Know that there's a darker and more important story underlying this well written and thoughtful book. Mei dropped out of Dartmouth after her father left her family and now she drives private clients in arrangements made by her grandfather. Her current client, Henry, wants to go from Oakland to Syracuse-a long way, especially with a large suitcase on the seat beside him, The suitcase, as it turns out, conceals Anna, a very small Uyghur girl who has been smuggled out of China who Henry has agreed to take to her father who is hiding from the Chinese government. Yes, there are road-trip aspects to this but there's also the Chinese government pursuit of critics, especially Uyghurs. Mei's own story, the story of her mother and their estrangement, comes out slowly. This is funny in spots, distressing and tragic in others and it's als0 a page turner. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A terrific debut.

Off the Books-a standalone

By Soma Mei Sheng Frazier-debut author

Publication date 7-30-24, Read 7-28-24

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for this ARC🧡 ! I voluntarily give my honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

📃 Page Count: 219

Genre: Multicultural Interests, Adult Fiction, Mystery

🌏Setting: San Francisco to Syracuse

Tropes:

❤️Asian American
❤️family drama
❤️cross country road trip
❤️coming of age
❤️hidden truths
❤️contains children
❤️forced proximity

⚠️ TW: suicide(not H/h), racism, genocide, human trafficking/slavery(just mentioned)

💭 Summary 💭Mei takes the mysterious Mr. Lee on a road trip with his coveted black suitcase from CA to NY. When he reveals the truth about this journey, Mei is faced with moral dilemmas as she reconnects with estranged mother and grandfather.

Heroine: Mei Brown(24), Chinese/American limo driver turned chauffeur to sex workers at her grandfather's urging. Dropped out of Dartmouth after her father's death.

Side cast: Henry Lee(29) hires Mei to drive him to NY; Jimmy Xin-a writer about Uyghur Muslim persecution; Anna-Jimmy's 11 year old daughter; Aynur-Jimmy's wife who is being held by Chinese authorities; Mei's Grandfather Laoye- the funny, weed-smoking, videogame-playing eccentric; Mei's Mother


My Thoughts: This goes along with Jewish and African Americans persecution from the Holocaust and the African slave trade. I found a lot of similarities between these groups of oppressed and their oppressors. I'm not very familiar with Asian culture or history, so this was a lesson in morality, propaganda, politics, and the importance of family history.

Range of emotions: 😬🤔🙄
🌶️: Spice 1/5-not until the end, off page
😭: Emotion 3/5
❤️: Couple 3/5
⭐️: Rating 4/5

Měi is a driver who works "off the books," hence the title...her offbeat Chinese grandfather is her advocate in life & he has provided her the vehicle and the work: for her to ferry mostly sex workers around. But in this story, he has put her with a well-heeled man who is doing a cross-country trip with a mysterious huge suitcase, with her as the paid driver. The plot evolves from this foundation.

I didn't enjoy reading this unfortunately. The author tries in my estimation to do too many things with this novel, and I felt like most of them were not done that well as a result. It is admirable that she wishes to highlight the astonishing genocide happening with Uyghurs in China and in the Chinese diaspora within a more "palatable" somewhat lighter yarn. However there was just too much threaded in and frankly a lot was hard to follow. Mei's feelings about her family, about the idea of parenting, being ridiculed as an Asian-American, romantic feelings, travel highlights for many cities across the U.S., a loving portrait of Oakland, a suicide, her paranoia being justified or not...the list goes on. There were also so many pieces that seemed poorly explained or abrupt to me that I can't even begin to list them.

There was also a large amount of Chinese in the book. Sometimes translated, sometimes just hinted at. But it seemed excessive: for example, having the young girl draw words and Mei translating them in long lists just seemed like a lot of space-taking which most readers won't enjoy, be able to properly read, nor retain. And added nothing to the plot.

She does have some decent writing about places and good descriptions of various types of hotels or inns in which they stayed; however the descriptions of, say, nature outside a hotel never felt like an organic part of a smooth plot. One thing I felt she did well was actually the dialogue by the Chinese/Chinese-American mother and grandfather. Their imperfect English and manner of expression I could totally imagine from the way it was written. Also the grandfather was perhaps the most developed character, clearly drawn, and he was a character of a character, indeed! Her mother was drawn somewhat well also. These were some high points.

Overall it was, for me, a choppy experience to read this though, and I am sorry to say that I can't highly recommend it.

However I do greatly thank Henry Holt/Macmillan Publishing and NetGalley for the advance copy for my honest review! I was very intrigued by the description and am glad I had the chance to read it.

Soma Mei Sheng Frazier's Off the Books is one of those novels I never found myself getting fully comfortable with despite Frazier managing to keep me interested enough in its plot to want to see how it would all turn out in the end.

The novel's main character, Mei, is a Chinese American woman who has recently dropped out of Dartmouth to return to her Oakland home. She has no real idea about the rest of her life but is soon working as a limo driver who can be depended upon to keep her mouth shut about her passengers and where she takes them. As a result, Mei becomes the go-to driver for a many of the area's sex workers. It is Mei's uncle who eventually comes up with a plan to have Mei go indie by driving the clients he chooses for her in her own vehicle, effectively cutting out the middleman and even more effectively protecting the privacy of her clients.

That's how Mei meets Henry, a handsome Chinese American burdened with a huge suitcase who wants to be driven across the country to New York. Henry is a strange one. He has enough money to stay in the most luxurious hotels along the route but he and Mei often stay in some of the rattiest hotel rooms imaginable. And Henry appears to be in no big hurry to get to New York. Instead, he peppers the trip with frequent rest stops during which he disappears to lug his big black suitcase out of the car in private over and over again.

Before long, Mei is wondering just what can be in the suitcase - especially after she begins to suspect that whatever is inside might be alive. And when she finally does learn the "truth," she stays more confused than ever about why Henry really wants to go to New York.

The plot of Off the Books is clever enough, and each of its main characters has more good moments than bad ones, but I found myself in a struggle to really care much what happened to any of them despite the danger that they often appear to be in. Mei and Henry never seemed real enough for me to feel empathy for them despite their plight.

I blame that partially on Frazier's prose style, one in which she jumps from present to past and back again in almost every chapter, all the while inserting whole sentences in Chinese without every making very clear what was being said between various characters. There are a lot of things to like about the book: the quirky characters met on the long road trip, the hook about what could possibly be in the humongous suitcase Henry continuously wrestles with, the good natured humorous jabs that Mei's uncle often takes at her, etc. But I could never get past that point in a novel where the reading stops feeling like a chore and becomes a treat to look forward to. I always notice when that "click" happe

Mei has dropped out of college and begun driving a limo to make ends meet, usually for sex workers. She tries to stay discreet and out of her customers’ business. Until her new client Henry let’s her into his secret and a casual road trip becomes anything but casual.

Alert to road trip trope fans! If you enjoy road trip books, this is the next one for you. This is an important read as it gets into a lot of little known important and real life events. I always enjoy a fiction that I learn something about the real world. The plot was interesting but its first person narration and the main character has a tendency to go into a tangent. She would start remembering the past and then jump right into the present. I lost my place a few times and would have appreciated more structure around this.

“Henry. A normal name. But he is not normal. None of this is normal.”

Off the Books comes out 8/30.

Funny, heartwarming, suspenseful, and politically informative, "Off the Books" is a unique road-trip novel that explores the complexity of being a Chinese-American woman. Frazier uses misdirection like a magician, constantly foreshadowing plot developments that always turn out to be something more original and satisfying than expected.

This book was so interesting. I thought Henry was eccentric and then learning what he did and how this story played out. Like I enjoyed it.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I couldn’t get into this book. It was hard for me to visualize and follow along. I wish there was a map that went along and marked the locations/stops. I think that would be so helpful for readers that aren’t familiar with the Midwest of the US. I also felt like the plot didn’t have enough action for me. It felt very dry. Other than the first twist/big reveal, the rest of the book felt slow and less significant. The tempo and movement of the story was too slow for me. It was very interesting culturally, and getting to read the character’s experiences and family dynamics. I’ve read other books that have dialogue in different languages, and I appreciate when the translation is put in parentheses. There were times when a translation wasn’t necessary because it was either repeated in English or because we weren’t meant to understand the conversation. However, I felt, at times, that I was missing key points or that I didn’t have a full knowledge of the situation. Something about this book didn’t click with me and wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Henry Holt & Company, for this road-trip and culture-packed ARC!

The book is about a road trip with Mei, a young female limo driver taking Henry and his big black bag cross country from San Francisco to NY. Along the way she discovers Henry's secret.

I see the novel as an attempt to bring certain issues to light from the PRC, namely the Ugyhurs in China and their persecution at home and even outside their country. It was an interesting way to present the situation to readers, unique in its presentation. The narrator is quite likeable and Henry becomes more understandable as time goes on.

I can't say how much this book will achieve its purpose, but I applaud the effort.

I am a bit conflicted about this book. In the one hand, I appreciated the discussion about Chinese state surveillance of the Uyghurs. On the other hand, I felt like that discussion was awkwardly juxtaposed against the main character and her family's backstory, in addition to the development of a bizarre romantic relationship and a bond with a child that felt contrived. The combination of substories read strangely all together; each on its own was already compelling. I did enjoy the ending, particularly the last section of the last chapter. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels disconnected from their family history or wants a story about finding purpose.

What starts as a driving adventure turns into something way more complicated with immigration history, family drama, and treatment of minorities in the US and in China all included. The main focus is reuniting a smuggled Uyghur child across the US with her father. Many challenges are faced, especially an unreliable "boss" traveling with the driver and child. The driver becomes attached to the two in her car and that complicates matters, but also makes them more interesting.

I did enjoy the grandfather character the most....good for a few laughs.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun, light read that's perfect for those who like mysteries and spunky characters. The plot was fairly simple, the character relationships were what really pulled this novel together for me.

I loved it. I knew I would the moment I seen it on Giveaways on Goodreads. The summary pulled me in as I love a good road trip. I didn’t win on Goodreads, but I did get the ARC from Net Galley and Henry Holt & Company.

This book was funny, inspiring, and educational. I don’t know much about China and the politics surrounding their laws and how they treat their people, so it was interesting to learn that through a book that I enjoyed that isn’t non-fiction (which is my least favorite genre 😅).

I appreciated the character development of Mei, but also Henry and getting to know her Laoye and Mama. Mei’s mom was hilarious! She might be my favorite character. Mei reflecting on her familial relationships while on the road trip made me reflect on my own relationship with my mom. That I need to get to know her as a person too and not just my mom now that I am older. We haven’t really had a chance to do that.

I’m also happy that the author gave me what I wanted at the end. At one point, I thought it wasn’t going to happen.

Thank you Henry Holt & Company for the opportunity to read this! One of my favorites this year so far.

Off the Books is an incredibly unique premise and I was instantly hooked. The main character Mei drops out of Dartmouth and has begun running a driving service "off the books." Her clients are not precisely advertising why they need her services and Mei knows better than to ask. That is until she is driving Henry and his giant black suitcase across country and he starts behaving... oddly.

This book was 100% not what I expected in a way that worked really well for me. I thought this book, premised as "driver takes on clients who happen to be sex workers" to involve shenanigans, but this was deeper than that. This book heavily involves discussion of the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur people, which I found extremely enlightening. Being published in the midst of a similar situation going on in another part of the world, this had me thinking how we as an American society decide what humanitarian issues are worth discussing and which can be ignored. Thank you to the author for giving me a slight wake up call on that one!

Thank you to Henry Holt and Company and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Biracial Chinese/American Mei, a 24-year-old private driver, .takes on a client, Henry, that brings her across the US, from San Francisco all the way to Upstate New York. Jumping back and forth between Mei's memories with her parents & maternal grandparents and the road trip, Off The Books took me on a very important educational journey that I didn't expect. If you love reading cross-genre novels & about intergenerational relationships, this is definitely for you!
Specifically loved:
- the familial relationships especially her & her grandfather
- Mei's growth throughout the novel
- The road trip format! really made me want to hit the road!

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt Co. for the eARC!

Měi works as a limo driver and takes "off the books" occupations to supplement her income. Driving a man named Henry for a single trip teaches her far more than she could have anticipated. 
Some trigger warnings for sure. This was the first I had heard about China's detention, killing, and sterilization of the Xinjiang Uyghur population. I was appalled. It This was an engaging way to learn about the violations of Uyghur human rights if you were not aware of them. A great introduction to what is a sorrowful, and worthy of learning more about time in history. One of the most complex and well-written main characters I've read in a long time was in this novel. Overall, this was absolutely fantastic.

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of this book in exchange for a review. This book intertwined several themes at once: the story of the Uyghurs, motherhood, losing a loved one, and romance. I also lived in Syracuse for years, so I especially loved all of the details about the region. At times this book could be a little cheesy and cringe, and the plot points a little deus ex machina, but overall I loved this book and would recommend it to others.

This book was definitely a sort of stream of consciousness rather than a book with a clear flashback/flash forward structure. I can see why some people might struggle with this style but it didn’t really bother me.
Some of critique of this book is mostly a personal distaste rather than a critique on the story itself so take it with a grain of salt. My jaw dropped when I learned what was in the suitcase but that was the extent of the excitement for me.
I love road trip books but this road trip was absolutely pointless. They literally get to their destination to turn right back around and go to the starting point when the entire trip could’ve been a phone call.
The most minor thing that bothered me a lot was that Henry absolutely will not stick around when things get hard. He proved that several times throughout the book. Hurling insults to make Mei feel small when he knew he was wrong was so telling. If you can’t treat people well during times of stress, you have work to do.
The last thing and the part that’s fully just my personal preference is that I felt like Mei was playing house and romanticizing having a child based on her experience with one precocious kid and the fact that her friend told her that she won’t know love until she’s a mother. I have so many problems with that mentality that I don’t have enough space or bandwidth to discuss here but it felt like Mei was trying to convince herself that motherhood was for her just to prove her friend wrong.

This book was a little difficult for me to get through. I learned from the story, as I wanted to research the Uyghur community and it’s tribulations. The story line was intriguing so I finished because I wanted the satisfaction of finding out what happened. I enjoyed the grandfather’s character the most. He is wise, caring, and funny.
The story begins with Mei, who drives a stranger with an odd suitcase from San Francisco to Syracuse. She is paid under the table so she has a policy of don’t ask, don’t tell. Her inquisitiveness gets the better of her and she discovers the contents of the suitcase,which, in turn, unravels a mystery. She, also, develops a trust and relationship with the handsome stranger she is transporting.
I did not enjoy this as much as an thought I would. I couldn’t quite identify or connect with the characters. It was a strange dynamic and I was not completely satisfied with their development. I often had a difficult time following the train of thought, Mei had. Her thoughts wandered too much and I didn’t always feel it was relevant when I was pulled back to the present situation.
#NetGalley
#offthebooks

This was a terrific and very enjoyable book! I would recommend to others. I was engaged and interested the whole time.