This was a very entertaining book. I like Yee's writing style and the idea of this story. Everything flowed well, and I had a hard time putting this down. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

A man and a woman walk into a bar. He's cheating. She has cancer. Only one will tell the other the truth.

"I noticed our mess with the eyes of a stranger, of someone coming into our home for the first time. I looked at our home the way she might have seen it."

In devastatingly vivid prose, we follow the narrator through what it means to move forward - the days when grief threatens to overtake you, the glimpses of future serenity, the aches we invent for ourselves and the stings when they turn out to be true. Yee will hold your emotions in the palm of her hand, carefully parsing out threads of feelings you didn't know you had. She never tells you how to react, but masterfully wields her scenes in a way that can't help but wrench at your heart. It's a feat of storytelling that few can accomplish through such a fragmented structure.

This quietly snuck into being one of my favorite reads this year.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the e-ARC.

The unnamed narrator’s voice is darkly humorous and fiercely honest, drawing readers into her world of betrayal, illness, and motherhood. Naming her tumor Maggie—the same name as her husband’s mistress—is both a cheeky coping mechanism and a poignant metaphor for the invasive forces disrupting her life. The novel’s structure, which unfolds in fragments, mirrors the disjointed nature of her experience, capturing moments of despair, anger, and quiet triumph in vivid detail.

The novel’s exploration of identity and culture adds a layer of richness. By weaving Chinese folklore into her children’s bedtime stories, the narrator not only preserves her heritage but also finds strength and solace in the myths that shaped her own upbringing. These moments of cultural reclamation are some of the most powerful in the novel, offering a glimpse of how the narrator channels her pain into something meaningful and enduring.

Overall, this novel is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, showing how there is room for humor amidst growth, even in the face of betrayal and illness. It’s a story of grief and healing, told with honesty, creativity, and an unbeatable sense of self—a must-read for anyone who loves stories that balance heartbreak with hope.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the vibe of this one. Funny, rude, sad, cringy and keenly observed. It's a short read but satisfying.

really 3 stars, rounded up b/c debut. Not quite sure what i expected--the back of the book copy is pretty much exactly the book itself. A droll, extremely avoidant asian woman gets divorced from her mid white cheating husband, is diagnosed with cancer, and names her tumor after his husband's new white gf. also, she met her husband at a bar like, 3 days after her mom died (also of breast cancer).

I expected there to be more chatting-with-tumor, unhingedness, and plot, but the book is as avoidant as its protagonist. it consists mostly of daily musings about aloneness, "beginnings", and "endings," 10% basic facts about trees, 10% extremely supportive best friend with whom the protagonist never has conflict, 15% dreams (i really don't care for extended dream sequences in fiction...), 25% tame muted jokes, and 25% various chinese myths she tells to her children as bedtime stories. the weike wang comparison is extremely apt. not a bad book, but it didn't hold my interest.