A review by flaviathebibliophile
Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune, by Roselle Lim
3.0
Roselle Lim’s debut has got to be one of the more unique books I’ve ever read. It’s listed as a contemporary romance, but it’s unlike any other contemporary romance that I’ve ever read before. There was barely even any romance if I’m being honest, and the romance portion was not a very important part of the plot in my opinion. I would almost re-categorize this book under literary fiction and/or contemporary fiction containing magical realism. And I will explain why. Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune centers around how Natalie’s mother passes away and how Natalie returns home after the fact and tries to re-integrate herself into the society she left behind.
But the story also places a lot of focus on community, culture, food, and magic. The reason why I want to say magical realism rather than magic, though, is because a lot of the magic is only seen by Natalie, while some of the magic affects the real world directly but isn’t acknowledged by any of the other characters. So, while reading Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune I definitely focused more on my curiosities regarding the magic, and my focus on the entire plot, whereas with contemporary romance my focus would normally be “will A and B get together by the end of the book?” Maybe I’m thinking too much about labels, but I feel as if they’re important sometimes when you’re trying to find audiences for your book, or when one reader wants to recommend a book to another reader. So, overall, this book was enjoyable for me even though it ended up being completely different from what I had expected.
But the story also places a lot of focus on community, culture, food, and magic. The reason why I want to say magical realism rather than magic, though, is because a lot of the magic is only seen by Natalie, while some of the magic affects the real world directly but isn’t acknowledged by any of the other characters. So, while reading Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune I definitely focused more on my curiosities regarding the magic, and my focus on the entire plot, whereas with contemporary romance my focus would normally be “will A and B get together by the end of the book?” Maybe I’m thinking too much about labels, but I feel as if they’re important sometimes when you’re trying to find audiences for your book, or when one reader wants to recommend a book to another reader. So, overall, this book was enjoyable for me even though it ended up being completely different from what I had expected.