Thank you to Netgalley and Celadon books for the e-arc of this book. I had no idea going into this that this story was a memoir, I realized while reading other reviews that it was indeed non-fiction.

As someone who lost a mother this was a beautiful, yet heartbreaking story that I didn't want to put down.

If y'all know me, you know I love the heavy, sad stories and this one just gripped me from the beginning. I whole-heartedly loved this story so much.

I almost decided to not read this book because I am not huge on memoirs, but I am glad I picked it up! Lieu did a great job of weaving her story together. I cannot personally relate to the loss of a mother, but I did feel it from her story. She endured a lot of tragedy and I appreciate her honesty and willingness to share. Grief is a long (if never-ending) process and I think that was conveyed well in the book.

Overall I would recommend this book. Even if you do not read a lot of non-fiction I believe this is a good story to start with. Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of this work. All opinions expressed are that of my own!

Thank you to Celadon Books for the gifted copy to review.

This heartfelt memoir where Susan Lieu focuses on how her mother, who died from a botched tummy tuck, affected her life tremendously, even though she did not really know much about her, and was not allowed to talk about her death or what happened is one that I will not forget anytime soon. She spends twenty years trying to figure out who her mother was, why no one will talk about her mother’s life in Vietnam, what happened during her surgery, or why she even wanted the surgery in the first place. While doing so, Susan also tries to connect the dots to her life and how this has impacted her, and while it may seem obvious that it has, she learns just how much as she goes on this journey and I am so glad she shared it with us.

I listened to this via audio and I was captivated from the beginning by this story. It is not one you hear every day, it is incredibly heartbreaking, and I admire Susan’s tenacity in not giving up when she hits wall after wall of people not wanting to talk about anything. Not only is this a memoir of loss, grief, and identity, but it is also a focus on the ideal of beauty and how it always seems to come with a cost.

4.5/5

This was another beautiful & gut-wrenching memoir of a daughter mourning her mother, but on a much deeper level than what I’ve read in previous memoirs.

The parts being broken down by the different ways “ma” is wrote & spoke in Vietnamese was very unique & helped the story flow. The way Lieu took us through her life’s journey was well done & I could vividly picture myself at her family’s table, at the nail salons, & in general everywhere she went. I truly felt like she was siting in front of me recounting every memory & experience. You can sense how healing not only the deep dive into her mother & family was, but also writing this memoir was for Lieu.

The family dynamic was hard to read at times but really painted a picture of immigrant families Being in an area with a high Hmong population the story of the parents immigrating & making a life for themselves as salon owners really stood out to me as that’s a common profession for Hmong families here who also bring their young children to the salons on weekends (one time one of the children took a Polaroid of me & it’s hanging on my fridge haha). It definitely makes you respect everyone in your community even more.

I really enjoyed the food descriptions & it made me so so so hungry! I love how food is a major aspect of so many cultures & the center of so many memories.



While it’s hard to “rate” memories, what didn’t make this a 5/5 for me was the writing was inconsistent - some parts just felt a little undeveloped compared to others & at times I felt like the story was repeating itself. The flashbacks were definitely needed for the story, but sometimes felt a bit disjointed.

Everyone has heard mention of the American Dream, and that is exactly what Susan’s family was hoping to achieve when they became refugees during the Vietnam War. Led by the Lieu matriarch they open two nail salons, salons that become very successful thanks to Susan’s mother’s desire for success and perceived perfection. Unfortunately this need for perfection leads to the untimely death of Susan’s mother when Susan was 11, all due to a tummy tuck gone wrong, leaving the family without their North Star and unsure of what they should do next. For the next 20 years Susan is left not only questioning the events that led to her mother’s death, but forces her to examine her own definition of perfection and whether or not it is really worth it.

The Manicurist’s Daughter was not at all what I expected it to be. I thought I was going to read a book that was more about the search for justice, but there is so much more to this story than that. Lieu examines her thoughts, concepts and definitions of perfection, the American Dream, and justice, and she does all of this with total honesty. I also enjoyed the glimpses of Vietnamese culture throughout, as well as seeing the ways in which different groups respond to and process grief. Overall I feel that this is a well written, deep memoir.

THE MANICURIST’S DAUGHTER

This memoir was written with such raw, vulnerable and deep emotion. An 11yo Susan tragically loses her Mom and her life no longer makes sense. In a family dynamic where it’s forbidden to talk openly about your grief, we get to see how she navigates through life. Trying to find answers to questions about her mother’s death begins a journey of self discovery, of the mother she never knew and quite possibly the beginning of healing for her family.

Thank you Celadon and NetGalley for the complimentary e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

#evesbookishreads #bookstagram #bookreviewerforfun #reading #books #igreads #igbooks #booklover #instabooks #bookaddict #bookaholic #bookstagramfeature #themanicuristdaughter #susanlieu #celadonbooks #netgalley

Thank you very much @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of The Manicurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu. This is a memoir, and follows Susan’s life. Her mother came from Vietnam and developed a very successful nail salon business, only to die early from complications from a botched plastic surgery situation. She struggles to understand why her mother even had plastic surgery, and why the doctor was never held responsible. She also struggles to learn about who her mother was, and what her life had been like. And she struggles with the rocky relationship she had with her mother before she died. It’s a pretty sad story. It tells a lot about the immigrant experience. #themanicuristsdaughter #susanlieu #netgalley #advancedreadercopy #memoir #immigrantexperience #bookstagram #booklover #reader #bookblog #lovetoread #bookreview #bookrecommendation #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #takeapagefrommybook #readallthebooks #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #bookwormproblems #bookaholic #booknerd #whattoread #readingtime #bookaddict #ilovetoread #ilovebooks #needtoread #readallday

3.5 stars

Thank you to Celadon Book and NetGalley for this eARC!

The first thing I want to say is that when I rate and review a memoir, I’m really focused mainly on the technical aspect, such as the writing style, etc. I never want to make an author feel like their experiences are being rated or discussed in a way that diminishes their story, and that can make reviewing them difficult sometimes.

That being said, I did enjoy this one for the most part. Let’s start with the main issue I had:

I found the storyline to be meandering and a bit confusing at times. An idea/situation would be introduced, then we’d move on, come back to it, move on, go back to a different one, and so on and so forth. It did make it feel a little disconnected and repetitive at times. Because of this, I was struggling to get through this and ended up listening on audio to finish the book.

I really think audio is the way to consume this story - it’s narrated by the author and she delivers the story well. It was much more engaging and I also liked getting to hear the proper Vietnamese pronunciations, both with words and names, rather than struggling to figure them out in my head.

Now let’s talk about what worked for me:

I really loved the story of Susan connecting with her father and how through this journey of understanding her deceased mother, she was also able to find understanding with her father and heal their bond and relationship. You also see growth in all of her family members because of her persistence in learning about her mother and I thought that aspect of this memoir was really great.

Susan seemed to learn a lot about herself as well while trying to learn about her mother and I loved the moment towards the end when she finally directly confronts a family member for making comments about her body. I found what she said to be very simple yet powerful and it very much needed to be said. It was a full circle moment tying us back to the main reason behind her mother’s death (beauty standards) and connecting it directly to Susan herself.

I also loved the stories she tells about visiting Vietnam and her family’s journey from Vietnam to America - they were and are incredibly strong and brave people.

Overall, I do think this is an important story with a lot of things that need to be discussed widely and openly, I just didn’t think it was written perfectly. Regardless, I still recommend this, especially on audio!

I was given the opportunity to review this book per NetGalley (thank you again, and also this is my own personal review and opinion) and this book left me in the feels. I truly felt this authors pain when describing the hurt and suffering she endured for a long time. To the mending and healing that came with so much self acceptance. I do truly believe this was beautifully written and I recommend this book. #TheManicuristsDaughter #NetGalley

THE MANICURIST’S DAUGHTER bu SUSAN LIEU

This is a memoir of a daughter Vietnam refugees and I find reading about Asian cultures especially refugees is very interesting. it is the only way that I can try to understand their trials and tribulations.

Her mother died from surgery when she is very young .

It is a very personal and sometimes heart wrenching book and it helped me understand the Vietnamese culture better. It is a very interesting read.

This was a DNF for me, but I think that's more a reflection of my reading preferences. There isn't anything inherently wrong with this memoir, but the combination of non-chronological storytelling and the repetition of some of the points she makes throughout didn't ultimately work for me. That being said, I think she's a strong writer and the story she's telling is really important

So, a great premise - the author is on a quest to learn about her mother, who died due to complications from plastic surgery when the author was a child. As the youngest in her Vietnamese family, she knew her mother the least and seeks out information from her father, siblings, and her mother’s family, but she runs into one roadblock after another with her reticent relatives.
The first part of the book is the best part, which recounts the author’s childhood living with her immediate and extended family, and helping out in the nail salons that her mother opened and ran.
It slows down after her mother dies, when the story focuses mainly on the author, and particularly once she’s an adult. It just isn’t as interesting.
And ALL of the long, detailed descriptions of food and eating - ugh. I get that the author was probably trying to show how much food and feeding each other is part of the family love language, but it’s certainly not mine, and it was so boring. After a while, I started skimming through all of the food paragraphs just to help move things along.
Thanks to #netgalley and #celadonbooks for this #arc of #themanicuristsdaughter in exchange for an honest review.

Raised in a Vietnamese household, Lieu's family wasn't allowed to speak about her mother's death. With no closure, Lieu struggled to grieve and for the next 20 years, searched for answers to the cascading questions—what led to her mother's decision for plastic surgery? What was her mother's life in Vietnam like? How did this surgeon end up operating on her mother? THE MANICURIST'S DAUGHTER dives deep into the exploration of grief, intergenerational trauma, body image, motherhood, and the weight of inherited family history.

Lieu is an amazing storyteller and a stellar writer. There is so much honesty and vulnerability laced between the pages as she shares her grief journey and her mother's backstory. Fleeing from Vietnam to establishing two nail salons in America to sponsoring and providing for their relatives, Lieu's mother was a powerhouse of a woman and the glue to her family until the family fell apart when she tragically passed.

Losing her mother at such a young age, the loss and absence of her mother and time can be felt deeply through Lieu's story. My heart ached as she shared about the regret she carried for years, the desire for closure and a yearning for a deeper understanding of her mother. When she learned of the reason for her mother's decision for plastic surgery, my heart broke. Throughout the memoir, Lieu also vulnerably shares about her own body image—the familial and cultural impact it had on her self-image and her relationship with food.

There are many heavy and emotional topics discussed in this book. I appreciate Lieu balancing them out well with her humour but never having it detract from her message. The memoir is packed with Lieu's heritage and Vietnamese roots—seamlessly incorporating the Vietnamese language, cultures and traditions, and food descriptions into her story.

Thanks to Celadon Books and Netgalley for the eARC!

The Manicurist's Daughter was a really interesting read. I appreciated the memoir quality and the writing read like fiction at times.

Well told memoir that at times was difficult for me to get through because of the mother/daughter story.

I read The Manicurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu. This ebook was an ARC from the publisher through the NetGalley platform.

In this memoir, Susan Lieu explores her family’s past from before she was born to the present day. Her family being Vietnamese immigrants living in Canada, she felt stuck between both cultures. She had difficulty becoming the woman she now is due to the many opposing viewpoints of both the Vietnamese and the Canadian cultural identities. Her mother died when Susan was a young teen. This impacted the rest of her life, especially because her family members refused to talk about her mom for many years. In this memoir, Susan Lieu takes us on her journey through discovering who her mother was, finding ways for her family to open up, and coming to terms with the life she’s made for herself.

This memoir was beautifully written. The stories being told aren’t necessarily in chronological order, which is fine as the reader always has enough context to understand what’s going on. The author mixes her inner thoughts with the happenings around her, making sure the reader can deeply understand the importance of each moment included in this book. We get to slowly appreciate the author (who isn’t very likeable in the beginning) and her family members (who each have their own issues).

This memoir includes themes of motherhood, death of a parent, mental illness, medical procedures, emotional growth, eating disorders and so much more.

I gave this book a solid 4⭐️.

It came out on March 12th, 2024.

Thank you to @celadonbooks for this copy.

I really enjoyed this memoir from a daughter of a Vietnamese immigrant who owned a nail salon. Her mother died young during plastic surgery and she spent a lot of her young years working on figuring herself out. She attended an Ivy League school, participated in a cult (disguised as a yoga, self-help program), and returned to Vietnam to know her family and her mother better.

I didn’t think that I could read this book. It would be too much for me, as a fatherless daughter, as a woman whose parent was also taken from her with no rhyme or reason. And yet, here I am, having read it and having been deeply and unexpectedly moved by it. THE MANICURIST’S DAUGHTER is an exploration of grief, of intergenerational trauma, and the weight of inherited histories from our families. There is also a lot here about being a woman, navigating body image, and the idea of somehow being too much and yet not enough. Susan Lieu’s writing is somehow profound and poetic but also familiar, like coming home. I am thankful for her vulnerability and determination to tell this story. I prefer not to rate memoirs (because holy cow, what a thing to judge!) but in this case, it’s absolutely all the stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon for the advance readers copy. All opinions are entirely my own.

Thank you to Celadon Books @celadonbooks and Netgalley @Netgalley for the e-arc. And extra thanks to @Celadonbooks for sending me this gorgeous paperback copy. All thoughts are my own.

An emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American Dream and a daughter of refugees who searches for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery.

This was an interesting story and the forward hooked me. I loved that it started out with the author’s own tale of the medical system and took place not far from where I live. I had to cry a little when she checks to see if she could go get emergency care at the ER, it just pains me that we live in a society that this is the norm. I wish that if you were in excruciating pain and needed a doctor you didn’t have to check if you’d owe a ton of money to receive that care. This goes to say that you shouldn’t have to check to see if your doctor carries medical malpractice insurance. I think where this book fell a little flat to me was on “unrealistic” beauty standards. If a woman wants a tummy tuck, or any cosmetic surgery, then they should be able to get it, but they need to be safe when they do so, and to me that is what happened in the case of her mom.

This was an interesting story and told with lots of humor. While it was a tough topic to read about, I did enjoy the manner in which it was told. While I did find some of her anger misguided, there was most certainly a lot to unpack here.

In her recent memoir, Susan shares her experiences growing up in the U.S. as the youngest of 4 Vietnamese children and how her childhood was shaped in the aftermath of her mother’s botched plastic surgery that left them motherless. Susan’s parents fled Vietnam by boat during the turmoil and Susan was the only one of her siblings to be born in the U.S. Her parents started their own business running a nail salon.

But the loss of her mother was so profound that Susan spent much of her life asking questions about what happened but nobody wanted to talk about. This memoir explores Susan’s journey to come to terms with her mother’s unnecessary death, body image pressures, the pressure to have a well paying respectable career and of course, the challenges of being part of an immigrant family.