paulasrandomreads 's review for:

Park Avenue by Renée Ahdieh

4.0

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

---

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This book was presented as Crazy Rich Asians meets Succession, and sure—the fashion, the wealth, the high-gloss NYC backdrop are all there. But that surface is just a screen. What’s underneath is much heavier, much more personal, and honestly, pretty uncomfortable in a way I didn’t expect.

Park Avenue follows a Korean-American woman navigating her place in a powerful family where image is everything and emotion is… well, something you keep to yourself. There’s so much going on under the surface—unspoken family expectations, the emotional code-switching that happens within your own culture, and a kind of tension between love and performance that doesn’t get named, but is constantly felt.

The portrayal of family dynamics is sharp. No one ever directly confronts things. Instead, they talk around them—dropping comments, holding eye contact a beat too long, keeping quiet when something should be said. The microaggressions between siblings, the jabs that look like politeness, the pressure to always maintain face even inside the family—it’s all here, and it’s done really well.

I didn’t care much for the luxury fashion world side of the story. It felt like a flashy distraction to me, even though I understand why it was there—to show just how much of this family’s identity is wrapped up in appearance.

The hardest part for me is the ending. It’s not empowering. It’s not satisfying. It leaves a sour taste. And maybe that’s because it felt a little too close to home. I don’t think everyone will experience this book the same way. If you haven’t lived in that space between cultures—carrying one set of values while growing up surrounded by another—some of this might fly under the radar. But if you have lived it, this book sees you in ways that might sting.

I can’t say I liked it exactly, but I think it was brilliantly done. It’s quiet and sharp and deeply layered. There’s a lot happening between the lines—and if you know, you know.