How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang: Book Review

There are a lot of arguments for DNFing books. Life is short, there are a lot of books in this world, and we should always try to enjoy the life we are living. I am a full supporter of DNFing books. However, I am coming here with an argument in the opposite direction with How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang.

Have you ever started a book and immediately knew that it wasn’t the style for you? The writing was too flowery or too plain. The characters were too overly developed, or not developed enough. That is how I felt as I read the first part of How much of these Hills is Gold.

But if I had DNFed it, like I wanted to, I would have never dived into the story rich in identity and family. I would have never met Sam and Lucy and felt the compassion I had for this family and many of the characters in this story.

So, I am kind of glad I have this inability to DNF books. It might have worked out for me this time… It doesn’t always.

How much of There Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang was the October book selection for the Literati book club, Gathering of Voices, curated by Jesmyn Ward. For more information on Literati, check out my post here! And to join the book club, click here! Historical fiction is so far out of my reading comfort zone, so I was excited to try something new. Here are my thoughts!

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The Basics

The Book Review

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Content Warning: Dead bodies, racism, transphobia, death, outdated term for Native American

I usually start out my reviews with an overview of what the book is about and what you can expect, plot-wise, while reading the book. I can’t do that with this book review of How Much of These Hills Is Gold. This book wasn’t about anything. It is described as an adventure story set in the West during the time of the gold rush. That makes it sounds exciting, fast-moving, and daring. This book was not that.

How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a story of family, identity, and belonging. It is a character-driven story with little attention to the plot. The two main characters, Lucy and Same are dynamic, interesting, and complicated. Despite the beginning being difficult to get through, I enjoyed what I got from the journey the characters make.

Lucy and Sam are the stars of this story. This book follows their family as they traverse the ups and downs of living in the West during the gold rush. Each member of the family, Sam, Lucy, Ma, and Ba, are unique and interesting characters with motivations and ideas of their own. The character development in this book was by far one of the best I have ever read. These characters could walk right out of the book and be full and complete people. I love that in the stories I read.

Sam was the most interesting character in this story. From childhood to adulthood, the reader watches as they come into themself, and figure out their gender identity over the years. Without the words to fully express how Sam is feeling, they navigate life clumsily, doing small things to make them present closer to the gender identity they feel.

Having never questioned my own gender identity, I cannot speak on this representation. This book is set in a time when the trans community didn’t have the language to describe what they felt. You can read a really interesting interview with the author here, on Apogee Journal, where Zhang goes into the way they wrote Sam’s character, and how the time period the book was set in has a huge impact on this.

Another subject that this story explores is belonging and racism. With the setting being early in American history, the racism against POC is rampant and clear in this book. Lucy and Sam struggle to find a place they feel comfortable in and somewhere that accepts them. This struggle lasts past the very last page. The racism was woven throughout the whole story. This is what Sam and Lucy faced every single day, to the point that they found it normal.

I found it interesting when the author made reference to laying down the last spike on the railroad. While the majority of workers who built this massive project in the 1800s were Asian, only white men were in that famous “golden spike” image that is in all of the textbooks. The way this book was written, it takes the reader into this picture, giving you a closer understanding of the impact this had.

This is an example of the rich history that Zhang included in this book. It is history that is often forgotten but was instrumental in creating such an important transportation system that is still used to this day.

The reason I am not giving this book full stars is because of the style of story-telling. It was not for me. I’ll admit, it was a struggle for me, at the beginning of the story, as I tried to acclimate to the writing. However, as I continued on, I began to understand the author more, and I was able to read the story faster. By the end, I barely noticed the unnecessarily confusing and roundabout way that the author described things. There is certainly a beauty to it if you enjoy that style of writing.

Overall, I got a lot out of my read of How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang. I loved the characterization and the sense of family and the search for belonging was incredible to read. Despite the rough start, I did enjoy my time reading this book. As the chapters went on, I became more and more invested in Sam and Lucy’s story. I didn’t want to put the book down.

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This is officially my first post for Blogmas! I have never participated in blogmas before! Blogtober usually burns me out, but I am feeling alright this year. You can visit my lifestyle blog, Jackie Em, for a bunch of winter-themed posts and gift guides this month as well!

I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, so I enjoyed this dip into something new. It made me want to search out more! So, if you have any recommendations, let me know in the comments below!