Crazy Rich Asians et. al. By Kevin Kwan

Hello Friends!

Small disclaimer, I did not finish "Rich People Problems" and I'm not planning to. An explanation will come later. Also, my plot summary will focus primarily (entirely) on "Crazy Rich Asians" because explaining the plot of the other books inherently spoils the previous books.

And with that, let us begin. "Crazy Rich Asians" is the story of Rachel Chu going to Singapore with her boyfriend of two years, Nick Young, to meet his family and adventure around Asia. Little does she know that Nick's family is absurdly rich and there are a lot of politics and dramas that Rachel is thrown into with no warning. Much ridiculousness ensues.

If you like hearing about peoples drama while not being affected by it, this is a good book for you. Because that is what the entire book is. The story is told from multiple perspectives so, as a reader, you spend a lot of time judging characters choices because you know why they're making the wrong choice. This is both entertaining and infuriating.

I absolutely loved this first book. I read it in a day and was happy I already had the next book so I could keep going. Two days after that I was glad to have book three. And now it's over a month later and I've given up on book three. These three books are written beautifully. There are so many interesting characters with intertwining stories and I was just pulled into this world that Kevin Kwan has created. But when I got to "Rich People Problems" it became overwhelming. You'd think that at some point this family would stop being mean to each other. Or at least stop being so mean that they stop trying to ruin the lives of their siblings or cousins or spouses etc..

After a while the books just started to remind me too much of real life and that's not what I want from a book. I can just live in the real world if I want to witness people being mean to each other. Most of the reading I do is to have some kind of escape and there are too many books in the world that I want to read for me to waste time on a book that I do not enjoy. And yes, I know that the books are a form of satire. But that just makes it more exhausting. Sometimes I just want a nice novel that isn't commenting on larger issues with society. And I stopped being able to get that from these books.

I do recommend that people read at least "Crazy Rich Asians" because the writing is so well done. Kevin Kwan has does some truly amazing work with these novels. The characters are interesting and dynamic and react like human beings instead of like caricatures. And then you can have a better appreciation for the amazing movie that was made from this book.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to be doing with these book reviews, so if you have suggestions of what you would like to see in the future please leave a comment!

XO, Ellen