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The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

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Member Reviews

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is a beautiful story about the descendants of Afong Moy, one of the first Chinese women to be sent to America. The book has seven different timelines, each pertaining to one of seven women. I went in blind on this, so it took me a minute to realize how much I needed to pay attention. I was well into the book when I realized how each of the women were related to each other. But the effort was well worth it! The story begins with Dorothy in the year 2045, a national acclaimed poet, but one who also suffers from depression and feelings of being lost. She discovers the theory of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance where traumas are passed down to future generations, perhaps through DNA. While the book bounced from character to character each in a different time, each of their stories were tragic and engaging and their lives all interwoven by their traumas and loves. Ford brings to life the Chinese culture and the many discriminations these women faced.
This was a book like no other that I have read. I feel like there is so much to this story and calls for a rare re-read.

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The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is a beautiful multi-generational novel following the descendants of a family tree, similar to Homegoing. The book is very beautifully-written and I really enjoyed the stories of most of the characters shared. There were some stories that felt like they could have used a little more time and attention (or that were slower and dragged), but overall a very compelling story. I was surprised to find that this was inspired by a real woman, Afong Moy, who is suspected to be the first Chinese woman to come to the US. It is important for these stories to be told, as they're written out of history.

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3.25-3.5 stars overall. I really liked The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford. Afong Moy, historically, was the first Chinese woman in America. We meet 5 generations (I’m pretty sure 😊) of her female descendants. Afong’s story takes place in 1836, and Dorithy’s story takes place in 2045. Over those two centuries, Afong’s descendants struggle with love and each experiences trauma that in 2045, Dorothy experiences in flashbacks, to the point that she wonders if she’s having a mental breakdown. Dorothy visits a clinic on epidemics, the story of inherited trauma.

I liked some of these women’s stories more than others. And I especially liked the ending.

If you like literary fiction that deals with women’s issues over time, this book is very fascinating. If you like stories of the Chinese experience in America, or during WWII, this book is very good.

This was not an easy read, though some parts were easier than other parts. The scientific aspect was a little difficult for me to understand, but I did get the gist of what was happening. The ending was a little bit “La La land”-ish. But I loved La La land so that didn’t bother me.

Overall I liked this book and wish I had picked it up earlier.

Thank you to #netgalley and #atriabooks for the e-copy of #themanydaughtersofafongmoy .

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As a trauma trained teacher, I have learned that trauma is generational. Trauma changes our dna.

So what happens when we don’t only carry the trauma, but also carry the memories to understand where it all comes from?


Such an interesting story. I wish I could go back to see and understand about what I carry in my own DNA.

This story was so inspired….it makes me want to draft my own.

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I found the Many Daughters of Afong Moy to be a fascinating read. Not only does it address in a science fictiony way intergenerational trauma, but also does an amazing job of tying together several people, places, and times in history. Even though we met so many characters, I felt drawn to all of them and invested in their stories.

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I love this author. The Many Daughters of Afong Moy was and interesting look into inherited trauma. I did have a bit of problems following all the timelines. Futuristic novels aren’t usually my interest. Overall I think he did a great job of broaching this subject.

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This book surprised me. I went into it kind of intimidated by the genre but discovered pretty quickly I had nothing to worry about. I wasn't aware how easy to read Jamie Ford is, even about a culture I am unfamiliar with. She took a scientific theory and turned it into a beautiful story about how trauma can be passed down through generations. Each "daughter's" story was equally interesting and pulled me into their worlds. The timelines jump around pretty drastically so you have to pay close attention to that but I felt it worked well for the type of book this is. I loved that she even went into the future several years and didn't just focus on the past, although, the Chinese American history was a valuable lesson as well. I believed her stories and could have continued reading even more!

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This is a fantastic book that touches on generational trauma and the unseen emotional costs of motherhood. This book had me hooked from beginning to end. Sharing our stories, and working through our past issues is the best way to help the next generations because, as this book shows, we all have some shared experiences that could use some help to get through.

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The author’s introduction is extremely helpful for understanding the manner in which the stories unfold. It can become confusing as there are “many daughters of Afong” as the title states. The theme of the story is the concept of epigenetic trauma. The idea that certain experiences and memories can be “inherited” in some way. The author focuses on the life of a real person, Afong Moy, who was the first Chinese woman to land in America in 1836.

The story is told primarily through the experiences of Dorothy Moy who despite her fame as a Washington poet laureate, struggled with continual episodic mental health issues. Her depression and dissociative state created much discord in her life so she agreed to and experiment in 2045 to mitigate “inherited trauma”. Only time will tell if such intervention is possible to alleviate the suppression and violent treatment that can occur due to ignorance.

The “daughters” are introduced in different time periods experiencing their own version of emotional difficulties relative the era in which they live. Ethnicity plays a role in the cultural traditions which are passed on and the perceived expectations that they bring to each new generation.

Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss and Simon&Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC. My review contains my honest and unbiased opinion.

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The Many Daughters Of Afong Moy as many reviewers had written before, was a book that I had a hard time getting into as I was reading something very new for me, I've read about epigenetics with Dr. Joe Dispenza, yes I do his meditations, and work. anyway back to the subject, I've read this book and I thought I was going to have some similarities in there but no I got a little lost with all the characters as this book transcends from many years and eras repeating the same over and over again.

This is the story of seven women, all of them related and suffering from the sesame type of traumas over and over again. all of them can even feel the traumas from the past these women were encountering as if they were feeling the feelings of their predecessors. Most of them are living the same things, rejection, and misogynistic treatment for men, it was a book that I spend the majority of the chapters angry about, mostly because the men in this story were very ignorant, their costumes and traditions, everything was terrible as they lower women's value to the point that I felt in rage.

It was very sad how their families will even reject them because they were not a boy, borning as a woman was already a burden for her parents, they will even make some type of precessions that will indicate they were morning there was no boy and there was a girl.

The saddest part of all is to really understand how no matter the years or even the change of an era men still treated women as less, and every new character will suffer some type of rejection.

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is based on the first Chinese woman that arrived here in the US, her sad story continues with many generations after her. The way they were treated, the way men treated them as if they were nothing but a problem, everything was very sad to read.

This was a long book but I'm glad I had the opportunity to immerse myself in this magical world.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for the advanced copy of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy in exchange for my honest review.

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Thank you to netgalley.com for this ARC.

I have read this author's other books and enjoyed them. I really enjoyed this book as it was very different from his others. I liked the historical fiction aspect combined with the futurist perspective tied in with an interesting psychological concept. It all wove together well and was fascinating reading.

Well done and a page turner. A great book to start my reading year.

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The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford. The premise of this book is inherited trauma. Do you have an irrational fear of dogs or tight spaces? This book tells us that perhaps our great great grandmother was attacked by a dog or locked in a tiny closet, and that is why we fear those things. It follows Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman in America and her various descendants. Beautifully written, but it ended up being a bit hard to keep track of the different time periods. Jamie Ford wrote The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet which is excellent. This book didn’t do it for me. 3.5 stars. Many thanks to the publisher, the author and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy.

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Unfortunately, this was a book that I just could not finish. I had trouble grasping the story as we alternate between daughters as the story unfolds. It had an interesting premise in that we are tied to our ancestors in unexpected ways - I was just unable to connect.

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We were delighted to recommend this on Episode 354 of What Should I Read Next: Book festivals for beginners, about planning and serendipity at literary festivals. The show notes are linked below!

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a gifted eARC of this title.

What a MARVELOUS book! I was hooked from beginning to end. It jumped around from different time periods and perspectives, but I found it easy to follow along with each new character. They each had such beautiful and tragic stories that circled back to the main character. I loved that it had historical fiction, a little sci fi, some romance, poetry, and so much more. I HIGHLY recommend this to my followers! I cannot wait to read more from this author.

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The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is a complex book the covers seven generations of Chinese women. Afong is a young girl in 1842 China who is to become the third wife of an older man. He dies before the wedding but her father has already spent the money he was promised for her so the wedding is to go on even though he is dead. One of his other wives comes up with a plan to have her sent to America where he becomes the first known Chinese woman in the new world.

The book bounces back in forth between Afong's descendants, in no particular order, starting each chapter with that woman's name and year. We see the discrimination of these women based on the their sex and often nationality.

Dorothy lives in 2045, she is very depressed and has a hard time with life. She has seen many therapists but she finally starts feeling better when she is introduced to epigenetics, the study of trauma that is passed down through our DNA to future generations. Dorothy submits to futuristic experimental treatments that have her seeing or almost becoming her ancestors.

I had never heard of epigenetics, and even after reading the whole book and the Author's Notes, I can't say that I truly understand to or believe in it. We all have trauma at some point in our life and to think that that could be more important to who we are than the experiences our ancestors had, it's not for me. Even in the book, Dorothy lost her mother as a young teenager, I think that and her living in various homes and being homeless at times was a bigger part of her depression than what her great-grandmother went through.

That being said, Jamie Ford has beautiful writing and he obviously did a tremendous amount of research. I appreciated the Author's Notes more than the book, sorry! In them we learned that Afong Moy was a real person as was a number of the events that occurred during the book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the book.

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Mr. Ford uses magical realism to present us with multiple characters in this enchanting tale.
Traveling through time and back, we meet many past generations of women in Dorothy's family.
It is also a story of motherly love, and what one does to protect the young.

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My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Atria Books, for the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy. This book was fascinating. I really enjoyed this book. In fact, I read it twice, back-to-back, because I felt I had missed certain elements of the story the first time around. I was not wrong. My second reading of the book yielded different feelings and take-aways. The story is multi-generational and the reader is taken back and forth between various time periods. Each chapter brings different elements of the story to bear, and while the flavors and backdrops for the story vary, the familial connections along with the various traumas that occur throughout the book provide a thread of consistency that tie everything together. The concept of epigenetics or genetic memory is truly thought provoking and several times I stopped reading to digest what was happening and reflect on what it might mean to carry on experiences that previous generations had experienced and what the ethical implications are that surround the study of epigenetics. While reading the book for the second time I encouraged two friends to read along with me so we could discuss what we thought of the book. All of us found the book engaging and enjoyed the character development and storylines. The only criticism I have is minor - and that is the future state was not very creatively imagined. That we might all still be looking at our personal devices or phones 30 or 40 years from now seems unlikely and more of a current experience rather than what's to come. Irrespective of this critique as it is minor, I would recommend this book as one that is an enjoyable read and that will stay with you.

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3.5 stars

A beautiful but tragic story of the interwoven lives of one matrilineal line, spanning continents & centuries. It has a really cool premise, & despite the sad stories it had a positive ending.

[What I liked:]

•The writing is beautiful and vivid without being cloying or verbose. I enjoyed the many settings, across time and place.

•I really enjoyed the cast of characters! Afong & each of her daughters felt unique & distinct, while still being clearly connected & sharing characteristics. It took a lot of thought of care to create them like this.

•The ending is really sweet & hopeful without feeling forced or unrealistic. I’m so glad that Dorothy found a happy life in the end.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•Whew, there is a lot of tragedy & trauma in this book! Which is kind of the point of the premise. And the book does have a happy ending. But just be aware of all the trigger warnings.

•I didn’t really understand the trip Dorothy takes near the end when she overdosed on the pills the doctor gives her—does she *actually* rewrite history? Or is it just her imagination? This is kind of an important point, so I wish it was clarified.

CW: major character death, child abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia, domestic violence, sexual violence, mental illness, suicide, infidelity, bullying

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

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Martha Graham called it Blood Memory...The ability that we all have as human beings to instinctually know our relatives from the past, from way in the past. This is a beautifully written book and I could not put it down. It was intriguing, fascinating, eloquent and totally believable! Jamie Ford is an incredible writer, succinct and so clear in her descriptions of time, place and energy. I LOVED THIS BOOK, and it is absolutely one of my top ten for 2022. Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the arc.

BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT!

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