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A review by yeppenny
Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien
3.0
Note to the audiobook publisher, JournalStone Publishing: If you have a cast of nearly all Asian and Asian American characters, please be more mindful of the narrator you choose for the book, especially if they will be doing inauthentic Asian accents as your chosen narrator did. Although this experience was detrimental to my enjoyment of the book, it is not factored into my rating and review of the writing itself.
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This standard cozy mystery set in Cleveland's AsiaTown has an interesting premise but lacks suspense until the second half of the book. It is a great step to see Asian representation in a genre that does not feature much diversity, although it feels contrived at times. All in all, as another reviewer here on Goodreads critically puts it, “It was written for people who think a Chinatown setting is super cute and exotic" (T.K. Marnell, 2021).
⟡ ⟡ ⟡
This standard cozy mystery set in Cleveland's AsiaTown has an interesting premise but lacks suspense until the second half of the book. It is a great step to see Asian representation in a genre that does not feature much diversity, although it feels contrived at times. All in all, as another reviewer here on Goodreads critically puts it, “It was written for people who think a Chinatown setting is super cute and exotic" (T.K. Marnell, 2021).