This book was a wonderful read. I love Linh and her need to protect her family. Loneliness is a terrible feeling, and reading this book for some reason made me find solace in it. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone looking for a calming, funny, chilled read

I always enjoy reading books that share insights into other cultures and while I did appreciate it in this story, I have to say that the main character was very odd to me. I kept thinking "who does that?" I appreciated that Linh Ly's mother was growing as her life changed and I felt bad that Long had such difficulties. Thanks #NetGalley#Alcove Press

Linh Ly is Doing Just Fine was a fun ride of a novel. I liked the character exploration and the writing was propulsive. I would read more from this author.

In the acknowledgments of this book, author Thao Votang says that she wrote it during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. When she submitted it, the world has just witnessed another shooting. “In the face of a world so accepting of avoidable death, I write because I want to live,” she says.

I thought this was so interesting because her book captures this feeling so many of us had during the pandemic extremely well - even though there is no mention of COVID here - this feeling of simply drifting through time, of being lonely and alone, of isolation, uncertainty and anxiety.

Linh Ly, our FMC, is - contrary to the title of the book - not fine at all. A Vietnamese-American, Linh suffered through a difficult childhood with an alcoholic father and an often absent mother who had to work two jobs to keep them afloat; this has clearly left a mark that has accompanied Linh into adulthood and led her to use curious coping mechanisms in her everyday life. She also experiences a shooting at her workplace, which only adds to her unease and unresolved trauma.

Linh’s calm detachment and bizarre decision-making (stalking both her parents, for instance) but also her deadpan humor steadily continue throughout the novel; and I grew so accustomed to Linh’s (unreliable) narration, her quirks, her social awkwardness, her inner monologue, her halfhearted efforts to turn life around that I felt we had developed a fragile, reluctant friendship. Some reviewers said that the ending of the book was too abrupt. But I thought that it was exactly how it should be. And that Linh could go into the new year maybe not doing just fine, but definitely feeling much better than before.

Excellent book — a little romance, a little mystery, a lot of entertainment. Great for fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine or Everyone Here Will Die Someday.

I was unable to finish this title before it expired from my shelves but what I did read I enjoyed! The writing style was captivating and it was a good start!

Thank you to the author, Alcove Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My apologies for the delay in posting this review, I read this a while ago, but am well behind with my reviews and trying to catch up!

This is one of the slew of recent books about young (-ish) women that are struggling in their personal life, but feel obliged to put on a good front and tell the world how wonderful their life is. The female protagonist in this book soon gives up that pretense and we follow her misadventures as she becomes increasingly obsessed with her mother's first steps back into the dating pool after a divorce, spying on her and the men she dates. I was hoping for more insight into how the title character's Vietnamese background shaped her life and relationships, but was left overall with a dissatisfying portrait of a messy, depressed young woman.

A melancholy book that follows a rather lost woman whose world threatens to get smaller and smaller. I appreciated the wry commentary on the everyday racism of American life, but it was a bit "disaster millennial" / "messy young woman" for me in the end.

I love a "coming of age" novel about a messy woman. This one focusses on Linh, a 27 year old Vietnamese American woman who is not doing just fine. It's set in Texas, but I kept getting Sydney vibes, not sure why. The power and depth of this book snuck up on me. I was reading along, thinking that it was a good book and then I was fully immersed and shouting at Linh for making bad decisions! Anyway, somewhere along Linh's messy, painful but somewhat amusing trajectory this book got into my feelings. It addresses some very big issues - social isolation, growing up, grief, vulnerability, racism, class / wealth divides. Mainly though, it's a story of a young woman trying to exist in a complicated world. The ending is my idea of perfect.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the e-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

No no she's not doing just fine. Linh's parents finally divorced after a horrible marriage due to her father's alcoholism and anger and her mother is the one who is doing fine. She has a new house and she's starting to date a coworker but Linh doesn't think her mom can handle it so she spies on them. Her own life is very small, with a job she doesn't like, a cat, one friend she sees every other week, and tennis in the mornings. A shooting at the university sends her to work from home. Even as that narrows, she does expand her world a bit thanks to the women she plays tennis with, especially after she's paired against the man her mother is dating at a team event. This is very much about her relationship with her mother, her mental health, feeling different all the time, and trying to find yourself. She's a relatable, likable character. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Good storytelling made it a good read.

My three words for this novel are: Unsettling, wry, and aching - Linh Ly pushed me into an emotional limbo & then left me behind. Thanks so much to the lovely author Thao Votang for the ARC!

Thanks NetGalley Alcove Press and Tantor Audio for the advanced reader copies! Upon discovering this upcoming release it became one of my most anticipated reads and I liked it alright.

Linh is a single woman in her late-twenties who struggles with relationships and where she wants to be in life, but struggles even more with acknowledging this. Instead of working on herself she becomes obsessed with her mother’s dating life, fuels her competitiveness at the tennis club, then is wrapped up in the elite’s social circle, and in the process becomes a bit unhinged.

I will say, I wasn’t a fan of Chandler. He claimed he wanted to get to know Linh but yet every time they saw each other (usually the night before he’d leave town) he always made a move that led to sex. And then it felt like he was buying her off by letting her use his sports car and then he gives her his credit card? Honestly. He just felt really shallow to me and Linh deserved better.

Content and trigger warnings include divorce and complicated family relationships, an active school shooter situation (violence occurs off page), minimal profanity, some sexual content (mostly vague but a quick, slightly detailed scene end of chapter 12), racial discrimination, stalking (more humorous than serious), and death of a parent.

I give it 3 out of 5. I wanted Linh to wake up, grow and let go, and she eventually does. It would’ve been nice if there was a lil more talk of how her Vietnamese background shaped who she is and her relationship with her mom. But overall I enjoyed following along with her quirky escapades and train of thoughts as there’s both humor and depth. It is a much better “finding oneself” sort of story than a lot of the ones aimed towards coming of age/young adult out there (think Maame & Adelaide, neither of which I liked; I felt it was more in line with Ghosts, at least for me, a single early-30s-something). I’d be surprised if this one doesn’t take off.

Linh Ly is NOT doing fine! Linh Ly is suffering from depression, PTSD, and probably a few other things. These have manifested in a very isolated and strictly ordered life. When her mom starts dating, this sends Linh down a rabbit hole of sleuthing and an stalking (let's be honest here). Nothing is healthy about any of the relationships Linh has and the book awkwardly follows her with writing that almost feels as skittish as Linh herself is. I am not sure whether I was rooting for Linh or for the people around her that cared about her! Either way, I was invested.

I will start off by saying I think this book offered deeper meaning and concepts that I didn't fully grasp. Although there were aspects that I could relate to, the majority of the book I was observing from afar. Linh's parents are divorced and she has now taken on to spying on her Mother as she goes on dates. Linh is also a bit of introvert and does not enjoy social settings except her Tennis club.

There is a lot of scenes in this book that offer clues that what I should have grasped but maybe slipped through me. If you had previously read, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, that very much reminds me of this book. It didn't feel like there were many highs or lows, and it was a look into someone's else's life as it happened. There were more down moments in this book that did make you thoughtful that not everyone's life is perfect or glamorized all the time. And even if people had the house, the job, or the friends, does it necessarily mean they are happy or unhappy.

Again, a lot to unpack, and maybe needs a re-read from me.

I can totally see how the author started writing during Covid bc this book is the definition of languishing, but for me in all the right ways. I really enjoyed the deadpan humor (I cracked up when the MC heard someone passed away and asked “did you kill her?” And then that convo was met with awkward silence ahahah).

The MC is also recovering from gun violence (that seriously happens too often in the U.S. at schools), and not really having coping mechanisms for the violence and f up world. So she languishes and languishes, passing thru the world and not really committing to relationships. Somehow it didn’t bother me tho bc I was just so damn interested in what would happen next!

As she tries to figure out her mom dating and her role in their relationship, there’s a beautiful full circle with them.

Idk if everyone will like this one bc her inaction could be frustrating but I was captivated!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

Whelp. I had plans today. Thought to myself, just read a chapter or two. Read to the entire thing in a day. Nothing got done that I had planned and I'm okay with that. This book was everything I needed at the moment. It was so well written and honestly Linh could be all of us. I particularly relate to her internet stalking. However my favorite quote is "friends come with obligations". God this book was so good.

I’m not 100% sure of my thoughts on this one. I did find it easy to read and move through, but also the story didn’t seem to really go anywhere. There wasn’t necessarily a plot, more of just uncomfortable situations that our main character found herself in and made it through. Linh herself was a very difficult character. There were times I absolutely related to her and her social anxiety/awkwardness and other times I just thought “Girl, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I did feel like the book touched on some really important subjects like gun violence, micro aggressions and alcoholism, but it didn’t really dive in as deep as I wanted it to with them. The ending at first really baffled me because it just seemed like such an abrupt way to the story to be over, but I thought about it and it kind of fit the story. Life is weird, things happen and it will eventually be just fine. This is absolutely a character driven novel so anyone looking for a quick paced plot will be disappointed. However, like I said, it was easy to read and I did get some things out of it so I’m happy I read it overall.
Mini spoiler: nothing bad happens to the cat!
CW: school shooting, racism, alcoholism, verbal abuse, car accident, divorce

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

This book was so funny and so heartbreaking at the same time. At points I was laughing out loud at one page and choking back tears the very next page, which I thought made this book so incredible to read. Linh was a character I found myself needing to root for even when she continued to make decisions that I didn't agree with. Watching her struggle through her career and her friend moving away and her familial relationship and love life was so interesting because on one hand, I could not be more different from her, but on the other hand, her problems were so human that I couldn't help but relate to her and feel like I was going through the same things (even though I'm not).

I also loved that the ending was less than satisfying but satisfying at the same time - I won't go into more detail there to avoid spoilers, but I feel like it reflected the entire thesis of the book and the themes. Overall, this book was a bit heavier than I was expexting when I picked it up, but I loved every second of it.

DNF - after starting this book, I couldn’t get into Linh’s world view. I also saw some themes and events in the book that weren’t for me at this time. I thought the premise sounded very sweet and unique, but I wasn’t able to continue reading.

"Linh Ly is Doing Just Fine" is a melancholy page-turner. Fast-paced. Readers quickly meet Linh Ly. She is 27, single, living with her cat in a an apartment in the metroplex of Texas. After the divorce of her mother and father, Linh quickly becomes wrapped-up in her mother's dating life-- to the point of following her on dates. Linh traverses life and its meaning in Texas while dealing with the trauma of her estranged father.


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While this book was a page-tuner in drama, I thought this story lacked direction. I didn't believe Linh's motives throughout the story and I thought the ending was tied together because it was an "ending"; something had to happen. Unfortunately this is a title I would not recommend but I would dog-ear in my list of 'melancholy female reads'.

Thank you NetGalley, the author Thao Votang, and published Alcove Press for providing this ARC to readers.