'Lei Ling Wen is lonely. Bored of her demanding after-school schedule of tuition, study and violin lessons, she struggles to see eye to eye with her strict Chinese-Malaysian mother.
'When Lei Ling is befriended by elegant, worldly socialite Gigi Nu, she is enchanted by the realm of luxury and freedom that suddenly opens up to her. Gigi encourages Lei Ling to flout her routines and treats her to designer products and expensive meals, and soon Lei Ling finds herself caught between two lives, and increasingly at odds with her exasperated mother.
'Then tragedy strikes, and Lei Ling discovers long-held secrets that lead her to question everything she thought she knew about the two central women in her life, and the friendship she’d held at the heart of it.
'Jade and Emerald is a fierce and deeply felt novel about the joys and pains of growing up, of accepting who you are and where you come from.' (Publication summary)
'Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings Debut Spotlight feature. For August that debut is Jade and Emerald by Michelle See-Tho (Penguin Random House), a fierce and deeply felt novel about the joys and pains of growing up, of accepting who you are and where you come from. '
'A mother-daughter bond is tested in Michelle See-Tho’s exploration of the idiosyncracies of being a Chinese-Malaysian girl growing up in late-90s Australia.'
'In the opening pages of Michelle See-Tho’s début novel, Jade and Emerald, an unnamed narrator is avoiding someone’s gaze. That someone is ‘pristine, poised like a goddess’ to the narrator’s vision of herself: haircut ‘like an eight-year-old boy’s’, smudged make-up, dress the wrong colour. There is a secret between these two young women, blown open by the prologue’s end.' (Introduction)
'In the opening pages of Michelle See-Tho’s début novel, Jade and Emerald, an unnamed narrator is avoiding someone’s gaze. That someone is ‘pristine, poised like a goddess’ to the narrator’s vision of herself: haircut ‘like an eight-year-old boy’s’, smudged make-up, dress the wrong colour. There is a secret between these two young women, blown open by the prologue’s end.' (Introduction)
'A mother-daughter bond is tested in Michelle See-Tho’s exploration of the idiosyncracies of being a Chinese-Malaysian girl growing up in late-90s Australia.'
'Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings Debut Spotlight feature. For August that debut is Jade and Emerald by Michelle See-Tho (Penguin Random House), a fierce and deeply felt novel about the joys and pains of growing up, of accepting who you are and where you come from. '
