Phantoms by Christian Kiefer

Phantoms by Christian Kiefer
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Phantoms by Christian Kiefer is a story that follows John Frazier, our main character, while he reluctantly chases ghosts in order to investigate the disappearance of Vietnam Veteran Ray Takahashi, whose family were neighbors and friends with John's Aunt Evelyn years prior. John becomes the bridge between truth and fallacy as well as memory and guilt as he tries to piece together the events of the past. 

Phantoms is a story that really affected me. As you experience this journey, you become aware of how every single action of the people in this story, big or small, is culpable in the disappearance of Ray. You feel the weight that each decision, lie, and mistake has and it devastated me. This book has a handful of characters and though the main character is John Frazier, Ray Takahashi is the real star of this story.

Ray's story (and fate) is not unlike so many other Japanese Americans, not only at the time of the Vietnam War, but all throughout American history. I try my best for spoiler free reviews, so all I will say is that I was definitely in tears by the time I reached the last page of this book. 

There's not much else I can say, considering the fact that this is a story that you need to just experience yourself while reading. The only reason that this isn't a 5 star rating is because I do not believe that we needed to see Ray's story through the lens of a white (savior) narrator. This is a common theme that occurs throughout historical fiction and it is so unbelievably outdated. 

Otherwise, this is such a good read. Have some tissues ready!