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Summary
Summary
With five starred reviews, this is an acclaimed novel about sisterhood, family, and the pernicious legacy of racism. Perfect for fans of Tahereh Mafi, Jandy Nelson, and Emily X.R. Pan, with crossover appeal for readers of Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half.
The Flanagan sisters are as different as they come. Seventeen-year-old Annalie is bubbly, sweet, and self-conscious, whereas nineteen-year-old Margaret is sharp and assertive. Margaret looks just like their mother, while Annalie passes for white and looks like the father who abandoned them years ago, leaving their Chinese immigrant mama to raise the girls alone in their small, predominantly white Midwestern town.
When their house is vandalized with a shocking racial slur, Margaret rushes home from her summer internship in New York City. She expects outrage. Instead, her sister and mother would rather move on. Especially once Margaret's own investigation begins to make members of their community uncomfortable.
For Annalie, this was meant to be a summer of new possibilities, and she resents her sister's sudden presence and insistence on drawing negative attention to their family. Meanwhile Margaret is infuriated with Annalie's passive acceptance of what happened. For Margaret, the summer couldn't possibly get worse, until she crosses paths with someone she swore she'd never see again: her first love, Rajiv Agarwal.
As the sisters navigate this unexpected summer, an explosive secret threatens to break apart their relationship, once and for all.
This Place Is Still Beautiful is a luminous, captivating story about identity, sisterhood, and how our hometowns are inextricably a part of who we are, even when we outgrow them.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--This novel takes on one summer, two sisters, and an act of vandalism that will change everything. Annalie and Margaret are not the closest siblings, especially now that Margaret is away in college while Annalie is about to start her senior year of high school. Raised in a small Illinois town by their Chinese single mother, the three have a distant but courteous relationship. Their mom refuses to acknowledge their white dad who left early in their lives, and the girls navigate being biracial differently: Margaret has more obvious Asian features, while Annalie is white-passing. All is well until a racial slur is painted across their house. When Margaret returns to her hometown, she experiences the same passive-aggressiveness she gladly left behind, while Annalie is just trying to get through the summer and hopefully get close to her crush. Is this act of racism a reflection of everyone the girls know? Are they overreacting by calling the police? This story is told in alternating points of view, and a takeaway is how people of the same ethnicity live their realities based on their outward appearances. The girls and their mother also react differently towards the attack, be it wanting justice or wanting the attention to go away. Tian does an excellent job of portraying life in a small town for a minority, mined with microaggressions but with an undisputable love for their home. The characters are relatable, the plot flows well, and overall, this is a fantastic story. VERDICT A great purchase for all high school collections.--Carol Youssif
Publisher's Weekly Review
Tian's tender debut centers the estranged, stormy, evolving sisterhood of Annalie and Margaret Flanagan following a racist incident. The Flanagan siblings are nothing alike: 17-year-old white-passing Annalie is a sweet, insecure people-pleasing high school student; 19-year-old Margaret, who resembles their Chinese immigrant mother, is an assertive aspiring lawyer in N.Y.C. Raised by Mama after their white father abandoned them years ago, the sisters' already tense relationship worsens when their family home is vandalized with a racial slur, prompting Margaret to leave her internship in the city and return to Illinois. The sisters disagree on how to move forward. Annalie wants to respect Mama's wishes and wait for the event to blow over. Margaret, angry at the family's seeming indifference, begins her own investigation, much to the discomfort of their predominantly white hometown. Their summer spirals as the sisters' resentment boils over, and when footage of the crime is found, Annalie is torn between seeking reparations and maintaining their town's relative, if precarious, peace. Tian simultaneously addresses racism's lasting effects on individual lives while eloquently tackling the uncertainty that teens can face in transitional periods. Told in alternating perspectives, this emotionally layered novel, populated by nuanced characters and culminating in complex resolutions, resonates. Ages 13--up. Agent: Wendy Gu, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (June)
Horn Book Review
In this moving debut novel (set before the COVID-19 pandemic), a racist act of vandalism almost splits two biracial (Chinese American and Irish American) sisters apart as they take different approaches to handling the aftermath. The Flanagan girls are polar opposites: Annalie, seventeen, is quiet, sweet, and self-conscious while college student Margaret, nineteen, is bold and outspoken. When someone paints a slur on the garage of their small-town Illinois home, Annalie and their mother, an immigrant, want to stay silent, while Margaret digs for clues and notifies the press. Further conflict arises when Annalie realizes that her new boyfriend, Thom, may be connected to the incident. Tian crafts a realistic, nuanced coming-of-age tale that deals with questions of identity and self-doubt, internalized racism, sibling rivalry, young love, and microaggressions. The book is a good companion read for other contemporary teen novels that deal with anti-Asian hate, including Ho's The Silence That Binds Us (rev. 7/22). Michelle Lee September/October 2022 p.102(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
When their home is targeted in a racist attack, two sisters must deal with the aftermath and consequences. Nineteen-year-old Margaret and 17-year-old Annalie Flanagan both grew up in the same Illinois town, raised by their Chinese mother after their Irish American father left when they were young. Despite these shared experiences, it often seems like they couldn't be more different. While Annalie wants to blend in and keep her head down, Margaret keeps finding new causes to champion and new wrongs to right. People constantly comment on how they don't look alike, as Margaret appears more Asian. When Margaret leaves for college in New York City, Annalie finally has the chance to live outside her sister's shadow, until a racist incident brings Margaret back to town. As the sisters grapple with what it means to be mixed race and Asian American in a largely White Midwestern town, when to speak up, and whose expectations they should meet, they also struggle to navigate their relationship with each other and the ways in which they are different--and similar. About much more than just racism toward Chinese Americans, this novel deftly tackles the precarious moments surrounding the end of high school and the beginning of college, when romantic and familial relationships are complicated, changing, and all-consuming. Quiet yet powerful, complex, and grounded in the reality that nothing will ever be completely resolved. (Fiction. 14-adult) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The summer before senior year holds the promise of romance for Annalie Flanagan. She takes a job at an ice-cream shop frequented by Thom, her secret crush, who is definitely flirting with her. But when someone spray-paints a racial slur on the garage of the house where she lives with her mother, her focus shifts. She calls her sister, Margaret, a high-powered university student, who quits her summer internship in New York and comes home to their midwestern town. Taking charge and sometimes offending her sister and their mother by taking steps without consulting them, Margaret is relentless in pursuit of the offenders. Her vulnerable side comes into play, though, when she resumes a relationship with her former boyfriend. Margaret physically resembles their Chinese mother, while Annalie looks more like their white father, who left years ago. Alternating as narrators, Annalie and Margaret tell their involving, interlocking stories, while speaking eloquently for others who face similar issues. While Tian doesn't shy away from dealing with large and small acts of racial prejudice and their repercussions within this family, the story revolves around the two very different sisters: their personalities, their perceptions, and their evolving connections with each other, their mother, and their friends. An impressive first novel.
