hannahjann 's review for:

A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

2.0

medium-paced

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Terrible writing so cliche so stereotypical. It felt like more of a PSA or HR training than a novel. I’m totally in favor of books exploring intersectionality, racial justice, social justice but this one fell so flat and felt like ChatGPT was asked to write a book after reading a bunch of sociology textbooks. She totally hits you over the head with every theme and idea, tells but never shows. The finale scene where everyone is scattered across the house felt like it tried so hard to be some gripping, shocking, chaotic crescendo but was so predictable from the start. Also you have every stereotypical character, like rich white people who are good at bougie sports and Indian people who work in tech and Latino people in construction. I thought the best writing was the stuff about the parents’ life when they moved here and the intro scene. But after that everything felt so overly emotional and weepy. Also why did Maya have to tell her parents about the pic? I’m an older sister and I thought that obsession with rote honesty was so lame and reflects the book’s overly simplistic moral view. Also the ending where the moms give a press conference was so cheesy and boring and predictable. It felt like this book was written in the hopes of becoming some Oscar bait movie; it felt more like scene notes for a show than a piece of literature.