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Pick a Colour: A Novel
From Giller Prize and O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa comes a revelatory novel about loneliness, love, labour, and class. An intimate and sharply written book following a nail salon owner as she toils away for the privileged clients who don't even know her true name.
Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound complexity. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complex power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange.
As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.
Told over a single day, with razor-sharp precision and wit, Pick a Colour confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms.
Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound complexity. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complex power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange.
As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.
Told over a single day, with razor-sharp precision and wit, Pick a Colour confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms.
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First published September 30, 2025
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About the author
Souvankham Thammavongsa
16 books560 followersSouvankham Thammavongsa is the author of four poetry books, and the short story collection HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE, won the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize and and was New York Times Editors' Choice, out now with McClelland & Stewart (Canada), Little, Brown (U.S.), and Bloomsbury (U.K.). Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Granta, NOON, Journey Prize Stories 2016, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, and O. Henry Prize Stories 2019. She was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, and was raised and educated in Toronto where she now lives.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 880 reviews
January 8, 2026
this is the inverse of my new favorite trend (authors writing a great novel and then a sophomore short story collection).
i loved the characters in this book and their dialogue and the insights into the setting of a nail salon...
but there were so many random unexplored details that bogged down what otherwise would have been a short and impactful book.
so much about boxing and a missing finger only for this to somewhat abruptly end!
bottom line: too much / not enough.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
i loved the characters in this book and their dialogue and the insights into the setting of a nail salon...
but there were so many random unexplored details that bogged down what otherwise would have been a short and impactful book.
so much about boxing and a missing finger only for this to somewhat abruptly end!
bottom line: too much / not enough.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
October 3, 2025
From the cover, to the subject matter, to the Southeast Asian rep, I knew this would hit. Even though I'm Vietnamese American and Souvankham is Laotian Canadian, there is something so deeply intrinsic in our shared stories.
This isn't a memoir. And it doesn't have to be. But the familiarity of nail salons, racism, and unhappiness really grated me. And spoke to me. This is a bit of a short read, and yet, it packs a large punch. I keep meaning to read HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE, and now I'll move it up the tbr.
📖 Thank you to Goodreads and Little, Brown and Company
This isn't a memoir. And it doesn't have to be. But the familiarity of nail salons, racism, and unhappiness really grated me. And spoke to me. This is a bit of a short read, and yet, it packs a large punch. I keep meaning to read HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE, and now I'll move it up the tbr.
📖 Thank you to Goodreads and Little, Brown and Company
August 22, 2025
A poignant and insightful character study, and a gentle exploration of the immigrant experience. Full of warmth, humour, and perceptive observations of human behaviour and identity, while also exploring isolation and otherness.
Ning has several roles: she is boss and mentor in her small nail bar, she is an ex-boxer, she is an immigrant, she is a friend, she is part of a community, and she is alone. These roles overlap and interact as the story is told over the period of a single day in her nail bar.
It is quiet and slow-paced, but powerful and reflective.
There is a theme of segregation and separation. Ning requires that all of the women working in the nail bar wear black, have their hair cut in the same style, and have “Susan” on their name badges. So they become invisible and interchangeable to their customers. And while they speak English to their customers, they talk between themselves in their own language - often in front of, and about, those same customers. They are all seasoned observers of people’s wants and needs, as a variety of people come and go throughout the day. But they stand apart from them.
And Ning separates herself from the women working for her in the nail bar. She is an ex-boxer and it’s unclear why she left boxing, but her ex-coach has left a powerful legacy on how she relates to other people - showing no vulnerability that could be taken advantage of. Even so, the relationships amongst the women are supportive and have moments of tenderness. And while Ning stands alone, she also craves a closeness that she won’t allow herself, and denies that she needs.
Is the whole book a a metaphor for the immigrant experience? With the “Susans”, there is sense of segregation, but with a common bond; with Ning, her prior life as a boxer leaves her with a cultural legacy that has no context in the world she now inhabits.
Or perhaps it’s just a story about a group of women who work in a nail bar.
Thank you #NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the free review copy of #PickaColour without obligation. All opinions are my own.
This review also on TikTok
Ning has several roles: she is boss and mentor in her small nail bar, she is an ex-boxer, she is an immigrant, she is a friend, she is part of a community, and she is alone. These roles overlap and interact as the story is told over the period of a single day in her nail bar.
It is quiet and slow-paced, but powerful and reflective.
There is a theme of segregation and separation. Ning requires that all of the women working in the nail bar wear black, have their hair cut in the same style, and have “Susan” on their name badges. So they become invisible and interchangeable to their customers. And while they speak English to their customers, they talk between themselves in their own language - often in front of, and about, those same customers. They are all seasoned observers of people’s wants and needs, as a variety of people come and go throughout the day. But they stand apart from them.
And Ning separates herself from the women working for her in the nail bar. She is an ex-boxer and it’s unclear why she left boxing, but her ex-coach has left a powerful legacy on how she relates to other people - showing no vulnerability that could be taken advantage of. Even so, the relationships amongst the women are supportive and have moments of tenderness. And while Ning stands alone, she also craves a closeness that she won’t allow herself, and denies that she needs.
Is the whole book a a metaphor for the immigrant experience? With the “Susans”, there is sense of segregation, but with a common bond; with Ning, her prior life as a boxer leaves her with a cultural legacy that has no context in the world she now inhabits.
Or perhaps it’s just a story about a group of women who work in a nail bar.
Thank you #NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the free review copy of #PickaColour without obligation. All opinions are my own.
This review also on TikTok
October 11, 2025
Provably 2.5
I mean, the book was fine, but it never really landed for me. Ning is clearly meant to be a complex character — a former boxer turned nail stylist — but I never quite understood her. The toughness we’re told she once had doesn’t line up with how submissive and uncertain she is with Rachel, and the disconnect made it hard to believe her or root for her.
The story felt more like a sketch than a full portrait: I could see what Thammavongsa was trying to do — a study of identity, power, and transformation — but Ning never came alive as a real person. And the ending seemed designed as a full-circle moment, but since I’d never felt truly connected to Ning, it didn’t land emotionally. Beautifully written in parts, but overall it just fell flat for me.
I mean, the book was fine, but it never really landed for me. Ning is clearly meant to be a complex character — a former boxer turned nail stylist — but I never quite understood her. The toughness we’re told she once had doesn’t line up with how submissive and uncertain she is with Rachel, and the disconnect made it hard to believe her or root for her.
The story felt more like a sketch than a full portrait: I could see what Thammavongsa was trying to do — a study of identity, power, and transformation — but Ning never came alive as a real person. And the ending seemed designed as a full-circle moment, but since I’d never felt truly connected to Ning, it didn’t land emotionally. Beautifully written in parts, but overall it just fell flat for me.
December 1, 2025
This surprisingly lovely book takes place in a nail salon where all the employees are named Susan, not because of any deep philosophical symbolism but because it is easier for clients who cannot be bothered to learn names. The narrator, a former boxer with nine fingers and a fortified sense of control, runs the salon like a low-budget kingdom of vanity. Every day she and her interchangeable staff perform tiny surgeries of self-esteem: filing, plucking, waxing, and pretending to care.
The shop, called "Susan's," is a miniature stage for power and humiliation. Clients sit above while the Susans crouch below, which might suggest servitude until you realize who is really in charge.
The narrator reads faces the way a con artist reads wallets. She knows who is cheating, who is lonely, and who is on the verge of crying into the paraffin wax. She is also perfectly aware that she is invisible outside this pink, chemical-scented world. The trick, she has learned, is to control the performance: fake interest, flatter insecurity, and never let a client sense your boredom. Survival, after all, depends on smiling through other people's small talk about Pilates and their dead Labradoodles.
Her own past hovers like a bruise. She used to be a boxer, which is another job where strangers pay to see someone hurt. She once put a girl in a coma, which earned her praise from men who called it glory because they could not call it guilt. The salon is her new ring. Every wax strip, every eyebrow thread, is a jab at the world that spat her out. Her rules are clear: stay detached, keep your tools sharp, and do not let anyone see you bleed.
Around her orbit the other Susans: Mai, loud and sly; Noi, new and heartbreakingly young; Nok, who disappears without notice. They gossip, mock customers, and test each other's limits with jokes that could turn mean at any second. Their conversations about men, money, and fake names make up the pulse of the novel, a rhythm of survival disguised as customer service.
The clientele are an anthology of vanity: a baseball player with delicate nails and a fragile ego, a self-care addict who mistakes indulgence for courage, and a steady stream of women who believe a manicure can fix what therapy cannot. The narrator humors them all while quietly exfoliating their pretensions.
Beneath the polish, Pick a Colour is a book about identity and invisibility, the way language, labor, and class define who gets seen and who gets wiped clean after the appointment.
It is an elegant, merciless book pretending to be about nail polish. The narrator's world is small, but the way she sees it is enormous. What I found remarkable is how little the story needs to explain. It just shows women working, joking, and quietly swallowing their rage. The salon becomes a microcosm of class and race, where politeness is a weapon and every smile conceals fatigue. The voice is hard, unsentimental, and funny in the way only the bitterly observant can be.
It asks who gets to look, who gets to speak, and who gets to be seen. It exposes how easily compassion turns into condescension, how beauty is sold as self-worth, and how labor that involves touch is treated as lesser.
The story might be set in a nail salon, but it could just as easily take place in any job where someone is paid to care and punished for it.
The shop, called "Susan's," is a miniature stage for power and humiliation. Clients sit above while the Susans crouch below, which might suggest servitude until you realize who is really in charge.
The narrator reads faces the way a con artist reads wallets. She knows who is cheating, who is lonely, and who is on the verge of crying into the paraffin wax. She is also perfectly aware that she is invisible outside this pink, chemical-scented world. The trick, she has learned, is to control the performance: fake interest, flatter insecurity, and never let a client sense your boredom. Survival, after all, depends on smiling through other people's small talk about Pilates and their dead Labradoodles.
Her own past hovers like a bruise. She used to be a boxer, which is another job where strangers pay to see someone hurt. She once put a girl in a coma, which earned her praise from men who called it glory because they could not call it guilt. The salon is her new ring. Every wax strip, every eyebrow thread, is a jab at the world that spat her out. Her rules are clear: stay detached, keep your tools sharp, and do not let anyone see you bleed.
Around her orbit the other Susans: Mai, loud and sly; Noi, new and heartbreakingly young; Nok, who disappears without notice. They gossip, mock customers, and test each other's limits with jokes that could turn mean at any second. Their conversations about men, money, and fake names make up the pulse of the novel, a rhythm of survival disguised as customer service.
The clientele are an anthology of vanity: a baseball player with delicate nails and a fragile ego, a self-care addict who mistakes indulgence for courage, and a steady stream of women who believe a manicure can fix what therapy cannot. The narrator humors them all while quietly exfoliating their pretensions.
Beneath the polish, Pick a Colour is a book about identity and invisibility, the way language, labor, and class define who gets seen and who gets wiped clean after the appointment.
It is an elegant, merciless book pretending to be about nail polish. The narrator's world is small, but the way she sees it is enormous. What I found remarkable is how little the story needs to explain. It just shows women working, joking, and quietly swallowing their rage. The salon becomes a microcosm of class and race, where politeness is a weapon and every smile conceals fatigue. The voice is hard, unsentimental, and funny in the way only the bitterly observant can be.
It asks who gets to look, who gets to speak, and who gets to be seen. It exposes how easily compassion turns into condescension, how beauty is sold as self-worth, and how labor that involves touch is treated as lesser.
The story might be set in a nail salon, but it could just as easily take place in any job where someone is paid to care and punished for it.
October 9, 2025
If you’re a woman of a certain age, there is almost zero chance you haven’t experienced Anjelah Johnson’s comedy routine about the nail salon . . .
I was allllll ovvvvver snagging what I thought was the flipside of this bit told from the manicurist’s perspective (and because I’m an idiot, I also couldn’t remember if this was fiction or nonfiction before starting and y’all know your girl don’t read no blurbs to figure it out). Spoiler alert: it was fiction. And I looooooooved the interactions between the employees and also the owner feeling the need to be a bit of a hard ass in order to keep her shop afloat . . . . but then there was all the boxing bullshit and the missing finger and booooooooooooooooooooo! Let me get to know the "Susans" more or give me more insider info of watering down bottles of polish with thinner in order to save some money or how Karen-y the Karen customers can be - not this crappy sidestory that wasn’t even necessary.
2.5 Stars
I was allllll ovvvvver snagging what I thought was the flipside of this bit told from the manicurist’s perspective (and because I’m an idiot, I also couldn’t remember if this was fiction or nonfiction before starting and y’all know your girl don’t read no blurbs to figure it out). Spoiler alert: it was fiction. And I looooooooved the interactions between the employees and also the owner feeling the need to be a bit of a hard ass in order to keep her shop afloat . . . . but then there was all the boxing bullshit and the missing finger and booooooooooooooooooooo! Let me get to know the "Susans" more or give me more insider info of watering down bottles of polish with thinner in order to save some money or how Karen-y the Karen customers can be - not this crappy sidestory that wasn’t even necessary.
2.5 Stars
October 21, 2025
A far too long short story.
December 5, 2025
I was interested in reading this book as my sister-in-law is Vietnamese and her parents had owned a nail salon. So the book has a personal experience that ties into my sister-in-law, her family, and my visits to a salon with her.
This book was about a nail salon told from the point of view of the owner. The book really grabbed me in the beginning. But as the story went on, there were important aspects to her personally that were never revealed. I found it annoyed me, I wanted the backstory but was given only pieces. I don’t like all the ambiguity.
This lack of fully explaining the situation reminds me of a couple other short books I read this year. I’m one who likes more definitiveness. There were other aspects in the book that it wasn’t a total miss for me.
I will say, that hopefully people reading this book don’t feel like it confirms their suspicions about that the nail salon women are talking about you in their language. At least in my experience, that is not what is going on. It did add some humor to this fictional book, however.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book which was very well narrated. My enjoyment of this book was increased because I listened to the audio.
Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.
This book was about a nail salon told from the point of view of the owner. The book really grabbed me in the beginning. But as the story went on, there were important aspects to her personally that were never revealed. I found it annoyed me, I wanted the backstory but was given only pieces. I don’t like all the ambiguity.
This lack of fully explaining the situation reminds me of a couple other short books I read this year. I’m one who likes more definitiveness. There were other aspects in the book that it wasn’t a total miss for me.
I will say, that hopefully people reading this book don’t feel like it confirms their suspicions about that the nail salon women are talking about you in their language. At least in my experience, that is not what is going on. It did add some humor to this fictional book, however.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book which was very well narrated. My enjoyment of this book was increased because I listened to the audio.
Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.
December 26, 2025
Mani Pedi Salon Tales 🍁
A review of the Knopf Canada eBook (September 30, 2025).
It is an unfair comparison but I couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed in Pick a Colour due to having read a somewhat similar book Katja Oskamp's Marzahn, mon amour: Geschichten einer Fußpflegerin (2019) which I read in English translation as Marzahn, mon amour (2022) and reviewed as A Podiatrist's Tales. Both books deal with the workers and customers at a salon.
There was a joy and exuberance in Oskamp that contrasts with the bitterness and secretiveness in Thammavongsa. I would likely have had a more positive impression of the later book if I hadn't read the earlier one. Nothing to be done about that. I had thoroughly enjoyed Thammavongsa's earlier short story collection How to Pronounce Knife: Stories (2020) which even had somewhat of a cross-over story which was also set in a mani-pedi salon. That collection had quite a lot of humour to it which I found mostly lacking in the novella.
It was interesting to learn some background to the book in the Giller Book Club interview (see link below). Thammavongsa even admitted that in order to get her next book of short stories published she had to agree to do a novel, presumably due to the publisher's requirements. Also some of the readers' speculations about how the salon operator lost the tip of her finger (which is never revealed in the book itself) were quite entertaining to hear about. The author would hear all kinds of theories at book events and signings.
Trivia and Link
Pick a Colour was the winner of the 2025 Giller Prize in Canada. You can read the Jury's decision and link to videos of the ceremony at the Giller Prize website here.
Author Souvankham Thammavongsa is interviewed for the Giller Book Club and you can watch the interview at the Book Club's YouTube channel here.
A review of the Knopf Canada eBook (September 30, 2025).
You look at something long enough and you begin to see everything in its details. And you’d be surprised what people tell you when they think you are a stranger and they are never going to see you again.
It is an unfair comparison but I couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed in Pick a Colour due to having read a somewhat similar book Katja Oskamp's Marzahn, mon amour: Geschichten einer Fußpflegerin (2019) which I read in English translation as Marzahn, mon amour (2022) and reviewed as A Podiatrist's Tales. Both books deal with the workers and customers at a salon.
There was a joy and exuberance in Oskamp that contrasts with the bitterness and secretiveness in Thammavongsa. I would likely have had a more positive impression of the later book if I hadn't read the earlier one. Nothing to be done about that. I had thoroughly enjoyed Thammavongsa's earlier short story collection How to Pronounce Knife: Stories (2020) which even had somewhat of a cross-over story which was also set in a mani-pedi salon. That collection had quite a lot of humour to it which I found mostly lacking in the novella.
It was interesting to learn some background to the book in the Giller Book Club interview (see link below). Thammavongsa even admitted that in order to get her next book of short stories published she had to agree to do a novel, presumably due to the publisher's requirements. Also some of the readers' speculations about how the salon operator lost the tip of her finger (which is never revealed in the book itself) were quite entertaining to hear about. The author would hear all kinds of theories at book events and signings.
Trivia and Link
Pick a Colour was the winner of the 2025 Giller Prize in Canada. You can read the Jury's decision and link to videos of the ceremony at the Giller Prize website here.
Author Souvankham Thammavongsa is interviewed for the Giller Book Club and you can watch the interview at the Book Club's YouTube channel here.
September 17, 2025
I was so so excited to read Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa because I loved her other book How to Pronounce Knife. I loved the similar themes in this novel. It’s a short book that follows one day in the life of Ning who works at a nail salon. At her salon everyone is named Susan at least according to their name tags. Ning recounts her past as a boxer and discusses her customers and explores her immigrant experience. I really enjoyed the tension in the book as Ning deals with her coworkers, the new girl and the disparity between herself and her clients. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator Zoe Doyle was excellent!
Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for my ARC!
Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for my ARC!
May 31, 2025
I truly enjoyed this sometimes funny and sometimes heartbreaking look at a day in the life of a shop owner. If you’ve ever had a pedicure and the workers are speaking in a language you don’t speak and they are laughing, they’re likely laughing at you! Ning works hard and her shop is her whole life. Her “Susan’s” feel like family, but they are not. Both her sense of humor and her loneliness come through in this unique story.
Thank you to @netgalley and @souvankhamthammavongsa for an ARC of this gem! I’m excited to get my hands on an audiobook copy when it’s released.
Thank you to @netgalley and @souvankhamthammavongsa for an ARC of this gem! I’m excited to get my hands on an audiobook copy when it’s released.
May 14, 2025
“Pick a Color” by Souvankham Thammavongsa is an entertaining novel that takes place in one day at a nail salon. It’s a powerful story told through the eyes of the owner who has journeyed from boxing, to abused nail tech employee, to owning her own salon. The insight into how the customers are treated as well as the immigrant point of view is stunning. The inside discussions in a foreign language where the customers cant understand were disturbing but perhaps honest, as we really see how the customers treat their technicians. Honestly, for me this was quite an eye opener and I think it will be the same for anyone who has visited a nail salon. A slice of life from an immigrant perspective. A very good read!
Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
September 6, 2025
Very sharp commentary on visibility, or rather, invisibility
August 27, 2025
Ning is a manicurist of a nail salon who has two identities. In this salon, all workers are named 'Susan' and they have the same appearance and behavior.
Thammavongsa delivers a quiet yet powerful character study - Ning is a brilliant observer which through her eyes we analyze human identity and behavior. By touching on immigrant experience, the story exposes how the society is often in need of approval and affected by loneliness, segregation, otherness and love.
The women (workers) have distinct relationships that demand one to read deeper - the observation on the details, the skin, nail,... makes one, alongside the characters, feel alive besides solely trauma. One will try to find some meaning and at the same time, can contemplate one's own fragility.
This book is mostly vibes and while I appreciate the small joys, the execution feels quite elusive, acquiring a meandering touch that can feel distracting. I recognize the author's attempt to add texture to Ning's contemplation through her identities, however the exploration of the other identity feels under developed. I think the characterization is the highlight of this novel, yet the slice-of-life glimpses kept me at arm's length.
PICK A COLOR is a reflective novel that will benefit those who enjoy reading between the lines.
[ I received an ARC from the publisher - Little Brown . All thoughts are my own]
Thammavongsa delivers a quiet yet powerful character study - Ning is a brilliant observer which through her eyes we analyze human identity and behavior. By touching on immigrant experience, the story exposes how the society is often in need of approval and affected by loneliness, segregation, otherness and love.
The women (workers) have distinct relationships that demand one to read deeper - the observation on the details, the skin, nail,... makes one, alongside the characters, feel alive besides solely trauma. One will try to find some meaning and at the same time, can contemplate one's own fragility.
This book is mostly vibes and while I appreciate the small joys, the execution feels quite elusive, acquiring a meandering touch that can feel distracting. I recognize the author's attempt to add texture to Ning's contemplation through her identities, however the exploration of the other identity feels under developed. I think the characterization is the highlight of this novel, yet the slice-of-life glimpses kept me at arm's length.
PICK A COLOR is a reflective novel that will benefit those who enjoy reading between the lines.
[ I received an ARC from the publisher - Little Brown . All thoughts are my own]
December 7, 2025
Fantastic. One of my fave fiction reads for books published in 2025. Highly recommended.
April 6, 2025
I really enjoyed how this book was contained in one setting (the nail shop) with limited little calls to memories and experience outside of the shop. The interior world of the main character is interesting and complex, yet I love how simplistic and clear the prose is.
I felt immersed in the world of the nail shop, their interactions in another language, the sameness that is expected of The Susan’s and how these prototype visuals feed into the expectations that people might have of immigrants working in the service industry..
This book was highly observed and very compelling.. I wanted to read more depth other characters and especially the relationship with the other salon, I felt that could’ve been developed more. It. Says a lot that I was sad to get to the end of this book, I would’ve loved a few more chapters.
N.B this book was kindly provided as an advanced copy from Netgalley
I felt immersed in the world of the nail shop, their interactions in another language, the sameness that is expected of The Susan’s and how these prototype visuals feed into the expectations that people might have of immigrants working in the service industry..
This book was highly observed and very compelling.. I wanted to read more depth other characters and especially the relationship with the other salon, I felt that could’ve been developed more. It. Says a lot that I was sad to get to the end of this book, I would’ve loved a few more chapters.
N.B this book was kindly provided as an advanced copy from Netgalley
October 12, 2025
A day in a nail salon. Told from the manicurists point of view. She didn’t have much to say and I didn’t learn anything I hadn’t already guessed.
February 6, 2026
The novel is well-written and funny with a kind of biting humor at how people in the service industry are looked down upon and treated as a faceless mass. When I get my nails done, I often wonder how the woman shaving the callouses off my heels feels about her job. I’ve never gone to a salon like the one depicted (Asian owned and operated) but after reading this book I’ve wanted to ask the woman painting my nails (lately it’s been a very stylish twenty-something named Justice who loves her cats) how she feels about handling other people’s feet and hands. Or maybe I don’t want to know.
I don’t have a lot of commentary on this book except pick it up and read it. It’s clever and makes you think, “Oh my god—did I ever behave like that?” Ning is Asian and so are all her employees—they are all Susans:
This is one of those quiet novels that get better with more readings. I finished this book a few months ago and I’m stopping to dip into it here and there and finding it more meaningful and complex with a second read. I highly recommend it!
Looking at the two of us, them sitting on a chair above me, and me down low, you’d think I am not in charge. But I am. I know everything about them, whether or not they tell me. You look at something long enough and you begin to see everything in its details. And you’d be surprised what people tell you when they think you are a stranger and they are never going to see you again. (4)Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa is a slim fascinating novel. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started it. Ning is a retired boxer but now she manages a nail salon. She doesn’t want her employees to know anything about her and keeps quiet about her personal life. Ning is a very intelligent, very observant woman and the novel is told entirely from her POV. The person she used to be and the person she is now, her regrets and her ambitions, are all bubbling beneath her serene, business-like surface.
I don’t have a lot of commentary on this book except pick it up and read it. It’s clever and makes you think, “Oh my god—did I ever behave like that?” Ning is Asian and so are all her employees—they are all Susans:
I live in a world of Susans. I got name tags for everyone who works at this nail salon, and on every one is printed the name Susan. So many girls come and go. I don’t want to bother getting new name tags each time. Besides, you know, it’s never difficult to pronounce a name like Susan. None of our clients notice. They come in and we are ready and set to work. That’s all that matters to them. We all have black shoulder-length hair and wear black T-shirts and black pants. We are, more or less, the same height too. And, anyway, the clients will never be wrong when they ask for Susan. Dear Susan is always available and at your service! Susan never takes a day off and Susan is never fully booked if it’s you who called for her. Susan, our dear, sweet, Susan, always makes time for you. (5)Pick a Color presents the other side of “they all look the same.” It’s funny yet it’s a dark humor based on recognizing the racism of that perception. Ning bases her business model on it. It’s amusing when Ning and her staff are faced with a wedding party of girls wearing the same outfits and with similar names: “When I go out to the front room, I panic because I have trouble with this group instantly. I can’t tell any of them apart. I am good at my job and this usually comes easy to me, but damn, each one has the same outfit on...Lizzy, Lizzie, Lily, Lou. Lizzy is the bride, not Lizzie. To make things more difficult for us, Lily and Lou are actually identical twins” (69, 74).
This is one of those quiet novels that get better with more readings. I finished this book a few months ago and I’m stopping to dip into it here and there and finding it more meaningful and complex with a second read. I highly recommend it!
November 8, 2025
maybe even a 4.5. i could've read way more of this 😭
July 18, 2025
I love when an author is able to take a simple thing and give it depth. This book follows a single day in the life of a nail salon owner. It was funny, sad, warm, and lonely all at the same time. I love the concept of 'the Susan's' and how all the different customers are described. I like the snippets of Ning's life that we get exposed to: her boxing career, her previous jobs, etc. I also loved the writing style, as it made the book super bingeable.
Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the ARC.
Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the ARC.
November 15, 2025
Do not read this if you’ve ever been fearful that your nail tech is talking about you
December 16, 2025
A day in the life of a nail salon. Where all the workers are named Susan.
August 18, 2025
This is a short read at under 200 pages, but it lingers. This story follows a day in the life of a nail salon owner, but it’s about so much more than that.
Thammavongsa cleverly plays into the familiar stereotypes, the quiet suspicion that the staff are talking about you, the small talk, the way the workers are seen as interchangeable. They’re all called 'Susan', expected to look the same and act the same, because that’s more comfortable for the customer.
But beneath the surface is a sharp, layered exploration of identity, invisibility, and what it means to be overlooked while being in plain sight (mentioned as a missing finger quite a lot!).
Funny, uncomfortable, and quietly powerful, this book lets you in on the joke, and then makes you question why you ever laughed.
Thammavongsa cleverly plays into the familiar stereotypes, the quiet suspicion that the staff are talking about you, the small talk, the way the workers are seen as interchangeable. They’re all called 'Susan', expected to look the same and act the same, because that’s more comfortable for the customer.
But beneath the surface is a sharp, layered exploration of identity, invisibility, and what it means to be overlooked while being in plain sight (mentioned as a missing finger quite a lot!).
Funny, uncomfortable, and quietly powerful, this book lets you in on the joke, and then makes you question why you ever laughed.
October 30, 2025
I’m a bit confused. Why’d she leave boxing? Why is she so afraid of Munch? What happened to her finger? Why doesn’t she work for rachel anymore? Why did rachel come in, finally? What do the anecdotes and different people in the story mean? An enjoyable read tho
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 17, 2025
This was a waste of time….
December 28, 2025
This is Washington Black all over again (a debut author deservedly wins the Giller Prize, then wins it again for a mediocre second book). This is a short story at best, at 180 pages with large font and big margins.
November 24, 2025
"Pick a Colour" is a peculiar, sharply observed, and at times deeply unsettling glimpse into the inner world of Ning - a retired boxer hiding behind the carefully constructed façade of “Susan,” one of many indistinguishable workers at a nail salon. While customers see only a quiet manicurist who buffs, polishes, and smiles politely, Ning’s mind is a far more intricate landscape: full of sharp intellect, unusual logic, and the lingering ache of unfulfilled potential.
The premise itself is striking. All the workers are expected to look alike and call themselves “Susan,” an odd and unsettling choice that instantly hints at the erasure of individuality expected in low-wage service work. Ning, with her disciplined boxer’s mind, seems both complicit in and critical of this system. She observes everything with a sort of detached precision - the strange requests of customers, the gossip and power dynamics between the “Susans,” the tiny rituals that keep the salon running. And yet, beneath her cool exterior, there is a woman haunted by memories of the ring, by the coach who shaped her, and by the abrupt end to the career that once defined her.
The story takes place over a single summer day, but the narrative feels much bigger than its timeframe. Through Ning’s fragmented thoughts, flashes of the past bleed into the present. Her final fight - the one that ended her boxing career - still thrums beneath her skin like a wound that hasn’t healed. Though the novel never fully explains what happened, the emotional impact is clear: Ning is stuck somewhere between who she was, who she pretends to be, and who she might have become. She pushes herself relentlessly, punishes herself for reasons left half-unsaid, and yet yearns almost desperately for human connection. Her loneliness hums quietly beneath every interaction.
Reading "Pick a Colour" can feel disorienting, even frustrating at times. The pacing is slow, the structure fragmented, and Ning’s inner monologue swings between lucid observation and almost dreamlike abstraction. It’s not always clear what she wants or where she’s going - and perhaps that is the point. Ning is a character suspended in limbo, and the novel asks the reader to sit in that limbo with her, even when it’s uncomfortable or confusing.
I found myself fascinated by Ning’s perspective, even if I couldn’t always make sense of it. Her worldview is strange, rigid, and undeniably singular. But the narrative itself often felt messy, unresolved, and emotionally distant. There are moments of poignancy, small glimpses of vulnerability, but also long stretches where the story seemed to drift without direction.
In the end, "Pick a Colour" left me conflicted. I appreciated its originality and its sharp observations about identity, invisibility, and the immigrant experience. Yet the execution left me detached, unsure how to feel about Ning or the world she inhabits. It’s a quiet oddball of a book - intriguing, uncomfortable, and ultimately more memorable for its strangeness than for its emotional payoff.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for the reading experience!
The premise itself is striking. All the workers are expected to look alike and call themselves “Susan,” an odd and unsettling choice that instantly hints at the erasure of individuality expected in low-wage service work. Ning, with her disciplined boxer’s mind, seems both complicit in and critical of this system. She observes everything with a sort of detached precision - the strange requests of customers, the gossip and power dynamics between the “Susans,” the tiny rituals that keep the salon running. And yet, beneath her cool exterior, there is a woman haunted by memories of the ring, by the coach who shaped her, and by the abrupt end to the career that once defined her.
The story takes place over a single summer day, but the narrative feels much bigger than its timeframe. Through Ning’s fragmented thoughts, flashes of the past bleed into the present. Her final fight - the one that ended her boxing career - still thrums beneath her skin like a wound that hasn’t healed. Though the novel never fully explains what happened, the emotional impact is clear: Ning is stuck somewhere between who she was, who she pretends to be, and who she might have become. She pushes herself relentlessly, punishes herself for reasons left half-unsaid, and yet yearns almost desperately for human connection. Her loneliness hums quietly beneath every interaction.
Reading "Pick a Colour" can feel disorienting, even frustrating at times. The pacing is slow, the structure fragmented, and Ning’s inner monologue swings between lucid observation and almost dreamlike abstraction. It’s not always clear what she wants or where she’s going - and perhaps that is the point. Ning is a character suspended in limbo, and the novel asks the reader to sit in that limbo with her, even when it’s uncomfortable or confusing.
I found myself fascinated by Ning’s perspective, even if I couldn’t always make sense of it. Her worldview is strange, rigid, and undeniably singular. But the narrative itself often felt messy, unresolved, and emotionally distant. There are moments of poignancy, small glimpses of vulnerability, but also long stretches where the story seemed to drift without direction.
In the end, "Pick a Colour" left me conflicted. I appreciated its originality and its sharp observations about identity, invisibility, and the immigrant experience. Yet the execution left me detached, unsure how to feel about Ning or the world she inhabits. It’s a quiet oddball of a book - intriguing, uncomfortable, and ultimately more memorable for its strangeness than for its emotional payoff.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for the reading experience!
July 7, 2025
To her clients, Ning is simply Susan, a nail salon worker, concealing her past as a retired boxer. On this summer day, the Susans meticulously attend to their clients, listening, smiling, and nodding, while Ning's intellect and complexity remain hidden beneath the surface. As she navigates the intricate web of relationships among her fellow Susans, Ning's dual identities will eventually collide, sparking a confrontation that challenges the way the privileged world views a woman like Ning. With precision and wit, Pick a Color illustrates the intricacies and complexities of being an immigrant in SUCH a brilliant way. Five stars!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 30, 2025
I'm thinking, as a guy, I'm reading a novel about a day in a nail salon, so this book is obviously not written for me. But it's really not about a beauty salon, but about what it's like to work closely with a group of like-minded people who provide a service to the public. Lots of inside jokes and nasty comments that will never be heard by the client because they don't speak (presumably) Thai. Lots of sexual innuendos that give the manicurists something to laugh at. The owner, Ning, is a retired boxer so she finds plenty of parallels between boxing and running the salon. In the end, this was just an entertaining read, and it didn't feel like chick-lit to me.
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