A smart and telling novel that tackles important social issues without preaching to the audience. Lively characters make the prose come to life and while some parts lagged, the book is important, timely, and most importantly: enjoyable.

This is an intense story about an immigrant who feels stuck in her situation, uncomfortable as the only female in her tech company, and alone after her husband leaves her, when she is already struggling as an immigrant. Chin delves deep into Edwina's psyche, sometimes seemingly beyond Edwina's understanding. The book blurb says it's darkly funny, but I was not laughing. I was fortunate to receive a digital copy from the publisher Ecco through NetGalley.

This book blew me away! I loved Edwina, the brilliant yet relatable protagonist. She deals with drama from work, criticism from her well meaning but hurtful mother, and a set of new and obscure interests her husband becomes obsessed with. Throughout her emotional journey she deals with conflicting feelings about her place in the world and whether to stay on in her adopted country or return to the land of her birth. She is a strong and resourceful character who isn’t afraid to reveal human frailty and self doubt. The ending is powerful and satisfying but also bittersweet, the end of one story and the beginning of a new one.

I thought Chin did a good job of expressing the anxieties of immigrants in the US, especially the need to constantly think of how your actions could affect your chances of staying in the country -- this was not an aspect I had really thought about before. The premise of the story was interesting even though it didn't turn out to be the mystery I thought it might be. It was really about Edwina's relationships -- with her husband, her mother, and her best friend, but also with herself, the past and the future, Malaysia and America.

Edge Case was a wonderful surprise. Its topic—or should I say "topics"; there's a lot going on here—were pretty heavy, but there was a lot of humor, and the story really moved. I didn't want to put it down! Very happy to have discovered YZ Chin. I got this ARC on Netgalley; thank you to the publisher.

Edwina is the sole female at a tech startup in New York City. She is buried in a work project and then comes home one night to find out that her husband is missing. She tried to put together the pieces on why he left and what made him leave. This book had some dark humor but also touched upon immigration, marriage and coming of age. I enjoyed the book but I did feel like some parts of the story dragged on a bit too long. Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for providing me with a free advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I tried to like this book, but it was just not for me. A married Asian couple, Qi Ling and Marlin, need to re-apply for their American work visas. One day, Qi Ling comes home from work to find that Marlin has moved out. She spends the rest of the book wondering what has happened and thinking back to their lives in Malaysia. At the end, she does find Marlin and realizes they are now on different trajectories. I wish I had liked it, but it just wasn’t my taste in a novel.

This book is advertised as a sort of mystery novel, where the main character, Edwina, is searching for her missing husband, Marlin. However, it is not really a mystery at all. Instead this is a deep dive into Edwina's mind.

I struggled to enjoy this because I felt like it couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to be. Is this a commentary on immigration policy? A book about finding yourself while searching for someone else? A book about a fractured mother-dauther relationship? Or is this a satire about the tech industry and the misogynistic culture within? There is just a lot going on.

By the end of the book, you seem to forget Edwina is looking for her husband at all. And then it wraps up rather strangely and quickly. It's not a bad read overall, it's just trying too hard to be something its not.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco Books for the advanced digital copy.

A very confusing book that seems like it's trying to do too much. The running narrative device of apparently talking to, or maybe telling the story? via a dating app, shows up out of nowhere, slightly explained toward the end but doesn't fit up to that point. Not enough exposition on the marriage between Edwina and Marlin, and why it's worth saving, though much discussion is made of it. The immigrant experience angle is the most interesting and insightful part of the book, but interwoven with a predictable, stereotypical narrative of tech-bro interactions in her workplace. Could have had much more potential with tighter editing - started fairly strong, the last half was a slog.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Edwina and Marlin are a couple, both immigrants from Malaysia, living in New York City, waiting for their green cards and navigating the turbulent waters of the so called American Dream. One day, Marlin disappears, unexpectedly. As Edwina tries to find out where he is, she also explores their past and relationship in an attempt to understand why he left. Where there any signs that she wasn't able to understand at the moment? Was the death of Marlin's father some kind of trigger that precipitated a previous decision?
While she tries to find the answers she also asks herself other questions about heritage, marriage, her relationship with her body and immigration.
The book is a beautiful account of all those themes, written from the peculiar perspective of a young woman that is trying to find her place in the world. I found Edwina's voice very unique and interesting.
The book is a very enjoyable journey. Highly recommend it.

Poignant but also funny! Why aren't immigrant novels more humorous than melancholic? Why aren't immigrants themselves allowed to be funny? This is the question Chin asks with her joke-tellimg AI company. There is a touch of the supernatural alongside the realism.

I'm torn on this one. On one hand, it's an interesting story about Edwina. She's immigrated to America and is living with her husband when he suddenly goes missing. She knows they have been having a few struggles lately, maybe fallen a bit apart, but not enough to just leave. So she makes a list and goes on a search for him.

In the midst of all this, she struggles to understand who she is. She isn't the same bright eyed girl who landed in American, anxious and eager to be here. Her work visa is also about to expire and she's struggling to assess if her employer will pay for her to get a more permanent status. It's a deeply moving story about it and I felt Edwina's confusion as she tried to get to know herself again and do a lot of reflection.

But the story is also a lot of side stuff. It's a co-worker Josh and her mother and her husband's friends. It's her work and AI and, just a lot of stuff thrown in that seemed to bog the story down and lose me a bit. I loved the soul searching and the struggle to see who she was if she wasn't his wife and a girl with a work visa. I just didn't love the rest.

Edge Case was a beautiful and heavy read, that had me reflecting long after I finished. I took my time reading this -- Chin writes on racism and misogyny, but also on love and family. Chin so perfectly writes in the humanity of characters and how they change and grow (or not grow). Chin too shows us the stresses of an immigrant seeking American citizenship and how the difficulties and worries within that process.

Ultimately, Edge Case is a excellent debut of immigration, marriage, relationships, grief, identity, and more. I look forward to more by Chin.

Thank You to NetGalley and Ecco Publishing for providing me with an ARC of Edge Case by YZ Chin. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

A satisfactory debut from writer YZ Chin centering around a married couple from Malaysia who have come to NY in hopes of finding permanent resident status. Edwina and Marlin, while sharing many commonalities also have very different insights regarding family, opportunities, responsibilities and expectations. When Edwina returns home from work one day to discover Marlin has moved out, without a note or warning, she is left to contemplate all of their actions that have brought them to this moment. Under the guise of talking to her therapist, Edwina dissects her union with Marlin and re-evaluates her future needs and wants. While the premise was promising, this book was a slog for me to read. I was hoping for a unique immigrant reading experience but I never really felt like the author delivered. I didn’t learn anything about Malaysia or Malayan culture. This book was just ok for me..

Edge Case offered a unique perspective that I couldn't resist. I loved reading from a Chinese-Malaysian perspective as well as the comparisons that were made between Malaysian and US society. I also enjoyed the exploration of grief in this book.
I also found that not only the main characters, but the supporting characters were well developed and used within the story was great. They added depth and texture to the story, This book is worth a read. It touches on themes with broad appeal, but it’s the specificity of Edwina’s experience as an immigrant figuring out her identity that I found most interesting.

I really enjoyed this dark little funny book with it's original plotline and spot on observations. And let's not pretend that striking cover wasn't the first the thing that drew me in.

TW: Body-shaming

Edwina comes home early from her frankly awful job as being the only female at an NYC tech startup and her husband, Marlin is nowhere to be found. She fears the worst when she notices that his suitcase is missing. Both originally from Malaysia, they'd been trying to get their green cards approved and now all that's up in the air. She begins a desperate plan to figure out where he is and why he left.

Bless her, Edwina does a deep dive into her memories to attempt to understand why Marlin left. She analyzes her mother fat-shaming her repeatedly, all the frightening stories her mother told her as a child, the guilt her mother put on her for moving to America, and oh wait, her mother is the root of so much of her mental turmoil.

This can be a pretty bleak book in some parts, especially when she's feeling lonely, hating her body, worrying what country she'll be in 6 months from now, and becoming frustrated about how horribly sexist her workplace is. However, her dark wit and sweet nature always seems to take the edge off so it never gets super heavy.

It's kinda beautiful to watch Edwina come into her own and figure out what she wants as the book progresses. This book offers such an honest portrayal of immigration, whether it's being scared of customs, worrying about your green card status, finding your identity in another culture, or always feeling left behind by not understanding every cultural reference.

This character-driven book may not be for everyone, but I thought it was a lovely book.

A touching book about the issues that can come with being an immigrant and needing help. Edwina needs help. Her husband has disappeared and she has nowhere to turn. Their visas were not coming through and she has no idea why he is gone.

Have you ever read a book where you were delighted at how smart it was, the social commentary was great, and the writing was also good, but the plot need some more pizzazz? That’s probably how I’d sum up my feelings about EDGE CASE by YZ Chin. I think the synopsis of woman’s husband leaves and woman does everything she could to search for him undersells the psychological depth of this novel while overselling the woman-seeking-husband part bc that part resolves quicker than you’d think.
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I think this book is brilliant in its analysis of immigration and the phenomenon of “second immigration” — when you land on a country for a second time after being in another country where you were marked as “foreigner.” That’s the description of main character Edwina who is Chinese-Malaysian. Here’s how she responds to her mom’s request for her to return home:
“I trotted out the knee-jerk, expected answers, about how in America there were more merit-based opportunities, less constitutionalized difference in how people across races were treated, less ostentatious corruption, and so on. What I didn’t tell her: I already knew how to be a minority in America, having been one in my home country. All that was required of me was to learn my new names, like kook or dirty commie or terrorist, and to understand what I was expected to do, such as eat dogs and cats alive.”
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Another excellent theme the novel explores is the boundaries (incl class restrictions) immigrants are often placed within by American social norms; here’s Edwina reflecting on how it would be nice to figure out what she wants to do but how her identity cannot afford that:
“If I were an expat, then there wouldn’t be a problem. My time away would have been for the perfectly justifiable mission of ‘finding’ myself. But I am not an expat. I am an immigrant.”

All in all, this is a very thoughtful book. I loved the way the author builds up discomfort and tension, and brings us inside Edwina’s mind — it’s very well-done and could count as a borderline psychological thriller if only the plot and story were revised a bit. Thanks a ton to @netgalley and @eccobooks for the eARC!

This book started off okay, but it got to a point where I lost interest and put it down. And it's been a week or two and I haven't picked it back up yet. So unfortunately, while the premise was good, the cover is GORGEOUS, the writing was great, it just wasn't for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC; due to my DNFing the book, I won't be posting my review elsewhere.

Thank you to Ecco by HarperCollins Publishers for gifting me an eARC of this book via NetGalley.

"Edge cases are rare situations or use cases that engineers might miss when they write code, resulting in ugly bugs."

This was a cerebral read. I went in blind, and I think it landed better that way, so I won't give too much away other than to say this is a story about a couple's new life in the U.S. that does not go as planned, resulting in an exploration of identity and belonging.