Review of The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei

*The Original Daughter* by Jemimah Wei (2025). Published by Doubleday.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

About a year ago (at the time of typing this) I quit my job as a professional film critic to explore what was out there in the world when it came to publishing about the movies and books I wanted to see, not just what was popular in the moment. Digital media and working within it can be fun and all, but it can be grinding when you’re just chasing after all the latest trends and clicks for SEO.

I started this blog four years ago, during the pandemic, but never really took it seriously beyond the occasional post here and there about what I was up to. In 2023 I began to realize the impact this blog was having on me, and other people were reaching out about reading it, so I expanded. Once I quit my job, I decided to focus on the blog more while job hunting, as I do make a few pennies here and there from the display ads on the screen.

During my time job hunting, in-between applying to jobs here and there, it happened to coincide with an economic crisis worldwide, which meant I had even more extended time applying to jobs. So in order to fill my nights, and not go completely insane from the monotony of applications, I tapped into my advance copy collection.

This review is slated to come out the day of the book’s publication, but this is an advance copy I feel like I’ve had forever. I’ve known about Jemimah Wei’s work for a hot minute now, even when she was still getting her MFA at Columbia University, and I was waiting for this book.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in late 2024, but because life has been weird and I didn’t start getting through my advance copies until recently, I’m just getting around to the book (at the time of typing this). I swear this was something I was interested in though—I was just preoccupied with unemployment!

Let’s get into the review. I don’t want to ramble too much, as I know intros can get too long and they’re often what you’re not here for.

Two sisters, not fully sisters by blood, and their fractured and interwoven relationship with each other.

This novel begins in the present day, and we find out the fractured part of the relationship between sisters Genevieve and Arin. Genevieve is in the process of discovering that her mother’s terminal illness leaves her with only a few weeks to live, and as the original daughter, she now has to go through the grieving process alone while her mother is still alive.

We learn about Arin, her sister, and how she has gone off to become a successful actress. One may call her an A-lister, as she’s even getting attention in Hollywood, which is rare for a Singaporean, let alone a Southeast Asian. However, despite their mother’s illness, Arin has done nothing to help out with the mounting bills.

The story then goes back into the past, when Genevieve is still the only daughter in a working class household in Singapore. She lives with her mother, father, and grandmother in their house, but things are about to change when they discover her grandmother’s old husband, who everyone thought was dead, suddenly dies.

He even had an entire family separate from the life he had built in Singapore, much to her grandmother’s shame. But when his son writes to them asking if they can take care of his daughter Arin, Genevieve’s family agrees to take her in and raise her. Thus begins the catalyst for the rest of the novel.

Arin is not entirely welcome int he house by the grandmother, and it’s Genevieve who stands up for Arin. The two cousins agree to be each other’s sister from that point on, but there are a series of tests and tribulations that are coming their way.

While Genevieve studies hard to get into elite schools, Arin finds herself falling behind in so many different ways, and struggles with the fact she was left at a distant relative’s house by her family, who seemingly don’t want her back.

Something big does happen and creates the beginning of the rupture between the two in the novel. I won’t go into detail for the sake of spoilers, as this is a major moment in the plot and it shapes the way the future is going to lay out for them both.

What we know might look like their near future becomes entirely flipped, leaving us to see how resentment breeds between the two, especially when Genevieve’s dreams look like they’re crumbling before her eyes.

Overall Thoughts

I found this to be quite the masterful novel when it comes to depicting relationships and how something defined by shedding blood and declaring each other as sisters can rapidly fall apart throughout the years. That resentment created from this friction will follow these girls for years, and it becomes evident from the beginning of the novel set in the present day.

I really liked the writing in this one—the way the story is set up and the girls are characterized, as well as the vibrant world they live in, felt so alive to me. I haven’t read much literature from Singaporean writers and diaspora, but from the ones I have read, and Wei, I want to go to Singapore now and learn more about the ordinary people living and working to survive there.

This might’ve been my mood when I was reading it, though, but I thought the middle of the novel was a bit too slow for me. I can see how this was a me problem specifically, especially as I think we become really immersed in the characters’ world at this point, but I had a mountain to get over about 40% into the book. I was struggling to continue, but was glad I did.

Regardless, if you’re interested in the book and having picked it up or requested it at your local library, I highly recommend doing so! I think it was definitely worth reading at least once, and I can see myself returning to this in the future.

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