This novel is not a thriller. I feel like I need to put that out there because most people (myself included) will read about the 2 dead girls and automatically assume that this story will be a whodunnit mystery. This story is a reflective one, with complex characters and multiple storylines that converge to put the picture together. We read about the struggle of Casey and Jamie's parents, Chinese immigrants who struggle to make a life in Canada. We read about young love and the dangerous world we live in. We read about guilt and betrayals and family secrets that can scar someone for life. We read about the different factors that lead to a person making specific choices, choices that shape one's personality. This story travels from past to present, between different perspectives, with mini-segments that talk about what led to the final moments in the lives of Casey and Jamie. All the while, we see Jessica try to grapple with the image of the mother she has always adored with the woman she now sees coming into the limelight. And through this struggle, we see growth and peace. I liked the reflective nature of this novel, with its pacing and its interesting writing style. I found it intriguing in a way that is very different from your usual thriller or mystery. This story made me think, and it stayed with me long after I read it. When a book makes a strong impact on your mind, then you know it's a good one. I definitely enjoyed it, and this is going on my must-buy shelf! ( )

Well, this was one heck of a book. The Conjoined combines the dysfunctional dynamics and difficult situations of a number of families... all connected by the common thread of two girls found in freezers and the mystery surrounding how they got there. This is marvellous, character-driven fiction, and it's so well written.

If you like fiction with nice, tidy endings, then this probably isn't the book for you. The book implies much more than it tells, and you never get a straight this-is-how-they-died explanation about the foster girls. But in my opinion, the messiness of the ending, the grey reality of people's lives, the focus on character over crime, is one of the strengths of the book. This is a novel I will be thinking about for a good long while. ( )

Jessica Campbell is sorting through her recently deceased mother's belongings. She wasn't expecting to find two dead bodies in the bottom of her deep freezers. As a foster mother, Donna Campbell had many children come into their home over the years. Jessica can remember two teenaged sisters who lived with them almost thirty years ago. Casey and Jamie Cheng were two very troubled and defiant girls who everyone assumed had just run away. Jessica can't believe her mother was capable of something like this, but as she learns more about her mother's childhood she realizes that she didn't know her mother as well as she thought she did.

This was a compulsive read for me. It is very well-written. I enjoyed going back and forth between the past, learning about the Cheng sisters, their upbringing and what lead them into foster care, and the present where Jessica is trying to figure out why her mother would murder two of her foster children. The ending wasn't what I was expecting, I wanted more. ( )

I wanted to read this after reading the synopsis on the back cover that says: "On a sunny May morning, social worker Jessica Campbell sorts through her mother’s belongings after her recent funeral. In the basement, she makes a shocking discovery — two dead girls curled into the bottom of her mother’s chest freezers. She remembers a pair of foster children who lived with the family in 1988: Casey and Jamie Cheng — troubled, beautiful, and wild teenaged sisters from Vancouver’s Chinatown. After six weeks, they disappeared; social workers, police officers, and Jessica herself assumed they had run away."

Based on this, I expected the mother to be a real nasty piece of work. Instead, mom Donna is a gentle, granola, earthy saint of a woman who takes in foster kids. Influenced by her mother, Jessica has become a social worker with a case load of children in crisis and a do-gooder social warrior boyfriend. The story travels back in time to her mother and grandmother's past, the past of the dead girls and their parent's past. Along the way, Jessica discovers that her mother had had a few very dark chapters in her life.

The Conjoined was a compelling read that always made me want to know more, with beautiful writing and interesting characters. Lee captures the feeling of Vancouver very well and makes it a secondary character in the book.

What stopped the novel from being a five star read was that there were a few too many unanswered questions, the main one being that the mystery of the girls' death is unresolved. I understand what Lee was doing artistically, but I think ultimately it lets down the reader.

Recommended for: Readers looking for something a little different, and books that accurately reflect diversity. Readers who need to like or admire the characters in a book might want to skip this one. ( )