This one was interesting but caught me off guard a little bit.

The Milani family, a family of influencers is about to land their own reality TV show and then Covid hit. The idea behind the family had Kardashian vibes. I don't know if I missed it somewhere in the synopsis, but I wasn't expecting a lot of this book to take place during covid, and it didn't entirely sit right with me. I would have liked to have known that going in.

Overall, the family members were entertaining in a "love to hate" kind of way. They were so dramatic and over the top, but that was kind of the point of it.

There are some trigger warnings and some questionable issues that felt a little glorified.

Overall, there were some funny parts, and I thought it was decent, but not entirely for me.

AHHHHHHHHH! I absolutely devoured this one with such delight. Calling all reality tv fans of all shapes and backgrounds, whether you’re a Real Housewives undying supporter or would lay your life down for Vanderpump Rules, and let’s not forget The Kardashians, Tehrangeles brings on a world of satire that is so messily ridiculous and chaotic that you’ll be screaming for more. I am so thankful towards PRH Audio, Pantheon Books, and Netgalley for the #gifted audiobook and digital access before this gem hits shelves on June 11, 2024. Yall, get ready. This one is fun.

Four sisters: Violet – the foodie model; Roxanna – the chaotic, chronically cancelled influencer; Mina – the online activist and overachiever; and Haylee – the right wing, problematic conspiracy theorist. Let those descriptors set the scene, for this mix of Little Women meets The Shahs of Sunset.

These four spoiled Iranian heiresses are living off the hardworking spoils of their entrepreneur father, raking in the royalties of his endeavors and pursuing their very own reality TV show. Each Milani daughter brings a new personality of dysfunction to the pot, reacting to life events such as COVID-19 and cancel culture with their own ebb and flow.

I couldn’t get enough of the drama and chaos with this saga, yearning for each confessional update from the sisters as they navigated their lives through lockdown, quarantining, and throwing parties that went against CDC guidelines and recommendations.

MEET THE MILANIS. FAST-FOOD HEIRESSES AND SOON TO BE TV STARS!

4 young women and their Iranian parents Ali and Homa. Fleeing his home during the Revolution, Ali meets fellow Iranian refugee Homa and. then made his money selling a twist on hot pockets and pizza. Their children have all the money in the world at their finger tips and they suffer for it. There is the eldest Violet, a model with an out of control sweet tooth, Roxanna, an influencer hiding a great secret from her friends and fans, Mina who is ill and wan and hides in her room and the youngest Haylee - a health influencer and potential conspiracy theorist.

When offered the opportunity to create a reality tv special about their lives, the family jumps without looking. Little do they know, they all have secrets from each other and their is pandemic looming at their door. Read the bingeable story of your next favorite reality tv family - the Milanis! The only problem with this book is it ends! #knopf #Panthon #vintage #tehrangeles #porochistakhakpor #tehran #iranianamerican #realitytvroyalty #watchoutkardashians

Usually, I love a good satire, subtly poking fun at society and pointing out how ridiculous we humans can be, but I was not ready for the Persian Kardashian's and their exploits as they tried to become reality show famous. I also think this book needs to have a bit of a flag on it warning readers that a significant portion of the book takes place during the covid-19 lockdown. I was not prepared, and the actions of several of the characters made me beyond uncomfortable.

What I liked--I am a big fan of the book Little Women, and there were distinct parallels between the characters in both books. I felt like the characters were actually quite realistic, sadly, and behaved much like we have seen other reality show celebrities act. Like many financially well-off people, the idea that their wealth made them somehow beyond reproach seems to be prevalent in some circles.

I did not appreciate the glorification of drug use and bulimia, realistic though it might be. I also felt like the characters were not developed as more than caricatures, and even the characters that I might have had empathy for had few redeeming qualities.

If you are a fan of reality shows (like The Kardashians or The Osbournes), you may enjoy this book. Thank you to Netgalley and Pantheon Books for the digital ARC of Tehrangeles by Porochista Khakpour. The opinions in this review are my own.

What a bummer. The premise and cover are so great... but this didn't work for me at all.

This family was insufferable. None of the relationships were very inspiring or genuinely healthy and there were so many opportunities for this with two parents and four daughters!

So much of this made me uncomfortable- from the anti-Persian behaviors of... Persian characters to a literal starter's guide to disordered eating. And the description does not inform you of this, but this is a covid book in a very major way, with a "fun" review of all the conspiracy theories that were circulating in 2020. No thank you.

A hilarious, biting satire about reality TV culture, the Irani-American community of Los Angeles, wealth, Covid.

Khakpour is the real deal.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-galley!

I always forget how much I don’t enjoy satire in books. Movies and TV, love it. Books, I find it grating. So, I thought this satire about an Iranian family with four young daughters preparing for their reality TV debut would be fun, but I mostly found it annoying.

There were some parts I found funny and I’m sure many people who do enjoy satirical books will love it, it just wasn’t for me.

Welcome to the world of reality TV, Tehrangeles style! The campy cover drew me in, and the writing style matched it. Even more camp than the Real Housewives, watch out Kardashians, the fun/wit/meta-level reality TV show writing is something else. This was scarily enjoyable. Real reality TV VIBE. Thanks for the ARC!

I really liked the cover for Tehrangeles, it’s what drew me to read this book. The story is about the Milanis, who are about to film a reality television show. Then the pandemic hits. A fun chaotic story with a high functioning dysfunctional family.

Okay, first thing to get out of the way for any potential readers: major trigger warning for any kind of sensitivity to the subject of disordered eating. There's a lot of it, it's throughout the book, it's detailed, and it covers pretty much every kind of disordered eating.
Moving on! This was extremely fun and readable, and it was weird to realize at the end of the book that almost nothing actually happened in it because it was exploding with personality. I have a soft spot for books that examine family dynamics, and I especially like it when most or all of the kids in the family are daughters. I like the way these books (and this book in particular) set each character up as a different trope and then work their way into the cracks of that facade, chipping out details to reveal a character that is both trope and full-fledged person. In Tehrangeles, this process is a little more cartoonish than in the typical family drama, and it is both refreshing and enjoyable.
In the acknowledgments, the author mentions both Little Women and Crazy Rich Asians as inspiration, and I think ultimately Tehrangeles does read as a great mix of those two.

The cover ultimately attracted me to this book and I thought I had to read it. The book was told in multiple POVs which is a concept that I really enjoy, but I really struggled to get connected with the characters. All in all, I wouldn’t say that I didn’t enjoy it, I did, but this is ones of those books that after I was done, it really hard to remember what this book was about a week after I finished it.

I wanted to read this book the minute I saw the cover and title, and I truly appreciate the opportunity to have done so. I had absolutely no doubts I'd enjoy this tale about a wealthy family whose four teen daughters are determined to achieve famous-for-being-famous status with their own television show. Nothing will hold these sisters back back - and that includes a super=spreader party during the Corona virus pandemic. There are lots of pop culture references, body-shaming, concern about being immigrants (say Persian not Iranian), an LGBTQ sister who discovers and finds happiness with her real self, and plenty of shallow behavior that I thought would be more entertaining. I can't put my finger on why this book wasn't at least a strong 4-star read for me, but it was not. I took a long time to read TEHRANGELES; I'd set aside my e-reader for days at a time, and come back to it. Always my hope was that the family dynamics and sibling ribalry would grab my interest. There are occasional serious chapters: Father's flashbacks about life in Iran and an interesting essay about the USA's mid-20th-century polio epidemic, the life-saving vaccine, and the closely relaed development of the famous "CandyLand" board game.
I am curious to read the reviews of other readers. 3.5 stars from me. Thank you, Pantheon and NetGalley,

Funny yet tragic, the family dynamics are what make this book stand out. I was utterly captivated and by the end of the book, felt I had been on a journey.

Tehrangeles is told in multiple voices, and in some chapters has omniscient narration. Most (all?) of the narrators are members of the Milani family, Iranian-Americans living in Los Angeles, wealthy due to a frozen food sensation created by dad Al (Ali). Mom Homa is quiet, aloof, but somehow also all in on the family's 24-carat lifestyle. The daughters are Violet, a 20-year-old model; Roxanna-Vanna, a 17 or 18-year old influencer; Mina a maybe 15 or 16-year-old closeted she-doesn't-know-what-yet-but-definitely-queer, and Haylee is 14 and a gym rat/health nut.

We meet the Milanis in late 2019 as they're planning a new reality show with producers. The worldwide shut down shuts down production, as well, and the family are left to their own neuroses. Violet takes up baking, Haylee takes up QAnon, Mina goes deep on K-pop, and Roxanna...last about two months before she decides they need to throw a party.

At one point I wondered if the four-daughters were Little Women-ish, but I didn't think the personalities gibed. But somewhere near the end, one of the sisters references the Alcott book, and we learn from author Khakpour that there was a connection--Tehrangeles started as a sort of hate write of Little Women. That makes me like it a little more, but ultimately, I found the narration changes frustrating and the characters unsympathetic. I guess it's it'a hate-write, the characters are meant to be annoying, but I think the book would have benefited from less authorial distaste.

Was I skeptical about a book about influencers about to land a reality show? Of course! Was I pleasantly surprised? You bet!
In Tehrangeles we meet the Milani family, multimillionaires from a microwave snack empire, on the cusp of launching a reality TV show all about their family. Of course there are secrets being kept that threaten to surface, especially with cameras about to roll.
But, the pandemic happens, and here is what I loved about Porochista Khakpours book. It cleverly puts a magnifying glass on the state of the world, and the state of this country during that time, and captures it brilliantly. Between the 4 Milani daughters and the parents, Khakpour was able to showcase the different, shall we say, personality types that seemed to have emerged during quarantine in this country. Complete with super spreader events.
Don't let the reality TV part sway you, give this one a read for a portrait of America, of family belonging and most importantly, identity and what that means for this Iranian-American family, and the rest of us. I laughed as much as my heart broke for these kids. Don't let me forget...there's a cat with a wild part of the story too!

Thank you Netgalley for the e-arc of this novel. This was ultimately a case of “oooh I love that cover, I need that” however it wasn’t as mesmerizing as I hoped. Dnf at 15%

I wanted to love Tehrangeles - a soap opera style sister drama on the cusp of the pandemic - but the book became more claustrophobic than insightful. Four sisters, aged 14 through 19, each with wildly different personalities, are preparing to star in a reality TV show. Meant to circle on their various quirks, the show is continually delayed. Fearing her spotlight opportunity slipping away, the second oldest, Roxanna, throws herself a massive birthday party in an attempt to draw drama and launch the family on TV.

A few things didn’t work for me; first, while each sister falls into a trope, there’s very little drama between the siblings, and most interactions seemed to happen over text despite being only a few doors down. Second, for being part of ‘Tehrangeles’, there’s shockingly few Persians present beyond the family. This opens up confusion on how Roxanna could have convinced people that she was Italian, if she was part of this community.

While it seemed like the book was going for a ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ vibe, I didn’t feel the implied luxury. While the house was huge, and the on-hand staff speaks to opulence, other than the party (which felt kind of mythical) it felt like the daughters were standard run of the mill spoiled.

Finally, while the book takes place over only a couple of months, there wasn’t as much character development as I wanted. Haylee’s dive into the alt-right felt like the closest thing to satire, but all other sister’s development felt disappointingly static.

It’s the beginning of the global pandemic, and the Milani’s are more concerned with their upcoming reality series. The family consists of four daughters deep into the world of social media, a father in charge of a microwaveable snack empire, and his wife, who holds the family together.

As each family member realizes their long-held secrets are about to be brought out into the open on their national debut, they all try to figure out ways to deal with their fears about what might happen once the cameras start rolling.

This was a juicy story about socialites and social media. Everything about this novel was an exquisite peek into the spoiled world of four young women and their parents. Even though I would have loved more of a back story on the family, this felt like what I would think a fast Hollywood “rise-to-stardom” moment would feel like. Rushed, anxiety-ridden, and slightly messy.

Overall, it is a fun and surprisingly quick read.
The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was pleasantly surprised by how accurate and funny/sad Porochista Khakpour’s book is. Tehrangles is a multi-generational immigrant story. When Al Milani comes to America from Iran with little money in his pocket, he never dreamed of becoming super rich and famous. Al hits it big, marries an unassuming fellow Iranian because he was too intimidated by the women who were already Americanized and starts a family. He has all girls. The action really takes place during the pandemic while under their lavish roof. The family and the girls, plus a cat and a housekeeping couple, make up the day to day backbone outrageous story. Even though the pandemic is raging, their daily life is so different that it almost becomes television fodder.

Why read this book. If you are curious about the LA Iranian scene it is spot on. If you want to see how families of get along and don’t get along read it. If you want to see that people who you think can never change do, read it. Basically, it is a fun read and well researched.

I would not recommend this book. I didn’t believe the family relationships (the sibling dynamics, the child/parent dynamic, the parents’ relationship) and did not care for any of the characters. I also did not care for the pandemic storyline, which was not mentioned in the description of the book. Had I known, I would have been less likely to pick it up in the first place.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.