is a force that no one can resist. Even Riley is ever in awe of her older sister’s brilliance, beauty, talent, and competence. Morgan has always been her guide, even when she struggled through a rough patch one summer, even after she stopped dating and became more career driven, focused on their family business, Kaleidoscope. Morgan has never collapsed into ruin, always in motion, powering through. The title is perfect for this story, the ever-changing family as a kaleidoscope, just when you have an image burned in your brain, the light shifts and the scene changes. You discover what you thought you knew no longer stands true.

Hank and Karen Brighton built Kaleidoscope, now a wildly successful business that brought the East to Oregon. After a trip to India, inspiration struck like lightning and having closed their former organic grocery story, in its place stands the beauty of Indian, Moroccan, Turkish and Japanese products. The store is filled with glassware, handicrafts, clothing and fabrics that the customers can’t get enough of. Their clothing changes, fresh and new material, all of their imported designs immerse people in the exotic. Their business is hot, expanding into African and Mexican inspired pieces, they are celebrated entrepreneurs. Sharing the heartbeat of Kaleidoscope is their business partner Hammir Bindal, whom they met on their trip to India. The wealthy Hammir, now more of a beloved, honorary family member, may have been courted by Hank and Karen to get the business started, but the true star is Morgan and her gifts. A biracial Chinese American family, they are seeing their hard work pay off, considering themselves “Eclectic Lifestyle experts”. They even follow their girls to New York as they head to college, buy a house, and grab attention on the scene wearing their own goods, looking like ‘creative kooks’. It is a far cry from their past, where they struggled to make ends meet long before they moved to Eugene, Oregon and opened their grocery store. They have made it, but this success may do untold damage to their relationships. In the blindness of their drive, they are missing signs that everything isn’t well with their girls nor each other. Fate has them in its sight.

Morgan is the chief designer, with her parents, it is the three of them always and Riley sort of slips through the cracks. She is used to being the less memorable family member, content in her own company, easily ‘dissolving into the city’. Fated to be the lesser Brighton girl, never to dazzle like her sister, the superstar, she assumes Morgan is exactly what others project unto her. But is it possible that she takes Morgan’s happiness for granted? That there are undiscovered longings, secrets in her own sister’s heart she hasn’t witnessed? Riley had fantasized about New York long before her sister and parents made their plans, it was a chance to test her independence, the ‘most radical thing she’d ever allowed herself to want.’ In the end, Morgan’s need is evident, and Riley never has been without her big sister’s leadership. Riley’s crush, James, falls for Morgan and as the two become inseparable, she accepts it, happy just to return to the comforts of her sister. As with all relationships, there are strains, a pulling away and coming back together. Riley does lose her grip, more the hermit than Morgan, but her big sister’s stability comes into question too. They need each other, but at times resent it. One part of the story that hit home is when Riley is describing how mysterious her older sister became during puberty. It’s interesting being a younger sister and witnessing the transformation, feeling left behind, playing catch up. I have an older sister too, I remember the confusion and discomfort of the changes, and the envy, I suppose, the ‘when is it my turn’?

A shocking event destroys the foundation they’ve built, everything crumbles, and when Riley needs a life raft in the aftermath of severe trauma, her parents absent themselves emotionally. She turns to James, plotting an ‘escape plan’, one that involves travel together. What follows could be entitled revelations. It’s hard to go into detail without spoilers, but there are little earthquakes throughout the tale and a character who comes to have a bigger story in the knots of the Brighton drama. The novel does have a strange pace, and usually I don’t like timelines that jump about, but for some reason it didn’t bother me. I felt like I was as harried as Riley, which made me feel a part of the novel. She lacks definition, and she knows it. It is what drives her to impulsive decisions, but not every choice we make in such a state is doomed to failure. Grief makes strange examples of us.

I’ve rambled enough. It’s an engaging tale, one that strips the family of their assumptions about themselves and each other. It is a wound that festers, but there is hope for new beginnings, even if it must be built upon ruins.

Publication Date: July 5, 2022

Penguin Group

Dutton
2 likes

It's been weeks since I finished this book, and I don't know what to say. On one hand, I think I enjoyed it. The dynamics between the characters was so complicated yet understandable. I had no issues sympathizing with each of their struggles. On the other hand, I felt removed from the story. Despite the introspection, I did not feel connected with any of the characters. It might be a "me" thing, as I thought I was enjoying the story. Overall, it did feel prolonged and a bit telenovela-esque with all of the big reveals and confessions. And that's fun! But it didn't fit the tone for me.

I would be interested in reading other books by this author. Her ability to flesh out a character was really captivating, despite the aforementioned hangups.

There were a lot of parts I liked about Kaleidoscope -- the writing, the way it approached heavy subjects and difficult emotional scenes, etc. The lack of honest communication in the family resonated with me quite a bit. But I also found most characters to be somewhat unlikeable in a way. I'm not sure how to feel about the cultural appropriation that the business Kaleidoscope seems to be founded on. I also wish there was more insight on the way that Morgan's image of perfection was projected onto her -- she seemed to be blamed for so many feelings of inadequacy (namely on James's part) which felt unfair, and that realization didn't seem to hit for anyone.

Overall, I also found the plot hopping to be a little disorienting, and it felt like some parts were longer than needed.

Received a free copy from Netgalley.

I am still processing this book! I honestly don’t know if I loved or hated it.

Upon reading the description, I thought this was going to be a five star read. The concept of a family all viewing the same shared experiences differently due to their interpretation of the world and how they fit into it, sounded brilliant. However, the first third of the book felt very chaotic and convoluted. In particular, I had a hard time following the timeline and POVs. Perhaps this is simply a result of my failures as a reader, but I honestly almost DNF it.

I can say that I am glad to have pushed through my slump and finished the rest of the book. The ending was much easier for me to follow.

This is a heavy story that deals with some hard situations. So if you are looking for a light read, this is not that. I would highly suggest looking up trigger warnings before diving into this book.

As stated above, I am still processing this book. I am left feeling that this is a sad portrayal of the breakdown of an unlikeable family. The characters realistically convey that no one is perfect. We all make mistakes, keep secrets from those closest to us and fail to articulate what we need/ want in life.

I wouldn’t mind revisiting this work in the future and seeing how I feel about it after a second read.

Special thanks to NetGalley.com and Penguin Group Dutton for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

Just lovely. A story about a family and the complex relationships within not only two sisters but with their parents. The title is apt for many reasons and while I usually don’t appreciate a multi-meaning title, this one worked. I had nothing in common with the characters but found myself nodding my head when emotions were expressed and actions explained. Go in cold. Don’t read a summary. It’s a beautiful novel and I’m so grateful to Dutton for sending me an advanced copy. Brava to author Cecily Wong.

When someone from the publisher reached out about Kaleidoscope, this line caught me: "This book is heart-wrenching and hopeful and the characters truly shine on the page. It’s one of those books where I wish I could read it again for the first time all over again. And I’m so happy that you get to."

And I downloaded a copy almost immediately, but of course sat on it for a few months, allowing me to forget about the blurb and the subject and go into this completely blind.*  This approach, if you've followed me for a while, sometimes works for me and sometimes it doesn't. This time it sort of worked mostly because the intro was a little abrupt and different from the rest of the story, but that's on me, not the author.

Kaleidoscope is a story of sisters and family and travel and love. Riley and Morgan were inseparable growing up and as Riley heads off to college with the entirety of her family relocating to NYC with her, which put so much unspoken added pressure on her.

The story is simultaneously slow and fast-paced with huge lurches forward and glacial passages that are beautiful and stunningly written. You pick up pretty early on that this is an unanswered letter to someone because of a tragedy and spend that first part of the book wondering when it's going to happen and how it's going to happen. And oh boy when it happens it still packs a punch—part of it is the day it happens, some of it is how it happens, but mostly it's just the build-up and waiting for it to happen that got to me.

The biggest part of the story for me is the hidden lives of everyone in the story. Riley has her secrets, one of which she shares with Morgan, Morgan has her secrets, both parents have their secrets, James has his secrets and there is just so much unsaid throughout the novel. We're reading most of the book through Riley's perspective with occasional smaller chapters from others, and we get to go through her maturation from a new/young adult to an adult having to learn and communicate with her parents as adults.

You are the least perfect, most real person I have ever known, and it frightens me every day, every fucking day, how in love I am with you. It's distressing actually. I don't know how else to explain it. The last few weeks have been mind-blowing, delirious pain because I had no idea this feeling existed, and now that I do, there's no going back. There's no way to forget what it's like to be with someone who slips into your brain so completely, who makes you think about everything differently, who makes you laugh a hundred times a day and doesn't take your shit, who makes you feel like the best fucking version of a self you never even knew you could be, it's you, Riley. You do whatever the hell you want. You don't care what anyone else thinks. You eat like a monster and you dance like a teenager, but watching you dance makes me want to dance, and eating with you makes me never want to eat without you. You're the truest friend I've ever had. You have no idea how sexy you are. You're a smartass with a smart mouth and I am lucky to be here, to be here with you, and I'm sorry if I ever made you feel otherwise. (Part 4: Bangkok)

As incredible as the emotional journey was in this novel, seriously the James and Riley story and that confession of love above could be an entire novel themselves, where Wong really shone was with her descriptions around the world. From this one in New York City to the moment where Riley has a breakdown when she's traveling the world and visiting temples in India.

On the days I hated everything, the many piss-and-shit-filled days, this was one thing I still cherished about this city: even when there was nothing, no farmers' market or heritage-day parade or circle of breakdancing Puerto Ricans, there was something. If you put yourself in the way of New York, she always gave you something to look at, something to change your state of mind. A woman driving a remote control car with a Chihuahua sitting behind the wheel. A white dude furiously nunchucking his way up some stairs. Two toddlers being pulled by a leash. (Part 2: The Crash of 2008)

There were passages I read multiple times because they were so beautiful and passages I couldn't get through fast enough because they were SOOOOOO uncomfortable. Riley's evolution as a character and her relationships with her parents, her sister, and James. This novel seemed to have a lot of themes that we read about in school when reading "the classics" with all of these relationships, so I can definitely see this one standing the test of time.

Recommendation: This was an incredibly moving novel and so beautifully written. There were moments I didn't want to keep reading because Wong's writing pulls you into the scene and there are conversations NO ONE wants to have. But ultimately, you become a better person when you have them. And thankfully, we got to experience that as Riley grows up over the timespan this novel covers. And I can't say enough about Wong's ability to write place and setting. Her descriptions and settings were stunning and I felt like I was in NYC and Mumbai and Bangkok and Oregon, seriously she could write a travelogue and I would read every word of it.

*I received a copy of Kaleidoscope via NetGalley in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

I’m sorry but this book was just not for me. I finished 43% but started skimming and had to abandon it. Just too sad. I will not post on Goodreads since I did not finish.

Grief swamps Riley, her parents, and their friend James when Morgan is killed in an accident. Morgan was the glue that held their family together and that propelled her parents' company Kaleidoscope even though she had not yet graduated from Parsons. This is told over the course of the year that follows as well as in flashbacks of a sort. Know that the perspectives and narrative voice shifts (between first and third person), the rhythm feels uneven and that there are missing links of a sort. There's a very long lead up to Morgan's death, with a certain amount of info that never becomes relevant and the second half, when Riley and James travel to India moves very quickly (with only snapshots of certain other locations- a paragraph or two on Paris, for example). You get a good sense of Riley, might seem immature in spots until you remember that she's 21. It's a very dysfunctional family and you, like me, might wonder about how the Brightons created such a huge fashion empire (seven stores) and made so so much money so quickly (it's not really explained even when you know the silent investor). There are some terrific lines and images with great atmospherics both in NYC and abroad. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. It's an uneven but interesting read.

This is going to be a really polarizing book, I can tell. I’m firmly in the “not for me, thanks” camp, I’m afraid. I really wish there had been content warnings—I was not prepared for a lot of what I read and had to skip some parts. I thought this would be a bit of a deeper and more poignant dive into a relationship and grief, but it felt kind of trope-y and predictable at times. But it also felt a little all over the place (maybe a symbol for how overwhelming grief makes us feel?) as far as timelines and pacing. I wanted to like it, but I also kept wanting to put it down. Unfortunately, it’s just not for me. Excited for folks who will enjoy it, though.

The author has a way with words. Her descriptions and the character's musings are written delectably, lush, beautifully, overdramatically, and pretentiously. The characters each seem to have some sort of mild to severe psychosis.

The characters are a bunch of whiny, entitled children and not just the young adults either. The parents take the cake but not until the end at least.

The book opens with one of the characters taking the pregnancy termination pill and the whole experience being described graphically.

What I took from this book was two things- that we have two sisters, and each one is jealous of the other without them ever telling the other her feelings. Things childishly escalate until a tragedy strikes---then the book is all about the younger sister's feelings, sexual needs, and her need to get away from her family in the most dramatic way. And the second thing is I learned a ton about the family's fascination/obsession with Indian culture, food art, and fabric.

I gave this book 1 star because I finished it and the second star because the author obviously put a lot of effort into writing this book. Had I stopped reading when I wanted to I would have given this book only one star but I was able to persevere.

*ARC supplied by the publisher PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Dutton, the author, and NetGalley.

I struggled to understand all of the hype about this novel Although it starts off wonderfully it doesn't take long at all before the cast of characters become far too large for you to be really interested in any of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the advanced reader copy.

This week’s headline? The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Why this book? Anticipated read

Which book format? ARC

Primary reading environment? Work and friend’s apartment

Any preconceived notions? Not really

Identify most with? Morgan’s fashion sense

Three little words? “a private penance”

Goes well with? Traveling, music playlist on shuffle, $20, antique or consignment shops

Recommend this to? My book club

Other cultural accompaniments: https://www.moneycrashers.com/affordable-travel-tips-vacation-budget/

Grade: 4/5

I leave you with this: “These stretches of time were becoming more familiar; a distance that was once intentional was by then simply natural…”

“She felt the ocean in her stomach; a week of nightmares dropped from her nerves.”

📚📚📚📚📚📚

Kaleidoscope is much more nuanced than the synopsis would have you believe. While it initially is about the tight knit relationship between two sisters and how a family deals with grief, ultimately it’s how one sister learns how to function without the other. This is a coming of age story, a slow ascent to independence, but also how to make connections outside of family and learning how to move forward.

*Something of note, Part 3 changes point of view from first to third person.

tw: abortion, blood, sudden death, autopsy and accident scene descriptions

Kaleidoscope will be released on July 5, 2022.

I enjoyed this story. The writing style was hard to follow at times but overall a good book.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.