The Manicurist’s Daughter is one of those books that sneaks up on you and stays in your heart. It’s a tender memoir about a complicated mother-daughter relationship. It captures what it feels like to grow up with love that isn’t always easy. The writing is honest and emotional without being overdone, and I found myself appreciating little moments that felt so true. It’s about family, identity, and figuring out who you are in the middle of all the messiness. If you like stories that are moving, beautifully written, and linger after you close the book, this is definitely one to pick up.

What an incredible memoir, especially exploring the relationship with her mother. And I thought that it was a great look at women we often take for granted.

I was lucky enough to receive this book via NetGalley and a physical ARC from Celadon. I wanted to read this book based off the title and description, but outside of that I was clueless. I am rating this 3.5 stars, but I rounded up to 4. Since reading this book I have learned that Susan Lieu is an author, activist, and performer. She used to be in a cult, which honestly surprised me- even while she was describing everything.

This book made me look at things differently. I learned I never want to attempt to learn to speak Vietnamese. I ended up listening to the audiobook so I got to hear it read by the author and she spoke Vietnamese and talked about how many ways Ma can be interpreted. Families are interesting. This memoir does a great job at describing her family dynamics.

i remember when everyone and their mother was raving about this book so much that i was elated when i got approved for it. and boy, did this book not disappoint!!! what an amazing memoir!!!

Susan Lieu takes us on a journey of grief and trying to find the answers to questions that she's been searching for since her mother died when she was young. This book tells the story of Susan, her siblings, and her parents, who were refugees from Vietnam. We learn about her family, how her mother died, and how she dealt with (or didn't deal with) the grief her mother's passing caused. Overall, I liked this book. It kept me engaged and I liked seeing Susan search for answers in many different ways. I appreciated the look into the lives of refugees, and how life in America was for them. Overall, this was a pretty interesting book.

This was a memoir that I struggled to get into. While I believe that the author had important stories to tell, the pacing and the delivery was off for this reader, unfortunately.

I typically do not rate memoirs, because I believe that it is very personal and should not be judged in such an arbitrary and reductive way.

A book I wanted to read for a very long time and then found myself unable to get into at the very few first pages, and it is completely my fault. I was at a time in my life where I genuinely couldn't read another story about an immigrant family's grief and trauma, and I just couldn't blur the lines with my own family. That is why I haven't been able to finish and give feedback.

I leave this here for now and I shall come and update with my thoughts once I finish the book the second I feel like I can stomach it. (Once again, this is not the fault of the author or the writing or gratuitous trauma dumping. This really is just me not being in the headspace to finish this before the ARC's archive date.)

In this memoir Lieu provided a much needed unique perspective that I have never read about. She writes about her experience as an Asian daughter of refugees but also her experience as she grapples with the loss of her mother from a botched tummy tuck and the cultural and familial response to loss. She examines themes such as shame, body image, grief, and intergenerational trauma. She also examines healthcare disparities among immigrants and vulnerable populations. This was a heart wrenching and necessary story. I did feel that the writing style was a bit meandering at times but the story itself was incredible. Thanks so much to NetGalley for the eGalley!

THE MANICURIST'S DAUGHTER is the memoir of Susan Lieu, a Vietnamese-American woman who lost her mother to a botched plastic surgery procedure when Lieu was a child growing up in the SF Bay Area. This is the story of her own childhood, her parents’ experiences, and Lieu’s own journey of getting closure for her mother’s death.

There was a lot that really resonated about this. I’m half-Viet and some of the things mentioned about Lieu’s childhood were so relatable! The way her aunties kissed her (sniff kisses), the wiping of chopsticks and spoons at restaurants, the sound of Paris by Night in the background. And what about all the mentions about food and showing affection thru food! Like Lieu’s grandmother, my Ba Ngoai also likes to tell others to eat but has to be cajoled to eat herself. All my family members love discussing what we’re going to eat the next time we hang out. Even the Viet deli mentioned offhand (Cam Huong Deli) is one that I used to go to when I lived in Oakland!

That being said, while this is a super honest and raw memoir, I sometimes felt like it was ultimately written for Lieu herself, as some sort of therapeutic act. I know everybody copes in different ways, but Lieu’s chapters on getting closure via acting in a public performance of her mother’s experiences did not resonate with me and I was way less interested in the content about cults and spiritual channeling. Still glad I read this (and I LOVE the cover), but I don't know if it'll stick with me long term.

Thank you Celadon and Netgalley for the eARC!

I love memoirs. I heard great things about The Manicurist’s Daughter and was excited to request on netgalley when I saw it was available. For just about a year I have slowly chipped through this memoir so I could review in the spirit of receiving a complimentary copy. I’ve read a chapter here and there for months and have finished !!!! Susan Lieu wrote with candor and vulnerability. The stories of her youth and her relationship with her mother captured me. As she the book transitioned to focusing on her grief, and the challenging family relationships that followed her mother’s death. I struggled to continue. I can’t capture exactly why this took me such a long time to read, but I am grateful I stuck it out.

this book was a memoir with endless list of psychics, mediums and spirits facilitators. i usually don't rank memoirs but this one i had to push myself to finish. Her mothers journey was remarkable. she was Chinese in Vietnam and fled to a refugee camp. college educated she came to America for better but OfCourse was met with blockade after blockade. Susan Lieu honestly opens up about her family’s story, and the trauma in dealing with the loss of t her mother. the book is full of trauma and meeting parental expectations.

This book had lots of intersectional stories of trauma, healing, and reciprocity that were well-written. The medical trauma and familial challenges were quite heavy, and this book was definitely very sad and reflective. I think the writing was great, and this book had a lot of important things to say.

Interesting life story and perspective. Lieu shared her experience of her unique family in vivid detail, and I was glad to have widened my worldview.

Enjoyed reading through Susan’s journey of meeting her family where they are and understanding the way they dealt with her mother’s grief.

This book was funny, dramatic, and reflective.

I think that The Manicurist’s Daughter is a good debut. The writing was well crafted and a lot of passion went into this book.

Readers who come from a Vietnamese family and can relate to the cultural aspects of the memoir will have a deeper emotional connection to it. The author has trouble learning more about her late mother because her family discourages discussing her.

There is frustration and sadness in the story, but it’s balanced with humorous moments, as well as some tender memories.

I think that most readers will find this memoir a quick read. For me, there were slow moments, but I don’t think that will be everyone’s experience.


I would recommend this to anyone who likes an emotional memoir, but especially to those that can relate to the grief or the cultural identity!

Really enjoyed this one! A great book, great characters and interesting storyline. Will keep this author on my radar!

Rating memoirs is always a challenge for me, but The Manicurist's Daughter by Susan Lieu is such a tender and emotional story of a family's immigration to the US after the Vietnam War.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me.

In this moving memoir, Susan Lieu describes her own family's history, and the life after her beloved mother passed away after a tummy tuck operation by a malafide surgeon.
Susan takes the reader back to her family's history; after five failed attempts, they escaped by boat from post war Saigon, and landed in California in 1980. Susan's mother was the leader of the family, and on her own, she set up two very succesfull nail salons, where Susan and other family members who where brought over from Vietnam to the USA by her parents worked, a true family run business. Until that horrible day when Susan was eleven years old, and her mother's tummy tuck operation went horribly wrong, with a fatal ending. Susan was cross with her mother and told her she hated her, the next day, she was in coma she never came out of.

After that, what's left of Susan's family falls apart. Her father is a broken man after the death of his wife. But her family isn't that into talking about feelings, so they don't talk about her mother's death at all. But Susan is left with so many feelings, questions, intergenerational trauma and questions; why did her mother want to change her body? Body image was important for her mother, the mother who demanded what Susan ate, but criticized her daughter's weight on the other hand too. The surgeon who performed the tummy tick was known to prey on Vietnamese women for patients, and advertised in papers read by the Vietnamese communities in the USA and he continued his malpractice altough he didn't have any malpractice insurance. Susan realizes that she never knew anything about her parent's past in Vietnam. Susan travels to Vietnam to learn more about who her mother was, and who she discovers, never truly knew. Susan is an artist, and she created a theatre show with the the loss of her mother as topic, to cope with it and as a mechanism to connect with her mother.

I found this a beautiful written and very moving memoir. My heart broke for Susan, whose life never was the same again after the sudden passing of her mother, and she had to deal with all these complex feelings, and find a road to healing on her own. A road with a lot of bumps, where Susan seeks inner peace in a questionable and money demanding yoga cult. I found it sad to read that her relationship with her father and sister was strained and complex, because they where not into talking about the death of her mother, which was so important for Susan's grieving and healing process. Both a coming of age story and a research for her mother's past life, this book is very moving, emotional, tragic but also inspiring. A book that will the fans of the memoir Crying in H-Mart will certainly like. This is a memoir I truly recommend!

This book was so emotionally charged, despite being from a different culture than mine the themes of motherhood and womanhood are universal and I found the book to be both informative and touching.

"The Manicurist's Daughter" is a poignant and deeply personal memoir that delves into the complex emotional journey of Susan Lieu, the youngest daughter of a Vietnamese immigrant family. I was captivated by the raw honesty and vulnerability Lieu brings to her exploration of grief, family dynamics, and the relentless pursuit of answers surrounding her mother's untimely death.

Lieu skillfully weaves together the threads of her family's successful nail salon business, the strong work ethic and survival skills instilled in her and her siblings, and the devastating loss of her mother, Jennifer, who passed away in her 30s from complications of a botched plastic surgery procedure. The author's vivid descriptions of the daily operations of the family's nail salons, and the ways in which young Susan was incorporated into the business, offer a fascinating glimpse into the immigrant experience and the value placed on family, hard work, and self-reliance.

What truly sets this memoir apart is Lieu's unflinching examination of her own grief, her strained relationship with her mother, and her family's reluctance to confront the painful details of Jennifer's death. The author's persistence in uncovering the truth, through acquiring legal depositions, traveling to Vietnam, and ultimately creating a theatrical piece to process her emotions, is both admirable and heartbreaking. Her vivid recollections of the fraught final moments with her mother, and the lasting impact of those unresolved feelings, are deeply poignant.

"The Manicurist's Daughter" is a powerful and important work that grapples with the universal themes of grief, family, and the complex legacies we inherit. Lieu's courage in sharing her story, and her willingness to confront the painful truths about her mother's death and her own role in it, make this memoir a compelling and thought-provoking read. It is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring power of love and connection, even in the face of unimaginable loss.

Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy of this book.