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Lucy and Linh
From an author Amy Tan calls “a gem,” this is a witty, highly acclaimed novel that’s “part Mean Girls, part Lord of the Flies ” ( The Bulletin, Starred review) about navigating life in private school while remaining true to yourself.
Lucy is a bit of a pushover, but she’s ambitious and smart, and she has just received the opportunity of a a scholarship to a prestigious school, and a ticket out of her broken-down suburb. Though she’s worried she will stick out like badly cut bangs among the razor-straight students, she is soon welcomed into the Cabinet, the supremely popular trio who wield influence over classmates and teachers alike.
Linh is blunt, strong-willed, and fearless—everything Lucy once loved about herself. She is also Lucy’s last solid link to her life before private school, but she is growing tired of being eclipsed by the glamour of the Cabinet.
As Lucy floats further away from the world she once knew, her connection to Linh—and to her old life—threatens to snap. Sharp and honest, Alice Pung’s novel examines what it means to grow into the person you want to be without leaving yourself behind.
An NPR Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection
A Texas Tayhas Reading List Selection
A Bank Street College of Education and Children’s Book Committee Best Children’s Books of the Year with Distinguished Outstanding Merit
"A bracing, enthralling gut-punch and an essential read for teens, teachers, and parents alike." — Kirkus Reviews , Starred review
"This daring work with an authentic protagonist teaches important lessons about being yourself while navigating through life."— School Library Journal , Starred review
"Lucy’s struggle to find her place and sense of self will have a wide appeal for teen readers and is a welcome addition to the prep-school canon ."— Booklist , Starred review
" Lyrical, enchanting prose from a narrator with perception so acute she cannot help but share it immerses readers into the very heart of every scene. This is highly recommended for classrooms and libraries [and] a superb choice for book discussion groups and world young adult literature survey courses."--VOYA, Starred review
" Part Mean Girls, part Lord of the Flies, and part Special Topics in Calamity Physics, this well-observed and unsentimental novel taps into what is primal within privileged adolescent girls."— The Bulletin , Starred review
"Lucy’s narration pulls readers alongside her uncertain navigation of two worlds, and we can’t help but cheer in solidarity as Lucy recognizes assimilation masquerading as inclusion, refuses to back down, and instead embraces who she is."— Horn Book Magazine
"In a novel filled with strong visual images , Pung draws a sharp contrast between authenticity and deception, integrity and manipulation. Against the vividly painted backdrops of two very different communities , she traces Lucy’s struggle to form a new identity without compromising the values she holds closest to her heart."— Publishers Weekly
Lucy is a bit of a pushover, but she’s ambitious and smart, and she has just received the opportunity of a a scholarship to a prestigious school, and a ticket out of her broken-down suburb. Though she’s worried she will stick out like badly cut bangs among the razor-straight students, she is soon welcomed into the Cabinet, the supremely popular trio who wield influence over classmates and teachers alike.
Linh is blunt, strong-willed, and fearless—everything Lucy once loved about herself. She is also Lucy’s last solid link to her life before private school, but she is growing tired of being eclipsed by the glamour of the Cabinet.
As Lucy floats further away from the world she once knew, her connection to Linh—and to her old life—threatens to snap. Sharp and honest, Alice Pung’s novel examines what it means to grow into the person you want to be without leaving yourself behind.
An NPR Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection
A Texas Tayhas Reading List Selection
A Bank Street College of Education and Children’s Book Committee Best Children’s Books of the Year with Distinguished Outstanding Merit
"A bracing, enthralling gut-punch and an essential read for teens, teachers, and parents alike." — Kirkus Reviews , Starred review
"This daring work with an authentic protagonist teaches important lessons about being yourself while navigating through life."— School Library Journal , Starred review
"Lucy’s struggle to find her place and sense of self will have a wide appeal for teen readers and is a welcome addition to the prep-school canon ."— Booklist , Starred review
" Lyrical, enchanting prose from a narrator with perception so acute she cannot help but share it immerses readers into the very heart of every scene. This is highly recommended for classrooms and libraries [and] a superb choice for book discussion groups and world young adult literature survey courses."--VOYA, Starred review
" Part Mean Girls, part Lord of the Flies, and part Special Topics in Calamity Physics, this well-observed and unsentimental novel taps into what is primal within privileged adolescent girls."— The Bulletin , Starred review
"Lucy’s narration pulls readers alongside her uncertain navigation of two worlds, and we can’t help but cheer in solidarity as Lucy recognizes assimilation masquerading as inclusion, refuses to back down, and instead embraces who she is."— Horn Book Magazine
"In a novel filled with strong visual images , Pung draws a sharp contrast between authenticity and deception, integrity and manipulation. Against the vividly painted backdrops of two very different communities , she traces Lucy’s struggle to form a new identity without compromising the values she holds closest to her heart."— Publishers Weekly
352 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2014
About the author
Alice Pung
36 books353 followersAlice was born in Footscray, Victoria, a month after her parents Kuan and Kien arrived in Australia. Alice’s father, Kuan - a survivor of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime - named her after Lewis Carroll’s character because after surviving the Killing Fields, he thought Australia was a Wonderland. Alice is the oldest of four - she has a brother, Alexander, and two sisters, Alison and Alina.
Alice grew up in Footscray and Braybrook, and changed high schools five times - almost once every year! These experiences have shaped her as a writer because they taught her how to pay attention to the quiet young adults that others might overlook or miss.
Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem, is an Australian bestseller which won the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award and was shortlisted in the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards. It was published in the UK and USA in separate editions and has been translated into several languages including Italian, German and Indonesian.
Alice’s next book, Her Father’s Daughter, won the Western Australia Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction and was shortlisted for the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards and the Queensland Literary Awards.
Alice also edited the collection Growing Up Asian in Australia and her writing has appeared in the Monthly, the Age, and The Best Australian Stories and The Best Australian Essays.
Alice is a qualified lawyer and still works as a legal researcher in the area of minimum wages and pay equity. She lives with her husband Nick at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, where she is the Artist in Residence.
Alice grew up in Footscray and Braybrook, and changed high schools five times - almost once every year! These experiences have shaped her as a writer because they taught her how to pay attention to the quiet young adults that others might overlook or miss.
Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem, is an Australian bestseller which won the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award and was shortlisted in the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards. It was published in the UK and USA in separate editions and has been translated into several languages including Italian, German and Indonesian.
Alice’s next book, Her Father’s Daughter, won the Western Australia Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction and was shortlisted for the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards and the Queensland Literary Awards.
Alice also edited the collection Growing Up Asian in Australia and her writing has appeared in the Monthly, the Age, and The Best Australian Stories and The Best Australian Essays.
Alice is a qualified lawyer and still works as a legal researcher in the area of minimum wages and pay equity. She lives with her husband Nick at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, where she is the Artist in Residence.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 712 reviews
June 3, 2016
Thank you Goodreads for my signed copy and my first 'First Reads' win. Signed copy was unexpected but great!
Alice Pung is a young woman with a vast cultural history and a very important story. Here is a piece of fiction, but knowing some of this author's background, this stuff is real. The main subject I took from this is the issue of 'outworkers' and the extreme hard work of those that need to do this and work very very hard to earn such little pay. I was not surprised to hear that Alice works in the area of wage fairness as a solicitor. Her family has worked hard in silence with doors shut and blinds pulled down tight. Do many people know about this??
This is an insightful story told to us from a young girl, Lucy, who at fifteen years of age earns a scholarship to a prestigious girls school. Here we see some horribly self absorbed, pretentious and downright horrible nasty teenagers, preening themselves and cunningly trying to make everyone bow down to them. This little group have the 'entitlement' phenomenon right here.
Lucy is a smart girl, and ends up on top in more ways than one. Along the way we learn how hard people work to get by and how the priveliged just don't get it. She learns so much about herself and we see this coming of age in such a lovely way.
Alice Pung is a brilliant writer, she just gets everything right in relation to setting and character. This is a great book for all ages and is so very real. I enjoyed every minute of this read, and can't wait to read more of her books. A solid 5 stars!
Alice Pung is a young woman with a vast cultural history and a very important story. Here is a piece of fiction, but knowing some of this author's background, this stuff is real. The main subject I took from this is the issue of 'outworkers' and the extreme hard work of those that need to do this and work very very hard to earn such little pay. I was not surprised to hear that Alice works in the area of wage fairness as a solicitor. Her family has worked hard in silence with doors shut and blinds pulled down tight. Do many people know about this??
This is an insightful story told to us from a young girl, Lucy, who at fifteen years of age earns a scholarship to a prestigious girls school. Here we see some horribly self absorbed, pretentious and downright horrible nasty teenagers, preening themselves and cunningly trying to make everyone bow down to them. This little group have the 'entitlement' phenomenon right here.
Lucy is a smart girl, and ends up on top in more ways than one. Along the way we learn how hard people work to get by and how the priveliged just don't get it. She learns so much about herself and we see this coming of age in such a lovely way.
Alice Pung is a brilliant writer, she just gets everything right in relation to setting and character. This is a great book for all ages and is so very real. I enjoyed every minute of this read, and can't wait to read more of her books. A solid 5 stars!
February 16, 2015
In Laurinda we follow the life of 15 years old, Lucy Lin, through a series of letters to unknown friend Linh. Lucy’s parents immigrated to Australia by boat from Vietnam, now living in lower suburbs of Stanley. Her mother’s place of work is in their garage, sewing clothes till all hours for minimal pay, and as well as her father, who works nights shift (long hours) at Victory Carpet factory – they’re battlers trying to get ahead. Lucy attends a catholic school, Christ Our Saviour where she’s found her place and can be herself around her peers. For a young girl, she has caring nature and is well grounded.
Life changes for Lucy when she granted a scholarship at a prestigious girls college, Laurinda. She befriends a group of girls called The Cabinet, who are not interested in Lucy as a person but to mold her to become, and think, like them. They are rich, and influential, and just plain nasty. They will they use their powers of influence and intimidation to control their peers and teachers. Everyone is too frightening to stick up to them. Lucy eventually loses herself, her identity and integrity. She is shown wealth; and is now ashamed of her illiterate parents and family’s home. She’s lost her voice; afraid to speak up when she knows someone has done wrong. Somehow the old Lucy has gone and she needs to find a way to bring her back.
Laurinda is Alice Pung first work of fiction. She is best known for several published memoirs. One in which I’ve previously read called Unpolished Gem, a heartwarming and delightfully story of Alice’s family whom immigrated to Australia from Cambodia, trying to live the Australian way of life. While I adored this book, it’s evident in Laurinda that Alice has come a long way in her writing and storytelling. Alice explores a range of serious issue in Laurinda, not only of racial prejudice, but also of one’s perception and treatment of lower class families, respecting and understanding different cultures and ethnic background, and when people with power abuse it. The extent they will go keep their status, in the form of manipulation and bullying, targeting unfortunate ones that get in the way or play on individual’s weakness. Ruining careers, reputations and self-esteem with no remorse. Alice writing is so tight, her main character, Lucy, is complex and genuine, and her in depth observation of human behaviour is couldn’t be more accurate.
Laurinda for me rang true on a very personal level.I was fortunate enough to attend a school like Christ Our Saviour, where I felt accepted and could be myself; it was outside the school grounds where I felt different. I grew up in Maltese/Australia household. I’ve seen how tired my parents and grandparents were from working hard, long hours in factories or cleaning jobs; occupations some people looked down upon. I have seen the shame in my grandmother eyes when a banker made her feel inferior, when she asked for help filling out a withdrawal slip - she couldn’t read or write. I have witness racial slander directed at my family because of their thick Maltese accent. So whilst reading Laurinda I felt as though I’m home; Alice Pung spoke my language, she knew my family. A remarkable and important book, in each and every way.
Life changes for Lucy when she granted a scholarship at a prestigious girls college, Laurinda. She befriends a group of girls called The Cabinet, who are not interested in Lucy as a person but to mold her to become, and think, like them. They are rich, and influential, and just plain nasty. They will they use their powers of influence and intimidation to control their peers and teachers. Everyone is too frightening to stick up to them. Lucy eventually loses herself, her identity and integrity. She is shown wealth; and is now ashamed of her illiterate parents and family’s home. She’s lost her voice; afraid to speak up when she knows someone has done wrong. Somehow the old Lucy has gone and she needs to find a way to bring her back.
Laurinda is Alice Pung first work of fiction. She is best known for several published memoirs. One in which I’ve previously read called Unpolished Gem, a heartwarming and delightfully story of Alice’s family whom immigrated to Australia from Cambodia, trying to live the Australian way of life. While I adored this book, it’s evident in Laurinda that Alice has come a long way in her writing and storytelling. Alice explores a range of serious issue in Laurinda, not only of racial prejudice, but also of one’s perception and treatment of lower class families, respecting and understanding different cultures and ethnic background, and when people with power abuse it. The extent they will go keep their status, in the form of manipulation and bullying, targeting unfortunate ones that get in the way or play on individual’s weakness. Ruining careers, reputations and self-esteem with no remorse. Alice writing is so tight, her main character, Lucy, is complex and genuine, and her in depth observation of human behaviour is couldn’t be more accurate.
Laurinda for me rang true on a very personal level.I was fortunate enough to attend a school like Christ Our Saviour, where I felt accepted and could be myself; it was outside the school grounds where I felt different. I grew up in Maltese/Australia household. I’ve seen how tired my parents and grandparents were from working hard, long hours in factories or cleaning jobs; occupations some people looked down upon. I have seen the shame in my grandmother eyes when a banker made her feel inferior, when she asked for help filling out a withdrawal slip - she couldn’t read or write. I have witness racial slander directed at my family because of their thick Maltese accent. So whilst reading Laurinda I felt as though I’m home; Alice Pung spoke my language, she knew my family. A remarkable and important book, in each and every way.
April 10, 2018
This is a coming of age story and all the highs and lows and woes that go with this.
Growing up is a difficult journey at the best of times without finding your roots uprooted and planted in forgein land. A land where you have to have courage, where you need a voice to be heard and strength to get where you need to be in life.
Lucy is that person experiencing those problems.
Linh is the friend she writes and keeps in contact with in her homeland.
Lucy’s parent work hard to get her a better life.
Coming from a poorer background they know what it’s like to have nothing so, Lucy winning a scholarship was good, it was very good for Lucy.
With life when growing up you have peers who are important to you, you feel more about this when young but not so much when older.
I thought the teasing etc was minor compared to some terrible experiences nowadays.
It was well written.
I could see where this was clearly heading.
It was however slow at take off for me and took me halfway before I felt it warming up.
July 24, 2017
This proved to be ideal aeroplane reading - I finished the whole thing in a couple of hours of uninterrupted flying time. It was not an earth shattering book but it was very readable - once started there was no where to stop.
I sometimes found Lucy to be very judgemental and she would certainly be a difficult person to be friends with, but the book was well paced and realistic about the problems of being the "different" person in a group. At the end I had no doubts that Lucy would certainly be very successful in her life.
A well written book dealing with a number of social issues in a thoughtful way.
I sometimes found Lucy to be very judgemental and she would certainly be a difficult person to be friends with, but the book was well paced and realistic about the problems of being the "different" person in a group. At the end I had no doubts that Lucy would certainly be very successful in her life.
A well written book dealing with a number of social issues in a thoughtful way.
April 2, 2017
Laurinda follows a very old but effective formula; technically it is a Bildungsroman in which a young person learns the way of the world. An outsider learns to navigate the unfamiliar world of the upper classes. Only in this case the outsider is a child of Vietnamese boat people. Tho’ it’s a little more complicated because whilst having been born in Vietnam, Lucy’s parents are actually Chinese. They live in a downscale suburb of Melbourne, but the 15 y/o Lucy has won a scholarship to a posh girls’ day school called Laurinda.
In some respects, I think posh day schools are the worst of both worlds, offering neither the rough-&-tumble mixture of social classes found in a state day school nor the 24/7 on-top-each-other nearness that creates the condition of belonging in a boarding school. (Lucy would have done much better @ Melina Marchetta’s Jellicoe School.) Lucy is adopted by the clique of leading girls called “the Cabinet” (not in the political sense but in the jeweller’s) but goes home to her family Warwick & Quyen Lam (I don’t think we’re told how he acquired the name of an English county). Mother spends day and most of the night doing piecework sewing shirts for a family business. There is also an infant brother called “the Lamb”—frankly that gave me the creeps because every time Lucy mentions him I thought of Sunday roast. Till I was about 70% into the story I’d not realised that mum speaks only about three words of English & that the shirt-making operation is thoroughly illegal. I’d kept thinking it was also unnecessary. We learn that is true, as well as unsafe & unhealthy, esp. for “the Lamb”!
Before attending Laurinda, Lucy went to a Catholic School called Christ Our Saviour even tho’ her father is an atheist. Every time on the audio Lucy enunciates the name of her former school, she pronounces it as if it were an expletive—not the theological designation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God. Which for me was the principal failure of the book—Lucy & her family are totally materialistic, as materialistic as the Cabinet girls with their expensive uniforms and classy motorcars. The school has no ethos but snobbery, but Lucy & family appear equally without spiritual values. Genuine albeit patronising attempts at friendship, as by Amber’s mother Mrs. Leslie, arouse resentment & ingratitude. It is easy to sympathise with Lucy & to understand her touchiness & hypervigilance towards anything that suggests condescension, but she seems to be dying of an ebola level of class envy.
I didn’t sympathise with some other characters Lucy liked better. Ms Vanderberp the history teacher whom the Cabinet’s prank involving a tampon & red ink drives into early retirement should have been grateful. Tho’ I loved & am proud of my career as a teacher, one should retire early enough to develop other sides of one’s personality, & when we learned that she had subjected her 89 y/o father who was dying of cancer to chemo, I realised if she had become a hospice worker she could have spared him a lot of unnecessary agony. Mr. Sinclair, the politics teacher (a subject, btw, that ought never to be taught below university age in my opinion) starts out as the girls’ heart throb & then @ about 30 goes all defensive lest he be accused of harassment. Lucy blames the Cabinet for creating suspicions, but sorry, goes with the territory—cute junior master is a very ephemeral role. A 15 y/o cannot be expected to have a accurate take on things, & I think Lucy needed very much something every young person must have: a grown-up friend & mentor who is not a parent, & can model for her what an adult should be.
Tho’ listening to this book was often an unpleasant experience, I’m not sorry to have read it. (Love this dual feature on Kindle where you can listen & read simultaneously or alternatively.) Witnessing the educational deformation both Christ Our Saviour & Laurinda offered Lucy, I really came to appreciate what good schools like those in Along the Jelllicoe Road & Friendly Fire can accomplish. Both Taylor & Sophia—main characters very much outsiders too—emerge with so much better formations spiritually, emotionally & intellectually, than I have hope for Lucy. Perhaps we can learn something worthwhile from reading about bad schools too.
In some respects, I think posh day schools are the worst of both worlds, offering neither the rough-&-tumble mixture of social classes found in a state day school nor the 24/7 on-top-each-other nearness that creates the condition of belonging in a boarding school. (Lucy would have done much better @ Melina Marchetta’s Jellicoe School.) Lucy is adopted by the clique of leading girls called “the Cabinet” (not in the political sense but in the jeweller’s) but goes home to her family Warwick & Quyen Lam (I don’t think we’re told how he acquired the name of an English county). Mother spends day and most of the night doing piecework sewing shirts for a family business. There is also an infant brother called “the Lamb”—frankly that gave me the creeps because every time Lucy mentions him I thought of Sunday roast. Till I was about 70% into the story I’d not realised that mum speaks only about three words of English & that the shirt-making operation is thoroughly illegal. I’d kept thinking it was also unnecessary. We learn that is true, as well as unsafe & unhealthy, esp. for “the Lamb”!
Before attending Laurinda, Lucy went to a Catholic School called Christ Our Saviour even tho’ her father is an atheist. Every time on the audio Lucy enunciates the name of her former school, she pronounces it as if it were an expletive—not the theological designation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God. Which for me was the principal failure of the book—Lucy & her family are totally materialistic, as materialistic as the Cabinet girls with their expensive uniforms and classy motorcars. The school has no ethos but snobbery, but Lucy & family appear equally without spiritual values. Genuine albeit patronising attempts at friendship, as by Amber’s mother Mrs. Leslie, arouse resentment & ingratitude. It is easy to sympathise with Lucy & to understand her touchiness & hypervigilance towards anything that suggests condescension, but she seems to be dying of an ebola level of class envy.
I didn’t sympathise with some other characters Lucy liked better. Ms Vanderberp the history teacher whom the Cabinet’s prank involving a tampon & red ink drives into early retirement should have been grateful. Tho’ I loved & am proud of my career as a teacher, one should retire early enough to develop other sides of one’s personality, & when we learned that she had subjected her 89 y/o father who was dying of cancer to chemo, I realised if she had become a hospice worker she could have spared him a lot of unnecessary agony. Mr. Sinclair, the politics teacher (a subject, btw, that ought never to be taught below university age in my opinion) starts out as the girls’ heart throb & then @ about 30 goes all defensive lest he be accused of harassment. Lucy blames the Cabinet for creating suspicions, but sorry, goes with the territory—cute junior master is a very ephemeral role. A 15 y/o cannot be expected to have a accurate take on things, & I think Lucy needed very much something every young person must have: a grown-up friend & mentor who is not a parent, & can model for her what an adult should be.
Tho’ listening to this book was often an unpleasant experience, I’m not sorry to have read it. (Love this dual feature on Kindle where you can listen & read simultaneously or alternatively.) Witnessing the educational deformation both Christ Our Saviour & Laurinda offered Lucy, I really came to appreciate what good schools like those in Along the Jelllicoe Road & Friendly Fire can accomplish. Both Taylor & Sophia—main characters very much outsiders too—emerge with so much better formations spiritually, emotionally & intellectually, than I have hope for Lucy. Perhaps we can learn something worthwhile from reading about bad schools too.
May 9, 2015
I think how you feel about this book may have a lot to do with the readers own upbringing. I just found Lucy to be a big winger, very judgemental of other people but cried out that everyone was judging her.
The pranks at Laurinda were nothing horrendous, just pranks that teenagers do
I felt Lucy had a massive chip on her shoulder and I suppose her saving grace was she did realise it was there.
”I wish I could say I didn’t have a chip on my shoulder, but I knew I had a whole McCain’s factory up there”
I really didn’t get a feel for the story until the last 100 pages and it was then I started to warm to Lucy, but it took a long time to get there. I did however love Lucy’s parents, Warwick and Quyen, they were hard working no nonsense people.
I may be a bit slow but I didn’t get the twist until the very end of the book.
I can see Laurinda is getting lots of rave reviews, it just wasn’t for me.
The pranks at Laurinda were nothing horrendous, just pranks that teenagers do
I felt Lucy had a massive chip on her shoulder and I suppose her saving grace was she did realise it was there.
”I wish I could say I didn’t have a chip on my shoulder, but I knew I had a whole McCain’s factory up there”
I really didn’t get a feel for the story until the last 100 pages and it was then I started to warm to Lucy, but it took a long time to get there. I did however love Lucy’s parents, Warwick and Quyen, they were hard working no nonsense people.
I may be a bit slow but I didn’t get the twist until the very end of the book.
I can see Laurinda is getting lots of rave reviews, it just wasn’t for me.
March 6, 2021
If you enjoy the idea of Mean Girls+the Chilton episodes of Gilmore Girls but set in Australia with a narrator of Chinese descent, have I got a book for you.
Watch my review here: https://youtu.be/BxbHQ-TWKgE
Watch my review here: https://youtu.be/BxbHQ-TWKgE
August 5, 2015
Compared to American mean girls, Australian rich mean girls seem so mellow and not scary at all.
November 18, 2014
Alice Pung has received critical acclaim for her memoirs, Unpolished Gem and Her Father's Daughterwhich explore her experience as an Asian-Australian.
Laurinda is Alice Pung's first fiction novel and features a teenage girl, Lucy Lam, who is awarded the inaugural 'Equal Access' scholarship to the exclusive Laurinda Ladies College.
Lucy is the daughter of Chinese/Vietnamese 'boat' immigrants who live in a 'povvo' area of suburban Australia. Her father is a shift worker in a carpet factory while her mother, who speaks almost no English, sews in their garage under sweatshop conditions while caring for Lucy's baby brother. As an Asian-Australian scholarship student without a background of wealth and privilege, Lucy is an outsider at Laurinda in more ways than one, but wants to fit in and take advantage of the opportunities the school affords her.
Initially Lucy feels confident she will be able to hold her own at Laurinda but she soon realises that there is a cultural and social divide she is at a loss as to how best negotiate. In particular, Lucy is both fascinated with and horrified by the dynamics at the school which contrast sharply with her experience at Christ Our Saviour College. Laurinda is in thrall to three young women known as the Cabinet who wield a frightening amount of influence within the school with the tacit approval of the headmistress, Mrs Grey. Amber, Chelsea and Brodie are manipulative and cruel yet have cultivated an aura of power that none of their peers, and few of their teachers, are willing to challenge. As Lucy is absorbed into the school's insular environment she is caught up in the ethos of Laurinda, and nearly loses herself, but eventually finds a way to forge her own path.
The narrative is presented in the form of a series of letters addressed to 'Linh' whom we assume is a friend of Lucy's from her previous school The author's portrayal of Lucy is compassionate, sensitive and achingly real. Lucy is smart, capable and strong, but she is also a teenager and as such is beset by bouts of insecurity and vulnerability. Though I do not share the same ethnicity nor background as Lucy, I found her, and several of her experiences, easy to relate to.
Part satire, magnifying the pretensions of private school and the aspirations of immigrant families, part poignant coming of age tale, Pung draws on her own experiences which gives the story a sense of authenticity. Privilege, racism, class, identity and integrity are all themes explores in the novel. Pung also skilfully captures the almost universal experience for teenage girls negotiating high school where a small number of students often have an inexplicable cache of power and wield it without mercy. While Lucy is not the only victim of the Cabinet's bullying, she also has to negotiate the additional stress of cultural discord and the expectations of Laurinda's principal who demands Lucy is suitably grateful for, and repays, the privilege she has been given.
The writing is sharp and witty with characters and scenes that are vividly portrayed. The pace is good and the structure works well to deliver an interesting surprise. Laurinda is a clever, entertaining and insightful novel, suitable for both a young adult and adult audience and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to either.
April 12, 2015
Lucy Linh is a 15 year old girl who has won a scholarship to exclusive Laurinda Ladies College. Her family are refugees who arrived in Australia on a fishing boat and think they are lucky that her father has a job in a factory and her mother works at home illegally making garments for minimal wages. So this is a big chance for Lucy to break out of her poverty and into the privileged world of Laurinda.
For Lucy, who was accepted and confident at her previous multicultural school, Laurinda is daunting. Power and wealth are the important drivers in the girls relationships with each other and their teachers and Lucy struggles to deal with the trio of girls who wield the power and can make life hell for anyone who goes against them.
Alice Pung, herself growing up a refugee, has written a brilliant account of what it is like to be a teenager suddenly thrust into an alien environment while at the same time struggling to find her own identity. She raises many important topics, not just those of race and class but also of abuse of power, manipulation and bullying. Some favourite quotes:
On a girl give to making nasty comments:
"She wasn't a bimbo after all, I saw, but was just prone to say snide things every seven minutes or so, as if she had bitch Tourette's"
On the suitable race of eligible boys:
"In their white-daisy bouquet of slim pickings, they cast out all the chrysanthemums, and anything brown was considered wilted"
On the three girls who rule the school:
"They were like three big albino rats in a cage full of brown mice. You wanted to be close to the glorious creatures, not only because they were so compelling, but also because you hoped that if they smelled your familiar scent often enough, they would not eat you"
On her urge to remain hidden and uninvolved:
"And here was the most bitter paradox of adolescence: alone, I was most myself, most true. But the self that really mattered was the self that was visible, the self that could be shown to other people"
On the suffocating atmosphere of Laurinda itself:
'There was something creepy about the femininity at Laurinda, something so cloistered and yet brimming with stifled sex that it reminded me of the Victorian whalebone corsets we once saw at the Werribee Park Museum, which kept everything cramped tight, until the stitches unravelled and out poured mounds of naked pink and white."
December 31, 2021
DNF@37%
Nothing is happening. I'm so bored I want one of these girls to actually do something mean because so far our two-dimensional paper cut-out narrator has droned on and on about these bitches but honestly hasn't really said anything at all. And since she is completely undeveloped, I am feeling nothing. If they're actually being mean, racist, classist bullies like I was expecting, it's not coming across because the story is completely emotionless.
Nothing is happening. I'm so bored I want one of these girls to actually do something mean because so far our two-dimensional paper cut-out narrator has droned on and on about these bitches but honestly hasn't really said anything at all. And since she is completely undeveloped, I am feeling nothing. If they're actually being mean, racist, classist bullies like I was expecting, it's not coming across because the story is completely emotionless.
November 25, 2023
Bloody fantastic. This book has been pitched as Mean Girls x Fresh Off The Boat, and I completely agree. Tackles white nonsense and the ingenuity of individuals who promote diversity and equality for the sake of their own image. (Sound familiar?)
- This book and narrative is as sharp as a tack. There were many, many times where I found myself laughing at the cleverly crafted satire.
- I ADORED Lucy. Lucy is a Vietnamese-Chinese student who earns an 'Equal Access' scholarship to go to a privileged private school, and gets tied up with the political workings of the school and its figures.
-
- This book tackles privilege, elitism (specifically in a private school), classism, and the shallow, manipulative, and exploitative nature of white supremacy.
- Also explores Lucy's experience as an immigrant/child of refugees, and it was such a heartfelt and humanising portrayal.
- It talks about and illuminates on how some white 'liberals' objectify PoC to make themselves look better and 'pro-equality'. And honestly, if you're as sick of white nonsense as I am, Laurinda will be a cathartic reading experience.
- This book and narrative is as sharp as a tack. There were many, many times where I found myself laughing at the cleverly crafted satire.
- I ADORED Lucy. Lucy is a Vietnamese-Chinese student who earns an 'Equal Access' scholarship to go to a privileged private school, and gets tied up with the political workings of the school and its figures.
-
- This book tackles privilege, elitism (specifically in a private school), classism, and the shallow, manipulative, and exploitative nature of white supremacy.
- Also explores Lucy's experience as an immigrant/child of refugees, and it was such a heartfelt and humanising portrayal.
- It talks about and illuminates on how some white 'liberals' objectify PoC to make themselves look better and 'pro-equality'. And honestly, if you're as sick of white nonsense as I am, Laurinda will be a cathartic reading experience.
December 11, 2016
This book is absolutely incredible.
It's a commentary on race, on girls, the machinations of private schools, wealth and class and privilege. It has this strange, lilting, literary feel but it's never boring or dull.
Lucy Lam is a wonderful narrator. From the care she takes with her baby brother to the ways she navigates a completely different world, she is always relatable and never cruel.
This is one of my favourite reads of 2016. And I think that's a real testament to #LoveOzYA fiction. We see a LOT of calls for diversity, which is really fantastic - but too often, those books still come from the US. So if you're looking for an own voices book from outside the US, I'd definitely recommend Laurinda.
It's a commentary on race, on girls, the machinations of private schools, wealth and class and privilege. It has this strange, lilting, literary feel but it's never boring or dull.
Lucy Lam is a wonderful narrator. From the care she takes with her baby brother to the ways she navigates a completely different world, she is always relatable and never cruel.
This is one of my favourite reads of 2016. And I think that's a real testament to #LoveOzYA fiction. We see a LOT of calls for diversity, which is really fantastic - but too often, those books still come from the US. So if you're looking for an own voices book from outside the US, I'd definitely recommend Laurinda.
February 20, 2015
3.5 stars
Laurinda was a good read, however I kept comparing it to my memories of Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta - my favourite book in my teen years - and for me it fell short.
Perhaps if I had never read LFA my rating for Laurinda would be higher?
It was well written, looked at race and socio economical divisions, humorous at times, provoked strong reader emotions - namely anger and fury at the 'mean girls', brought back memories of high school (although I don't think that is really a good thing!).
The Lucy/Linh was really clever - read it and you'll see what I mean.
Upon reading the below paragraph, I stumbled across a problem:
All teenagers are drama queens inside their minds, even the mousiest of us. We load and reload movies of ourselves in heroic postures and outlandish triumphs, movies that, if they were ever to be played in front of an audience we know and love, would cause us to shrivel in shame.
What does she mean teenagers? I still do this. I am not abnormal... ;)
There were great little pearls like above throughout, that apply even into adulthood because as per the quote of Kurt Vonnegut at the start of Laurinda - Life is nothing but high school
Laurinda was a good read, however I kept comparing it to my memories of Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta - my favourite book in my teen years - and for me it fell short.
Perhaps if I had never read LFA my rating for Laurinda would be higher?
It was well written, looked at race and socio economical divisions, humorous at times, provoked strong reader emotions - namely anger and fury at the 'mean girls', brought back memories of high school (although I don't think that is really a good thing!).
The Lucy/Linh was really clever - read it and you'll see what I mean.
Upon reading the below paragraph, I stumbled across a problem:
All teenagers are drama queens inside their minds, even the mousiest of us. We load and reload movies of ourselves in heroic postures and outlandish triumphs, movies that, if they were ever to be played in front of an audience we know and love, would cause us to shrivel in shame.
What does she mean teenagers? I still do this. I am not abnormal... ;)
There were great little pearls like above throughout, that apply even into adulthood because as per the quote of Kurt Vonnegut at the start of Laurinda - Life is nothing but high school
October 30, 2016
I think that my intense dislike of “Lucy and Linh” may be a case of it being “it’s not you, it’s me.” For that reason I bumped up the stars from two to three.
I really did want to like the book. The story of a poor immigrant trying to assimilate in a private school full of spoiled rich girls seemed interesting. Not to mention, a diverse book! It seemed so full of promise. In reality, I found myself with an almost immediate dislike of Lucy that only increased as I kept reading. It didn’t help that the plot seemed to move at a crawl.
I’m going to stop there because I believe some readers may really enjoy “Lucy and Linh,” and I don’t want to discourage anyone who reads the description and wants to give it a try from picking it up. In short: Your Mileage May Vary.
This unbiased review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.
I really did want to like the book. The story of a poor immigrant trying to assimilate in a private school full of spoiled rich girls seemed interesting. Not to mention, a diverse book! It seemed so full of promise. In reality, I found myself with an almost immediate dislike of Lucy that only increased as I kept reading. It didn’t help that the plot seemed to move at a crawl.
I’m going to stop there because I believe some readers may really enjoy “Lucy and Linh,” and I don’t want to discourage anyone who reads the description and wants to give it a try from picking it up. In short: Your Mileage May Vary.
This unbiased review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.
April 29, 2018
That was when I learned a very important early lesson: here at Laurinda, mistakes meant annihilation
* * *
3 / 5
I found Lucy and Linh a hard book to get into. It's written in an epistolary format; the whole book consists of letters from Lucy to her friend Linh as we follow her journey from ordinary public school to an elite Australian private all-girls school Laurinda. This was a difficult read for two reasons: first, I found the writing style a bit weird and unengaging, and second, it was quite emotional!
Lucy Lam's family is poor and Chinese: her father works in a carpet factory, her mother sews clothes in the garage, and Lucy is mostly responsible for her baby brother Lamb. Whilst she fits in well with her friends at the local school, when she secures a scholarship at Laurinda, Lucy's entire life in upheaved. Laurinda is ruled by The Cabinet, a "Mean Girls"-style trio consisting of Brodie, Amber, and Chelsea who play cruel tricks on students and teacher alike, whilst promoting a wholesome image of Laurinda spirit to the administration and parents.
"White lies be damned - sometimes I loved the truth"
I loved Lucy's relationship with her family. As she grows accustomed to the extravagant life of her classmates, Lucy begins to see the things she has always loved about her house - the furniture, the films her parents watch, how she looks after her brother - and the things she never really noticed - how her parents eat loudly and dine off of newspapers - become embarrassing, cringy, and tacky, and Lucy is ashamed of these thoughts. She's caught between very different two worlds and I found it really emotional!
"I wish I could say I didn't have a chip on my shoulder, but I knew I had a whole Pringles factory up there"
But I found Lucy and Linh quite repetitive: the Cabinet pulls some harmful prank on someone and Lucy disapproves; the headmistress complains that Lucy is not participating in Laurinda-lifestyle (debating, sports, or any extracurricular activities at all); the parent of one's of Lucy's classmates has a massive white saviour complex; Lucy withdraws from her new friends and spends all her lunchtimes in the library, thinking about her new life. There's a lot here that seems cyclic.
Overall, I definitely loved Lucy and thought the whole book was quite thoughtful. I laughed a couple of times and felt tears threaten a few more, but the book lost a lot of its impact as it seemed to drag on and become repetitive.
My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book.
Read this review and more on my blog: https://atlasrisingbooks.wordpress.co...
* * *
3 / 5
I found Lucy and Linh a hard book to get into. It's written in an epistolary format; the whole book consists of letters from Lucy to her friend Linh as we follow her journey from ordinary public school to an elite Australian private all-girls school Laurinda. This was a difficult read for two reasons: first, I found the writing style a bit weird and unengaging, and second, it was quite emotional!
Lucy Lam's family is poor and Chinese: her father works in a carpet factory, her mother sews clothes in the garage, and Lucy is mostly responsible for her baby brother Lamb. Whilst she fits in well with her friends at the local school, when she secures a scholarship at Laurinda, Lucy's entire life in upheaved. Laurinda is ruled by The Cabinet, a "Mean Girls"-style trio consisting of Brodie, Amber, and Chelsea who play cruel tricks on students and teacher alike, whilst promoting a wholesome image of Laurinda spirit to the administration and parents.
"White lies be damned - sometimes I loved the truth"
I loved Lucy's relationship with her family. As she grows accustomed to the extravagant life of her classmates, Lucy begins to see the things she has always loved about her house - the furniture, the films her parents watch, how she looks after her brother - and the things she never really noticed - how her parents eat loudly and dine off of newspapers - become embarrassing, cringy, and tacky, and Lucy is ashamed of these thoughts. She's caught between very different two worlds and I found it really emotional!
"I wish I could say I didn't have a chip on my shoulder, but I knew I had a whole Pringles factory up there"
But I found Lucy and Linh quite repetitive: the Cabinet pulls some harmful prank on someone and Lucy disapproves; the headmistress complains that Lucy is not participating in Laurinda-lifestyle (debating, sports, or any extracurricular activities at all); the parent of one's of Lucy's classmates has a massive white saviour complex; Lucy withdraws from her new friends and spends all her lunchtimes in the library, thinking about her new life. There's a lot here that seems cyclic.
Overall, I definitely loved Lucy and thought the whole book was quite thoughtful. I laughed a couple of times and felt tears threaten a few more, but the book lost a lot of its impact as it seemed to drag on and become repetitive.
My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book.
Read this review and more on my blog: https://atlasrisingbooks.wordpress.co...
April 7, 2017
I don't like that this book has been marketed with a "Mean Girls" angle--- Lucy and Linh or Laurinda (the Aus title) unearths something far more insidious than vicious sociopolitics between teenage girls---- systemic white privilege, racism, elitism and classism in our society but using the backdrop of an elite all-girls' private school.
This book coolly dissects white privilege at its finest where it seems like a group of intelligent, privileged white girls "taking you under their wing" is some act of kindness and yet dehumanizing and condescending down to you and your culture and socioeconomic status.
The Cabinet at Laurinda are not the type of girls who peak at high school the way you see in American high school movies a la Regina George--- they are the kind of girls you seen all the time in reality who go on and run companies or charities and climb easily on top of whatever field they want to be in because they are padded with the privilege of wealth and whiteness. And they're intelligent in their own way. But they are so sheltered and have such a narrow view of the world that you cannot expect them to care about anyone that isn't up to their social status. When The Cabinet takes on Lucy Lam, our protagonist--- it is not about an act of kindness, as is them trying to make themselves look good by turning Lucy into their pet. Trying to mold her into the perfect image of what the school wants because the school looking good reflects on them.
The exploration of Lucy is fantastically nuanced. Being a teenager is the one time where you are actively constructing your identity and trying to figure out who you are and letting outside forces influence you a lot. Author Alice Pung really plays into that construction of identity. Lucy flits from friend group to friend group from her old school to Laurinda, never really fitting in with anyone despite the fact that she's not exactly socially awkward. She just hasn't really pinned down who she is and where she belongs. So even though she KNOWS she doesn't fit in with The Cabinet at all, she passively allows them to take her under their wing initially. It is only when she DOES figure out who she is that she breaks free from her passivity and has the strength to stand on her own, rather than stand with others for the wrong reasons.
Unlike Heathers and Mean Girls, this does not have a comedic edge, and is not satirical in any way. These kinds of people really do exist because I went to school with them as well--- they are charming (especially to adults), manipulative, rich, beautiful and popular and will want for nothing. There is no comeuppance in their lives.
This book coolly dissects white privilege at its finest where it seems like a group of intelligent, privileged white girls "taking you under their wing" is some act of kindness and yet dehumanizing and condescending down to you and your culture and socioeconomic status.
The Cabinet at Laurinda are not the type of girls who peak at high school the way you see in American high school movies a la Regina George--- they are the kind of girls you seen all the time in reality who go on and run companies or charities and climb easily on top of whatever field they want to be in because they are padded with the privilege of wealth and whiteness. And they're intelligent in their own way. But they are so sheltered and have such a narrow view of the world that you cannot expect them to care about anyone that isn't up to their social status. When The Cabinet takes on Lucy Lam, our protagonist--- it is not about an act of kindness, as is them trying to make themselves look good by turning Lucy into their pet. Trying to mold her into the perfect image of what the school wants because the school looking good reflects on them.
The exploration of Lucy is fantastically nuanced. Being a teenager is the one time where you are actively constructing your identity and trying to figure out who you are and letting outside forces influence you a lot. Author Alice Pung really plays into that construction of identity. Lucy flits from friend group to friend group from her old school to Laurinda, never really fitting in with anyone despite the fact that she's not exactly socially awkward. She just hasn't really pinned down who she is and where she belongs. So even though she KNOWS she doesn't fit in with The Cabinet at all, she passively allows them to take her under their wing initially. It is only when she DOES figure out who she is that she breaks free from her passivity and has the strength to stand on her own, rather than stand with others for the wrong reasons.
Unlike Heathers and Mean Girls, this does not have a comedic edge, and is not satirical in any way. These kinds of people really do exist because I went to school with them as well--- they are charming (especially to adults), manipulative, rich, beautiful and popular and will want for nothing. There is no comeuppance in their lives.
June 18, 2017
I've been stalking this book on Amazon for a little while, so when I saw it on sale yesterday I hastily downloaded it and started reading straight away.
This is an insightful and honest account of a teenager from a 'problem' suburb in Melbourne, who changes to an exclusive school from her local Catholic after winning a scholarship. An extra dimension is that the teenager, Lucy, is first generation Australian. Whilst this is a book about a teenager, I hesitate to say it is YA fiction due to the depth of the themes explored by the author. Not to say that YA can't or doesn't do those things, but rather my concern is that there is so much junk in the genre that this book being defined as YA may lead to some not reading it because of that definition. I can't relate to some of Lucy's experiences. I didn't attend an exclusive school, and nor was I an immigrant, but the feelings of identity, belonging, power, leadership, and personal integrity are things most can relate to.
This is an acutely observed (and at times satirical) novel, with a distinct Australian flavour. I was a teenager around the same time the novel was set, so smiled at many references. With the YA market flooded with much from the US, I realised how much I miss being able to relate to a book on a more basic level, with it reproducing the cultural context in which I live; where there are references to Australia and being Australian.
Back to comment at the start about having purchased this book on sale; this is a book that I would pay full price for and feel satisfied with my purchase. I'm not usually into memoir-y type things, but this book impresses me so much I will check out Alice Pung's other books.
A really great read.
This is an insightful and honest account of a teenager from a 'problem' suburb in Melbourne, who changes to an exclusive school from her local Catholic after winning a scholarship. An extra dimension is that the teenager, Lucy, is first generation Australian. Whilst this is a book about a teenager, I hesitate to say it is YA fiction due to the depth of the themes explored by the author. Not to say that YA can't or doesn't do those things, but rather my concern is that there is so much junk in the genre that this book being defined as YA may lead to some not reading it because of that definition. I can't relate to some of Lucy's experiences. I didn't attend an exclusive school, and nor was I an immigrant, but the feelings of identity, belonging, power, leadership, and personal integrity are things most can relate to.
This is an acutely observed (and at times satirical) novel, with a distinct Australian flavour. I was a teenager around the same time the novel was set, so smiled at many references. With the YA market flooded with much from the US, I realised how much I miss being able to relate to a book on a more basic level, with it reproducing the cultural context in which I live; where there are references to Australia and being Australian.
Back to comment at the start about having purchased this book on sale; this is a book that I would pay full price for and feel satisfied with my purchase. I'm not usually into memoir-y type things, but this book impresses me so much I will check out Alice Pung's other books.
A really great read.
Read
September 28, 2016This is a story of an Asian immigrant teen's life in Australia. Like Cloudwish, it explores haves and have nots, privilege, and relationships that are complicated inside and outside of school. What this book excels in in a way that Cloudwish doesn't, though, is really giving us deeper insight into the main character, with less focus (none at all, in fact, seeing Laurinda is an all-girls school) on romance. There are a lot of similar elements, though, so readers who like one will likely enjoy the other. A big difference absolutely worth noting is that this is an #ownvoices story.
At times, the "Mean Girls" cliche felt tired and none of those girls were quite developed. That said, the way Lucy rectifies her relationship with Linh is brilliant; I kind of suspected what was going on at the beginning, but Pung's way of telling the story in that capacity really added nuance and layers to the idea of insiders, outsiders, appearances, and authenticity.
Readers who love Aussie YA will find those hallmark writing and voice aspects. Pung's writing, too, is excellent and evocative.
At times, the "Mean Girls" cliche felt tired and none of those girls were quite developed. That said, the way Lucy rectifies her relationship with Linh is brilliant; I kind of suspected what was going on at the beginning, but Pung's way of telling the story in that capacity really added nuance and layers to the idea of insiders, outsiders, appearances, and authenticity.
Readers who love Aussie YA will find those hallmark writing and voice aspects. Pung's writing, too, is excellent and evocative.
February 2, 2015
Think Mean Girls with a sharper focus on class and race.
November 8, 2022
A solid YA read! Audiobook was really well done, and I can’t BELIEVE how accurate the descriptions of walking into the home of a wealthy person were. With my tutoring I constantly feel like the hired help.
August 8, 2016
More like 3.75 stars. Also reviewed on my Youtube channel.
Reading this book was a slightly strange experience for me for several reasons.
1. It's set in Melbourne.
2. It's set in the 1990s.
3. It's set in a private girls' school.
I attended a private girls' school in Melbourne in the 1990s, so there was a lot about the story that felt frighteningly familiar. I could relate more than I liked to the parts of the story about teenage girls tormenting teachers and the rest of the class going along with it, to the parts about Lucy feeling better about herself when she's alone, to the parts about dancing to Spice Girls songs at socials with a brother school.
Obviously, I'm not Chinese, I wasn't born in Vietnam, I didn't come to Australia by boat, and I wasn't a scholarship girl from the western suburbs. As much of Lucy's story was unfamiliar to me as was familiar. But the parts that were familiar definitely didn't make me pine for my high school days, that's for sure.
This isn't always an easy read. Our protagonist, Lucy, tells the story of her first year at Laurinda in a series of letters addressed to Linh, an often mysterious and largely unseen character. The way Lucy talks about Linh was confusing to me at first, and I struggled to make sense of their relationship. But about three quarters of the way through the book, everything fell into place.
There were times when the story felt like it went on for a little longer than was necessary, like it was taking far too long to get to the point. There were only so many times I could read about Mrs. Leslie and her white saviour complex without wanting to scream, and I reeeeeeeeeally could have done with less of the Evil Trio of Doom. That said, I kind of wished we'd seen more of Lucy and her friends from her old life than just the occasional encounter on the train.
On the whole, it was an enjoyable book dealing with some serious issues regarding identity in teenage girls.
Reading this book was a slightly strange experience for me for several reasons.
1. It's set in Melbourne.
2. It's set in the 1990s.
3. It's set in a private girls' school.
I attended a private girls' school in Melbourne in the 1990s, so there was a lot about the story that felt frighteningly familiar. I could relate more than I liked to the parts of the story about teenage girls tormenting teachers and the rest of the class going along with it, to the parts about Lucy feeling better about herself when she's alone, to the parts about dancing to Spice Girls songs at socials with a brother school.
Obviously, I'm not Chinese, I wasn't born in Vietnam, I didn't come to Australia by boat, and I wasn't a scholarship girl from the western suburbs. As much of Lucy's story was unfamiliar to me as was familiar. But the parts that were familiar definitely didn't make me pine for my high school days, that's for sure.
This isn't always an easy read. Our protagonist, Lucy, tells the story of her first year at Laurinda in a series of letters addressed to Linh, an often mysterious and largely unseen character. The way Lucy talks about Linh was confusing to me at first, and I struggled to make sense of their relationship. But about three quarters of the way through the book, everything fell into place.
There were times when the story felt like it went on for a little longer than was necessary, like it was taking far too long to get to the point. There were only so many times I could read about Mrs. Leslie and her white saviour complex without wanting to scream, and I reeeeeeeeeally could have done with less of the Evil Trio of Doom. That said, I kind of wished we'd seen more of Lucy and her friends from her old life than just the occasional encounter on the train.
On the whole, it was an enjoyable book dealing with some serious issues regarding identity in teenage girls.
June 16, 2016
MUST READ ALERT!
I want everyone to read this book. It's about race and family and immigration and class and education and friendship and it is so, so good. Lucy's parents immigrated to Australia from Vietnam (where their ancestors had immigrated to, from China, some generations previous), and now scratch out a living as a factory worker (Lucy's dad) and seamstress (Lucy's mom). Lucy wins a prestigious scholarship to Laurinda Ladies' College, and everyone thinks that as a result, she'll be the one to raise her family's fortunes. Once there, she realizes how the unspoken, hidden rules and structures of the school -- despite their proud emphasis on diversity & inclusion -- are nearly always going to keep her down. Well, they'll have a go, at least. I got the sense while reading that now that Lucy has them sussed out, she'll never let those bastards grind her down.
I'm not in love with the framing device (it's in the form of a long series of letters from Lucy to Linh), but the themes are so well-developed and Lucy's voice is so powerful and subtle. And once you get into the unflinching beauty of the sentence-level writing...well. I see this as a strong Printz contender.
LAURINDA is being republished in the US this fall as LUCY & LINH, but I'm an impatient dummy who didn't know that & so I bought a copy of the Australian edition a few months ago. Read it as soon as you can, friends!
I want everyone to read this book. It's about race and family and immigration and class and education and friendship and it is so, so good. Lucy's parents immigrated to Australia from Vietnam (where their ancestors had immigrated to, from China, some generations previous), and now scratch out a living as a factory worker (Lucy's dad) and seamstress (Lucy's mom). Lucy wins a prestigious scholarship to Laurinda Ladies' College, and everyone thinks that as a result, she'll be the one to raise her family's fortunes. Once there, she realizes how the unspoken, hidden rules and structures of the school -- despite their proud emphasis on diversity & inclusion -- are nearly always going to keep her down. Well, they'll have a go, at least. I got the sense while reading that now that Lucy has them sussed out, she'll never let those bastards grind her down.
I'm not in love with the framing device (it's in the form of a long series of letters from Lucy to Linh), but the themes are so well-developed and Lucy's voice is so powerful and subtle. And once you get into the unflinching beauty of the sentence-level writing...well. I see this as a strong Printz contender.
LAURINDA is being republished in the US this fall as LUCY & LINH, but I'm an impatient dummy who didn't know that & so I bought a copy of the Australian edition a few months ago. Read it as soon as you can, friends!
September 1, 2018
“But I felt the opposite. I was regressing as a person. Those two hours with Mrs. Leslie and Amber had drained me, Linh. “
“It was exhausting to be the sort of person they expected me to be. “
You know what? I felt the same way. There were at times where I want to practice self-control whilst trying not to let myself blurt out my immediate temper over the simplest things others are quite clueless about.
Lucy and Linh follows a girl who tries to maintain her life at a prestigious school and helping out her family in need back at home. But that’s not always the case. Not only was she being ambitious and smart but also, hiding her other self that she swears she couldn’t let go of inside.
It’s also interesting that there’s no romance here. It’s not the main focus. Except... certain moments where Lucy meets a guy and make short introductions with. That’s literally it.
“It was exhausting to be the sort of person they expected me to be. “
You know what? I felt the same way. There were at times where I want to practice self-control whilst trying not to let myself blurt out my immediate temper over the simplest things others are quite clueless about.
Lucy and Linh follows a girl who tries to maintain her life at a prestigious school and helping out her family in need back at home. But that’s not always the case. Not only was she being ambitious and smart but also, hiding her other self that she swears she couldn’t let go of inside.
It’s also interesting that there’s no romance here. It’s not the main focus. Except... certain moments where Lucy meets a guy and make short introductions with. That’s literally it.
January 20, 2020
I don’t read much YA these days, and when I do it’s usually books that I fell in love with when they were age appropriate. In the past I have loved John Marsden, Isobelle Carmody and Melina Marchetta among others. Alice Pung knocks it out of the park with Laurinda. Snappy, visceral and heartbreaking at times, I could barely put this one down
🙌🏼 Lucy Lam is exactly the hero I needed in high school, I’ll be passing this along to my nieces and nephews and friends kids forever
✔️ Read for: #StellaProject June Pick #ReadingWomenMonth #ReadingWomenChallenge - 24 A YA book by a WOC
Solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🙌🏼 Lucy Lam is exactly the hero I needed in high school, I’ll be passing this along to my nieces and nephews and friends kids forever
✔️ Read for: #StellaProject June Pick #ReadingWomenMonth #ReadingWomenChallenge - 24 A YA book by a WOC
Solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
December 4, 2016
This is one of my top teen picks for 2016. Lucy is one of the best-written characters I've read in a long time, so believable that you want to call her your friend. The way the author evokes the worlds that Lucy embodies is sensational, from her dilapidated home to the prestigious private school, and all the places in-between. I've rarely read and better understood the stark class divisions that are felt by an immigrant community and the second generation. Looking forward to reading more by Alice Pung.
May 13, 2018
I loved how this book handles elitism and privilege, racial prejudice and the experience of Asian immigrants in Australia.
Lucy and Linh was a sharp, funny and just fantastic read. We don't get many Australian books here in the libraries of suburban America, which is such a pity, so this was an extra pleasure to read.
Lucy and Linh was a sharp, funny and just fantastic read. We don't get many Australian books here in the libraries of suburban America, which is such a pity, so this was an extra pleasure to read.
April 30, 2018
Although I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, I would definitely recommend it to all teenagers. It would be a bonus if school libraries would stock this book..
January 21, 2021
This was absolutely stunning. Perfect.
February 27, 2015
This was a good read - some parts rang true, and some were a bit too simplistic (especially in reference to Lucy's old school, which, other than a relatively low academic performance, appeared to be flawless - which was probably unlikely).
There are some parts where Alice Pung really nails the differences, and the snobbery, and the key values between the two cultural groups she is trying to bridge (and, in fact, the subgroups within them), but others where she choses an unrealistic scenario or scene which is supposed to appal (and, while they are not very pleasant, in reality, sadly, I have heard far worse school experiences, with more subtle undertones. These are far tricker to navigate that the school year that Lucy had to live through). However, maybe because it is a young adults novel, the author chose not to go so deeply into dysfunctional school behaviour? And the redemptive ending to me didn't really ring true (although lovely if it would occur).
Nonetheless, an entertaining read, and some elements to think about.
Some quotes -
'This was shocking to me. I thought that women like this, especially in houses like this, would site and discuss art history or antiques or literature, Linh. Like my father, I had believed that educated people were gentler and kinder than the uncouth and unlearned masses - but now I wasn't so sure' (p174)
'An insecure person here is like a loose nut,' said Chelsea. You just have to screw them up properly.' ..'We purified the school,' said Brodie, but by now it was hard to tell whether she was being ironic or deadly serious.
'You don't have to be the best at this new school,' she told me. 'You don't have to be the smartest. You don't have to be like that girl with the phone. All you have to be is a good person I see everyone around me getting the things they want in life ... And every time I go over to one of their houses they always talk about it. But that proud talk soon turns into a list of complaints... do you know what I never do? I never tell them about us. I never tell them that your father often works in the garage with me after his shift and we talk, That we made a tent out of netting for the Lamb. That I sometimes let you stay home with me when you're not sick'.
I couldn't look at my mother, but I could sense her looking at me. She always figured my excuses out.
'I never tell them about our lives. You know why? It's not because I am ashamed. It is because some things are just too good, too good to be judged'.(p268)
'So for me, leadership is about building your own character before you start influencing anyone else. To be a true leader, I think you must learn what it is like to follow, even if it means squatting on the ground with a toddler to look at old things in new ways. And to follow without losing your own moral compass, you have to know yourself and appreciate where you come from' (p332)
There are some parts where Alice Pung really nails the differences, and the snobbery, and the key values between the two cultural groups she is trying to bridge (and, in fact, the subgroups within them), but others where she choses an unrealistic scenario or scene which is supposed to appal (and, while they are not very pleasant, in reality, sadly, I have heard far worse school experiences, with more subtle undertones. These are far tricker to navigate that the school year that Lucy had to live through). However, maybe because it is a young adults novel, the author chose not to go so deeply into dysfunctional school behaviour? And the redemptive ending to me didn't really ring true (although lovely if it would occur).
Nonetheless, an entertaining read, and some elements to think about.
Some quotes -
'This was shocking to me. I thought that women like this, especially in houses like this, would site and discuss art history or antiques or literature, Linh. Like my father, I had believed that educated people were gentler and kinder than the uncouth and unlearned masses - but now I wasn't so sure' (p174)
'An insecure person here is like a loose nut,' said Chelsea. You just have to screw them up properly.' ..'We purified the school,' said Brodie, but by now it was hard to tell whether she was being ironic or deadly serious.
'You don't have to be the best at this new school,' she told me. 'You don't have to be the smartest. You don't have to be like that girl with the phone. All you have to be is a good person I see everyone around me getting the things they want in life ... And every time I go over to one of their houses they always talk about it. But that proud talk soon turns into a list of complaints... do you know what I never do? I never tell them about us. I never tell them that your father often works in the garage with me after his shift and we talk, That we made a tent out of netting for the Lamb. That I sometimes let you stay home with me when you're not sick'.
I couldn't look at my mother, but I could sense her looking at me. She always figured my excuses out.
'I never tell them about our lives. You know why? It's not because I am ashamed. It is because some things are just too good, too good to be judged'.(p268)
'So for me, leadership is about building your own character before you start influencing anyone else. To be a true leader, I think you must learn what it is like to follow, even if it means squatting on the ground with a toddler to look at old things in new ways. And to follow without losing your own moral compass, you have to know yourself and appreciate where you come from' (p332)
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