Review: Crazy Rich Asians

Posted on August 17, 2018 inBucket List Book Club, Fiction

. . . finish everything on your plate, girls! Don’t you know there are children starving in America?

If you haven’t heard of Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan yet, you will soon. It’s being released in theaters soon, and the movie adaptation looks like a splashy, spectacularly fun time. It’s based on the book by the same name, and while people either seem to love it or hate it, I fall into the love category. This is a book about . . . crazy rich Asians in Singapore. It’s fun, wild, crazy, unbelievable, and laugh out loud funny in parts. While some of it is too over the top for its own good, and every character comes a little too close to being a caricature of themselves, I think it’s a fun book to read, and surprisingly quick given that it’s just over 500 pages.

Rachel Chu lives with her boyfriend, Nick Young, in New York City. She agrees to spend the summer with him in Singapore, even though she’s never met his family, and really knows nothing about them. When she arrives, Rachel discovers that Nick isn’t just the underpaid college professor he is in NYC. His family is extremely, crazy rich. A home that looks more like a palace, private jets, designer clothes, and family members who definitely think Rachel isn’t good enough to be a part of the family. She has to learn to navigate a family with a legitimate dynasty and decide whether or not this family, and lifestyle, is really for her.

My sister in law read this at the same time I did, and she said it reminded her of Gossip Girl, and she is right on. It definitely has a Gossip Girl vibe, but with a million times the money, glamour and drama. The story is fun, and it feels like you’re peeking behind the scenes of a family that really doesn’t want you to know what’s going on. Some of the writing did bother me a little bit. There were places where it just felt like a dude writing about idiot dudes. Which is fine, it’s a personal preference for me that I didn’t enjoy that. The characters are written SO stereotypically, but that’s sort of the point of the book-over the top, wild, with a lot of truth in all of it. Kwan grew up in Singapore, so I don’t doubt the validity of the characters and their situations.

Crazy Rich Asians is a fun read, and the movie looks amazing. (And while I did love the book, I think this MIGHT be a case where the movie is even better than the book.) Let me know if you’ve read and if you plan to see the movie!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

EXTRA

There is a scene that really, really bothered me, and I had a hint that it was coming, so I was able to skim over it. It’s a dogfighting scene, and it’s horrible but brief. It only takes up about a page and a half, and it adds nothing to the story (other than to reiterate what we already know-some of these guys are awful people), so just skip it and move on.