7/10

Audrey Zhou grew up in nowheresville, Illinois - the only child of Chinese immigrant parents. It was mostly a white town with a very small Asian population.

She had friends, she had a nice middle class life, but she felt like she didn’t belong. She looked different, her parents were different, her friends seemed so much better, so much happier. All Audrey wanted to do was leave.

So she left the town, went to college, moved to New York City and got engaged to Ben - a Caucasian.

The book starts with Audrey bringing Ben back to her little home town to meet her parents. She hadn’t been back for 8 years.

And so begins the journey of Audrey confronting the place she thought she was running away from.

Central Places is about the places we come from and the places inside of us. It’s about wherever you go, there you are - you can keep running but you can’t escape who you are.

It’s a really good exploration of the challenges in being a first generation Asian American - having to straddle two cultures and try to be accepted in both.

This is the debut novel from Delia Cai. She’s clearly a good writer though I believe most of her writing history is shorter form articles. Regardless, I thought the book started off well but then slowed down in the middle - as if it were belaboring the same points over and again. But then about 2/3s of the way through the book the characters began to unfold in much more vibrant detail and the book flourished.

Well done Delia.

#netgalley #centralplaces

i think that the “insufferable female lead” character can be done really, really beautifully. (i am not sure if that is what the author was aiming to achieve.) i don’t think that this hit that mark for me. i found it hard to invest in audrey emotionally because she genuinely is her own biggest issue. i just kept wondering when she would grow up and get out of her own way.

thanks to netgalley for a copy in return for an honest review!

Delia Cai's debut novel is a vulnerable and sharp rendering of what it means to go home and face your old self, your hometown, and your immigrant parents. I truly enjoyed reading this book and thought all the characters were well-written.

https://therumpus.net/2023/02/07/hometown-humbling-delia-cais-central-places/

I resisted starting Central Places and then once I did, I read it in one sitting. It's evocative of how hard it is for anyone to go home again, wherever that home is. Delia Cai does a great job capturing the descent into your high school self.

I enjoyed this personal and fictional story of Audrey, a woman born to Chinese parents who grew up in a small town in Illinois. Audrey always felt different despite having close friends and couldn't wait to leave the town and everybody in it. After university, she moved to New York to start the life she always wanted. After eight years, she finally went back for a visit and soon realized that you can never really escape your home or your past.

I didn't care very much for the character of Audrey and found her to be selfish, moody, immature, and self-absorbed. She ghosted her hometown friends and her own parents for almost a decade. When she finally returned home she seemed surprised that her former friends weren't that friendly toward her. Rich in descriptive wording, I did enjoy this Asian writer's take on what it was like living in the midwest USA and the mention of places I am familiar with. However, by the end of the book, I was tense and exhausted from the numerous conflicts throughout.

delia cai you will always be famous
i laughed i cried i called my mom. this is THE hometown story. i'm so thankful for this messy heroine and her big feelings and her screw ups and her fears. just gorgeous and unlike anything ever ever.

Audrey Zhou, the main character, is a mess. If you like books with likeable narrators who miraculously change their way then this may not be for you but I challenge you to explore this story to understand Audrey’s struggles; a self-centred, self-absorbed and selfish mess. Cai completely captures the emotions of going back to your home town, your Central Place, from lost loves to fractured friendships. She attentively explores the Asian American experience; in particular the strained relationship with her mother. Audrey is now a young adult questioning life decisions whilst also battling with her mother’s first generation expectations. This novel had such a great premise but the obnoxiousness was a drag which made me lose sympathy at times. Combined with a mundane visit it became tedious in the middle. I wanted it to delve deeper into ‘the why’ but got more of a ‘woe is me’ narrative. Maybe I missed the mark with this one. Would be a great discussion book!

Recommend if you don’t mind unlikeable characters. You may not agree with Audrey nor her choices but still a worthwhile read to understand a little about the second generation Asian American experience.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House, and Ballentine for this advance copy!

What an incredible novel about identity and home. I loved this story of a Chinese-American woman coming home to her white, christian, small midwest town for the holidays with her new white fiance in tow. Aubrey is so many of us, raised in towns where conformity is everything and there is literally no way they can conform because of race or religion, who then take off for other places, only to come home and face our younger selves.

Audrey just can't seem to make things work with anyone and wanted to reach through the book and hug her. At times I also wanted to scream at her; she can only seem to take charge of her life by hurting people close to her. The prose was straightforward forward and the characters were varied and many of them rich in nuance. A few felt a little like stereotypes, but I appreciated that not everyone could be fully fleshed out with Audrey at the center.

A great coming home novel, I loved how it wrapped up, with things said and decisions made, but plenty unknown for the future.

This book was riddled with tension. Tension in relationships, tension between past and present, and tension in disparate future possibilities. The family dynamics were the most compelling part of the story and portrayed all the big and minuscule ways parents and kids hurt the crap out of each other.

When I came across this title in Netgalley, I wasn't sure if it was a book I would be interested in. I sat on requesting it for some time, Simply because I am trying to limit my DNF books. However, I took the chance on this debut author. I can not say how much I am glad that I did! I absolutely loved EVERYTHING about this book. From the writing style, to the story line of Audrey and Ben, even the relationship her mother and father had. I LOVED that her mother was not american but her dad was. I truly just loved this book. I keep thinking about Central Places even though I had finished reading it last week. I do not typically pick up a book to re-read, but this is one I think I could read multiple times and never get bored of it. Thank You to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read this e-book in exchange for my honest feedback. Also, want to shout out to the author Delia Cai on this book, I can not wait to read what comes next from Delia!!!

A lot heavier and dramatic than I was expecting - not sure if that’s me or how it was marketed. Loved the relationships and how real they felt.

This was a great book. It’s a multi-layered read exploring numerous relationships- the relationship we have to both our current self and our self childhood; the different relationship we have to each of our parents; romantic relationships; relationships with our high school friends. I thought the exploration of each of these relationships was well-written. I’d definitely recommend this book.

Audrey Zhou, the main character in Central Places by Delia Cai, grew up as one of the few Asian households in predominantly white middle American town and couldn't wait to get out of it. She's been living in NY with her white fiancé Ben, and hasn't come home for 8 years, but when her father needs to undergo a medical procedure, she finds herself back in her home town, and all the challenges that come with having to return to a place she worked so hard to get out of. The author does a great job of portraying the cultural differences involved in this story, which isn't always pretty. The relationships between the characters are varying levels of complicated. While Audrey's mom is difficult to please and doesn't seem to approve of anything, including Audrey, Audrey herself comes off as immature and bratty, while her fiancé comes across as snooty and snobby. Still, caught between who she was and who she thinks she is, she may find that the very thing she was running from is now the thing that she needs the most. This story encompasses what it means to try to embrace your past, which may mean letting go of certain people, and holding on to others. Thank you NetGalley for the 5-star read on a debut author.

The writing was beautiful and it felt vulnerable throughout the entire story. The story had such complex characters, which I absolutely looove! I was instantly captivated by the main character, Audrey, and her relationship with her Chinese immigrant parents and her white fiance.

Anyone with a mother can relate to the complex, challenging, often difficult and ever changing relationship Audrey Zhou has with her parents and hometown. I didn’t always like Audrey, but I did feel like I understood her in this heart-wrenching novel about the factors that lead you to escape home and ultimately bring you back again.

DNF - I really wanted to like this book because the premise of a complicated relationships with immigrant parents and a Caucasian boyfriend felt very relatable but instead I found the main character pretty annoying and kind of mean. I kept dreading have to read this book which is when I decided to DNF it.

This book was hard for me to read at times for how it felt too personal. It was as if Cai cut parts of my life out and pasted it to Audrey’s. So much of her story differs from mine but the consistent critism from Audrey in her consciousness of thought made me take a literal sigh - it was all too familiar. I really enjoyed Cai’s writing - it was daggers of Audrey’s honesty and sharp judgement mixed with insecurity. She tries to take two steps ahead with all her decisions but she failed to see what she was even skipping ahead for. You can’t change your upbringing or your past but you do have to know when it’s time to leave it behind. I think that’s something Kristen would have said. Overall - I think this was a great debut. Going back home will always leave you with so many mixed emotions. In the euphoric moment when you leave it all behind you tend to forget how the thought of it all disappearing can swivel on you and be crushing. Thank you to Delia Cai, NetGalley, and Random House Publishing Group.

3.7/5

The author hit the nail on the head with the personality of Audrey Zhou. What might seem immature or disagreeable reflects growing up as a Chinese-American, daughter of immigrant parents, in the lily white town of Harmony Grove, Illinois. With her mother always hard on her to succeed, Audrey comes to visit from New York City where she lives with her fiancée Ben. When she flies home for the first time in eight years, she realizes all the open ended relationships and events she left without facing up to them. What looked like her storybook ending with Ben begins to unravel. I really liked this book and recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

After moving away from her suffocatingly small town and having as little to do with her immigrant parents as possible, Audrey heads back home after eight years, with her fiancé in tow, ready to show everyone that New York Audrey is completely different from the one that left.
Naturally, she’s not very effective. She and her mother are back at each other’s throats, she continues her mad crush on a classmate, and basically reverts to acting like a miserable teenager. In the space of a couple of weeks, she manages to blow up the new life that she’s carefully cultivated since leaving home..
Audrey is not a terribly likable character; she’s judgmental, inconsiderate, and self-pitying. But her trip back home, having to face all of the parts of herself that she hoped to never see again, are relatable. Her struggles with being a daughter to Chinese immigrant parents, and growing up in a tiny, primarily white community, provided a compelling, sympathetic aspect to the story.
Thanks to #netgalley and #ballantinebooks for this #arc of #centralplaces by #deliacai in exchange for an honest review.
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I loved reading Central Places, and experiencing all the emotions of going home after "growing up". Audrey is bringing her fiance, Ben, home to her small Illinois hometown to meet her parents. She and Ben have built a life together in New York, and are planning on moving into a brownstone together when they tie the knot. Once Audrey and Ben get to Audrey's childhood home, the holiday week does not proceed as expected. Audrey meets up with an old High School boyfriend, and Ben has to leave to photograph an emergency across the country. Audrey's dad has an urgent health need, and she must address her relationship with him, and her mom.

This is the story of Audrey contemplating the person that she has become with the person she was as she grew up in the small town. It's the story of her facing her parents' mortality, and wondering what her role in the care should be. It's the story of a decision that must be made.

Central Places is well written and I couldn't wait to find out what Audrey would do. It made me nostalgic for my own High School days, and time spent with my mom. Ultimately, though, I didn't want the book to end the way it did, even though if I had been able to ask Audrey how she felt about her life, I'm certain that she would say "Quite Content".

Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review Central Places.