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questingnotcoasting's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It's rare I buy a book without knowing anything about it but the cover and the blurbs by other authors I've read drew me to this one. I mostly enjoyed it but I think I liked the writing more than the plot. It's definitely an engrossing story but I also found the protagonist a little frustrating at times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Cancer
siobhanward's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The idea behind this book was strong - returning home to a small town after many years, dealing with the feelings and challenges that come with that, your role in your family as an adult, etc. However, Audrey was such a self-centred jerk that it was hard to read.
Audrey and I are the same age, and I can tell you that she should at least be smart enough to understand that when you make your bed, sometimes you have to lie in it. She was constantly shocked that there were consequences to her actions and could not fathom that people would be mad at her. If she had been easier to sympathize with at any point, the book would have been much more impactful. I get people can be hurt and lash out from past hurts, but with Audrey, it felt like she thought nothing was ever her fault, which made her hard to care about her until towards the end of the book.
Anyway, all that being said, this seems like more of a challenge with a single character than with a writing style or an author, so I would love to read more from Cai down the road.
Audrey and I are the same age, and I can tell you that she should at least be smart enough to understand that when you make your bed, sometimes you have to lie in it. She was constantly shocked that there were consequences to her actions and could not fathom that people would be mad at her. If she had been easier to sympathize with at any point, the book would have been much more impactful. I get people can be hurt and lash out from past hurts, but with Audrey, it felt like she thought nothing was ever her fault, which made her hard to care about her until towards the end of the book.
Anyway, all that being said, this seems like more of a challenge with a single character than with a writing style or an author, so I would love to read more from Cai down the road.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Medical content
megan_prairierose's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book. This frickin book with all its horrible characters and I loved it.
It made me angry, I yelled in my head at the main character when I wasn’t reading it, this book wouldn’t leave me alone.
The main character is super selfish and this comes across in all her interactions. Who is Kristen's partner, why is Kyle living at his mom's house and why did he drop out of college, etc. We learn nothing about other characters because the main character is so wholly focused on herself.
I guess I don’t always need to have lovable characters to enjoy a novel when it’s really well written.
It made me angry, I yelled in my head at the main character when I wasn’t reading it, this book wouldn’t leave me alone.
I guess I don’t always need to have lovable characters to enjoy a novel when it’s really well written.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity and Racism
annabulkowski's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Dysphoria
mishale1's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Wow, I can’t believe this is a debut novel. This book felt like it really took me on a journey. I want to note that this book isn’t at all what I was expecting. The description, a Chinese American woman taking her white fiancée home to her small hometown to meet her Chinese parents, sounded like something that would be light and funny. This book is certainly not light. It’s very heavy at times. And I didn’t always like Audrey the main character. I usually feel like it’s pretty important for me to like the main character in order to enjoy the book but Audrey isn’t a bad person, she’s just not always likable. She says the wrong things sometimes and makes the wrong choices sometimes too.
Audrey always felt like she stuck out in her hometown and not in a good way. There weren’t many Asian kids at school. That’s weren’t really many kids at school at all who weren’t white. Sometimes kids and adults said the wrong thing by accident and sometimes they did it on purpose.
Audrey feels like her life pretty cleaning splinters into two parts: Audrey In Illinois and Audrey in New York. When Audrey left for college, she basically cut out all of her old friends and her high school crush Kyle.
Now Audrey lives in New York with her fiancée Ben. Her parents invite them home for Christmas and the combination of holiday guilt, her engagement to a man her parents haven’t met, and her father’s upcoming surgery, combine into Audrey and her fiancée Ben going to visit for the holidays.
Because of her father’s surgery, she commits to staying for an entire week. It doesn’t take long before her mom starts picking at her, as Audrey knew she would. It also doesn’t take long before she runs into Kyle and some other old friends.
It’s easy for Audrey to find comfort in Kyle’s company despite their very awkward end to their friendship almost a decade earlier.
Audrey finds herself both comforted by her old town and also embarrassed by it. She has her reasons for not being home since high school.
I thought this was very well written. As I said, I didn’t always appreciate Audrey’s decisions. I can almost understand why she felt the need to cut ties with Kyle years ago because of her painful unrequited love for him, but she also cut off the rest of her friends and her family. Her dad was one of my favorite characters. I found him to be very loving. There was a scene with him cooking dinner that actually made me tear up.
An emotional, enjoyable, rollercoaster ride of a book :)
Audrey always felt like she stuck out in her hometown and not in a good way. There weren’t many Asian kids at school. That’s weren’t really many kids at school at all who weren’t white. Sometimes kids and adults said the wrong thing by accident and sometimes they did it on purpose.
Audrey feels like her life pretty cleaning splinters into two parts: Audrey In Illinois and Audrey in New York. When Audrey left for college, she basically cut out all of her old friends and her high school crush Kyle.
Now Audrey lives in New York with her fiancée Ben. Her parents invite them home for Christmas and the combination of holiday guilt, her engagement to a man her parents haven’t met, and her father’s upcoming surgery, combine into Audrey and her fiancée Ben going to visit for the holidays.
Because of her father’s surgery, she commits to staying for an entire week. It doesn’t take long before her mom starts picking at her, as Audrey knew she would. It also doesn’t take long before she runs into Kyle and some other old friends.
It’s easy for Audrey to find comfort in Kyle’s company despite their very awkward end to their friendship almost a decade earlier.
Audrey finds herself both comforted by her old town and also embarrassed by it. She has her reasons for not being home since high school.
I thought this was very well written. As I said, I didn’t always appreciate Audrey’s decisions. I can almost understand why she felt the need to cut ties with Kyle years ago because of her painful unrequited love for him, but she also cut off the rest of her friends and her family. Her dad was one of my favorite characters. I found him to be very loving. There was a scene with him cooking dinner that actually made me tear up.
An emotional, enjoyable, rollercoaster ride of a book :)
Content Warnings
Minor: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Racial slurs
nicolekdan's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
tense
fast-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
5.0
In Delia Cai’s debut novel, Central Places, Audrey Zhou returns to her small hometown in Illinois for the first time in 8 years, with her rich white fiance Ben. Audrey is financially secure, but regresses emotionally upon returning to Hickory Grove and confronting all the tension that she left behind. All of the characters are unlikeable in their own ways, and the story of combined self centeredness and self loathing is deeply relatable. Audrey constantly asks herself about how her life could have turned out differently. She observes the past with a self critical lens, thinking about the context of her childhood, and the expectations of her immigrant parents. The author avoids over romanticizing the small town, showing how truly impossible it would have been for Audrey to continue to live there. While Ben sees the visit as a small blip on the way to getting married, Audrey’s trip to her hometown causes a monumental shift in relationships old and new. I don’t want to say too much about the plot because it is truly special.
This was a quick read, and Audrey’s internal thought process, which may seem like overthinking, was a highlight. I would compare the plot to a realistic version of a Hallmark movie.
Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the eARC.
This was a quick read, and Audrey’s internal thought process, which may seem like overthinking, was a highlight. I would compare the plot to a realistic version of a Hallmark movie.
Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the eARC.
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Racism
christinesreads's review
reflective
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
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, and Racism
lee's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
It’s not often that I come across a book where I’m able to resonate so deeply with the main character that, as soon as I turn the last page, the first thought that pops into my head is: wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt so seen! That’s exactly how I felt after meeting Audrey Zhou, the main protagonist of Delia Cai’s debut novel Central Places.
To be honest, Audrey wasn’t a likeable character for much of the story — as I was reading, there were so many instances where I found her actions and behavior annoying and frustrating, not to mention I kept wanting to yell at her to stop being so self-destructive and making a mess of her life. With that said however, Audrey was also a character I empathized with immensely — and in some areas, saw aspects of myself in. With my shared cultural background of being the Chinese daughter of strict immigrant parents as well as growing up in an environment where very few people looked like me, I was absolutely able to relate to so much of what Audrey went through in the story, but more importantly, I was able to understand, on a deeper level, the complicated family and society dynamics that shaped her into who she eventually became as an adult and why she ended up making some of the decisions she did (even ones that I disagreed with). I’m able to empathize because I went through many of the same struggles myself (some which I am still working through even now).
On a personal level, I know what it feels like to grow up in an immigrant household where there is always an unspoken pressure to prove the worthiness of your existence; where you constantly have to worry about living your life in a way that justifies the sacrifice your parents made in leaving their prior lives behind and moving to a foreign country where they are largely treated as second class citizens; where you are expected to be obedient, to follow the path your parents laid out for you, to work hard and keep your head down, and no matter what, don’t draw attention to yourself, which often involves not reacting when people make fun of you for being different (or, in a real life example, when classmates make a game of deliberately kicking the back of your legs so it looks like you are kneeling and bowing down to them); where there is constant pressure to be perfect, to succeed, and not make any mistakes along the way so as to not give those who don’t want you here in the first place the satisfaction of seeing you fail; where you are destined to endlessly strive for approval and acceptance that never comes. These are just a few examples — both in the story and in my own real life experience, there are way too many examples to list them all out.
The other aspect of the story that really resonated with me was the relationship that Audrey had with her mother — the relationship was a strained one that was plagued with communication issues, misunderstandings, silence as a form of punishment, and, the most destructive of all, an unwillingness to let their true emotions show for fear of letting their guard down and exposing their vulnerabilities. For someone who may not be familiar with the unique dynamics that often define Asian (especially Chinese) mother / daughter relationships, it can be hard to understand Audrey’s immature behavior when she’s back in her parents’ presence in Hickory Grove. For me, I understood it acutely because I lived that same reality for most of my life (and continue to do so to this day). Culturally, Asian daughters have a whole set of expectations placed upon them from the moment they are born — expectations that Asian mothers are responsible for reinforcing throughout their daughters’ lives…hence the relentless criticizing / nagging / judging / critiquing that we are constantly subjected to, regardless of how old we are or how successful we become. I’ve actually lost count already how many of my Chinese female friends (all of whom are around my age, in their 40s, and are strong, successful, financially secure women) complain about resorting to “petulant teenager mode” each time they are in their mother’s presence — a sentiment that I resonate with wholeheartedly because I’m the exact same way whenever I’m around my mom. Even though rationally, we know that arguing is fruitless because, as much as we don’t want to admit it, our mothers’ nitpicking is their way of expressing their love for us, the hurt and pain we experience in the moment often defies all logical thought. It’s a phenomenon that’s very hard to explain, but those who live it (whether daily like me since I live with my mom, or only occasionally like my friends who live separately from their moms and only visit once in awhile) will undoubtedly understand.
One other thing I have to mention is how much I appreciated the realistic portrayal of the characters and what they go through in the story. Life is messy, complicated, and unpredictable, with both good moments and bad ones that are impossible to fit nicely into a box, to be put away and taken out whenever we feel like it. This book did an especially great job showing this complexity, which is probably why the story ended up gutting me in ways I wasn’t expecting — in fact, it hit so close to home for me in so many areas that, at certain points, I had to put the book down so I could clear the lump in my throat (and actually wipe the tears from my eyes a few times). For me, there was so much to unpack with this story and in all honesty, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface with this review. While I focused primarily on the aspects most familiar to me, there are actually an abundance of themes in here that are worthy of further discussion (i.e.: themes such as coming to terms with the past, self-discovery and self-reflection, mixed race relationships, etc.). I definitely found this to be a worthwhile read, but I know that each person who reads this book will get something different out of it, and in some cases, may not be able to relate at all to the story, which is absolutely fine, as that’s the beauty of books and reading — they meet you where you’re at.
Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley.
To be honest, Audrey wasn’t a likeable character for much of the story — as I was reading, there were so many instances where I found her actions and behavior annoying and frustrating, not to mention I kept wanting to yell at her to stop being so self-destructive and making a mess of her life. With that said however, Audrey was also a character I empathized with immensely — and in some areas, saw aspects of myself in. With my shared cultural background of being the Chinese daughter of strict immigrant parents as well as growing up in an environment where very few people looked like me, I was absolutely able to relate to so much of what Audrey went through in the story, but more importantly, I was able to understand, on a deeper level, the complicated family and society dynamics that shaped her into who she eventually became as an adult and why she ended up making some of the decisions she did (even ones that I disagreed with). I’m able to empathize because I went through many of the same struggles myself (some which I am still working through even now).
On a personal level, I know what it feels like to grow up in an immigrant household where there is always an unspoken pressure to prove the worthiness of your existence; where you constantly have to worry about living your life in a way that justifies the sacrifice your parents made in leaving their prior lives behind and moving to a foreign country where they are largely treated as second class citizens; where you are expected to be obedient, to follow the path your parents laid out for you, to work hard and keep your head down, and no matter what, don’t draw attention to yourself, which often involves not reacting when people make fun of you for being different (or, in a real life example, when classmates make a game of deliberately kicking the back of your legs so it looks like you are kneeling and bowing down to them); where there is constant pressure to be perfect, to succeed, and not make any mistakes along the way so as to not give those who don’t want you here in the first place the satisfaction of seeing you fail; where you are destined to endlessly strive for approval and acceptance that never comes. These are just a few examples — both in the story and in my own real life experience, there are way too many examples to list them all out.
The other aspect of the story that really resonated with me was the relationship that Audrey had with her mother — the relationship was a strained one that was plagued with communication issues, misunderstandings, silence as a form of punishment, and, the most destructive of all, an unwillingness to let their true emotions show for fear of letting their guard down and exposing their vulnerabilities. For someone who may not be familiar with the unique dynamics that often define Asian (especially Chinese) mother / daughter relationships, it can be hard to understand Audrey’s immature behavior when she’s back in her parents’ presence in Hickory Grove. For me, I understood it acutely because I lived that same reality for most of my life (and continue to do so to this day). Culturally, Asian daughters have a whole set of expectations placed upon them from the moment they are born — expectations that Asian mothers are responsible for reinforcing throughout their daughters’ lives…hence the relentless criticizing / nagging / judging / critiquing that we are constantly subjected to, regardless of how old we are or how successful we become. I’ve actually lost count already how many of my Chinese female friends (all of whom are around my age, in their 40s, and are strong, successful, financially secure women) complain about resorting to “petulant teenager mode” each time they are in their mother’s presence — a sentiment that I resonate with wholeheartedly because I’m the exact same way whenever I’m around my mom. Even though rationally, we know that arguing is fruitless because, as much as we don’t want to admit it, our mothers’ nitpicking is their way of expressing their love for us, the hurt and pain we experience in the moment often defies all logical thought. It’s a phenomenon that’s very hard to explain, but those who live it (whether daily like me since I live with my mom, or only occasionally like my friends who live separately from their moms and only visit once in awhile) will undoubtedly understand.
One other thing I have to mention is how much I appreciated the realistic portrayal of the characters and what they go through in the story. Life is messy, complicated, and unpredictable, with both good moments and bad ones that are impossible to fit nicely into a box, to be put away and taken out whenever we feel like it. This book did an especially great job showing this complexity, which is probably why the story ended up gutting me in ways I wasn’t expecting — in fact, it hit so close to home for me in so many areas that, at certain points, I had to put the book down so I could clear the lump in my throat (and actually wipe the tears from my eyes a few times). For me, there was so much to unpack with this story and in all honesty, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface with this review. While I focused primarily on the aspects most familiar to me, there are actually an abundance of themes in here that are worthy of further discussion (i.e.: themes such as coming to terms with the past, self-discovery and self-reflection, mixed race relationships, etc.). I definitely found this to be a worthwhile read, but I know that each person who reads this book will get something different out of it, and in some cases, may not be able to relate at all to the story, which is absolutely fine, as that’s the beauty of books and reading — they meet you where you’re at.
Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Infidelity and Sexual content