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5 Stars.

This book was disturbingly beautiful.

This book was the kind of story that makes you want to rethink and lower the ratings of all your previous reads.

This book would be “the classic you must read at least once before you die�� 100 years later.

This book would hook you and convince you from the very first chapter that this was 5-star material.

This was the most highlighted book I’ve ever read. (I highlighted like crazy because, really, the prose was from another world. And I’m not even a read-and-highlight-and-note kind of girlie.)

This was the most beautiful book I’ve ever read.

There were so many unforgettable sentences in this book. I knew it was 5 stars since chapter 1, from this sentence:

My father’s soul was from another time. A time when the land was peopled by tribes who heard the earth and respected it.

This really hit hard. It’s heartbreaking and so true—these days, we just keep taking and taking from the earth without ever giving much back. It’s like we’ve forgotten how to live in balance with the world that keeps us alive.

Just look at this: never have I ever read something that described a cough like this:

I loved him for holding a light on our coughs when we were sick. ‘Can you see the germs? They’re all playin�� violin. Your cough is their song.��

Although, It took me a long time to finish this. Not because it wasn’t incredible—oh, it was—but because the issues this book raised pained me and made me so uncomfortable. There was so much injustice, racism, and cruelty in this story, and the way it was written, so vividly, made it hurt even more. I needed to take breaks. I just knew this book would make me cry. And despite all of that, I wanted to savor it, bit by bit, while it lasted.

I loved all the characters and their flaws. But Betty’s father? He was my favorite. I adored how poetic he was, how he told his stories and shared his lores, how he saw life, how he spoke to nature, and how he cherished his children.

Despite the stiffening pain in his right leg, he lowered himself to his knees because this is what he felt was required of him. It was all part of his ritual in asking the ginseng its permission before he could dig it up.

How can you not love a man like that?

So, ladies and gentlemen, I can’t babble enough about how breathtaking this book is. It’s the kind of story that lingers in your soul, long after you’ve turned the last page. Its prose will haunt you, its characters will move you, and its truths will challenge you. Do yourself a favor, pick it up, dive into its world, and let it reshape the way you see life. Just give it a taste, please.