The Balance Tips did not work for me. A jumble of mixed-media chapters without any actual media to be mixed, as well as some extremely immoral queer grandstanding. There's solid elements at play here but the intergenerational conflict is often belabored - but writing anything about this book feels like punching down, so I won't be going wider with a more public stance on it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the published for giving me an advanced copy of this book to read and review.

The Balance Tips is a queer multiracial Taiwanese-American (and Taiwanese) book with about a hundred chapters written in all sorts of format, including letters, scripts, narratives. Each character has a name that carries a meaning: Jia (home), Hua (flower), Faith, etc. The story is about grappling with identities, breaking free of cultural/generational pressure, and unveiling family lies.

The story is about a family, with three main characters in various combinations of first-, second-, and third-person POVs:
– Jia Wu, a Taiwanese woman who visited the US and ended up staying there after giving birth to Faith;
– Hua Wu Ting, Jia’s younger sister, a professor in NY married to an Asian-American professor Phil;
– Faith “Fay” Wu Goodson, the multiracial American daughter of Jia’s.
There is also a deceased background character, Jia & Hua’ father and Fay’s grandfather, who was a KMT general, playing the role of an oppressor during the 228 Incident and White Terror (these are real Taiwanese historical events after the Chinese Civil War). I love a good story with historical references. Huang-Iris did a great job of stringing everything together, weaving them all into a family story. That being said, I also think the author tried to do too much, and even though all the themes, imageries, metaphors, and analogies make sense, as a reader, I felt like I was being pulled in one too many directions.

I love the writing flows like thoughts, of making connections between similar-sounding English words, breaking down of phrases, the play on words, and switching between English and Mandarin and sometimes Taiwanese. If you wonder whether some of the creepy stories, interesting idioms, fascinating superstitions are real things that Taiwanese people know about, I, here speaking for one Taiwanese person (me), can say that yes, I have heard about all the stories/rhymes/idioms/beliefs/etc. mentioned in the story growing up.

See the cover featuring a diabolo/Chinese yo-yo? The Balance Tips is a diasporic story on top of a coming out one of sorts. Maybe walking between intersecting identities (cultural, sexuality, racial, etc.) requires balance. The book did open with the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake, a quake that came from the Earth, the soil (important themes in the story), that disrupted everything. Though there are about a hundred chapters in the story, which might be an attempt of visualizing fracturing, each piece fits into the bigger picture in the end. The Balance Tips is undoubtedly a work of well thought out of fiction.

There were two somewhat questionable statements from Fay in the story that I hope are only present in the ARC: suggesting that “pansexual” is more inclusive of gender non-conforming and trans people than “bisexual” (nope, they’re both just as inclusive) and using the term “differently abled,” which is ableist.

This is the second queer Taiwanese-American book I have ever read (the other one being K-Ming Chang’s Bestiary), and it is always eye-opening to read queer Taiwanese diasporic works. The Balance Tips is a densely-packed novel filled with metaphorical scenes that take a bit of thought to understand. With its heavier theme, it is not an easy read but the ending is certainly lighter and hopeful.

The Balance Tips was interesting to read. It doesn’t subscribe to any rules, switching between first, third, and even second person. Some chapters are in the traditional novel format, while others are told through scripts, interviews, and letters. It’s often hard to deduce whether a chapter is a reflection of real events, is only a script, is a figment of someone’s imagination, or is just one giant metaphor. This book is a tough one for me to rate, mostly because a lot of the metaphoric content flew right over my head.

I really liked the exploration of family in this story and how Jia’s, Hua’s, and Fay’s lives converge after Grandma Wu comes to live in the US. While the eclectic style of the book made it difficult to follow the character arcs in a linear fashion, I still felt like I got to know the characters well — especially their fears, desires, and histories. I didn’t always like the process of reading this book, but due to a desire to know what happened, it was easy to keep reading.

Unfortunately there’s some problematic language in this book. The phrase “differently-abled” is used once, and pansexuality is equated with attraction to trans and gender nonconforming people.

Overall, I’m glad I read this book, even though it’s not really my style. If you’re a fan of books like Bestiary and Red at the Bone, you’ll probably also enjoy this one!

Content warnings are provided in the author’s note at the beginning of the book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I got about 15% of this book and found I could not follow what was going on. I do not typically read stories with this kind of experimental style, and so I think it's possible that I am just the wrong audience. I hope that the book finds readers who will appreciate it properly.

The Balance Tips by Joy-Huang Iris is the story of a Taiwanese-American queer woman Fay, her mother, aunt, and the unique story of this family. When the family patriarch passes away, Fay's grandmother immigrates to America. The traditional, conservative mindset of the older generation of women in Fay's house stands in contrast to the youthful, inclusive outlook that Fay holds; and this book follows the journey of all these women as they navigate the complexities of family roles, racism, sexual identity, etc. It always resonates with us how closely related Asian cultures are, oftentimes mirroring even in the prejudices these societies hold. The author captures the characters grappling with their multitude of identities perfectly. It's also interesting to see how the older generations of characters must confront the changing times, reflected in their own family. The stories of immigrant families are always complex and intriguing and The Balance Tips portrays beautifully the culture shock and assimilation that most families undergo.

This book was a quick and easy read. Some writing sections seemed a little experimental and didn't read as smoothly as the rest of the story. Nevertheless, we would greatly recommend checking out The Balance Tips when it releases on 5 October 2021!