Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Dial A for Aunties

As far as its story, Dial A for Aunties is funny and charming as it chronicles the antics - and immense love and loyalty - of our protagonist and her Chinese-Indonesian family. I see so much of my Filipino titas in Meddy's Aunties and my culture throughout the book and that will always bring a thrill of recognition.

On the other hand, I wish I liked the writing style more so I could give more stars to this otherwise fun read. My main peeve here is the overly twee, conversational style. Especially in the first few chapters, the writing was so cringey (ex. the excessive use of "Argh." and "I'm down for platonic friendship, yeah. I'm chill. Totes chillax.") to the point where it became distracting from the scene I was trying to read. There’s so much of it so early on - before we even reach the murder - that I barely even have the encouragement of “what happens next???” to keep reading. Still, I held on (skimmed) so I could get to the meat of the book.

I was also disappointed by all the “I’m so tiny I can be picked up so easily!!! Oh men think I’m so tinyyyy.” There were three references to this in as many pages!!! We get it, Asian girls can be small, but let's move on from hitting us over the head with this physical description as a character trait.

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rhall19's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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percervall's review against another edition

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funny fast-paced

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

If you enjoyed the Finlay Donovan series, I think you’d enjoy this as well

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morahsharon1's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

was really looking forward to reading this. Zany, madcap mystery with Indonesian-Chinese aunties.
Maybe it's just that I so dislike the trope of " none of this would have happened if anyone actually talked!"
I understand that Sutanto was trying to capture the culture of "anything for family" along with the idea of cultural and familial pressure, but really?
Yes there was love there, but so much disfunction!
The main character was super immature and didn't function/think as an adult.

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pookiee's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

I love the family of women and how Meddelin’s confidence grows by the end. the barrage of obstacles they face with the wedding and hiding the body are fun to read about, and the pages fly by so fast. I also like that, while this is a rom-com, the romance isn’t the main thing—the aunties are. as they should be.

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