A review by pamshenanigans
Making a Scene by Constance Wu

adventurous emotional informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

I highlighted exactly 41 passages from the book and I could’ve just gone and highlighted the whole book because the majority of the things Constance wrote were hard-hitting and impactful. Making a Scene chronicles Constance Wu’s experience growing up, navigating family life, friendships, relationships, sex, heartbreaks, and her journey to achieving her dreams. 

I say I found her story primarily relatable because I’m also an Asian woman. While we didn’t really have the same experiences as she grew up in America, many things resonated with me, especially on the general notion of “swallowing tough pills” and “not making a big deal out of things”. There come times when I collect pent-up feelings like Pokémon because I don't know how else to express them without being swallowed by anxiety that eventually they burst out of me creating rifts over what may seem like a small thing to others. There are also a lot of times that I gaslight myself into feeling guilty over things that weren’t my fault nor were exactly within my control. I’ve also blacked out experiences that were traumatic to me and just hit me like a truck when I was older. A lot of these things, Constance also talked about in detail, albeit in different instances and settings. 

I especially like that even though this memoir talks about serious matters, Constance still manages to add hints of comedy to it. The audiobook narration adds so much to the reading experience as you can feel the passion and emotion radiating from Constance as she reads it. 
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