Literature and Tea: Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

Dear fellow book lovers!

Today I will be reviewing the autobiography by Adeline Yen Mah, entitled Chinese Cinderella which I read at the start of November and really enjoyed. I plan to study Chinese at University, and would love to one day be able to read the Chinese version of this book!

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Genre:Autobiography

Book: Chinese Cinderella

Author: Adeline Yen Mah

Release date: 7th September 1999

Publisher: Puffin

Source: Amazon

Synopsis:

Jung-ling's family considers her bad luck because her mother died giving birth to her. They discriminate against her and make her feel unwanted yet she yearns and continuously strives for her parents' love. Her stepmother is vindictive and cruel and her father dismissive. Jung-ling grows up to be an academic child, with a natural ability for writing. Only her aunt and grandfather offer her any love and kindness. The story is of survival in the light of the mental and physical cruelty of her stepmother and the disloyalty of her siblings. Jung-ling blossoms in spite of everything and the story ends as her father agrees to let her study in England.

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Image result for chinese cinderella adeline yen mah

What I liked about this book? I really loved how easy it was to read. I have a problem with books that are too slow and tiring to read, but recently all the books I have been reading have been so easy to pick up and get into. This book was so sad, because of the prolonged child abuse and the pain in the authors words; I never thought I could get into non-fiction but that is now all I seem to be reading since this! I also loved how Adeline attempts to teach the reader Chinese, she even has a website dedicated to helping English speakers learn Mandarin.

What I didn't like about this book? There wasn't much about the book that I didn't enjoy....i guess it was mostly the fact that Adeline endured so much that I didn't like, which made it sad.

I generally loved this, I read it in like 2 days with assignments and life also in the way...which just proves how great of a read it was. Which is why I gave it a rating of....