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A review by robotnik
Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
2.0
I couldn't decide between one or two stars, but we'll go with two because there were at least a couple of plotlines I felt invested in.
While I already felt the shiny gold exterior of Crazy Rich Asians was cracking a little in China Rich Girlfriend, I feel it's more or less completely peeled off in Rich People Problems. This was also the first time that I actively thought "wow, Kevin Kwan's actually a bad writer" like some people have always said. There were still some enjoyable things about it, but overall this was my least favourite of the trilogy and the only one I will probably say is a "bad" book.
All the problems that persist from the rest of the trilogy remain in this. Head hopping, filling up space way too much with describing the wealth and giving pointless POVs to characters that didn't really need them. The difference is the other two books were entertaining in the mess they were. This one was downright boring at times to the point I zoned out reading some of the descriptions and had to take to skimming over them every time I came across a page that was just one large paragraph describing someone's bedroom or whatever.
There were literally only two plot lines I cared about and they're related. One: who's going to inherit the house. And, two: whether Eddie's going to get kicked in the balls or not. Every other running plotline I found either tired or obnoxious.
Rachel was my favourite character in the first book and she sadly gets lost in the shuffle through the second two books. If you read this book first, you'd probably never realize that she was basically the leading character in that one. She pretty much has no role in this book other than for Nick to bounce ideas off of (one scene was literally him saying stuff and her being all "OMG! I thought that too!") or to comfort him when he's sad. She's not the only character to disappoint in this one either. I loved Astrid initially and I felt for her in the second book, but man, is her storyline so damn obnoxious. By the end of the book, I honestly couldn't stand her and Charlie's romance because it was over the top in the bad way. While Kitty's story was entertaining in the second book, she's just annoying in this one and I couldn't stand her.
I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I didn't like that the book was trying really hard to make Su Yi seem like a good person. It's fine that we got to see the life she led. I liked that bit. Getting to see all that family history is always interesting. But, it was the part where it was pretty much trying to be like "look at all the things she been through so that makes it acceptable for her to treat people like shit for decades". Like, no. That's sweet you want to leave your servants some money. You're still a nasty bitch.
And, maybe I'm bitter and overly sensitive, but as someone who's Southeast Asian, the way they treat Southeast Asians (y'know, the darker less desirable Asians, as most of the characters likely think) in this series, stemming back to the first book is horrendous and nasty and colorist/racist, and it's something that's incredibly noticeable to me once the shiny fun of the book no longer existed. Even characters who are supposed to be the logical ones who don't pander to the rich nonsense a lot of the characters do don't seem to have a problem with it. There's only one instance with Astrid's brother being considered the black sheep because he's married a Malay girl but even then people just think his parents are crazy because she's a doctor. Other than that, people like me are presented in this book as servants because that's apparently all we're good for.
There's multiple shitty characters in this series, but no one really gets their comeuppance in a satisfying way. The one "villain" who is really punished in the end has such an over the top punishment that I'm just like... why? It's just thrown at you in the epilogue and you're probably supposed to be like "hell yeah! fuck you!" but I'm not. Carlton really did kill people but he feels bad and so he gets a hot girlfriend. Eddie is an adulterer and a nasty person overall, but he got to keep his wife and children (who he's abusive to by the way). Don't worry about all the shit he's caused. Kitty spent her entire run cheating on people and trying to sabotage everyone, but the moment she sided with Nick (which she did to be petty, not out of the goodness of her heart), she seems to be one of the good guys who gets a good ending. I would have liked Nick and Rachel's ending, but after the rest of the book, everything about the ending seemed stupid to me.
And what was with the absolutely jarring cameos by actually celebrities? Please stop. It just pulls me out of the scene because all of them are just these rich people propping them up on stages and making them perform like monkeys.
This series feels like a fever dream. It went from being fun and entertaining to boring and stupid. Should have just left it at the first book.
While I already felt the shiny gold exterior of Crazy Rich Asians was cracking a little in China Rich Girlfriend, I feel it's more or less completely peeled off in Rich People Problems. This was also the first time that I actively thought "wow, Kevin Kwan's actually a bad writer" like some people have always said. There were still some enjoyable things about it, but overall this was my least favourite of the trilogy and the only one I will probably say is a "bad" book.
All the problems that persist from the rest of the trilogy remain in this. Head hopping, filling up space way too much with describing the wealth and giving pointless POVs to characters that didn't really need them. The difference is the other two books were entertaining in the mess they were. This one was downright boring at times to the point I zoned out reading some of the descriptions and had to take to skimming over them every time I came across a page that was just one large paragraph describing someone's bedroom or whatever.
There were literally only two plot lines I cared about and they're related. One: who's going to inherit the house. And, two: whether Eddie's going to get kicked in the balls or not. Every other running plotline I found either tired or obnoxious.
Rachel was my favourite character in the first book and she sadly gets lost in the shuffle through the second two books. If you read this book first, you'd probably never realize that she was basically the leading character in that one. She pretty much has no role in this book other than for Nick to bounce ideas off of (one scene was literally him saying stuff and her being all "OMG! I thought that too!") or to comfort him when he's sad. She's not the only character to disappoint in this one either. I loved Astrid initially and I felt for her in the second book, but man, is her storyline so damn obnoxious. By the end of the book, I honestly couldn't stand her and Charlie's romance because it was over the top in the bad way. While Kitty's story was entertaining in the second book, she's just annoying in this one and I couldn't stand her.
I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I didn't like that the book was trying really hard to make Su Yi seem like a good person. It's fine that we got to see the life she led. I liked that bit. Getting to see all that family history is always interesting. But, it was the part where it was pretty much trying to be like "look at all the things she been through so that makes it acceptable for her to treat people like shit for decades". Like, no. That's sweet you want to leave your servants some money. You're still a nasty bitch.
And, maybe I'm bitter and overly sensitive, but as someone who's Southeast Asian, the way they treat Southeast Asians (y'know, the darker less desirable Asians, as most of the characters likely think) in this series, stemming back to the first book is horrendous and nasty and colorist/racist, and it's something that's incredibly noticeable to me once the shiny fun of the book no longer existed. Even characters who are supposed to be the logical ones who don't pander to the rich nonsense a lot of the characters do don't seem to have a problem with it. There's only one instance with Astrid's brother being considered the black sheep because he's married a Malay girl but even then people just think his parents are crazy because she's a doctor. Other than that, people like me are presented in this book as servants because that's apparently all we're good for.
There's multiple shitty characters in this series, but no one really gets their comeuppance in a satisfying way. The one "villain" who is really punished in the end has such an over the top punishment that I'm just like... why? It's just thrown at you in the epilogue and you're probably supposed to be like "hell yeah! fuck you!" but I'm not. Carlton really did kill people but he feels bad and so he gets a hot girlfriend. Eddie is an adulterer and a nasty person overall, but he got to keep his wife and children (who he's abusive to by the way). Don't worry about all the shit he's caused. Kitty spent her entire run cheating on people and trying to sabotage everyone, but the moment she sided with Nick (which she did to be petty, not out of the goodness of her heart), she seems to be one of the good guys who gets a good ending. I would have liked Nick and Rachel's ending, but after the rest of the book, everything about the ending seemed stupid to me.
And what was with the absolutely jarring cameos by actually celebrities? Please stop. It just pulls me out of the scene because all of them are just these rich people propping them up on stages and making them perform like monkeys.
This series feels like a fever dream. It went from being fun and entertaining to boring and stupid. Should have just left it at the first book.