2.5 stars. I loved the idea for this book, but felt the execution was a little sloppy. A few of the supporting characters tended to meld together for me (to the point where I often couldn't remember who was who) and the choice to use first person present tense was distracting and didn't make a ton of sense in this case. 
 I did enjoy learning more about the cultural climate at the time and the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. The details pertaining to cultural customs and beliefs among the Chinese immigrants in San Francisco was also really interesting and added something unique to the narrative. Other than that, I just couldn't get into it. Really wanted to love this book, but most of the time I was honestly pretty bored.