Book Review- Crazy Rich Asians

Title- Crazy Rich Asians
Author- Kevin Kwan
Published- 2013
Genre- Contemporary
Length- 416 pages
Rating- 3.5/5
Synopsis (Goodreads)- Crazy Rich Asians is the outrageously funny debut novel about three super-rich, pedigreed Chinese families and the gossip, backbiting, and scheming that occurs when the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season.
When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn’t know is that Nick’s family home happens to look like a palace, that she’ll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia’s most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back. Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Astrid, the It Girl of Singapore society; Eddie, whose family practically lives in the pages of the Hong Kong socialite magazines; and Eleanor, Nick’s formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should–and should not–marry. Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider’s look at the Asian JetSet; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; between Overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich.

Review- This book is ok, it has some funny moments and mildly surprising moments, but it’s nothing to go nuts over.

Overall it is an easy read, there are a lot of terms in other languages but you lose nothing really by not knowing what they mean. With the Kindle edition you can just click on the number next to the phrase and the footnote with the definition pops up, I assume in the physical versions the footnotes are at the bottom of the page but I don’t know for sure. Sometimes I clicked for the footnotes, sometimes I didn’t because I realised I wasn’t really missing much without them.

There are a lot of characters in this and often multiple characters are introduced at once and many of them are related to each other in complex ways, it gets confusing. There is a family tree at the start but with the Kindle version it’s not worth the time flicking back and forth to it and it is really tiny. As long as you know the major characters and how they are related it’s fine, and that is doable without referring to the family tree.

In terms of the story, not a lot happens in the sense that there aren’t many major “events”, there are a few little things but the book is mostly about the money. If you watch Gilmore Girls, parts of this will remind you of the Huntzberger’s reaction to Logan dating Rory. Otherwise, I guess you could say it is a little like Gossip Girl in the sense that everyone is rich and there is a lot of scheming, though in this everyone is more Chuck Bass rich rather than Blair Waldorf rich.

I think this would be a good “beach read”, the story is simplistic, so ideal if you just want something light with no real depth. I imagine it would be popular with teenage girls too even though it is technically an adult book. So if you want something a bit nonsensey this is for you, if you are looking for something more complex you probably won’t like this.