A review by amibo
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I was really looking forward to this one.  I saw the photo shoot the author did with her real life aunties and thought this was going to be lots of fun. Parts of it were, but I was disappointed.

What was great: Meddy's mom (definitely LOLed at her comments several times), Indo & Chinese relationships & traditions
What was fun: The aunties dialogue
What really, really, did not work for me: The widely fluctuating tone. I was prepared to suspend disbelief - A LOT of disbelief - but most significantly the flashback chapters to Meddy and Nathan's relationship were very straight-up romance, not even romcom, so it was hard to stay in the black humor mode. The tone pendulum made some of the really over-the-top, unbelievable decisions and situations harder to laugh at, rather than cringe about. I think it would have been easier to stay with the crazy flow if the college years' information was shortened, and only the most important information shared in brief flashbacks like later in the story.

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