A review by lawbooks600
Super Boba Café by Nidhi Chanani

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Representation: Asian characters
Score: Six out of ten.

I wanted to read this for a while when I saw it in a library, but someone else got it before I could. I had to go to another library to get this one. I glanced at the blurb, making Super Boba Cafe seem intriguing, and soon enough I picked it up. However, when I closed the final page, it was a unique reading experience.

It starts with the first person I see, Aria, moving to San Francisco from another town for undisclosed reasons. She soon helps her grandmother, Jing, run a bubble tea store, but something felt off the moment I kept reading the pages. It felt like the decisions Jing made hid something of negative implications, but I didn't know yet until the latter half of Super Boba Cafe. I headed in expecting a light-hearted read but instead I got a suspenseful one. It turns out that Jing has to feed a monster living in San Francisco no one knows of except her, and the only way to feed it is to cook a giant boba ball taking nine hours, or else the monster eats Jing instead. The last 100 pages or so revolve around Aria stumbling upon said monster and surviving the encounter, with her and Jing feeding it more boba. When you think about the plot, it sounds repetitive, and the world-building wasn't explained clearly enough. The characters are also only okay, and perhaps a second instalment in the series should clarify everything. At least there's a high note in the end.