This Place is Still Beautiful: review

XiXi Tian was born in China and immigrated to the United States when she was a year old. She grew up in central Illinois. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in history and then attended Harvard Law School. She is a tech lawyer by day and a writer by night. She lives outside of New York City. You can visit her online at

www.xixiwrites.com

Title: This Place Is Still Beautiful

Author: Xixi Tian

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: June 7, 2022

Genre: YA

A sweeping debut novel about first love, complicated family dynamics, and the pernicious legacy of racism. Perfect for fans of Tahereh Mafi, Jandy Nelson, and Emily X.R. Pan, with crossover appeal for readers of Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half and Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You.

The Flanagan sisters are as different as they come. Seventeen-year-old Annalie is bubbly, sweet, and self-conscious, whereas nineteen-year-old Margaret is sharp and assertive. Margaret looks just like their mother, while Annalie passes for white and looks like the father who abandoned them years ago, leaving their Chinese immigrant mama to raise the girls alone in their small, predominantly white Midwestern town.

When their house is vandalized with a shocking racial slur, Margaret rushes home from her summer internship in New York City. She expects outrage. Instead, her sister and mother would rather move on. Especially once Margaret’s own investigation begins to make members of their community uncomfortable.

For Annalie, this was meant to be a summer of new possibilities, and she resents her sister’s sudden presence and insistence on drawing negative attention to their family. Meanwhile Margaret is infuriated with Annalie’s passive acceptance of what happened. For Margaret, the summer couldn’t possibly get worse, until she crosses paths with someone she swore she’d never see again: her first love, Rajiv Agarwal.

As the sisters navigate this unexpected summer, an explosive secret threatens to break apart their relationship, once and for all.

This Place Is Still Beautiful is a luminous, captivating story about identity, sisterhood, and how our hometowns are inextricably a part of who we are, even when we outgrow them.

Thanks to HarperTeen and Edelweiss for the e-galley!

Whenever I look at this cover I think, "This cover is still beautiful," and I snicker to myself because I'm funny.

But the heavy themes in this book are not funny. They're relevant and necessary; I wish my younger self had a book like this. Deeply moving, this story is told by two sisters as they deal with the aftermath of a hate crime targeting their home. Annalie and Margaret couldn't be more different, so their approach to this racist attack are polar opposites. Margaret is a go-getter and a justice warrior who never lets an injustice go. Annalie is soft-spoken and wants nothing more than to get her longtime crush to notice her. Both sisters are flawed, but their arcs are something to love.

The writing was beautiful and I loved the way the author brings to light some important issues while not being too preachy. Beneath this event that brings both sisters together again for the summer, there are the themes of love, family, acceptance, and discovering who you are and what you stand for. There are also amazing points like what it's like to look at a certain race, toxic relationships, and crucial bonds of family.

This is definitely a story I would recommend to anyone and will probably buy a few copies for my local free library!

Rating; ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐