Listen, Slowly

Mia can think of many other things she could do this summer than visiting a lot of “maybe-relatives” in Vietnam. Unluckily for her, Mia’s parents, who are busy at work, send her to Vietnam with her grandmother. Meanwhile, a detective investigates the chances of Mia’s grandfather being alive after he was proclaimed missing-in-action during the Vietnam War. Mia cannot wait until her grandfather is officially dead so she can finally return to her beloved Southern California. However, with the help of friends and (quite a few) adventures, Mia soon learns that perhaps Vietnam is not as bad as she thought it was.

Although the story is usually very genuine-sounding, at times Mia’s self-proclaimed Mom-enforced “SAT vocabulary” can sound rather forced and unnatural despite the fact that Mia explicitly mentions that the high vocabulary is unavoidable. Also, the use of many Vietnamese names can become confusing at times if the reader is not used to them. However, Mia is an extremely well-developed character, and the reader really feels for her even in the first few pages.