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Flora Ahn: The Golden Orchard

 I thought the synopsis of this book sounded interesting, and I picked it up on Audible years and years ago. I finally got around to listening to it. It's short, and easy to get through. I realized when I started it that it is geared towards upper elementary/middle school readers.

The Golden Orchard by Flora Ahn follows the story of Maya. Maya's grandmother has come to live with her and her mother. Maya's grandmother has dementia, and struggles to remember where she is, and other details. However, she does remember recipes, and begins teaching Maya traditional Korean recipes. These cooking sessions have a twist: Maya realizes her grandmother can take her back in time to witness her memories. What will Maya learn from her grandmother?

In general, I liked this book. I liked the characters, and the plot was sufficiently complex to keep my interest, and the characters were interesting. I liked what the author included and explained about Korean culture and food.

I felt that the characters were all a little flat. Maya is the only character that has any kind of arc (her mother does a little as well, but the shift is sudden, and not really an arc).  Maya's arc isn't even very drastic, and her character changes relatively little. This is probably due to the target audience - it's not geared for adults who expect (and often need) everyone to be complex.

I also didn't like the magic system. The time travel started out well explained, but as Ahn tried to tinker with the rules, it got fuzzier. I felt I understood less and less of it, and it felt flimsy to me. Maybe this is just because it's time travel - for some reason, I often get confused with time travel, but I also felt that it wasn't explained as well.

I'll be honest, I also didn't love the narrator. I think that might be part of why I didn't love this book. It was good, but not great, and I wonder if that's why I didn't like it. I had a hard time putting my finger on exactly what I didn't like about the book, and this is probably what I really didn't like.

There wasn't any content that I found concerning. Maya's relationship with Jeff is a little weird especially when you find out they aren't from the same "timeline," but they do end up resolving that.

In general, though, it was a fun book about family and character's place within their family.



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