The Polish poet Czesaw Miosz is famously credited with the line: When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished. In contemporary European literature, a book these days is often the beginning of a familial feud. With thinly disguised autobiographical accounts of family strife undergoing a sustained boom across the continent, it can increasingly lead to family reunions in courtrooms.
Thammavongsa was born in Nong Khai, Thailand, in a Lao refugee camp. The family moved to Toronto when she was one year old. She grew up in a one-room apartment with her parents and brother; when she was fifteen and her parents decided to open their own business, she, her mother, and brother spent months sleeping in the family van to make the transition work.
I've rewritten the passage to align more with J. Bree's style, which features more tension, gritty undertones, and raw emotional subtext beneath the supernatural elements.