An engrossing and troubling family drama unfolds at times very painfully as three seemingly disparate siblings travel across the United States at the request of their elderly mother. There is growth, recovery, and revelation as the three relive something that happened in their youth - now remembered from three very different viewpoints. Deep character and setting development carry this book forward.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I received a free DRC through Netgalley and the publisher. I am drawn to books about siblings and the idea of a road trip that includes the Grand Canyon sounds pretty appealing. The book helps the mostly-estranged siblings come together as they process a traumatic family vacation from 30+ years ago. The siblings become closer together as they learn more about each other as adults. The book highlights some of the hard truths about America's past that we often ignore as "being in the past" when those events are still reverberating today in existing racism. A good, but sometimes difficult read. The timing of the book is great. Doesn't feel drawn out and has plenty of action to keep the story moving forward even as it looks backwards.

Following their mother's stroke, the Chu siblings embark upon a road trip from Chicago to California, with a stop at the Grand Canyon. Decades earlier, the family made a road trip to the Grand Canyon but never made it--as the story unfolds, we learn what happened all those years ago, as the now middle-aged children reminisce and repair fractured relationships.

I found that I couldn't put this book down! The characters were so well drawn, and I loved seeing their relationships with each other evolve over the course of the trip. I also loved the way the author gradually teased out what happened on the aborted family trip to the Grand Canyon and how those events shaped the lives of the family members long into the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this ARC from NetGalley, Simon &Schuster, and the author, Winnie M Li for an honest review. This is an interesting book about three adult estranged siblings having to do a road trip on Route 66 to see their ailing mother who is about to undergo a serious operation. Three Taiwanese siblings, Kevin (42), Bonnie and Alex( 40) embark on a cross country road trip to repair the after affects of an incident from 30 years ago that tore the family apart. Kevin’s marriage to Jessica is not good since he is keeping secrets from her. Bonnie and her husband , Chris, are very wealthy, but, she’s not happy with her monotonous life. Alex is married to a black pregnant woman, Nya, and she is afraid to tell her family. . Thirty years ago a terrible thing happened to the family when they were on a trip to see Grand Canyon . The trip was cut short and they all returned home. The story delves into prejudice, sibling rivalry, homosexuality and many more important issues.

Winnie M. Li's exploration of family secrets had me laughing one moment and fighting tears the next. When the Chu siblings reluctantly answered their mother's summons for a pre-operation road trip to California, I found myself instantly invested in their uncomfortable reunion.

What struck me most was Li's brilliant portrayal of memory – that scene at home between Kevin and Alex viewed through three different lenses completely floored me. Each sibling remembered the same moments so differently that I couldn't help reflecting on disagreements with my own sister about "what really happened" during our childhood.

The siblings' journey from awkward estrangement to tentative reconnection felt achingly authentic. I winced at their cutting remarks and nodded in recognition at those small, grudging moments of affection – like when Kevin finally saw through Alex's perspective, a tiny olive branch that spoke volumes.

Li didn't shy away from the harsh realities of racism either. The flashback scenes at a rural gas station left me genuinely shaken, while showing how differently each sibling processed the trauma.

The road trip served as a catalyst to confront the past and reconnect the siblings, which I enjoyed. It wasn't your typical sightseeing journey but something more profound.

This novel will resonate with anyone who's ever struggled to bridge the gap between who your family was and who you've all become.

Special thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing advance copies. As always, the thoughts shared here are completely my own.

Such a sweet story about 3 Taiwanese siblings. I didn’t like all the bickering, but overall I enjoyed this book. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books - Atria/Emily Bestler Books for an advanced copy.

This book begins on a family trip in a station wagon, driving the interstate through Arizona, and from page one I felt nostalgic for my own remembered family road trips in the 80s & 90s.

And then something happens, that makes me see through a different lens. I was a child on those trips, much like the trio of main characters in this book. Seeing the road trip anew trhough their adult journey made me think deeply about the road and the way each of us sees the trip differently.

It's nostalgia, certainly, but also seeing more clearly as an adult.

Alex, Bonnie, and Kevin learn to reconnect and recognize each other as adults on the road, and maybe learn to face their demons. More than that, it may help readers connect as well.

There's a great nonfiction book called The Last American Road Trip that helped me see this book through a sharper lens as well. Definitely recommend reading these two in tandem.

"I want to see it in person. To set foot there. As if stepping onto that forgotten ground could somehow hold an answer."

Winnie M Li's What We Left Unsaid drew me in with its premise of estranged siblings called upon to travel across America via the Grand Canyon to see their mother who has suffered from a stroke on the West Coast. Although I don't think the prologue, which opens in 1991 in Arizona, is needed, it does introduce the central point from the past of the main characters Bonnie, Alex and Kevin Chu that brings them together in the present storyline. Still, I would have been fine starting Li's novel with Bonnie's point of view in the present day when she hears from her father of her mother's illness.

The opening chapters read smoothly, with enough interesting details about each of the three siblings' separate lives to grip my attention. The siblings are first shown to the reader in their separate settings where they have moved to live with their respective 'new' families; Bonnie in Boston, New England, Kevin in Chicago and Alex in London. Their estranged relationships with their distanced parents, who are Taiwanese immigrants in California, and with each other is emphasised. Li writes her characters with prominent "Asian American" perspectives of these experiences but for me, it doesn't seem that dissimilar to a life where children move to live away from their parents, sometimes abroad, and so it might be considered an appealing universal element of the novel. Nevertheless, also worth noting the character of Kevin in particular who constantly comments on, or perhaps is a little hung up on his background and there are points in the narrative where his opinion or his voice grates a little: "Her name tag says Asia, which Kevin finds ironic, since she is Black." I wonder if a sensitivity reader might pick up on this as needing revision?

I loved the references to the Route 66 drive across America and having done some of this highway drive towards the Grand Canyon ourselves, it was great to read scene descriptions bringing it alive, Of course the gas station stop mentioned in the prologue is referenced later in the plot too, though since it was already given in the prologue, the "startling family secret" was sadly too obvious.

An enjoyable, low-stakes read with some interesting characters and ultimately a pleasing family reunion of not just siblings but adult children and their parents too.

Thanks to NetGalley and Winnie M Li for the advanced copy.

What We Left Unsaid is a story of three Taiwanese siblings whose mom has asked them to come see her in California. She has requested that they take a road trip and stop at the Grand Canyon. This is a storyline with three points of view (each of the siblings) and two timelines ( 1991 and present day) .

There is foreshadowing that something bad happened to someone in the family in the 1991 timeline. We don't know what it is but the tension builds as the story unfolds.

I found their roadtrip stops and realized discrimination enlightening. It hurts my heart to read what they went through.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Possible trigger warnings: sexual assault, miscarriage

This book is by another Chinese-American writer, about a family in America. In 2015, three adult children make a cross country road trip to visit their sick mother in California. The mother has asked them to make a detour to see the Grand Canyon on the way.

The urgent call from their father in California had the three siblings meeting up in Chicago to begin the long drive. The mother's wish is for them to see the Grand Canyon on the way to California, to complete a family trip that was cut short in 1991, when the family abruptly turned around in Arizona before reaching their destination.

This nostalgic trip for the three at the request of their mom raises questions about what had happened in 1991 to end the original family vacation. Along the route, they put together their memories of a remote gas station stop in Arizona in 1991 and why that triggered a decision to end the drive to the Grand Canyon.

Family relationships, family secrets, and Asian immigrant experiences are all under a microscope in this telling and revealing novel. Another eye opening and dramatic view of an American family.

3.75/5 - This started off so strong but it just became a lot of build up to something completely anticlimactic at the end. However, I still loved the premise and the differences between Bonnie, Alex and Kevin. Really summed up a sibling dynamic well!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I really enjoyed this book and now I want to drive across the country again, although I probably will be more cautious than the siblings were. I love a good road trip or family dynamic novel, and the combination was enticing. I can’t quite relate to no longer knowing your siblings super well, luckily, but I can appreciate wanting to get closer to them and was cheering for that for the Chus throughout the whole book. The flashbacks added suspense and a sense of dread, and even though I wasn’t surprised by the final reveal, I thought it helped keep the pace of the story going really well. I definitely want to read more books by this author!

This is just fine. The present-day road trip is interesting, though it gets in the weeds at times. I wanted to know more about the siblings and their past. I have a younger sibling, so I related to the conflict. The pacing is uneven, and the ending is anticlimactic. I recommend for those who like historical details and family dynamics.

What We Left Unsaid is a heartwarming family story, about a trio of adult Taiwanese-American siblings driving down Route 66 to visit their parents just before their mother undergoes a major surgery. The Grand Canyon is as much a character as the siblings themselves; they'd taken a trip to the Grand Canyon when they were children, but something happened at a sketchy gas station that made their parents turn back before they reached it. Their mother's request that they come visit by car on a route that passes by the Grand Canyon is clearly also a request for healing, not just the strained relationships between the siblings themselves, but the unresolved trauma from whatever happened at that gas station all those years ago.

Li gently peels back the siblings' relationships layer by layer, revealing the sources of the rifts between them as well as the love that keeps going beneath it all. I love how Li pulls back the curtain on the racism and discrimination that Asian-Americans face, from some of the more subtle micro-aggressions that put Bonnie, Kevin, and Alex on their guard, to the flat-out threats that make them and their parents stiffen in fear. Li sets the present-day scenes post-COVID, and so there's a lot of additional layers to the racism here that are uncomfortably familiar and real.

I also like how Li explores how each sibling's role in the family helps shape their respective responses to events: Bonnie as the responsible eldest child and eldest daughter, Kevin and Alex both believing they're the ones their parents see as the screw-up of the family. All these things are shaped by both parental attitudes and societal ones, and I like how their dynamic shifts constantly throughout the story.

Finally, I love the details about the road trip itself. I'm not American and haven't driven down Route 66 myself, so while I've heard of some of the stops, I haven't ever threaded them all together in the same way an American reader may. I enjoyed learning about the various stops, their characters, and their histories. But more importantly, I love thinking about Asian Americans who'll read this, and feel connected to their country's history through the Chu family's unique lens.

+

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

2,5 stars

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Winnie M. Li’s What We Left Unsaid, as she’s better known for her thrillers, a genre that I usually stay away from. But I never foresaw a book that would feel like one massive trauma-infused 'All-American' road trip. That’s not to say there wasn’t value in the stories of Bonnie, Alex, and even Kevin. It’s just that the three of them go through a lot, both in the present day and in the past, that they’re still trying to process as adults. The pacing is also rather slow, as for most of the novel, What We Left Unsaid is a very introspective book, though things surprisingly pick up as they near the end of their trip. However, if you’re a child of immigrants, then you’ll find something in this book that resonates with you. Personally, I found the sibling dynamics to be authentic, and as the eldest daughter, I could relate to many of Bonnie’s thought processes. And over time, I found myself warming up to Alex. While I initially viewed her as a bit self-righteous, learning about her history helped me understand her better. I particularly admire how she showcases her badass side towards the end, reminding us that the youngest sibling is not to be underestimated. While it’s understandable why each of the siblings turned out the way they did, as they all reacted differently to the built-up trauma, I still couldn’t bring myself to care about Kevin in the end. In the end the Chu siblings’ journey felt somewhat inconclusive and anticlimactic. Yet, similar to how real life can be sometimes, What We Left Unsaid left me a bit unsatisfied upon its completion.

Had the potential to be a good family drama. I love cultural pieces and inclusion of cultural details, but in this novel those details overshadowed the actual story. The reading became tedious and D R A G G E D.
I really wanted to like this, and I did in the beginning....
I received an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Interesting story! Enjoyed all the facts about the famous Route66. Good storyline involving three siblings each coping with their own life challenge, when maybe it is their mother who is trying to heal from a traumatic event from years ago.

What a beautiful story. Families aren’t perfect; they all have their conflicts, and that’s precisely what makes them so real. I loved the characters and how the author narrated and carried the story. The way it was written completely immerses you in the experiences of these three siblings on their journey back home. Three siblings with distinct personalities and three different ways of seeing life. Without a doubt, it’s a story I’ll remember for a long time.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

3.5 stars

This story follows three estranged siblings, Bonnie Alex & Kevin. They learn that their mother in California is sick and would like to see them all together. At their mother's request, the siblings get together and road trip across the US to visit the Grand Canyon to complete a vacation gone bad back in the 90's.

The first bit I was really invested in the story, but as I got further along, I just found myself skimming because there was just so much filler and detail that I found unnecessary. The ending was a little rushed, I wish we got to know the family more.

However, it was still a good story, and I did enjoy this one.

I like this book in concept, but not in execution. What We Left Unsaid tackles a lot of issues - politics, gun rights, racism, historical segregation and alienation, colonialism, exclusion laws, misogyny. All of these issues are handled with care and healthy discussion and I did learn a lot from this book.

That being said, I came here for a fictional story about the complexity of these three siblings who grew up together but became estranged over time. While we do dig into some of their issues, I felt like a lot of this book was trying to check every box on the trauma and politics list and it became tiring. I slowly started zoning out for whole sections and caring less about the characters because every moment was a learning opportunity of sorts. I wanted more emotion, reconciliation, more history of their childhood together (beyond the famed trip), as well as more detail into the family and the generational effects of trauma.

In the end, I didn't even really get a full answer to the original question, which is fine, but because I didn't get it I wanted something else. Instead, it kind of just peters out into the final end of the story, which felt anti-climatic.

All in all, this book does an amazing job touching on the history of America and the otherness and strangeness felt by Chinese Americans in a land that doesn't include them in their history classes. However, I don't think it fully delivered on the story the synopsis sets out for us, and that is where the story falls short.

TW: lesbophobia, misogyny, classism, racism, micro-aggressions, guns, assault; mentions miscarriage, colonialism

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
World Building: 4.5/5
Writing: 4/5
Pacing: 3/5
Overall: 3/5

eARC gifted via NetGalley by Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.