Searching for Sylvie Lee; Jean Kwok

AUTHOR: Jean Kwok

PUBLISHER: William Morrow

PUB. YEAR: 2019

SETTING: Queens, NY and Netherlands
FORMAT: - eGalley

RATING - 3.5/5

Part mystery, part immigrant story, Searching for Sylvie Lee, introduces us to the Lee family, specifically the mother, a Chinese immigrant and daughters. Sylvie, the oldest by 7 years, is brilliant and has benefited from an elite education. Amy is 26 and still living at home with her parents in their tiny Queens apartment. Amy is shy and has been sheltered as the baby of the family but she adores her older sister Sylvie who was raised by another family until the age of 9,

Amy receives a phone call from a distant cousin in the Netherlands to say the Sylvie has seemed to have vanished while visiting her grandmother who was dying of cancer. Amy and her parents are desperate for answers and Amy is determined to get to the bottom of it all. As she begins her quest for answers by contacting individuals in Sylvie's life, she uncovers some surprising and at times troubling information about her sister and about the family as well.

I liked that this story was set in both Queens and the Netherlands but, must admit it was a very slow read at times. Fortunately, the story did pick up towards the end but, it is just not an upbeat or hopeful story and, I guess I hadn't realized that when I began..