Why is this the first time I have read anything from this author? Her writing was nuanced and descriptive at the same time and read like someone who has several books under her belt.

The Original Daughter is set in Singapore with flashback to the past to bring you up to speed to the present day where we see the Mother is dying of cancer. It revolves around two girls (Genevieve and Arin) who discover that they share the same grandfather. Their Grandfather literally picked up and left the family in Singapore when the father was young and was presumed to be dead. Plot Twist, he was indeed alive with a whole second family in Malaysia (Arin's family)! The younger of the two, Arin, is dropped off with Genevieve's family one day when she is seven and left there to be raised by the Grandfather's original family.

The Story progresses from there where you see Gen make overtures to win Arin over as a new sister. She's open to the prospect and can't wait to take the new duckling under her wing. Arin is basically shell-shocked at being abandoned by her family and it takes a runaway attempt to break her out of her shell and integrate well with the family.

The author proceeds to continue telling the life story from Gen's point of view. You see her loner mentality show up IMMEDIATELY in school where she scorns all her classmates attempts to be friends. You see her treat everyone as competition or not even a blip on her radar-depending on where she thinks they are in the hierarchy of things. Every overture to friendships or truces are violently scorned and you as a reader never really find out WHY she treats her classmates like this. The problem is, it's not just her classmates. It's her family and later, coworkers. It’s her roommates and the people she works for. You never see her give of herself and in fact be so self-centered to not even see suffering right in front of her face.

Time moves on from school and progresses to college where she rapidly realizes that she is no longer the big fish in a small pond. She is less qualified, more narrow minded than all her other classmates and it's apparent. She eventually drops out to work as an ice cream scooper, yet with no motivation to be the best or learn the business even though she is handed the reigns of the business from the owner. Arin is always there reaching out to her Jie but is rebuffed for whatever is going on in Gen's head at the moment.

We see Arin's life in periphery to Gens and she is the more successful shadow of Gen. She takes ideas and foundations that Gen has tried and abandoned and makes it successful for herself by not giving up, by applying herself, by being flexible to take feedback. EG: Gen originally wanted to make money so she started auditioning for YouTube roles and failed. She stopped trying after one failed interview. Arin later takes that same idea, and doesn't stop interviewing until she lands herself a minor role. She then catapults that role into roles in movies and later, success.

Over and over you see Arin "one-up" Gen and with each success, Gen becomes more and more bitter, resentful, and isolated.

SPOILERISH STATEMENT: It all accumulates in Gen chasing off Arin and their mother getting terminal cancer. All during that time, the mom (who is a whole forceful character that I haven't even touched on) is telling Gen to reach out to Arin. Over and over she asks her to call Arin. Gen refuses until the very end until their mother is literally in a coma. Eventually, she breaks and Arin flies over from the movie location she was filming at to be with her mom. Too late. Her mother never regains consciousness to say goodbye.

The amount of growth and development we see in Gen and Arin during the final pages of the book is so real. So poignant. Often reconciliation is painted as an all at once fairy tale when in reality it's a progression

This book is well worth the read. In it, you see realistic depictions of narcissism in a bit of all the characters. I say "realistic" because often narcissists are shown as 100% evil 100% of the time. But here, you see the flaws in their armor, the reasons perhaps they walked that path. You see how families can be broken because of a person’s choices....and also fused because of choices. There were passages that I highlighted because of how poetically they flowed. I felt the same internal pressure to succeed Gen has. The same harshness with others who are not up to par. Through this mirror, I see the shortsightedness and selfishness that type of thinking has on a person’s life and outcomes.

Thank you Net Galley for approving me for the arc of this book. I was quick engrossed into this book. The book follows a story between sisters Genevieve and Arin. Arin is actually Genevieve’s cousin but she was given to the family at an early age due to an affair. The story is told from Genevieve’s perspective and I found insufferable but I couldn’t help but continue to read! Seeing the secrets within the family unfold and seeing the cruelness and love that Gen and Arin have for each other was nothing like I’ve ever read before. There were truly happy and heart breaking moments throughout the entire story. Definitely not like one I’ve read before.

If I could give Jemimah Wei's debut novel 10 stars, I would, because it so richly deserves all the stars and more! The Original Daughter will be among the best fiction of 2025, and I feel lucky to have been able to read an advance copy. One of the most nuanced stories I've ever read about a complicated family dynamic across decades and generations, about success and failure and the personal and systemic forces at work in determining futures, about the love and betrayals and jealousy and regret between two sisters, I was captivated and then eventually weeping until the very end.

Escaping poverty, breaking the cycle, is never easy. Generational trauma runs deep, ever ready to rear its ugly head. Jemimah Wei's moving debut novel, "The Original Daughter", is a nuanced, highly charged bildungsroman bound to stay with readers long after the final page is turned.

The narrative is primarily based in Singapore, but not the immaculate, sophisticated, "no gum-chewing allowed" one that we have been taught. Wei's family's existence is centered on the hardscrabble crammed-room, shared bathroom, stuffy, close, everyone in your business neighborhoods of Singapore. Making ends meet is a daily struggle. Educational achievement is the only route out. Competition is fierce, leaving no room for error. Some make it. Most don't.

While the descriptive language of "The Original Daughter" is rich, visual, and ever appealing, the tone is often suffocating, claustrophobic, and ominous. We are rooting for the protagonists, Genevieve and Arin, but are constantly worried lest "the other shoe" drop at any time. Will they make the right choices? Will they navigate our often cruel world?. Key themes of belonging in the face of abandonment thread throughout. Life is hard, often unfair. I easily imagined "The Original Daughter" as a series or a movie. It is that cinematic. Jemimah Wei is a talent to follow moving forward.

Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for the eARC.

"The Original Daughter" offers an engrossing and disturbing view of growing up in modern Singapore. Debut author Jemimah Wei delivers a cast of frustratingly stubborn characters, each with huge potential and a hunger for love and connection — and each with a devastating inability to overcome their pride at some key moment. We experience the story through the eyes of Genevieve, a precocious student whose world changes forever when her family takes in a cousin she didn't know she had. The two girls grow up together in the hothouse environment of Singapore's education system, which demands perfection at each step from those without the means to buy their way to a top university. When Arin's striving places her squarely in the spotlight just as Gen's academic dreams begin to crumble, the two struggle to find a way forward.

The Original Daughter is an engaging debut novel by Jemimah Wei. In this story, readers are immersed in one working-class family's lives and interpersonal relationships in Singapore.

This emotionally charged story centers on Genevieve Yang and how she perceives her family. Young Gen lives with her grandmother and parents in a one-room apartment. Their lives are forever altered when they learn their supposedly dead grandfather has been alive with a secret family.

With his now-real passing, his granddaughter comes to live with the Yangs. Arin, the new sister, becomes dependent on Gen. They grow close while working hard to get ahead in school and create a better future.

This novel is a poignant exploration of how relationships change and evolve over time, for better or worse, as we, too, grow and change.

The Yangs have been deeply affected by the abandonment of those who were supposed to care for them; however, they continue to inflict these hurts on each other. The conflicts often center around a sense of pride and serve as a powerful reminder of the challenges we all face in trying to meet each other’s expectations, much less live up to our own. It underscores how thin the line between hurt and love is, evoking a sense of compassion in the reader.

I highly recommend this compelling read. It will make you reflect on life, regrets, and the possibility of second chances, leaving you with a lot to ponder. Thank you to Net Galley and Doubleday for the ARC.