The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan
A novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII—and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family.
Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day.
Cecily knows two things: that this is all her fault; and that her family must never learn the truth.
A decade prior, Cecily had been desperate to be more than a housewife to a low-level bureaucrat in British-colonized Malaya. A chance meeting with the charismatic General Fuijwara lured her into a life of espionage, pursuing dreams of an “Asia for Asians.” Instead, Cecily helped usher in an even more brutal occupation by the Japanese. Ten years later as the war reaches its apex, her actions have caught up with her. Now her family is on the brink of destruction—and she will do anything to save them.
For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)
The Reason
This book is set in Malaysia (Malaya back then) and the author is Malaysian. I’m always excited for Malaysian-produced media and try to support them when I can!
The Narrator(s)
Samantha Tan. She was great and I loved hearing the Malaysian accent on the dialogues.
My Thoughts
I really wanted to like this book but I’m quite disappointed with it. The story started out really well; it was compelling and the characters were interesting even if they weren’t exactly likeable. There were a few minor problems with the book in the beginning, but they weren’t big deals and were easily forgiveable. A lot of the cultural beliefs and racism was a little triggering to me because of how familiar it was for me living in Malaysia, but in a good way, bringing me deeper into the story.
However, the part where it lost me completely was with Jasmine and her story. I am very much a character-driven reader, and while I don’t have to like the characters, I very much need to believe in the plausibility of their behaviors. She was seven, almost eight years old, in the chapters with her POV, and I won’t go into details because of spoilers, but she was just not a believeable character to me. Nothing she did made sense for her age and background. I could believe it if she was older, I could believe it if she had a horrible relationship with her family, I could believe it if there were any other myriad of changes made to her character, but as she was, it just ruined the story for me. It might even still be okay because she’s only one character and one part of the story, but her story was such an integral part to the book as a whole that I just couldn’t ignore it.
It’s a shame because I love reading stories about Malaysia. There are too few Malaysian books and authors, and it’s such a comfort to read about Malaysian people and Malaysian life. The subject matter and time frame of this book is also such an important historical event that I wanted to learn more about, and while I disliked Cecily very much as a person, she was such an interesting character to read about.
The book is still very much worth reading if you’re not a character-driven reader or as much a stickler for believeable characters as I am. It’s also worth reading to see the impact WW2 and the Japanese occupation had on Malaya at the time. I certainly learned something and despite my issues with it, I’m glad I read this book.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
