I honestly had to go back and check the blurb because this book was not at all what I was expecting. With comparisons to both the beautiful, gut-wrenching familial reflection of Crying in H Mart and the incredible food writing of Butter, I was expecting something entirely different to what I got.

The focus is on the author and her romantic life. Primarily, we accompany her off the back of a breakdown of a 13-year relationship for which, (I think?), she's estranged from her parents. It's nebulous and never explored, remaining a huge elephant in the room for the length of the book. Instead, we spend a lot of time in the author's head with her insecurities as she navigates a new relationship. The choice to not name the love interests added further distance as a reader. Literally everyone else has a name? Even friends that are mentioned once in passing.

The parents felt like side characters and I was so disappointed at how little we got to know them. There isn't a lot of commentary of exploration of the lack of verbal affection (plus, we've got this hinted-at estrangement that likely provides some context for the supposed 'distance' between the author and her parents). I felt like we were missing critical information that would have helped contextualize a lot of the tension there. Instead, they all just pretended nothing happened and stay in this non-communicative limbo?

With that, the book suffers from a maddeningly distracted attention span. As if it doesn't know what it wanted to focus on and just sorta drifts instead. It felt navel-gazey at many points, especially the stream of consciousness style and random asides that didn't add anything meaningful. The author spends an excessive amount of time quoting authors, films, and books. It gave such a claustrophobic, insular feel. Almost like instead of experiencing human life, she'd only read about it, and was parasocially invested in these authors.

I've read a lot of strong food-themed books lately that have made my mouth water and transported me to the meals. Sadly, I didn't get that same experience with this. Sure, we get loads of lists of food and meals, but they didn't stir anything in me from a sensory perspective.

I liked the pictures of the lorikeet and the moving boxes as well as Yeye's art. I wish there had been more pictures! There were some beautiful turns of phrase sprinkled throughout the book too, hints at the author's capability. The prologue was one of the best intros I've ever read. This frustrated me more and I wish the author had just written what she'd wanted rather than trying to write a story she was clearly hesitant to tell.

In summary, it's hard to write a convincing memoir when the author is reticent to be open with readers. The detached style and huge plot/context holes meant I couldn't connect with the story or the characters. Ultimately, I went into this book excited to explore themes of familial reconnection (and maybe complexity) through food but was disappointed by the execution and the lack of emotional commitment.

Perhaps it's worth exploring the book's unique selling points and adjusting some of the expectations (and book comparisons) prior to release. I'm sure there's a readership for stories about finding your partner, but I felt really misled by the blurb.

Hi, I just published my review on Goodreads! Thanks for Candice Chung and Elliot & Thompson for allowing my request to read this beautiful book. Hence I show you the link of my review instead. Once again thank you so much.