A review by tessisreading2
China Trade by S.J. Rozan

2.0

"Read" as an audiobook which may have caused some of my problems - I just didn't love the Bill/Lydia relationship, where Bill hits on Lydia constantly and Lydia welcomes his consistent attention and concern and tells him that "someday" she may be interested in a romantic relationship but not currently. At one point she tells him she doesn't want to visit him in his apartment because she doesn't want him to make a pass at her and he gets all woebegone and asks if that's what she thinks he's like (us, the listeners, shouting in the car: "Yes! Because you are!") and she spends the next five minutes apologizing to him and feeling guilty. Part of this is that the narrator's voice for Lydia is very young and the voice for Bill is very worldly-wise. It just comes off creepy. I understand that's not the reading we're supposed to have, but that's the one I got.

Additionally, as others have mentioned, the fact that the author is not Chinese-American makes me a little uncomfortable reading about a Chinatown which is controlled by tongs and gangs and respects for one's elders. (And everyone drinks tea, but it's Earl Grey and camomile and Lipton, for some reason. And there doesn't seem to be any factionalization between e.g. Taiwanese and mainland Chinese or Mandarin-speakers and Cantonese-speakers, which doesn't seem realistic although I don't know.) The treatment feels respectful, but...