Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Fortunes of Jaded Women

It took a long time to get into this one, and to be honest, I'm not sure I ever did. I persevered just to see how to ended, and then ended up being wildly disappointed.

It was interesting to peak into a culture I know very little about. It's always comforting to read stories that take place in Southern California - it brings a sense of familiarity.

But the writing is not very strong. There are too many characters to keep track of, too many lives to follow, too...much. I really wanted to enjoy it but I just found myself waiting for it to end.

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ittywitty's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Well-written. Took a while to get into, but I’m really glad I read it! It’s kind of like a modern Joy Luck Club meets Crazy Rich Asians with a little bit of a Crazy, Stupid, Love twist. Think messy Vietnamese women all dealing with generational trauma and trying to survive the pressures of duty to family and society. All of which have been unlucky in love due to a family curse. Enjoyed hearing about these families and the culmination of hilarious drama that ensues! Also the portrayal of Vietnamese culture felt pretty accurate to me, which I always appreciate in AAPI authors, especially those also named Carolyn. ❤️ Would love to see this story made into a movie!!!

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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Shoutout to Libro.fm for the ALC of this book. I've been waiting for when I needed a light and fun read to pick it up, since everyone I've seen review it has mentioned that it's a little over the top. I've really been in the mood for escapist reads lately, so lots of fantasy and romance, but then I remembered this contemporary book waiting on my TBR and decided to mix up the escapism a bit.

Generations ago, Oanh left her marriage for true love, and in the ensuing backlash, was cursed by a witch so that her descendants would give birth to only daughters...and would never find true love or happiness. In the present day, three mostly estranged sisters, descendents of Oanh, live in Little Saigon in Orange County, CA: Mai (the oldest and most know-it-all/in charge), Minh (the middle and the mediator of the siblings), and Khuyen (the youngest, who may or may not run Little Saigon's "underground"). Mai is not only estranged from her sisters (and mother), but also on rocky relationship footing with her three daughters as well, whose love lives she cannot seem to stay out of. There is also Minh's daughter and Khuyen's two daughters, all of whom have strained relationships with each other. Plus, there is a half-sister, whose reappearance with her own two daughters a decade ago was the catalyst for the family's current estrangement. When Mai consults a psychic about concerns for her daughters, she is told that this year may be her last chance to repair broken relationships, and thus begins the dramatic tale in these pages, a story of births and deaths and marriages and romances and maybe, just maybe, curse-breaking.

Well alright. This was some phenomenally entertaining full-force family drama storytelling. Like, this is an intergenerational family story of fifteen Vietnamese women, that could easily have been told in a serious and intense way, but instead Huynh gives readers a more lighthearted experience. She makes precision observations about the emotional manipulation and guilt and expectations stereotypical to Asian/immigrant parent child (mother daughter) relationships, but with a sharp and humorous eye. So, while these observations are genuine, the delivery is a darkly humorous tone that fantastically delivers. That tone felt, to me, reminiscent of Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians series, though this book has less of the "rich" and more of the "everyday" style of success and livelihood. There is also a distinct air of soap opera to the overall plot, as it were. With the reality of estrangement and small communities comes the coincidences of overlapping relationships that, when all the family comes together for the "finale" scenes, explodes with spectacle that, yes, is a bit absurd, but also, if you picked up this book with accurate expectations, exactly right in its hilarity.

These characters are all endearing in their dysfunction - there are parts of each of their stories that any reader can see themselves in. That universal, "I'm trying to be better but in reality not *really* learning from my mistakes" is something that everyone has experience with, if they're being honest. Similarly, the way people (in this case, mothers) fight to make things different (better) for future generations, but that overcorrecting can cause its own issues, is so relatable. And seeing all that addressed with such humor makes it easier, legitimately fun, to read about such recognizably human foibles. Plus, setting it within the context for learning about Vietnamese culture, in general and for immigrants to the US, gives lovely added depth and context.

I struggled just a bit with the pacing of the story - not within itself, as it was page-turning from start to finish, but as part of a greater context - as it felt unmoored from anything happening outside the family. There is a chance that was purposefully done, to keep the focus on these women and their lives separately and together, fighting for individuality and cohesion both. And I do understand that bringing in more outside context could have necessitated a more serious tone, versus the "keeping it lighter" vibe that the author was going for. So I tried to just kinda let myself get pulled along and not worry too much about that aspect. So, in the end, I finished listening to this having been fully entertained by these gorgeously messy women, and totally recommend this to anyone looking to simply have a great time reading a book.

“These two souls before them had never dreamt that romantic love could happen at their age, in their lifetime, within this cosmos. The type of love blossoming right now was the very thing that they'd been taught was unattainable. It wasn't pragmatic for people like them because they needed to worry about men with guns, picking a side in the war, putting food on the table, finding work, providing for children, and figuring out how to survive in a foreign country. These things came first.”

“Not like a woman of color, a quiet Asian woman, a dutiful daughter or a model minority. But a desired woman who just wanted a man to look at her the way he did.”

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siobhanward's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a cute read. It was a fun mix of Amy Tan's multigenerational stories, mixed with Jessie Q. Sutano's Aunties books. Chaos, misunderstandings, family drama. I liked the characters and appreciated the family tree at the beginning - sometimes the characters barely knew how they were related, so it was nice to have something to reference. The plot was fun but at some points it felt like it was barely moving forward. I'm pretty sure every single character needs to learn to make better decisions, but I also know that was the point of the book.

I had fun with this book and definitely look forward to reading more from Huynh.

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_thelitlibrarian's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

TW: Grief, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Bullying, Miscarriage, Racism, Xenophobia
4.0 stars
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The Fortunes of Jaded Women isn't the sort of book I'd normally pick up, but I'm really glad that I did. It certainly was eye opening to the Vietnamese American culture and the complications of a dysfunctional family dynamic. I love how the author focused on making Vietnamese American woman the main characters and focus of the plot as they're often used as secondary characters, or fillers to add in comedy.

This is a multi-generational tale, with a dash of magic. That being said, there was a lot of characters as we are introduced to a quite large family, and listening to the audiobook often had me lost. I had to really pay attention to the names and where they fell on the family tree, I really enjoyed the predictions given by the psychic on what the future held for the family. The family has been cursed for generations that all children will be born female, this is a huge ordeal in their culture as it means the family name won't be passed down.

This book is filled with so much family drama, the family brings so much conflict and the fights between siblings had me laughing out loud as they were intense (and often in public). This year is predicted to be different for the family, after a psychic prediction they know that there will be: a death, a marriage, and a birth of a boy. I love how each section was broken down, and it was clear what we were supposed to be looking for. Having the 3 different sections really allowed the reader to follow along and aided in clarity.

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