Nice Places

by Vincent Chu

Philosophical, tender, and hilariously observed, Nice Places subverts the “go find yourself” travel story, unpacking our shared desire for meaning, connection, and a true place in the world.

When Georgie quits his job at Oats Technologies to travel the world for one year, he hopes to escape the daily existential discomfort of corporate life. But after a meditation guru robs him on his way to the airport, he awakens in a guest house in the rundown yet vibrant Panhandle neighborhood of his own city.

Alone with his phone and a desperate urge to assure his friends and family all is well, Georgie shares a photo of “authentic” boat noodles. To his surprise, everyone loves the post and believes he is overseas. Ant, a mixed media artist from Berlin, proposes a collaboration. With her vision and the help of a charming cast of guests and locals, Georgie’s unlikely adventures unravel in ways he never imagined.

Genres: Fiction

296 pages, Paperback

Expected publication June 2, 2026

About the author

Vincent Chu is a Bay Area writer and author of the novel NICE PLACES (Forest Avenue Press, 2026) and story collection LIKE A CHAMPION (7.13 Books, 2018). His fiction has appeared in Muumuu House, STILL Magazine, Pithead Chapel, PANK Magazine, and elsewhere. He is a Headlands Center for the Arts Affiliate Artist, Hambidge Center Fellow, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from UCLA. Vincent lives in Oakland, California.

Reviews

[Hannah Chaussee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of Nice Places by Vincent Chu, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. While it took me a little while to get into because I found Georgie to be a little frustrating, I was hooked as soon as the art project was coming together. The relationships between the characters were refreshing. The concept was very unique. I just wanted Georgie to learn a little more from this experience at the end.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 ⭐ Read. Come for the humor, stay for the prose, Vincent Chu’s forthcoming novel, Nice Places, breathes life into familiar travel literature with a quirky, warm cast of characters who will leave you yearning for the next chapter. || "In Nice Places, Vincent Chu manages to recover the art of the travel narrative, dusting off the ashes of our expectations and capturing, with humorous, cutting prose, a picture of the places and people who revive us.

When Georgie quits his nearly tenured post at Oats Technology in pursuit of travel, his excited rush is cut off at the knees as he is robbed by a monk and brains himself off the steps of Little Constantinople in an attempted chase. He wakes instead in the vibrant, unexplored Panhandle of his own city; yet, Georgie might yet still assure the outside world that his exploration with skillful frames of towering landscapes, a touch of research, and aid from Chu’s delightful cast of quirky characters. Georgie recreates posts from his journey around the world, with perfectly positioned puddles cast as flooding oceans and dinners shared, cabside across candle light, only to find that the truth of his photographs speak to spirits coveted and long forgotten.

And those of us who mirror the trappings of Georgie’s 9 to 5? We want that change, especially when what we have makes us unhappy. He is our escape and with him we run fast and far from our own, but Chu’s story asks what does it matter if what we escape from arrives with us, no matter how far the shore? It is the tone that shone throughout the novel. For, while it is no more difficult to cheer for Georgie (a victorious voice against the burnout), than it is to be swept up in the beauty of Chu’s descriptions—to feel as if we were, too, waking under “salmon” skies—one cannot escape the feel of some aching worry throbbing beneath each line (144).”

Read the full piece here!: https://www.tupeloquarterly.com/uncat...

[Chantal Agapiti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book did take me on a mental journey, and it wasn’t anything expected.
The book is written in a third person point of view, current day in the U.S.

We follow Georgie on his quest for meaning, as he quits his corporate job and decides to go travel.
Yet, life’s unpredictability hits him right on the day of his planned departure.
He wakes up at a guest hostel in a part of town that few locals frequent.
As he’s forced to reassess what he’s going to do now, he makes a fortuitous encounter with Ant.
They become close and she’ll take him on a journey, but not the one he was imagining at first.

As I read this story I could hear Ewan McGregor’s voice speaking the author’s words, as he did in Trainspotting.
Fast-paced thoughts as they went through Georgie’s head. Yet in another part of this book I pictured Tom Hanks
in his role as Forrest Gump, the part when he decided to start running and after time just decided he was done with running.
That’s how Georgie’s journey came across to me towards the end of this story.

I had an existential crisis when I was thirty-five, and I could relate to many of the questions Georgie asked himself.
It makes sense to me that we all go through it, one way or another, at some point in our lives. And I too have found
the power to change my life and I’ve learned to be content with what I have. There’s accomplishment in that.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for granting me this opportunity.
I recommend reading this book.

[Katii · Rating 4 out of 5]

Within the first two chapters I said to myself, “This book is going to make me want to quit my job” - and I largely held onto that feeling until about 83% through. At that point, the book felt less about travel/wanderlust, and more about philosophy. While I’m willing to concede that travel can be philosophical, the tone shift was an unexpected one, or maybe one that I wasn’t mentally ready to explore.

If you’re in the mood for an adult coming-of-age, slightly absurdist, I think that this is a great book for a wanderlust or philosophical soul, who also ponders ethical travel or existentialism. 
But if you just want a travel story, maybe skip this one for now.

Thank you to Forest Avenue Press and NetGalley for my advance copy - all thoughts are my own.

[Ellie Moon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Forest Avenue Press for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I really liked both the premise and the ambition of this book. Ultimately, I felt that it fell short in the quality of the writing and in the depth of the philosophical reflections. The main character remains a strange enigma to the reader, he simply floats through the narrative untethered to any personal characteristics or motives. The musings on the purpose of life, the role of technology, and the “rat race” of life felt rather contrived at moments and the dialogue that explored some of these topics came across as stilted and unnatural. There were some bright moments of humour and astute observations, but it was not a standout read for me.

[Keely · Rating 4 out of 5]

NICE PLACES was a striking adult coming-of-age story that followed a burnt out corporate worker who embarks on an “Eat Pray Love” excursion, but ultimately experiences an unlikely adventure much closer to home.

Meet Georgie Globetrotter: social media extraordinaire and world traveler. Or is he? When Georgie is robbed by a monk named Mindy before his trip around the world even begins, he’s left wandering his own city trying to figure out his next steps. When he thoughtlessly posts a picture of noodles and his followers think he’s across the globe, he realizes he can essentially catfish the internet into believing he’s actually traveling, rather than being down bad miles from home without a wallet or passport. With help from an eclectic cast of characters, a project is born to cross off as many “countries” as possible and document it accordingly without ever leaving town.

The concept of faking a trip and nobody questioning it was so real because everyone truly only thinks about themselves and external validation BLOWS and this made me realize just how much of our lives revolve around pleasing others and how we confuse validation for happiness. It’s also the craziest but most creative idea to see your own city through a new lens and proof that people will believe anything on the internet. At its core, this was an adult coming-of-age story about literally and figuratively shedding your baggage, but it was also a stunning think piece about rejecting the norm with lots of philosophical layers. The author never says what city this was (up for readers interpretation) and I loved that. There was something freeing about Georgie’s faux-travels and saying “f*ck it” to the unspoken rules of life and I appreciated the blunt humour throughout. This was a reminder to not take yourself too seriously and that some of our best adventures are unexpectedly closer than we think.

This was a strong debut with a storyline that's hard to forget and I can't wait to cheer on Vincent Chu and their future projects!

*I received a free copy from the author and publisher in exchange for my honest review.* Thanks again for considering me as a reviewer of this fabulous book, I enjoyed it dearly!

[Leo Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Georgie, the hero of Vincent Chu's debut novel, quits his job at Oats Technologies to travel the world for a year. A meditation guru robs him before he even gets to the airport. He wakes up in a guesthouse in a rundown neighbourhood of his own city, broke, embarrassed, and — since everyone online already believes he's overseas — weirdly committed to keeping up appearances.

What follows is one of the more inventive comic premises I've come across in a while: a man faking an international adventure from a succession of local bus routes, strangers' flats, and a stalled freight train, discovering that the exotic destination he was looking for may well have been within walking distance the whole time.

Chu writes with the kind of light touch that takes real skill to pull off. He's funny — genuinely, consistently funny, not just "has a good eye for absurdity" funny. And yet there's real warmth underneath. Georgie is the ideal guide for this kind of story: not quite a fool, not quite a hero, just a man who writes "Kind regards" in his emails and has spent nine years at a company that sells oats, and who is slowly, reluctantly, beginning to wonder if there might be more. The satire of corporate culture, wellness tourism, and the performance of a meaningful life on social media is sharp without being mean-spirited. When you're laughing, you're mostly laughing in recognition.

What surprised me most was how genuinely moving the book becomes in its second half. There's a scene involving Georgie's father that lands like a quiet gut-punch, and the friendship that develops between Georgie and Ant — the Berlin artist who gets tangled up in his accidental deception — gives the story an emotional backbone that the comedy alone couldn't carry. Chu earns the tenderness. By the novel's closing pages, you're rooting for Georgie in a way you didn't expect to be at the start.

Nice Places is a joyful, clever, and quietly profound book about what we're actually looking for when we decide to go looking. I'd give it to anyone who's ever fantasised about quitting their job — which is to say, most of the adults I know.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Copy gifted by the author]

READ IF YOU LIKE...
• Examining how travel has evolved
• Confronting the curated reality of social media
• Finding yourself

I THOUGHT IT WAS...
A thoughtful take on the classic lost-adult-finding-themselves story. After a decade of dutifully working and living, Georgie decides to quit his job to travel the world for a year. But on his way to the airport, he's robbed and then hits his head. Trying to get his bearings while still very much in his own city, he stumbles into an idea: What if he were to fake traveling the world through social media?

Chu packs a lot of worthwhile commentary about traveling, social media, and how the two have affected each other in today's society. I thought it would mostly involve the documentation debate -- early on in the book, Georgie is told in quick succession by two different people that it only counts if you post about it and that it only counts if you don't post about it. But Georgie faking his travels by thoroughly exploring his own city in ways he never would have before brings more layers into the mix. Can it be considered traveling if you stay exactly where you live? What does it mean to actually have "seen" a place? What does this say about the people who believe his posts?

More broadly, Georgie's experiment is also meant to say something about the self and the ways we find meaning in life. Sometimes, it can feel wrong that we define ourselves through social media, things, entertainment, careers, relationships, status symbols. Sometimes, it can feel like the "right" way to live is to disconnect from all these things. But in the end, there is no right way. We all create meaning for our lives in different ways. This notion is explored a little more messily in the novel, through dialogue that sometimes felt very unrealistic, but I felt that it tied everything together well.

[Cal Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooh I haven’t read a book like this in a while!! The MC gets fired/quits his job to travel for a year. Misfortune happens and he loses his passport on the way to the airport but decides to “travel” the world anyway thru social media posts. (Think eat pray love but in your home city.)

I suggest not reading the synopsis so there’s more suspense (I read the synopsis after starting the book and I think it gave away some of the early plot.)

The MC is very naive, so once you get over that part, there’s a really interesting commentary on social media and performance, travel and performance, art and performance. Is everything just a performance for others? What will actually make us happy?

In his journey, the MC meets other travelers and is trying to figure out his next steps. Towards the end there is some spiraling that was on the verge of chaos (for me haha, I CANNOT imagine my life like this). His life starts to challenge every aspect of expectations—reminds me of how things devolved in THE COIN.

And the ending was surprisingly poignant. The book is funny at moments bc the MC is a bit all over.

At times some plot points were like, something happened and the MC suddenly does something even if it contradicts what he was just doing. (Some aspects reminded me of THE GUARDIAN AND THE THIEF bc the plot goes all over and I just had to suspend my belief that the characters would actually do these things.)

Overall a refreshing novel!

[Veronica Gliatti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you so much #NetGalley for the change to read this and review it!
#GreatRead #NicePlaces

This is a fun, funny, entertaining ride that takes you places you did not even see coming. It has some real surprises in store for you. This book is about Georgie, a man who has lived methodical through life. Georgie has always walked the line, done what was expected of him, no more, no less, held a steady job, has a home he calls his own. But wonders, like all do, what would have happened if he took at different path? Is it too late to start anew? Could he be more? Could he become a world traveler and change who he is into someone more exciting, more satisfied, more hopeful?

This touches on the what-if's head-on. The desires of the main character are written in such a way that Georgie is relatable to about anyone that has ever dared to dream. What if you had taken a different path, done this, or not done that, how would things be different? To see how the story plays out is to realize that none of us have a set path. The grass does appear greener on the other side, (sometimes it actually is, but not always!) and at the end of the day, reflecting on where you came from, where you currently are and where you are called to be is freeing and leaves less room for doubt. The story also shows how much social media can and does influence us!
Note to reader: Don't let others limitations limit you.

[Helen Wu ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I requested Nice Places almost immediately because it touches a question that has been sitting quietly in the back of my mind for a long time. What is the point of any of this. The book meets that question in a way that feels both strange and deeply familiar. The structure is a bit odd, almost disorienting at times, yet it works. It challenges ideas of joy, purpose, and the expectations we inherit without ever fully choosing. I found myself thinking about how easy it is to look at other people’s lives, their travels, their freedom, and convince myself that must be the answer.

The main character’s journey is dramatic, at times almost exaggerated, but still compelling. It reads quickly, yet leaves behind a quiet weight. I kept searching for clarity as I moved through the story, hoping for something definitive to hold onto. The ending did not fully give me that, which I suspect is the point. It gently pushes you back toward your own life and asks a harder question. What actually matters to you, beyond what society or family tells you should matter.

It is not a perfect book, but it is a thought provoking one. Strange, a little unsettling, and very human. I am still sitting with it, which might be the most honest measure of its impact. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Elena L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One day, Georgie decides to quit his job to travel the world for a year.

This is a philosophical yet lighthearted narrative about the meaning of life. In this travel story, Georgie, like many of us at some life stage, tries to find connection (in several levels, with the nature and community) and direction. Reading this feels like attending sessions of meditation while Chu exposes loneliness, life's regrets, complexity of relationships and toxicity of modern travel and social media. The author uses the main character to dissect the reality under the appearance of perfect social media life; the competition (algorithm) and desire to go viral; the addiction of traveling (travel identity); and how seasonal and transitory relationships can be,...

These timely topics are approached in a humorous and quite innovative way that makes it even more relatable. It is a quick and enriching reading experience that would benefit those wanting to read a self-discovery story with a broaden perspective.

NICE PLACES revolves around finding ourselves through our own journey. This is an adult coming-of-age novel that, through vulnerability and sharp commentary, provides clarity and actual relief.

[ I received an ARC from the author. All thoughts are my own ]

[Eric Cheung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vincent Chu's book about traveling manages to convey the experiential sentiments people often describe feeling when they find themselves in foreign places in the world, but without the customary storyline of what you'd think a traveler's trip with a definite or indefinite time frame would be. It's clever, funny, and touching at multiple moments throughout the story. While I don't feel that it's necessary to be traveling while reading this to feel any of these thoughts, I did have the advantage of actually reading this while taking a break from my career and on a trip to Asia. The synergy with what I was experiencing personally with these notions so aptly described within Chu's prose was quite the delight at times and really moved me. I think the majority of people seek out some level of incremental meaning in their lives to varying and nuanced degrees of intensity or satisfaction when they travel. What Vincent Chu has been able to do with that baseline in mind is trivialize and satirize often the process, yet not lose sight of and acknowledge the beauty of what the travel experience can actually be for and within one's humanity. It's an impressive debut novel.

[DONALD FOSTER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice Places kicks off with the protagonist, Georgie Globetrotter, taking a break from soul-sucking corporate America to travel the world. His plan gets derailed when a fake monk steals his luggage and passport. From there, Georgie meets an artist and some new friends that help him chart a new course in his search for meaning amongst the shallowness of our carefully curated presence.
Nice Places is packed with tight prose and liberal amounts of droll observations that kept me laughing. But Chu knows how to strike a balance with equal moments of tenderness and sadness. It’s a philosophical book that doesn’t tie everything up in fairytale form, mirroring the messiness of life and the baggage we all must decide to shed or carry as we move forward. One of Chu’s best qualities is that he trusts his reader's intellect and refuses to do the thinking for you. If you’re like me and love books that dole out more questions than answers, then you’ll love this book. It’s one of those novels that sticks with you long after you’ve read it. A very impressive first novel. Thank you to the author for providing me an Advanced Review Copy. All opinions are my own.

[Mark Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, simply put, the best book I have read in quite some time. It’s clever, literary, satirical, artful, elegantly written — and still somehow laugh-out loud funny. I think a David Sedaris book was the last time that happened for me. The elevator pitch could be Office Space meets Eat Pray Love, but it’s so much more than that. It’s an incredibly prescient, literary moment of a novel. Upon finishing this book, I felt the same way I felt after I read The Sun Also Rises: like I understood and appreciated a generation and moment in time while also enjoying the magnitude and symbolism of a very specific story with very specific characters. I highly recommend this novel; it’s a thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying read that hits that very rare nexus of true art and pure enjoyment, while critiquing modern life in very entertaining and palatable fashion.

[Alissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mostly enjoyed this book and tore through the first half of it. At about chapter 59 of 73, the tone abruptly changed and the book felt different. What had been an interesting story about a 30 year old man discovering other people and perspectives kind of went off the deep end.

The tone of the book took some getting used to. It is spare and detached. Conversations are stilted, not how people speak. The words are direct, without flourish. I found that this lack of handholding, not having the main character’s every internal thought explained, meant that I had to put myself more into the story, use more of myself as a reader. I’ve been reading a lot of densely overwritten books lately and this was a stark contrast. The main character meditates and at times, this book felt meditative.

Thank you to NetGalley, Forest Avenue Press, and the author for the ARC.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit this one has a slow start that could have been condensed, but because I was so excited about the premise, I pushed through. Once the story gets going it is fantastic. I was drawn to this book by the Kate Folk blurb. I love her work and haven't seen many blurbs from her, so I thought that really said something. I think if you're a fan of Folk's characters in weird situations, you will absolutely love this novel. The premise seems simple, but in execution it is constructed into a rich absurdist narrative. Highly recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Conor McNamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend Nice Places by Vincent Chu. If you enjoy strong, complicated characters and well written, sharp prose, this book is for you. Chu is really skilled at capturing the heart-wrenching and the hilarious. Nice Places will make you laugh and consider how hard it is to love ourselves in a world so focused on external validation. I loved the people and the places that made up this excellent novel. Also, I highly recommend checking out Chu's 2018 collection of stories Like a Champion.

[Sandy memybooksandI · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot kept me interested at first but it turned out to be quite repetitive and ultimately it did not meet my expections… I have not found it as deep and eventful as I thought it would be.
2.5 out of 5.

[Tyler Poeti · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not your typical travel story. This book will make you question how you define travel and view travel stories. This book was tender and I loved Georgie’s experience. I was not a fan of the ending or how Georgie ended up. This was a nice quick read!