Phenomenal ending--satisfying though ambiguous, true and beautiful. ( )

Both the title and the cover of Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha have intrigued me since I first saw the book. It suggests revenge on a larger scale and I was in the mood to read that kind of book. However, I didn’t expect that the stakes were that high and the emotion and plot twists involved. Although the novel is based on true events, it’s not something I was aware of (being an Australian kid at the time) so the plot twists really surprised me.

The book opens at the start of the 1991 L.A. riots as Shawn, his sister Ava, cousin Ray and their friends are going to watch a movie. The movie is cancelled, but there’s something else going on in L.A. that night and a riot erupts. It sets the tone of unease that continues throughout the book. The book then shifts focus to the current (pre-pandemic) day as Grace, a pharmacist and relatively insipid character initially, goes to meet her sister at a demonstration for a Black boy who was killed by the police. Grace’s sister Miriam hasn’t spoken to their mother for years and it hurts Grace to think of them angry at each other. Meanwhile, Ray is due for release from prison and Shawn and Ray’s family go to pick him up. We learn that Ava is dead and as the story continues, the circumstances of her death are made clearer, as is the link with Grace after her mother is shot.

The novel focuses on the reactions and emotions of Shawn and Grace’s family to the tragic events in their lives. Some wounds are old, but everyone has a perspective on them and the hurt is still fresh. Each of Shawn’s family reacts in different ways to Ava’s death, and to the events that happen linking them with Grace. The reactions of Grace’s family are seen all through her eyes, and with her own bias. She feels her dad and Miriam don’t have the proper ‘response’ to events involving her mother, but Grace’s own response is chaotic (as you would expect with such a big revelation, although she manages to put her foot in it spectacularly on multiple occasions). There are no easy answers though, as to who is ‘correct’ or has the rights to grief. It’s messy and complicated and that makes the story so captivating. As for characters, I didn’t really like Grace all that much. She seems naïve and uninterested, prepared to go with the flow which is in direct contrast with Miriam, who is ready to tackle anything head on even if it isn’t always the easiest to do. I emphasised more with Shawn and his family, perhaps because they were closer to each other and he was openly flawed, but trying to make things better.

Race relations between Black and Korean Americans are explored in a detailed way in Your House Will Pay. Cha goes through the motivations and beliefs that led to the events of 1991 and how those have carried through to the present day where one character asks if things have really changed. How the police are portrayed suggests that back then and perhaps now, the focus is not on people they believe to be on the fringe. Likewise, evidence pointing to the truth can be twisted to meet beliefs of others.

Overall, the story is intense and it’s not one you go to look for a happy ending, but rather an insight into violence, race, politics and inequality.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )

A really great book on Korean/African American relationships in LA. This zeroes in on one fictionalized version of a true story of a Korean clerk who shot an unarmed African American woman in the ‘90s and received no jail time.
The book looks at the lives of the children of the woman and the brother of the girl in the 2000s after everyone else has settled and moved on. A great book exploring vigilante justice and post trauma lives. ( )

A very impressive novel that blurs the line between a crime story and social/political commentary. Although I had looked forward to reading it based on all the positive press, at the same time I was apprehensive. Race relations is a big, bold issue in our society, not one that is easy to write about with objectivity and honesty, and without manipulating the reader's emotions. [a:Steph Cha|6457876|Steph Cha|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1571636209p2/6457876.jpg] has done that.

The bare bones of the story, the beginnings of which were taken from the headlines, involves the shooting of an unarmed black teenage girl by a Korean shopkeeper in the 1990's, and the aftermath of that event. Not surprisingly, in Cha's story the lives of the families of the shooter and the victim moved in different directions over the 30 years between that time and most of the events in the book.

Since I'm neither black nor Korean, I suppose it could be said that my reactions to Cha's descriptions of both families lack validity - I'm not qualified to assess how valid they are - but I will forge ahead anyway: I think she did a masterful job. At first it seemed that her picture of the black family was more intense and complex and believable, disproportionate in comparison with how the Korean family was described. But as the chapters unfold, it becomes clear that the difference in tone is intentional, a mirror of the basic character of the two families.

Cha is a highly skilled writer, and the book is carefully structured and often beautifully worded. Her use of alternating points of view is well done, especially near the end as the pace of the story accelerates and the POVs switch more frequently. I won't comment on the ending except to note that I found it satisfying.

I can recommend this to any reader who likes a little more meat on the bones of their crime reading from time to time.

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A real and powerful look at race relations without ever being preachy. Compelling plot with complex characters and loads of moral ambiguity. Highly recommend. ( )