You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

19 reviews

funny lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

 What a silly time! At first I forgot that there's a sequel, so the ending felt weird. I still think it felt a little weird? Idk. I guess I'll update whenever I read the rest. There are a few things I'm hoping get resolved? My theory is that the other book (books?) maybe have a scene or 2 that happens in the movie that patches things up? Maybe.

SPOILERS
I think it's interesting how Rachel makes the VERY good argument that she wants her children to be able to have a relationship with their extended family like she was able to, and she knows they wouldn't have that with his family because she'll never be accepted and therefore neither will their kids. Very reasonable, very understandable. But she gets back together with Nick and they never talk about it? He even says that he doesn't really know how much he wants to be around his family anymore, but even that wouldn't fix the issue because then they would have literally no connection to his family. If that issue doesn't get figured out I'm gonna be sad because the author could have just... not introduced that problem in the first place if he's not gonna resolve it.

The book is long, that's for sure. But I'm not mad about it actually. No time felt wasted really, which was nice. I just wish the ending had felt a little more like a cliffhanger and less like a slightly unresolved ending that could just be a bad ending but you don't fully know. Yeah. Okay that's all. 


Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark funny sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

At first I was intrigued by this book, but the more I read the more exasperated I got. It was too long with too many descriptions I had no reference for. I think a lot of the humor went over my head, and I know the fancy references did. I'm sure some of them were satire, but I just don't know enough about anything in this world to get it properly. 

I also didn't think Rachel's character was very strong, and she seemed to have a 180 at the end of the book. 

The story drop literally less than ten pages from the end seemed super rushed.
And her reasoning for breaking it off with Nick is a good reason, and her family history wouldn't really change that. But I know from the sequel blurbs they do at least have a wedding.
 

I don't know, I didn't like the plot. I liked learning about other parts of the world and Rachel's mom's culture vs the culture of Nick's family and the other super rich families. 

But it was too much for too long, my eyes glazed over. I'm sure this would make a great movie because all the long winded descriptions would be condensed down to a frame. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny medium-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
funny lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional funny lighthearted relaxing 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
funny informative lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

If you can ignore all the racism,  classism and prejudice it is a funny enough read!
A lot of the book was just a bunch of people sitting around and judging others…. And when I say a bunch, I mean a confusing amount of characters and names. To be fair, I don’t think it helped that I listened to the book, but still; so many characters and names.
I actually really liked the ending, and I applaud Rachel for being the badass she is.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Urmmm… so… I didn’t care for this book. Parts of it were wonderful! I think it is definitely successful as a romance novel. There were real moments of humor and genuine surprise, but overall the storytelling and the content did not work for me.

My main critique all boils down to one pervasive thought I couldn’t shake: “this book was so glaringly written by a man.” In every description of the female characters, to the sexualized POV of the supporting female cast. Those elements were so distracting and strange that they really took me out. The book could have definitely used some major editing.

Besides that, the pacing and structure of the story made absolutely no sense to me. The twists (which do not make sense) are misplaced in the story.
Despite the book’s length, there is absolutely no resolution to Nick’s conflict with his family. There is barely a resolution between Rachel and Nick, too, and they’re the main characters! The twists left me more confused than enlightened.


Plus there’s like a whole chapter full of racial/homophobic slurs for some reason…. I’m remain… confused. 

Regardless, I think I’m glad I read it?

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings