Nancy Jooyoun Kim

"Margot Lee's mother isn't returning her calls. It's a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown and finds her mother dead under suspicious circumstances. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the facts of Mina's life as a Korean War orphan and undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother"--Dust jacket flap.

The Last Story of Mina Lee

Naomi P

This is a story about a Korean immigrant to the US, how she tried to escape the pains of loss from her homeland, only to lose more in a different and foreign world. There is some sort of mystery to the book, as Mina's daughter Margot tries to figure out how and why her mother died, while also uncovering secrets about her past. The chapters alternate between Mina's POV, from the time she arrived in the US; and Margot, as she tries to backtrack from the time she discovers her mother's body. The story is very simple and quite shallow and I was hoping for something more that could make the reader understand the pains of an immigrant. I wished for more POVs from Mrs. Baek, Mr. Park, Mrs. Kim, and even Mr. Kim because for sure they have different experiences as an Asian-American.  Even Margot didn't even share her experiences as a child of an immigrant, the struggles of having to find her identity as an Asian and an American. I wish that the characterizations were fleshed out more. The reveal on how Mina died felt underwhelming and I felt that Margot's reaction was lacking. I wished the book ended with how Margot came to terms with her mother's death and appreciating the life that she tried to build for her daughter despite suffering from lots of loses. The book had potential and could use a rewrite.

The Last Story of Mina Lee

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