Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling

I loved this book!! I went into it expecting a cheesy romance, and ended up with one of the best depictions of mental illness in a YA book I've read. The writing was a little corny at times because after all it is YA, but I thought it flowed really smoothly. Chim really makes you feel for these characters, and as someone who's mother struggles with mental illness, seeing that represented in this book was so comforting. Definitely recommend if you're looking for something easy to read but still important.

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katielady's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-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

4.75

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bbivnca's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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yuna's review

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dark emotional hopeful sad 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

3.5

This was a raw read, but a necessary one given how taboo mental health/illness is even now, especially in Asian culture. Anna is empathetic and lovable as she struggles to keep it together while having to manage her family's issues alongside everyday teen stuff. I loved her relationship with her siblings (Team Lily all the way). Her grappling with diaspora identity and filial piety and cultural values, and the positives and shortcomings of all those things, will probably be relatable for a lot of readers.

Liked Anna's arc, though it felt like she regressed at the end

with regard to her mom's relapse and that wasn't really addressed?

There's also a lot more emphasis in the latter half of the book on her chasing this sense of normalcy that's not real, and her realization moment for that is over with really quick and didn't land with much impact for me.

I mostly liked the Anna-Rory relationship if I didn't think about the age gap. He's a good sounding board and one to speak truths to Anna's biases. His character feels only a couple years older than her, very much in 18-19ish range. But if I stop and think about the vague references to how long ago it was since he dropped out of high school I think he's actually more in the 20-21+ range to her 16. Which...I'm not a fan of. Especially since he's written to seem younger, why not have him be younger? Also felt like their sex "scene" (not really a scene, more like two sentences referencing that they did it) was thrown in there just to be low-grade scandalous? Anna doesn't remark on it at all afterward! A girl who is constantly struggling with being a bad Chinese daughter and got all flushy about riding alone in a car with a boy and then her first time gets a sentence and that's it? I'm not buying it. Felt like the age gap and the sex were just there to be edgy or something without any substance.

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michelejenn's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-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

4.5

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lily_k8y's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Although some of the Cantonese references were likely lost on me I was left laughing and teary with some understanding of the Asian culture references. It was both an easy and heavy read, but it kept me turning the pages and wanting to see how the family came to talk to each other. Also always nice to read a book based in the city you live in 😉

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witmol's review

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emotional medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

This may well be the only Australian book that deals with the intersection of mental illness, being from the Asian diaspora and coming-of-age. In this YA novel, we follow high-schooler Anna as she tries to juggle being a student and a parent to her younger brother and sister while her dad buries himself in work and her mother takes to bed for weeks with an undiagnosed mental illness.

I'm so used to reading about high-achieving Asian girl characters that I was pleasantly surprised to learn Anna was merely mediocre at school and instead had a flair for helping her father's restaurant business.

I won't say too much about the main plot, which follows Anna getting to become herself while different parts of her life are falling apart and coming together – the romance and how it interweaves with the main plot supports the book's themes well too – but I will say that there are a lot of little nods that make this book an insightful read for someone from a diaspora readership, or enlightening for someone outside of one.

My favourites:

The tension in the idea that you have to 'be better' than your migrant parents because they came to a new country for you; that it is not enough to be the same even if that's what you're good at and what you want to do.
The intraracial hierarchy where sometimes your biggest bullies are the people from your own racial heritage.
The conflict between cultural understandings of mental health.

I also liked that the mental health challenges faced in the book were not suddenly fixed with magical medicine but are shown as part of a process of everyday management.

And a big shoutout to my 'hood of Ashfield, which is certainly the home of the best dumplings in Sydney.

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