Been really loving audiobook memoirs recently, this one was a great addition. Lieu's mother, a nail salon owner who fled Vietnam, died from complications of a tummy tuck when the author was 11. The author struggled with her grief through school, a wellness cult, and her own relationships with her family who refused to talk or discuss their mother.

As someone who has also lost a mother before many milestones, it was really moving to hear about how Lieu found acceptance and peace to keep moving forward. I also thought the audiobook was really great to actually hear vietnamese (a motif of the book is that the meaning of 'ma' can change drastically with different inflections including mother, tomb, and ghost.)

The author is also an actor/performance artist so the entire memoir feels very lived in and dynamic.