Kaleidoscope (the heartbreaking, life-affirming, beautiful new book by award-winning author)

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An introspective portrait of sisterhood rarely told and of a family weathering yet another storm…. Kaleidoscope is heartfelt, devastating, and just long enough to satisfy a reader who thirsts for modern, emotional family dramas.” Kaleidoscope is a book about love, both its many deceptions and its brutal honesty. This is a wise, tender, beautiful novel by an assured writer, written with empathy for its characters’ messy lives. The Brighton family seems to have it all—money and fame and a perfect family—but all is not as it seems. It is as the family unravels that Kaleidoscope reveals its true design.” This is a difficult book to describe without giving too much away, but I’ll try a few basics. Above all, this is a story about the relationship between two sisters, Morgan and Riley, daughters of very successful entrepreneurs. It’s about the reasons they're so close, why they drift just a bit, and how one reacts after she's left on her own. It’s also about both sisters’ relationships with their parents, who treat the two very differently. It’s about crossing boundaries, and about being lost and finding yourself again. Ultimately, 𝘒𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘦 is a love story in which love takes on many different forms.⁣ At its core, Kaleidoscope follows a familiar pattern often found in Steel's works: a murder that sets in motion a series of events centered around loss and the unraveling of mysteries. The story revolves around two lovers who marry and start a family, only to be torn apart by a tragic misunderstanding. This heartbreaking incident results in the parents' untimely deaths and the subsequent separation of their children, each embarking on a distinct path in life. The two sisters at the center of this intimate novel are biracial Chinese Americans, heirs to their family’s Oregon grocery store turned New York luxury empire, and as different as they are close. When disaster strikes, the younger sister, Riley, must re-evaluate her family and world.”

I’ve found that loneliness has a way of feeling significant, no matter how frivolously the hours are spent.”This is one of my favourite books by Danielle Steele... Was actually getting bored of her writing style when I stumbled upon this one. The author balances her characters’ palpable emotions with whip-smart commentary on cultural commodification…. It’s a smash.” Another dysfunctional family saga. Kaleidoscope, the shopping empire built by the family with Morgan as the design genius. The tight bond between the sisters. The different relationships with their parents. Sparkling with sharp observations and deeply wise in its insights, Kaleidoscope is a moving portrayal of the tangled knot of sisterhood and the dizzying spiral of grief. Cecily Wong’s dazzling second novel deftly explores the complex push-pull of family and ambition, and the ways we learn to define ourselves in—and out of—our loved ones’ orbits.”

This was also a character-driven story where the portrayals of the four members of the Brighton family as well as the various people in their orbit were extremely important. While none of the characters were particularly likable (which sometimes can be a dealbreaker for me in terms of positive reading experience), all of them were so realistically drawn that I found myself able to resonate with each one in ways that I didn’t expect. In this regard, I felt the author did a good job relating the struggles and inner conflicts that each of the characters went through, especially as it pertained to their relationships and how they interact with each other. A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature. This coming of age story feels so very important, delving deep into family as much as personal growth. Because who are we without those who raised us, who were raised alongside us? Not that Riley is trapped or even defined by the Brightons, but to ignore them would make her less, would make the story less. Wong’s character is amazingly herself. Riley Brighton is an outlier in her family. She is not the pretty one, or successful one, or interested in the family business which consumes her sister, mother, and father. She has her own interests, even if no one is interested in her. Riley is close with her sister Morgan, but envies how easy is everything is for her, how everyone loves her immediately and without question. Morgan even gets the nerdy boy who Riley has loved for so long. Then when tragedy strikes the Brighton family, they are all forced to face each other with unflinching openness and discover who they are, what that means, and what the future holds.

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Arthur hanya mendapatkan 2 keluarga yang masing-masing hanya mau merawat salah satu anak. Jadi ketiga saudara terpaksa dipisahkan. Riley Brighton is the quiet, overlooked member of the rags to riches family who created an empire out of importing fine goods from India before samosas and bollywood were familiar in our country. Oldest daughter, Morgan, was the honey-haired starlet whose fashion designs helped expand the company. Riley and Morgan, dierent in every way, were as close as twins, sharing everything, feeding o each other. Ambitious and unabashedly romantic, Kaleidoscope is as heartbreaking and hilarious as life itself…. True to the book’s title, Wong tells her young protagonists’ story in fragments that shift through time and place, cohering into a beautiful, sparkling whole. Although it’s fast-paced enough to be read in a single sitting, Kaleidoscope is a novel you’ll want to linger with, full of fascinating characters and moments of arresting beauty.” Cecily Wong describes emotion like a poet. Her words have form and texture. Her broken characters are true in the way they mend, tear, fix again, and finally find a way to live broken.