"I have no idea who these people are. But I can tell you one thing—these people are richer than God."

I've got to hand it to Kevin Kwan. He just comes along and writes a satire of Asian culture that is so sharp and so searing as to be both funny and honest.

When I first picked up this book, I thought I was going to be reading a zany romantic comedy. But instead of your typical middle-class white people as the main characters, we get two Asians, one of whom comes from an extremely wealthy though misbehaving family. And I would've been happy with that story. It's rare for romantic comedies to feature ethnic Chinese main characters, so to even get that kind of representation made me really excited. But this turned out to be so much more than that.

Reading this book felt like I was stepping back into a culture I knew intimately. There is so much authenticity embedded in every page that I was discovering nostalgic gems everywhere. And the thing is, when you've gotten used to reading books that don't represent you or where you come from, when you do come across the rare book that does, it can be a bit shocking. Like, wow, this is how it feels to be seen and understood within the pages of a book.

I marveled at how Kwan was able to peel back the layers and keenly sketch out all the characteristics of growing up Chinese, including the enormous pressure to succeed along the narrowest of definitions, the expectation to bow to familial demands, and the emphasis on face and appearance. The juxtaposition of Nick and Rachel and the way they approach their families really highlights the difference between the East and the West, and how hard it can be for the two sides to understand each other.

And through it all, Kwan injected so much fun and humor into this. For me, one of the hallmarks of a good satire is that it's able to take raw or tender subjects and turn them into laughable events, all the while honestly examining the beauty and ugliness within. The strife and the feelings in here are all too real, but they made me laugh instead of despair. Satire is always grounded in truth, and can evoke such strong feelings when done right, delighting us in the absurdity of human folly while connecting us with each other.

Even though at first glance, the opulent wealth and outrageous antics in this book seem to play the central role, that is really the vehicle with which Kwan uses to turn this story into a satire. If you peel that away, what's underneath is a startling astute exploration of familial relationships within Chinese culture.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

I haven't met a multiverse story I didn't like, until now.

Conceptually, The Space Between Worlds has a lot of potential. In this version of parallel universes, you can only travel to a different one if your counterpart is already dead. Enter Cara, who has died in most other worlds, so she's able to travel between them. Yep, I can totally get behind that. But that was pretty much it for things I enjoyed, and it was only a very small part of the story.

Where this book fell apart for me is in almost everything else.

To start with, this story is extremely hard to follow. I'm honestly baffled because the concept of a parallel universe isn't that difficult to grasp; it's just like our universe but with a few minor changes. And yet, the worldbuilding here is maximumly awkward and lumbering, turning small differences into obscure and confusing concepts that were never fully explained.

Information is just dumped on the reader without any consideration for whether it's necessary or relevant. Pages upon pages are spent on completely irrelevant worlds we won't visit again or people we don't need to know (most of whom have multiple names in each universe). But when we get to crucial information (what is a runner?), no explanation is given, so I never got a solid grasp of these worlds.

And it's not just the worldbuilding, but the writing as a whole. It feels fragmented and random. Sentences, paragraphs, and scenes don't logically follow from previous ones. Even dialogues don't really make sense. It's as if the author had written monologues for each speaker, then just interweaved their lines together and called it a conversation.

There was supposed to be a queer love story in here, but that baffled me too. Like, where is it? If Cara didn't explicitly tell the reader that she's in love with Dell and constantly state that she's flirting with her, I wouldn't have guessed from her words or their interactions.

I also couldn't connect with any of the characters. Their motivations, feelings, and actions all remain a mystery to me. In particular, Cara's simultaneous blend of cynically detached while also angsty philosophical narrative tone did not work for me, and came across as very naïve and immature. Also, what kind of names are Nik Nik and Mr. Cheeks? I kept thinking I'm reading about a toddler and his pet instead of an emperor and his runner.

Still, all that can be overlooked if the plot made sense. But it doesn't. It feels like there are multiple separate stories in here instead of one coherent one. And they were all just mashed up together in the most convoluted and haphazard way possible.

What a waste. Conceptually, this is a good one. But the execution is so confusing as to be almost incomprehensible. Nothing in here made sense to me. Not the writing, nor the story, nor the characters, nor the worldbuilding. What a complete disappointment this turned out to be.

Readaroo Rating: 1 star

Someone's getting cozy-murdered during the most festive time of the year? Yes, sign me up! That should put me right in the holiday spirit.

Wizened patriarch Simeon Lee wants his family around him for Christmas. So he puts out the call, and his children all answer, coming from far and wide to gather for the holidays. But when he's brutally murdered, no one seems that upset. In fact, they all appear somewhat relieved to be rid of the old man and his tyrannical ways. But who among them actually did the deed? Well, Hercule Poirot will find out.

What a perfectly plotted locked-room mystery this turned out to be. Just about every time I read Agatha Christie, I stand in awe of her genius, and this time it's no different. This has all of her hallmarks: a small cast of characters, clues and red herrings galore, and a reveal that is sure to surprise the pants off any reader.

Speaking of the reveal, I didn't see it coming. And that's what I love about Agatha Christie. Until the actual moment when Poirot gathers everyone together and unveils his hand, I had no idea what was going on. Of course the clues were all there. And on top of which, I've read this book before, although the last time was a decade ago. Obviously, I haven't become a better armchair detective in the meantime.

Every time I pick up an Agatha Christie, I'm just filled with glee and anticipation. I know only goodness awaits me. Add in the festive atmosphere, and this one hits all the right notes for the perfect holiday whodunnit.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

No one does naughty & nice quite like Tessa Bailey. So when I saw she had a holiday romance coming out, I couldn't resist. I picked it up a few weeks ago, but I've exercised enormous restraint and held off reading it until just the right moment before Christmas for maximum festive effect. And that moment is finally here!

When Stella stops outside the windows of Vivant department store and scoffs out loud at their pathetic holiday display, she catches the attention of their charming general manager Aiden. He challenges her for better ideas, then offers her a job as their window displayer. Of course Stella jumps at the chance to prove herself. And the fact that her boss is a hottie? Well, that didn't factor into her excitement at all.

There is so much goodness in this story. For one, Stella just got out of prison and she's desperate for a clean start. In steps Aiden, who believes in her when no one else would give her a chance. This really struck a chord in me. As a society, we don't give ex-convicts enough of a second chance. They often cannot find jobs, and without a way to earn an honest living, many recidivate. So to see Bailey touch upon such an important topic in a lighthearted story centered around the season of generosity and goodwill is both surprising and heartwarming.

I loved Aiden's character. His cheerful soul is the perfect foil for Stella's weariness and pessimism. It was wonderful to follow along as she gains confidence in her job and their relationship grows. The story takes place in a post-pandemic world, which is a lovely escape from our real one. It also completely captures the spirit of the holidays, with its storyline of department stores and decorating for the holidays.

Whenever Tessa Bailey comes up, I feel like I always have to make a mention of the steam factor in her books. They are HOT, perhaps shockingly so if you've never read her, so reader beware. She definitely doesn't hold back when it comes to those scenes, which are a bit incongruous with her cute and innocent book covers.

This isn't some serious love story for the ages or anything. It's pure unadulterated fun, with heaping doses of feelgood and raunchy. Add in the themes of finding oneself and getting a second chance, along with loads of Christmas cheer, and this is just about the perfect holiday read for me.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

Even though A Flicker in the Dark has an interesting premise, its reliance on the confused and drugged-up female narrator trope prevented this story from being as great as it could've been.

Chloe Davis has lived in the shadow of fear for a long time. When she was twelve years ago, six teenage girls disappeared in town, one right after another. The nightmare finally ended when her own father confessed to the killings, upending her childhood and leaving her family in ruins. Now twenty years later, girls are going missing again. And Chloe can't help but feel there is a link between what's happening now and what happened so long ago.

I've read plenty of serial killer stories from the perspective of investigators, the victims and their families, and regular townspeople, but I'm not sure I've ever read one from the killer's own daughter. And coming at it from that angle makes this story feel fresh and unusual. Chloe still suffers from the fallout of her childhood, and her narrative envelopes the whole story in her dark and foreboding mood.

Where this didn't quite work as well for me is the pacing. It's very slow, with hardly anything happening in the first 250 pages. Instead, we spend a lot of time in Chloe's head as she ruminates, freaks out, consumes copious quantities of alcohol and prescription drugs, sticks her nose where it doesn't belong, and in general, just bumbles around being confused and paranoid. To be fair, this is a pretty common trope for the genre, but it just isn't my favorite as I find it to be pretty dull and a bit exasperating.

Clearly, this is the sort of psychological thriller that leans heavily towards the psychological side, whereas I like mine to be more on the thriller side. I always enjoy a more active investigation instead of a more active rumination. However, that's just a personal preference. I think a lot of what I found to be slow is what a lot of readers find fascinating, so your experiences may be the opposite of mine.

The pacing does finally pick up in the last 100 pages, and we are treated to one revelation after another. I wouldn't necessarily say any of it is surprising (I've read too many thrillers at this point), but it is exciting. The way everything comes together is really the highlight of the book, and made this a worthwhile read for me.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

This was my Book of the Month pick for December. If you're curious about BOTM or want to find out how to get your first book for $5, click here.

No One Will Miss Her has been getting rave reviews from everyone I know, so I went into it with high expectations. Too high, as it turns out, because it pretty much underwhelmed from beginning to end.

First of all, this is a relatively thin story. There isn't a lot of substance in here, and it's very much predicated on its one twist. The problem is that I figured it out almost from the very beginning. It's something I've seen done in a few books already, so it's quite obvious. And once I saw it, there just wasn't much else interesting in here.

Now, I know reading thrillers like this require suspension of disbelief. But this book took it pretty far, such that it's not only improbable, but also actually impossible. I mean, this isn't science fiction, so my suspension of disbelief can only stretch so far. It's hard to remain in the story when I'm laughing at the absurdity of it all.

Another issue is that this style of domestic thriller isn't my favorite. We spend a lot of time in the characters' heads while they ruminate about who they are as people, what others think of them, and how great/not great they are. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but I find it fairly dull and my eyes glaze over quickly if there are paragraphs upon paragraphs of that stuff.

Also, this book has what seems to be the largest amount of wrap-up to actual story I've ever come across. More than 100 pages of this book is wrapping up, which is just ridiculous on a 280 page story. At some point, I'm thinking to myself, Is this really it? Surely something else will happen. But no, that was all it was.

Gosh, that all sounds super negative, but it wasn't that bad. I was mostly indifferent to this story. Obviously, you should take my review with a grain of salt. So many other readers loved this and the twist made their jaws drop and their heads spin. But my jaw and head remained firmly in place, and no one's sadder than me. So my search continues for a mystery thriller that will actually thrill me.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

The dialogue and action were so shrouded in euphemism, so opaque in meaning and intention, alternatively dull and worrisome, that no one could decide what the play was about, if they understood it, let alone enjoyed it.

I can't help but think Colson Whitehead was talking about this very book when he wrote that prescient line into it.

Harlem Shuffle is a set of three loosely-related stories about furniture salesman and reluctant crook Ray Carney. He wants to lead an honest life, but that's not easy as a Black man in 1960s Harlem. So due to necessity and unfortunate circumstances, he keeps getting pulled into dodgy business.

The book blurb promises heists, and I'm immediately thinking of well-planned and well-executed ones à la Ocean's Eleven. But what I got instead were hijinks. Carney and his friends, through schemes and poor-decision making, would cause the sort of trouble that Carney can then only straighten out via crooked ways. Now that sounds interesting enough, but for some reason, it didn't feel compelling when I was actually reading it. Perhaps I'm just not the right audience for this type of gangster noir.

However, an even bigger problem is that the writing style didn't work for me. Instead of leading with contextual information, Whitehead often dropped the reader right into random thoughts or new characters—of which there were many—without explanation. Then after many paragraphs of incomprehensible blather, he finally provides context, at which point the reader would be forced to go back and reread it all again in order to gain understanding. In this way, I read numerous portions of this book many times.

The writing also has a tendency to be unfocused. Even the most straightforward of scenes would stretch to fill many pages, stuffed full of irrelevant musings, asides, and tangents. Those musings often involved characters we don't know or context we don't have, which adds to the confusion. And by the time I've come out of it, not only did I not understand, but I've forgotten where I am in the original scene.

I'm sure there is an interesting story in here somewhere, but my patience was stretched to the limits trying to find it. The third part (the last 100 pages) did finally feel closer to what I expected from the author, as if that was the story he had meant to write all along, but on realizing he was 200 pages short, fluffed out the rest and that's what we got.

This was a pretty disappointing read for me, especially from an author of Colson Whitehead's caliber. If you prefer your stories to be maximumly tedious and difficult to follow, then I recommend this book. For everyone else, I'd say stay away.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

A beach read with a murder mystery that is as interesting as any whodunnit I've ever read? Yes to all of it, please!

On the morning of Celeste Otis's extravagant Nantucket wedding to wealthy heir Benji Winbury, she wakes to find her maid of honor floating dead in the water. As the investigation heats up and the police look carefully over every member of the wedding party, shocking secrets are slowly revealed. It seems everyone has something to hide.

I've noticed lately that there have been an abundance of books labeled beach reads without actually taking place on a beach or in a beach town. Maybe I'm being old fashioned, but that's not what a beach read is. Thankfully, there is no such false advertising here. The setting for this book should quench any desire for an escape to a sun-drenched paradise where everyone is rich but the secrets are just as sinful.

The narrative alternates between the present-day investigation and the events leading up to it. I thought the style worked particularly well for this story. Even though there is a back and forth in the timeline and among various characters, I never felt my attention waver. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough, and found the whole thing utterly unputdownable.

The murder mystery has all the hallmarks of a whodunnit: a small cast of characters, red herrings galore, and delicious twists and turns everywhere. As a seasoned mystery reader, I was particularly impressed that the ending managed to surprise me.

It's pretty rare for me to find the perfect beach read that also happens to be a clever whodunnit. While Elin Hilderbrand is a queen of the former, I don't believe she writes very many mysteries. I hope that changes soon.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

If the world wasn't filled with so many incompetent people, Teddy would have so much more time to concentrate on the important things. Like teaching.

Teddy Crutcher has just been awarded Teacher of the Year, and it is well-deserved. He always challenges his students to be the best they can be, even if he has to resort to unconventional methods. After all, isn't that why these students pay so much money to go to Belmont Academy?

Right off the bat, this felt like a compulsive read. It was easy to get sucked into the story and to keep turning the pages. With its short chapters, I felt like I could always read just a few more pages, and the outrageous happenings kept me constantly guessing and surprised.

However, this is definitely a book that prioritizes its shock factor above everything else. In particular, the characters are very thinly-sketched, with everyone being some form of crazy, but that is their only real personality trait. As a result, they don't feel fully formed, and I had trouble caring about them. Their crazy actions started to feel random, as if you could swap them between characters and still have the story make the same amount of sense.

Reading this genre can sometimes feel like you're witnessing a race in which books compete to outdo one another in the sheer insanity of their characters and happenings. And because we've seen it all by this point, books have to be ever more outrageous to shock us. And this book definitely deserves to be at the top of that pile.

It's a good one to pick up if you're in the mood for a diversion, and I certainly had fun with it. But with its shallow characterizations and fairly superficial storylines, everything is already starting to blur together only hours after finishing it.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars