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Central Places
A young woman's rootless past and uncertain future collide when she brings her white fiancé home to meet her Chinese immigrant parents, toppling her carefully constructed life in this vibrant, insightful debut from an exciting new voice in fiction.
Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny town in central Illinois where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancé, Ben. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she's become, from those she left behind.
But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Audrey's relationship with her parents has been soured by years of her mother's astronomical expectations and slights. The friends she's shirked for bigger dreams have stayed behind and started families. And then there's Kyle, the easygoing stoner and her unrequited crush from high school that she finds herself drawn to again. Ben might be a perfect fit for New Audrey, but Kyle was always the only one who truly understood her growing up, and being around him again after all these years has Old Audrey bubbling up to the surface.
Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey's proximity to her family and to Kyle forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she's worked toward and everything she's imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?
Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny town in central Illinois where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancé, Ben. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she's become, from those she left behind.
But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Audrey's relationship with her parents has been soured by years of her mother's astronomical expectations and slights. The friends she's shirked for bigger dreams have stayed behind and started families. And then there's Kyle, the easygoing stoner and her unrequited crush from high school that she finds herself drawn to again. Ben might be a perfect fit for New Audrey, but Kyle was always the only one who truly understood her growing up, and being around him again after all these years has Old Audrey bubbling up to the surface.
Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey's proximity to her family and to Kyle forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she's worked toward and everything she's imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 31, 2023
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July 5, 2025
mostly wanted to read this book because the author got kicked out of jury duty for tweeting that the fbi agent on the stand was hot.
that's girlboss
(3.5 / review to come)
that's girlboss
(3.5 / review to come)
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July 21, 2022Delia Cai’s CENTRAL PLACES is a sensitive, sharp-eyed, slyly funny story of venturing back into the foreign country that is your past—and discovering that you can never really shake the places and people that shaped you. This book will resonate with anyone who’s tried to navigate the confusing terrain of family tensions, lost friendships, or embarrassing memories of youth: in short, pretty much everyone.
February 8, 2023
**Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House-Ballantine, and Delia Cai for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 1.31!**
You can ALWAYS go home again...but in Audrey's case, maybe you just shouldn't.
From Central Illinois to Central Park: Audrey Zhou left her small town of Hickory Grove behind many years ago and has put down roots in NYC, where she has a successful career and a well-to-do hunky fiance Ben, who pays for the couple's brownstone. When Christmas rolls around, Audrey realizes it's time to take Ben home to Meet The Parents and see just how Hickory Grove informed Audrey's younger years.
When she gets there, however, all of the unfinished business she left behind comes rushing back to meet her in the form of bitter ex-friends, and a certain high school crush, Kyle, who still makes her heart go pitter-patter. Will this trip be the defining and healing moment Audrey has been waiting for before settling into marital bliss with Ben? Or will the pain and the distance she has put between herself and her former friends (and her lingering feelings for Kyle) send her spiraling back into unhealthy patterns...and change the trajectory of her life forever?
Delia Cai comes to the world of fiction from the world of Vanity Fair, where she was vanities correspondent: and in some ways, this is VERY evident in her characterization of the self-absorbed and selfish character that is Audrey Zhou. I started off this read thinking I'd connect with her as an aspiring City Mouse who actually spent a few years in Central Illinois myself...but other than tossing in references to Menard's and aimlessly wasting time driving around (because there wasn't much else to do) and of course Audrey's love for the Harry Potter books, there wasn't too much I'd consider redeemable in this character. Honestly, it seemed like the character was MUCH younger than she actually was and I kept shaking my head while reading about bad decision after bad decision.
It was hard to be invested in Audrey's emotional journey or to feel any sympathy towards her when it was shown over and over that she CREATED most of her own problems with her friendships (and even had the self awareness to admit it!) and yet couldn't understand why she wasn't welcomed back with open arms. The author also mentions the character's obsession with Matcha tea and how it was SO unavailable in Central Illinois...another fact that isn't quite true and yet was repeated over and over, along with scoffing at Panera and all sorts of behavior that was impolite at best. Audrey also went back and forth between being irritated by Ben and thinking he was the Best Guy Ever, so I honestly couldn't understand why he put up with her in the first place.
Add to all of this to a VERY predictable third act conflict (basically a foregone conclusion) and it was hard to stop rolling my eyes. Reading this directly after a lovely and well-written bildungsroman further emphasized the lack of growth in the main character of this book, and had me wishing that, above all else, she'd just grow up
2.5 stars, rounded up
You can ALWAYS go home again...but in Audrey's case, maybe you just shouldn't.
From Central Illinois to Central Park: Audrey Zhou left her small town of Hickory Grove behind many years ago and has put down roots in NYC, where she has a successful career and a well-to-do hunky fiance Ben, who pays for the couple's brownstone. When Christmas rolls around, Audrey realizes it's time to take Ben home to Meet The Parents and see just how Hickory Grove informed Audrey's younger years.
When she gets there, however, all of the unfinished business she left behind comes rushing back to meet her in the form of bitter ex-friends, and a certain high school crush, Kyle, who still makes her heart go pitter-patter. Will this trip be the defining and healing moment Audrey has been waiting for before settling into marital bliss with Ben? Or will the pain and the distance she has put between herself and her former friends (and her lingering feelings for Kyle) send her spiraling back into unhealthy patterns...and change the trajectory of her life forever?
Delia Cai comes to the world of fiction from the world of Vanity Fair, where she was vanities correspondent: and in some ways, this is VERY evident in her characterization of the self-absorbed and selfish character that is Audrey Zhou. I started off this read thinking I'd connect with her as an aspiring City Mouse who actually spent a few years in Central Illinois myself...but other than tossing in references to Menard's and aimlessly wasting time driving around (because there wasn't much else to do) and of course Audrey's love for the Harry Potter books, there wasn't too much I'd consider redeemable in this character. Honestly, it seemed like the character was MUCH younger than she actually was and I kept shaking my head while reading about bad decision after bad decision.
It was hard to be invested in Audrey's emotional journey or to feel any sympathy towards her when it was shown over and over that she CREATED most of her own problems with her friendships (and even had the self awareness to admit it!) and yet couldn't understand why she wasn't welcomed back with open arms. The author also mentions the character's obsession with Matcha tea and how it was SO unavailable in Central Illinois...another fact that isn't quite true and yet was repeated over and over, along with scoffing at Panera and all sorts of behavior that was impolite at best. Audrey also went back and forth between being irritated by Ben and thinking he was the Best Guy Ever, so I honestly couldn't understand why he put up with her in the first place.
Add to all of this to a VERY predictable third act conflict (basically a foregone conclusion) and it was hard to stop rolling my eyes. Reading this directly after a lovely and well-written bildungsroman further emphasized the lack of growth in the main character of this book, and had me wishing that, above all else, she'd just grow up
2.5 stars, rounded up
November 30, 2022
Central Places tackles what it’s like to go home again, when home is where you fled. Chinese-American Audrey grew up in Hickory Grove, Illinois, but now lives in NYC. Now that she’s engaged to Ben, a born New Yorker of upper crust parents, she only returns at Christmas so Ben can meet her parents. Audrey hasn’t been home in the 8 years since she left. And her relationship with her demanding mother is just as stressed now as then.
Audrey is no sooner home, when she and Ben run into her high school crush.
I am not the intended audience for this book and I struggled to relate. As the main character, I’m assuming that Cai means her to be sympathetic. But I found her self centered and obtuse. She struggles to survive without matcha. She is still so oblivious she doesn’t even realize she should be apologizing to her HS bff. I kept wondering when she would grow up. Of course, taking Ben out of his element doesn’t cast him in the best light either. But when he said he felt tricked, I totally understood. And despite the disagreements she had with her mother, she was just so inconsiderate. . By the end, it was encouraging to see her starting to act more like an adult.
I’d be curious to know if younger readers related more to Audrey.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House/Ballantine Books for an advance copy of this book.
Audrey is no sooner home, when she and Ben run into her high school crush.
I am not the intended audience for this book and I struggled to relate. As the main character, I’m assuming that Cai means her to be sympathetic. But I found her self centered and obtuse. She struggles to survive without matcha. She is still so oblivious she doesn’t even realize she should be apologizing to her HS bff. I kept wondering when she would grow up. Of course, taking Ben out of his element doesn’t cast him in the best light either. But when he said he felt tricked, I totally understood. And despite the disagreements she had with her mother, she was just so inconsiderate. . By the end, it was encouraging to see her starting to act more like an adult.
I’d be curious to know if younger readers related more to Audrey.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House/Ballantine Books for an advance copy of this book.
December 11, 2022
4.5 stars
It’s not often that I come across a book where I’m able to resonate so deeply with the main character that, as soon as I turn the last page, the first thought that pops into my head is: wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt so seen! That’s exactly how I felt after meeting Audrey Zhou, the main protagonist of Delia Cai’s debut novel Central Places .
To be honest, Audrey wasn’t a likeable character for much of the story — as I was reading, there were so many instances where I found her actions and behavior annoying and frustrating, not to mention I kept wanting to yell at her to stop being so self-destructive and making a mess of her life. With that said however, Audrey was also a character I empathized with immensely — and in some areas, saw aspects of myself in. With my shared cultural background of being the Chinese daughter of strict immigrant parents as well as growing up in an environment where very few people looked like me, I was absolutely able to relate to so much of what Audrey went through in the story, but more importantly, I was able to understand, on a deeper level, the complicated family and society dynamics that shaped her into who she eventually became as an adult and why she ended up making some of the decisions she did (even ones that I disagreed with). I’m able to empathize because I went through many of the same struggles myself (some which I am still working through even now).
On a personal level, I know what it feels like to grow up in an immigrant household where there is always an unspoken pressure to prove the worthiness of your existence; where you constantly have to worry about living your life in a way that justifies the sacrifice your parents made in leaving their prior lives behind and moving to a foreign country where they are largely treated as second class citizens; where you are expected to be obedient, to follow the path your parents laid out for you, to work hard and keep your head down, and no matter what, don’t draw attention to yourself, which often involves not reacting when people make fun of you for being different (or, in a real life example, when classmates make a game of deliberately kicking the back of your legs so it looks like you are kneeling and bowing down to them); where there is constant pressure to be perfect, to succeed, and not make any mistakes along the way so as to not give those who don’t want you here in the first place the satisfaction of seeing you fail; where you are destined to endlessly strive for approval and acceptance that never comes. These are just a few examples — both in the story and in my own real life experience, there are way too many examples to list them all out.
The other aspect of the story that really resonated with me was the relationship that Audrey had with her mother — the relationship was a strained one that was plagued with communication issues, misunderstandings, silence as a form of punishment, and, the most destructive of all, an unwillingness to let their true emotions show for fear of letting their guard down and exposing their vulnerabilities. For someone who may not be familiar with the unique dynamics that often define Asian (especially Chinese) mother / daughter relationships, it can be hard to understand Audrey’s immature behavior when she’s back in her parents’ presence in Hickory Grove. For me, I understood it acutely because I lived that same reality for most of my life (and continue to do so to this day). Culturally, Asian daughters have a whole set of expectations placed upon them from the moment they are born — expectations that Asian mothers are responsible for reinforcing throughout their daughters’ lives…hence the relentless criticizing / nagging / judging / critiquing that we are constantly subjected to, regardless of how old we are or how successful we become. I’ve actually lost count already how many of my Chinese female friends (all of whom are around my age, in their 40s, and are strong, successful, financially secure women) complain about resorting to “petulant teenager mode” each time they are in their mother’s presence — a sentiment that I resonate with wholeheartedly because I’m the exact same way whenever I’m around my mom. Even though rationally, we know that arguing is fruitless because, as much as we don’t want to admit it, our mothers’ nitpicking is their way of expressing their love for us, the hurt and pain we experience in the moment often defies all logical thought. It’s a phenomenon that’s very hard to explain, but those who live it (whether daily like me since I live with my mom, or only occasionally like my friends who live separately from their moms and only visit once in awhile) will undoubtedly understand.
One other thing I have to mention is how much I appreciated the realistic portrayal of the characters and what they go through in the story. Life is messy, complicated, and unpredictable, with both good moments and bad ones that are impossible to fit nicely into a box, to be put away and taken out whenever we feel like it. This book did an especially great job showing this complexity, which is probably why the story ended up gutting me in ways I wasn’t expecting — in fact, it hit so close to home for me in so many areas that, at certain points, I had to put the book down so I could clear the lump in my throat (and actually wipe the tears from my eyes a few times). For me, there was so much to unpack with this story and in all honesty, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface with this review. While I focused primarily on the aspects most familiar to me, there are actually an abundance of themes in here that are worthy of further discussion (i.e.: themes such as coming to terms with the past, self-discovery and self-reflection, mixed race relationships, etc.). I definitely found this to be a worthwhile read, but I know that each person who reads this book will get something different out of it, and in some cases, may not be able to relate at all to the story, which is absolutely fine, as that’s the beauty of books and reading — they meet you where you’re at.
Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley.
It’s not often that I come across a book where I’m able to resonate so deeply with the main character that, as soon as I turn the last page, the first thought that pops into my head is: wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt so seen! That’s exactly how I felt after meeting Audrey Zhou, the main protagonist of Delia Cai’s debut novel Central Places .
To be honest, Audrey wasn’t a likeable character for much of the story — as I was reading, there were so many instances where I found her actions and behavior annoying and frustrating, not to mention I kept wanting to yell at her to stop being so self-destructive and making a mess of her life. With that said however, Audrey was also a character I empathized with immensely — and in some areas, saw aspects of myself in. With my shared cultural background of being the Chinese daughter of strict immigrant parents as well as growing up in an environment where very few people looked like me, I was absolutely able to relate to so much of what Audrey went through in the story, but more importantly, I was able to understand, on a deeper level, the complicated family and society dynamics that shaped her into who she eventually became as an adult and why she ended up making some of the decisions she did (even ones that I disagreed with). I’m able to empathize because I went through many of the same struggles myself (some which I am still working through even now).
On a personal level, I know what it feels like to grow up in an immigrant household where there is always an unspoken pressure to prove the worthiness of your existence; where you constantly have to worry about living your life in a way that justifies the sacrifice your parents made in leaving their prior lives behind and moving to a foreign country where they are largely treated as second class citizens; where you are expected to be obedient, to follow the path your parents laid out for you, to work hard and keep your head down, and no matter what, don’t draw attention to yourself, which often involves not reacting when people make fun of you for being different (or, in a real life example, when classmates make a game of deliberately kicking the back of your legs so it looks like you are kneeling and bowing down to them); where there is constant pressure to be perfect, to succeed, and not make any mistakes along the way so as to not give those who don’t want you here in the first place the satisfaction of seeing you fail; where you are destined to endlessly strive for approval and acceptance that never comes. These are just a few examples — both in the story and in my own real life experience, there are way too many examples to list them all out.
The other aspect of the story that really resonated with me was the relationship that Audrey had with her mother — the relationship was a strained one that was plagued with communication issues, misunderstandings, silence as a form of punishment, and, the most destructive of all, an unwillingness to let their true emotions show for fear of letting their guard down and exposing their vulnerabilities. For someone who may not be familiar with the unique dynamics that often define Asian (especially Chinese) mother / daughter relationships, it can be hard to understand Audrey’s immature behavior when she’s back in her parents’ presence in Hickory Grove. For me, I understood it acutely because I lived that same reality for most of my life (and continue to do so to this day). Culturally, Asian daughters have a whole set of expectations placed upon them from the moment they are born — expectations that Asian mothers are responsible for reinforcing throughout their daughters’ lives…hence the relentless criticizing / nagging / judging / critiquing that we are constantly subjected to, regardless of how old we are or how successful we become. I’ve actually lost count already how many of my Chinese female friends (all of whom are around my age, in their 40s, and are strong, successful, financially secure women) complain about resorting to “petulant teenager mode” each time they are in their mother’s presence — a sentiment that I resonate with wholeheartedly because I’m the exact same way whenever I’m around my mom. Even though rationally, we know that arguing is fruitless because, as much as we don’t want to admit it, our mothers’ nitpicking is their way of expressing their love for us, the hurt and pain we experience in the moment often defies all logical thought. It’s a phenomenon that’s very hard to explain, but those who live it (whether daily like me since I live with my mom, or only occasionally like my friends who live separately from their moms and only visit once in awhile) will undoubtedly understand.
One other thing I have to mention is how much I appreciated the realistic portrayal of the characters and what they go through in the story. Life is messy, complicated, and unpredictable, with both good moments and bad ones that are impossible to fit nicely into a box, to be put away and taken out whenever we feel like it. This book did an especially great job showing this complexity, which is probably why the story ended up gutting me in ways I wasn’t expecting — in fact, it hit so close to home for me in so many areas that, at certain points, I had to put the book down so I could clear the lump in my throat (and actually wipe the tears from my eyes a few times). For me, there was so much to unpack with this story and in all honesty, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface with this review. While I focused primarily on the aspects most familiar to me, there are actually an abundance of themes in here that are worthy of further discussion (i.e.: themes such as coming to terms with the past, self-discovery and self-reflection, mixed race relationships, etc.). I definitely found this to be a worthwhile read, but I know that each person who reads this book will get something different out of it, and in some cases, may not be able to relate at all to the story, which is absolutely fine, as that’s the beauty of books and reading — they meet you where you’re at.
Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley.
July 7, 2023
Central Places by Delia Cai is an Asian-American Literature Story!
Hickory Grove in Central Illinois is where Andrey Zhou grew up, where her parents still reside, and the small town she couldn't wait to exit immediately after high school. She has no regrets staying away for eight years and had no plans to go back, until now.
A short visit to her hometown might be nice way to show her fiancé Ben where she grew up and introduce him to her parents. It's Christmastime after all, so maybe she'll run into some of her old friends from high school, her BFF, her old crush. It's only for a few days and who knows, it could be fun reminiscing and catching up...
Central Places is told from Audrey's point-of-view, a single perspective, that feels one-sided and perhaps skewed by the in-between years. Why would one's vantage point change when, after eight years, you're still convinced you saw things exactly as you remember.
And when you're always right in your own mind, how can you possibly ever be wrong? Right?
Did I mention how unlikable Audrey is as our protagonist? It also makes her a very interesting character study.
Central Places is a journey for Audrey who has always seen herself as a victim of her surroundings, and still does, without ever realizing how her actions impact those closest to her. It's an interesting spin on going back to your past and expecting to get back more than you've given.
The audiobook narrated by Natalie Naunus was a pleasurable listen. However, even though it was an interesting story, I don't believe this will be one I'll remember much detail about or reflect back on in the future.
My favorite aspects of Central Places are the intense family and relationship dynamics. It's what will make this one worth reading if you enjoy Family and/or Friendship Fiction along with an intense character study of an unlikable main character.
3.5⭐
Hickory Grove in Central Illinois is where Andrey Zhou grew up, where her parents still reside, and the small town she couldn't wait to exit immediately after high school. She has no regrets staying away for eight years and had no plans to go back, until now.
A short visit to her hometown might be nice way to show her fiancé Ben where she grew up and introduce him to her parents. It's Christmastime after all, so maybe she'll run into some of her old friends from high school, her BFF, her old crush. It's only for a few days and who knows, it could be fun reminiscing and catching up...
Central Places is told from Audrey's point-of-view, a single perspective, that feels one-sided and perhaps skewed by the in-between years. Why would one's vantage point change when, after eight years, you're still convinced you saw things exactly as you remember.
And when you're always right in your own mind, how can you possibly ever be wrong? Right?
Did I mention how unlikable Audrey is as our protagonist? It also makes her a very interesting character study.
Central Places is a journey for Audrey who has always seen herself as a victim of her surroundings, and still does, without ever realizing how her actions impact those closest to her. It's an interesting spin on going back to your past and expecting to get back more than you've given.
The audiobook narrated by Natalie Naunus was a pleasurable listen. However, even though it was an interesting story, I don't believe this will be one I'll remember much detail about or reflect back on in the future.
My favorite aspects of Central Places are the intense family and relationship dynamics. It's what will make this one worth reading if you enjoy Family and/or Friendship Fiction along with an intense character study of an unlikable main character.
3.5⭐
March 19, 2023
Audrey Zhou is a 27 year old Chinese American woman who grew up in a small town in central Illinois. Wanting to get far away from her hometown and her parents, she left for college and then later moved to New York to build the life she always wanted. After getting engaged, she returns to Hickory Grove after 8 long years to introduce her fiancé, Ben, to her Chinese immigrant parents and also to be there for her father's medical procedure.
As a Vietnamese American, I was naturally drawn to the premise of this story. When Audrey returns home, she runs into her high school friend and crush, Kyle. This brings with it a lot of suppressed emotions and feelings Audrey chose to avoid rather than confront. Add to that the fact that she didn't keep in touch with any of her friends when she left Hickory Grove, and also having a very strained relationship with her parents, particularly her mother, it makes for a stressful trip back home and one that causes Audrey to contemplate her life choices.
The writing is good as is the flow of the dialogue especially since it was Delia Cai's debut novel. The author also did a great job of writing the difficult relationship between Audrey and her mother. I could feel the tension between them.
While I understand where the author was going with regards to the topic of racism, it was written with a heavy hand causing it to feel more stereotypical, and I prefer these topics to feel more authentic. For example, while waiting for their flight at LaGuardia, Audrey strikes up a conversation with a woman. The woman states how Audrey's skin is stunning and says, If you don't mind me asking, where are you from? Audrey gets all flustered from this question and Ben says, "If you're wondering what kind of Asian she is, that's really none of your f*cking business". This is just one of many examples like this. Honestly, I had to reread this because their reaction to this simple question was so over the top and uncalled for in my opinion. I have been asked this question so many times in my life and NEVER have I taken it to be a racist question. I even asked my Vietnamese mom what she thought of it and she laughed and said it has never bothered her either.
The story is told solely from Audrey's POV, but she was my biggest issue. I found her unlikable to the extreme. I wanted to root for her, I wanted her to redeem herself but in the end it was just too late because by that time, I despised her. She was immature, petulant and loved to blame everyone else for everything that happened to her despite her failure to communicate openly with anyone. Although her mother was a tough pill to swallow and not necessarily likable herself, the way Audrey spoke to and treated her parents was disrespectful and appalling. Trust me, I know it can be difficult growing up with an immigrant parent or in her case parents. I definitely didn't see eye to eye with my mom growing up especially given the differences in our cultural upbringings, but at least I tried to understand where she was coming from and would never speak to her in such a way.
All that being said, I liked the story and the point the author was trying to get across. I just prefer a more genuine and realistic delivery. Despite my issues, I liked the book and would definitely read another by this author. 3 stars.
As a Vietnamese American, I was naturally drawn to the premise of this story. When Audrey returns home, she runs into her high school friend and crush, Kyle. This brings with it a lot of suppressed emotions and feelings Audrey chose to avoid rather than confront. Add to that the fact that she didn't keep in touch with any of her friends when she left Hickory Grove, and also having a very strained relationship with her parents, particularly her mother, it makes for a stressful trip back home and one that causes Audrey to contemplate her life choices.
The writing is good as is the flow of the dialogue especially since it was Delia Cai's debut novel. The author also did a great job of writing the difficult relationship between Audrey and her mother. I could feel the tension between them.
While I understand where the author was going with regards to the topic of racism, it was written with a heavy hand causing it to feel more stereotypical, and I prefer these topics to feel more authentic. For example, while waiting for their flight at LaGuardia, Audrey strikes up a conversation with a woman. The woman states how Audrey's skin is stunning and says, If you don't mind me asking, where are you from? Audrey gets all flustered from this question and Ben says, "If you're wondering what kind of Asian she is, that's really none of your f*cking business". This is just one of many examples like this. Honestly, I had to reread this because their reaction to this simple question was so over the top and uncalled for in my opinion. I have been asked this question so many times in my life and NEVER have I taken it to be a racist question. I even asked my Vietnamese mom what she thought of it and she laughed and said it has never bothered her either.
The story is told solely from Audrey's POV, but she was my biggest issue. I found her unlikable to the extreme. I wanted to root for her, I wanted her to redeem herself but in the end it was just too late because by that time, I despised her. She was immature, petulant and loved to blame everyone else for everything that happened to her despite her failure to communicate openly with anyone. Although her mother was a tough pill to swallow and not necessarily likable herself, the way Audrey spoke to and treated her parents was disrespectful and appalling. Trust me, I know it can be difficult growing up with an immigrant parent or in her case parents. I definitely didn't see eye to eye with my mom growing up especially given the differences in our cultural upbringings, but at least I tried to understand where she was coming from and would never speak to her in such a way.
All that being said, I liked the story and the point the author was trying to get across. I just prefer a more genuine and realistic delivery. Despite my issues, I liked the book and would definitely read another by this author. 3 stars.
February 26, 2023
While the premise for Central Places ins't particularly original (a woman in her late 20s/early 30s returns to her hometown a place she longed to escape and begins to reassess or gains a new perspective on her life) I happen to like the kind of themes that this scenario enables to explore. Alas, despite the last chapters being actually pretty decent, the majority of Central Places was a trite and annoying affair. I was looking for an introspective read, a meditation on family, belonging, and becoming, with a slice-of-life feel, but what we get is an overwrought drama that gives the same energy as not quite a hallmark movie but a netflix original. I kid you at one point a blizzard or whatever forces our main character to spend the night with her former crush…I mean, this is the kind of stuff I could have written in the awful fanfics I wrote when I was a teen. If you’ve read a few of my reviews you know I like the so-called ‘unlikable’ characters, those whose flaws and messiness aren’t made palatable or excused by something or other in the narrative. What I cannot stand are the type of protagonists we are meant to find sympathetic and root for but who are obnoxious, rude, self-pitying, never listens to anyone or takes actual accountability, and, worst of all, dull (looking at you emily in paris). Nothing is ever their fault, they are always the wronged party. The people who call them out usually are made to have privileges that our protagonists do not have, so their criticisms are made moot. Worst still, Audrey, the main character of Central Places, is a blank. Beyond her annoying responses to other characters, she possesses no identifiable traits. She has a job, she must have colleagues, and she tells us she has a best friend back in NY (who she never thinks of)…but all of these barely make a dent in the narrative, leaving us with a character who seemingly exists from the novel’s first scene in the plane. Even what she tells us about her high school experiences, later on in the narrative, does not give her character a solid history or even a sense of who she is (or who she isn't). We know she had a close friend and a crush on Kyle because he was attractive, a skater boy, and being Mexican-American they shared a tacit understanding of the it means to live in a very white corner of America (hey are both made to feel both hypervisible and invisible, and their existence is often questioned: "what are you?"). Sadly, Audrey's feelings often come across as very superficial. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Central Places follows Audrey as she flies with her fiancee, Ben whose personality is that of the generic straight white guy (he comes from wealth, he enjoyed an easy childhood, and he gets along with his family and his wholly oblivious to experiences and realities besides his picture-perfect one) to Hickory Grove, the small town in central Illinois where she grew up. Audrey hasn’t visited since leaving for high school and is not happy to be doing so now. Her relationship with her Chinese parents is very strained (or so she keeps insisting), and since setting off to NY she has had little contact with them. This is due to the resentment she feels towards her mother who weighed Audrey down with her expectations and made her feel that she wasn’t good enough, that she should keep on studying, and that she couldn’t behave like her peers (going out etc). Now her father is not well, so Ben convinces Audrey to make the trip to her hometown. There Audrey immediately behaves in a very antagonistic way towards her mother, but the narrative frames her behavior as a natural response to how awful her mother is…except that apart from a disapproving remark here or there, the majority of the narrative ignores her mother’s existence. In fact, a good 70% of this novel is far more concerned with Audrey’s rekindled feelings for her high school crush.
I absolutely hated how rude Audrey is to her parents. Considering that she is there for her father’s health she barely gives him a second thought, going on and on instead about how Hickory Grove is basically another universe from NY. Mate, sure, it’s a small conservative town. Suffocating, especially if you are not white/straight/cis. But she made it sound like it was this cesspool. Anyway, she reconnects with Kyle, who is there to be the Nice Guy. She also comes across a few high school acquaintances and discovers that a guy she knew, the brother of Kyle’s high school girlfriend, died a few years before and is shocked that no one told her (she cut ties with them so…). Yet, she barely thinks of the boy’s sister, or the boy himself, but she makes it about herself because that was the guy she first had sex with. Yikes. She also sees her former best friend who she dumped while at college. The friend however makes only a few appearances and in one of them calls out Audrey for the way she behaved towards her and the rest of the people they grew up with. But because we can’t make Audrey into an actual unlikable person the way she calls her out is made to be dismissive towards Audrey’s experiences growing up with Chinese immigrant parents. Nothing much happens beyond Audrey overdramatizing every encounter she has. Ben leaves and they have an argument that makes him into a Not So Nice Guy so he deserves to be cheated on.
She gets into an argument with her mother over the whole Ben/Kyle debacle, acting very much like a brat towards her. She then remembers the existence of her father who is the most decent character in the lot but probably gets the least page time. Rather than addressing Audrey’s awful behavior the story paints Ben in a negative light (he used his parents' money to buy them a house without consulting her beforehand…which seemed weird given how the first few chapters make him seem caring and recognizes that audrey was very supportive of him when he was getting his career started) so that Audrey’s cheating is swept under the rug. She’s not the bad guy, Ben is. Yeah, sure. Dare I say that whole Audrey was financially supporting Ben felt weird given that his parents are loaded and seem to have a good relationship with him (wouldn't they have given him financial support? maybe this is mentioned somewhere but if so it didn't leave an impression).
In the final chapters, Audrey decides just like that to be better and makes (insincere) apologies to the girl whose brother died and her former best friend.
I just detested Audrey so much. Her crush on Kyle for instance…at the time of her crush he was with someone (that girl whose brother died) but that didn’t stop her from following him around their last summer at Hickory Grove and hoping that he will make a move on her. In the present day, she reproaches Kyle when she realizes that he knew how she felt and didn’t do anything about it….he had a girlfriend Audrey! WTF. She cheats on Ben but feels basically no remorse whatsoever. In fact, she is angry at her mother who calls her out on it. She is even shown to be annoyed by Ben’s jealousy or his asking if their breakup is because of Kyle…aaargh. Her whole navel-gazing about how different her life in NY is compared to Hickory Grove was cringe. Speaking of cringe, so was the reveal that actually popular guys had crushes on her at high school because she was cool and aloof. Lord.
We then have a scene where someone tries to make it seem that Audrey’s experiences growing up with immigrant parents wasn’t as bad as their own one, which once again paints Audrey as the wronged party (given that someone is making an uncalled and invalidating comparison) that had the same energy as that infamous “Oppression Olympics” scene from Ginny & Georgia. If the references to HP and Taylor Swift weren't enough, we also get the classic trying to be 'relatable' 'this makes me a bad feminist' line to establish that yes, Audrey is indeed a millennial.
Maybe having actual chapters delving into Audrey’s childhood and adolescence, like in Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu, would have made her into a more fleshed-out character, and it certainly would have given her family dynamics more depth and nuance. As is I can’t help but unfavourably compare the novel’s portrayal of a fraught mother-daughter relationship with the ones you can find in films like Lady Bird and Everything Everywhere All at Once (where you are made to understand both mother and daughter), or novels like Butter Honey Pig Bread, Frying Plantain, and Lucy and memoirs like I’m Glad My Mom Died and Crying in H Mart. I can just think of so many other novels where we follow a character either travelling back to their hometown or moving to the midwest due to work (O Beautiful, Goodbye, Vitamin), a reunion party (The Town of Babylon), their parent’s poor health (The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing), and so on and so forth. I can even think of several titles that navigate the experiences of characters who have attempted to sever themselves from their pasts, like Luster, Bad Cree, American Fever, and Liar, Dreamer, Thief. Hell, I have just read a book where the main characters falls out with her best friend because she wasn't involved in the latter's wedding (Sea Change). And don’t even get me started on novels featuring a protagonist who is with this white straight generic guy who has never experienced any hardship really, he has rich or otherwise affluent parents and enjoyed a stable upbringing (Days of Distraction, Disorientation, These Impossible Things, The Four Humors).
I just wish that this novel had remained focused on Audrey’s relationship with her family, as opposed to the whole Ben/Kyle drama. Neither guy felt like a real person, but more like a plot device that enable Audrey to go through a very rushed self-discovery journey.
I hated how hypocritical Audrey was, and how the story makes her uncalled-for behavior reasonable. Even when her father is unwell Audrey manages to make it all about herself…
The way she behaves and responds to the people around her was really aggravating. She is acerbic, rude, and dismissive. I understand that she often feels on the defensive due to having grown up with someone who made their disapproval known, and that being back with your parents may see you revert to your adolescent self, but having her be exclusively this way was tiring. She’s selfish, and self-victimizing, and seems to believe that she is a nice person (her apologies at the end were beyond insincere yet they are meant to redeem her).
The writing was okay although it relied too often on phrases like “I blinked”...which I know is meant to convey something in the realms of surprise or incredulity I find it wholly redundant.
Anyway, just because this novel was not my cup of tea does not mean you should give it a miss. YMMV.
Central Places follows Audrey as she flies with her fiancee, Ben whose personality is that of the generic straight white guy (he comes from wealth, he enjoyed an easy childhood, and he gets along with his family and his wholly oblivious to experiences and realities besides his picture-perfect one) to Hickory Grove, the small town in central Illinois where she grew up. Audrey hasn’t visited since leaving for high school and is not happy to be doing so now. Her relationship with her Chinese parents is very strained (or so she keeps insisting), and since setting off to NY she has had little contact with them. This is due to the resentment she feels towards her mother who weighed Audrey down with her expectations and made her feel that she wasn’t good enough, that she should keep on studying, and that she couldn’t behave like her peers (going out etc). Now her father is not well, so Ben convinces Audrey to make the trip to her hometown. There Audrey immediately behaves in a very antagonistic way towards her mother, but the narrative frames her behavior as a natural response to how awful her mother is…except that apart from a disapproving remark here or there, the majority of the narrative ignores her mother’s existence. In fact, a good 70% of this novel is far more concerned with Audrey’s rekindled feelings for her high school crush.
I absolutely hated how rude Audrey is to her parents. Considering that she is there for her father’s health she barely gives him a second thought, going on and on instead about how Hickory Grove is basically another universe from NY. Mate, sure, it’s a small conservative town. Suffocating, especially if you are not white/straight/cis. But she made it sound like it was this cesspool. Anyway, she reconnects with Kyle, who is there to be the Nice Guy. She also comes across a few high school acquaintances and discovers that a guy she knew, the brother of Kyle’s high school girlfriend, died a few years before and is shocked that no one told her (she cut ties with them so…). Yet, she barely thinks of the boy’s sister, or the boy himself, but she makes it about herself because that was the guy she first had sex with. Yikes. She also sees her former best friend who she dumped while at college. The friend however makes only a few appearances and in one of them calls out Audrey for the way she behaved towards her and the rest of the people they grew up with. But because we can’t make Audrey into an actual unlikable person the way she calls her out is made to be dismissive towards Audrey’s experiences growing up with Chinese immigrant parents. Nothing much happens beyond Audrey overdramatizing every encounter she has. Ben leaves and they have an argument that makes him into a Not So Nice Guy so he deserves to be cheated on.
She gets into an argument with her mother over the whole Ben/Kyle debacle, acting very much like a brat towards her. She then remembers the existence of her father who is the most decent character in the lot but probably gets the least page time. Rather than addressing Audrey’s awful behavior the story paints Ben in a negative light (he used his parents' money to buy them a house without consulting her beforehand…which seemed weird given how the first few chapters make him seem caring and recognizes that audrey was very supportive of him when he was getting his career started) so that Audrey’s cheating is swept under the rug. She’s not the bad guy, Ben is. Yeah, sure. Dare I say that whole Audrey was financially supporting Ben felt weird given that his parents are loaded and seem to have a good relationship with him (wouldn't they have given him financial support? maybe this is mentioned somewhere but if so it didn't leave an impression).
In the final chapters, Audrey decides just like that to be better and makes (insincere) apologies to the girl whose brother died and her former best friend.
I just detested Audrey so much. Her crush on Kyle for instance…at the time of her crush he was with someone (that girl whose brother died) but that didn’t stop her from following him around their last summer at Hickory Grove and hoping that he will make a move on her. In the present day, she reproaches Kyle when she realizes that he knew how she felt and didn’t do anything about it….he had a girlfriend Audrey! WTF. She cheats on Ben but feels basically no remorse whatsoever. In fact, she is angry at her mother who calls her out on it. She is even shown to be annoyed by Ben’s jealousy or his asking if their breakup is because of Kyle…aaargh. Her whole navel-gazing about how different her life in NY is compared to Hickory Grove was cringe. Speaking of cringe, so was the reveal that actually popular guys had crushes on her at high school because she was cool and aloof. Lord.
We then have a scene where someone tries to make it seem that Audrey’s experiences growing up with immigrant parents wasn’t as bad as their own one, which once again paints Audrey as the wronged party (given that someone is making an uncalled and invalidating comparison) that had the same energy as that infamous “Oppression Olympics” scene from Ginny & Georgia. If the references to HP and Taylor Swift weren't enough, we also get the classic trying to be 'relatable' 'this makes me a bad feminist' line to establish that yes, Audrey is indeed a millennial.
Maybe having actual chapters delving into Audrey’s childhood and adolescence, like in Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu, would have made her into a more fleshed-out character, and it certainly would have given her family dynamics more depth and nuance. As is I can’t help but unfavourably compare the novel’s portrayal of a fraught mother-daughter relationship with the ones you can find in films like Lady Bird and Everything Everywhere All at Once (where you are made to understand both mother and daughter), or novels like Butter Honey Pig Bread, Frying Plantain, and Lucy and memoirs like I’m Glad My Mom Died and Crying in H Mart. I can just think of so many other novels where we follow a character either travelling back to their hometown or moving to the midwest due to work (O Beautiful, Goodbye, Vitamin), a reunion party (The Town of Babylon), their parent’s poor health (The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing), and so on and so forth. I can even think of several titles that navigate the experiences of characters who have attempted to sever themselves from their pasts, like Luster, Bad Cree, American Fever, and Liar, Dreamer, Thief. Hell, I have just read a book where the main characters falls out with her best friend because she wasn't involved in the latter's wedding (Sea Change). And don’t even get me started on novels featuring a protagonist who is with this white straight generic guy who has never experienced any hardship really, he has rich or otherwise affluent parents and enjoyed a stable upbringing (Days of Distraction, Disorientation, These Impossible Things, The Four Humors).
I just wish that this novel had remained focused on Audrey’s relationship with her family, as opposed to the whole Ben/Kyle drama. Neither guy felt like a real person, but more like a plot device that enable Audrey to go through a very rushed self-discovery journey.
I hated how hypocritical Audrey was, and how the story makes her uncalled-for behavior reasonable. Even when her father is unwell Audrey manages to make it all about herself…
The way she behaves and responds to the people around her was really aggravating. She is acerbic, rude, and dismissive. I understand that she often feels on the defensive due to having grown up with someone who made their disapproval known, and that being back with your parents may see you revert to your adolescent self, but having her be exclusively this way was tiring. She’s selfish, and self-victimizing, and seems to believe that she is a nice person (her apologies at the end were beyond insincere yet they are meant to redeem her).
The writing was okay although it relied too often on phrases like “I blinked”...which I know is meant to convey something in the realms of surprise or incredulity I find it wholly redundant.
Anyway, just because this novel was not my cup of tea does not mean you should give it a miss. YMMV.
September 7, 2022
These days I am always happy when a book is set in the Midwest, when it's anywhere that is not New York or California or the same old handful of cities. Cai takes the Coastal Elites vs Flyovers quite literally here, as Audrey, who escaped her small Illinois town, now returns for the first time since high school with her New York born-and-bred fiance. Audrey is 2nd generation, and her Chinese immigrant parents are not the ones you see in every version of the 2nd gen story. Her dad is an engineer, her mom goes to the local megachurch. But Audrey and her parents have a strained relationship, they don't understand each other's choices, and Audrey is glad to have her fiance as a buffer.
The way the story gradually opens up is what I enjoyed most. After a few days pass, Audrey's entire perspective on everything changes, but it doesn't feel rushed. It also doesn't give us easy conclusions. It isn't about a small hometown being better or worse than a big city, but it forces Audrey to consider how she has defined herself and whether she's done that simply as a reaction to what everyone expects instead of what she really wants.
In a way the setup is similar to a romcom, where the uptight woman is shaken up. But there are no villains here. If anything, Audrey discovers more and more how she has left people in her wake, so focused on her own plans that she hasn't considered the people around her. I do enjoy a book where you get to see a character really change.
I found her resolution with her parents a little too easily won, but that's really my only quibble.
The way the story gradually opens up is what I enjoyed most. After a few days pass, Audrey's entire perspective on everything changes, but it doesn't feel rushed. It also doesn't give us easy conclusions. It isn't about a small hometown being better or worse than a big city, but it forces Audrey to consider how she has defined herself and whether she's done that simply as a reaction to what everyone expects instead of what she really wants.
In a way the setup is similar to a romcom, where the uptight woman is shaken up. But there are no villains here. If anything, Audrey discovers more and more how she has left people in her wake, so focused on her own plans that she hasn't considered the people around her. I do enjoy a book where you get to see a character really change.
I found her resolution with her parents a little too easily won, but that's really my only quibble.
February 6, 2023
In Central Places Audrey Zhou and her fiancé, Ben, travel from NYC back to Hickory Grove, IL, the small town where Audrey grew up. When she graduated high school, Audrey left and never looked back. She has since built the life she wanted in NYC and hasn’t been home in 8 years. She’s tense, worried about her impossible to please Mom, and her well-intentioned but sometimes awkward Dad, the only family of Chinese immigrants in their small town.
While Audrey is anxious about Ben’s perception of her previous life and her parents’ perception of him, she is also tense about former friendships that ended by her abandonment when she left for college, and her high school crush, Kyle, who she and Ben run into at Walmart. This trip home forces Audrey to confront her past and consider what she wants for her future.
I felt for Audrey regarding her mom, who was distant, judgmental, and critical. Nothing seemed good enough for her, Audrey included. That said, I really did not like Audrey either! I wanted to see the story through but she didn’t grow on me. If anything, I came to dislike her more, largely due to her behavior and interactions with most people while she was home. I had a hard time connecting to Central Places as much as I hoped to because of this dislike.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
While Audrey is anxious about Ben’s perception of her previous life and her parents’ perception of him, she is also tense about former friendships that ended by her abandonment when she left for college, and her high school crush, Kyle, who she and Ben run into at Walmart. This trip home forces Audrey to confront her past and consider what she wants for her future.
I felt for Audrey regarding her mom, who was distant, judgmental, and critical. Nothing seemed good enough for her, Audrey included. That said, I really did not like Audrey either! I wanted to see the story through but she didn’t grow on me. If anything, I came to dislike her more, largely due to her behavior and interactions with most people while she was home. I had a hard time connecting to Central Places as much as I hoped to because of this dislike.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 20, 2023
Not a fan.
While I couldn't relate to Audrey Zhou as a child of an immigrant family, I could relate to her as someone who also left the town they grew up in and didn't return for a very long time after. I felt that Audrey was someone who was stuck in her past and was living an alternate life in NYC to maybe try and escape her upbringing? She came off very entitled and pretentious and frankly a bulldozer to her poor fiancé. Both Ben and Audrey were products of their upbringing and she was not as forgiving of his rich boy life as he was to her and her circumstances. Ben cared for her and she just ran him to the ground. To go home with your fiancé to ultimately sleep with some loser from High School absolutely killed the book for me. I don't mind characters that have problematic behavior, but Audrey was selfish and honestly, stupid. She was so rude to her parents and rude to her fiancé. I had a really hard time reading this one without wanting to throw it across the room. The only thing that saved the book was her sweet parents. I hope they're enjoying their life in Ft Lauderdale.
While I couldn't relate to Audrey Zhou as a child of an immigrant family, I could relate to her as someone who also left the town they grew up in and didn't return for a very long time after. I felt that Audrey was someone who was stuck in her past and was living an alternate life in NYC to maybe try and escape her upbringing? She came off very entitled and pretentious and frankly a bulldozer to her poor fiancé. Both Ben and Audrey were products of their upbringing and she was not as forgiving of his rich boy life as he was to her and her circumstances. Ben cared for her and she just ran him to the ground. To go home with your fiancé to ultimately sleep with some loser from High School absolutely killed the book for me. I don't mind characters that have problematic behavior, but Audrey was selfish and honestly, stupid. She was so rude to her parents and rude to her fiancé. I had a really hard time reading this one without wanting to throw it across the room. The only thing that saved the book was her sweet parents. I hope they're enjoying their life in Ft Lauderdale.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2023
Lacking spark…
In Central Places we meet Audrey Zhou who is returning to her hometown of Hickory Grove with her white fiancé. Audrey grew up in this very small town in Illinois and all she wanted to go was get away and that she did. She went to New York- landed a really nice job, met her fiancé and how they are planning on building a life together. Her parents are Chinese immigrant and unlike her fiancé’s parents she is not close to them, she feels constantly berated by them. She is visiting home because her dad as a procedure and she thinks its time to actually introduce her fiancé to her parents and the life she left behind.
In returning home she realizes that her relationship with her parents is non-existent, the friends she had growing up does not recognize who she is and is hurt that she never kept in touch, her fiancé looks and feels out of place. She begins to questing if she got lost in the New York sauce….
Honestly, this was a very quick read for me but only because I was dying to get through it. I did not like the main character Audrey, I felt she was very “whiney” and “woe is me”. I felt she kinda blew up her life and created drama where there wasn’t any. Overall.., unmemorable.
In Central Places we meet Audrey Zhou who is returning to her hometown of Hickory Grove with her white fiancé. Audrey grew up in this very small town in Illinois and all she wanted to go was get away and that she did. She went to New York- landed a really nice job, met her fiancé and how they are planning on building a life together. Her parents are Chinese immigrant and unlike her fiancé’s parents she is not close to them, she feels constantly berated by them. She is visiting home because her dad as a procedure and she thinks its time to actually introduce her fiancé to her parents and the life she left behind.
In returning home she realizes that her relationship with her parents is non-existent, the friends she had growing up does not recognize who she is and is hurt that she never kept in touch, her fiancé looks and feels out of place. She begins to questing if she got lost in the New York sauce….
Honestly, this was a very quick read for me but only because I was dying to get through it. I did not like the main character Audrey, I felt she was very “whiney” and “woe is me”. I felt she kinda blew up her life and created drama where there wasn’t any. Overall.., unmemorable.
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October 11, 2022I liked this a lot! As someone who is also from an anonymous small town in the Midwest, many of the surface details here felt familiar (see: Menards, youth group, driving around just because), and on a deeper level, I enjoyed the way Cai explored the complicated nature of home and belonging, and the way hometown bonds (with both people and places) can feel lifelong and tenuous all at once.
June 3, 2022
I’m really impressed with this debut novel. The writing was beautiful and it felt vulnerable throughout the story. This had such complex characters. The main character was unlikeable at times, but it helped make the story so realistic. It also brought about such great character development. I loved the ending! If you love complicated mother/daughter relationships and unlikeable characters, this is the perfect book for you!
*thank you Netgalley and Random House for the arc!
*thank you Netgalley and Random House for the arc!
February 25, 2023
Here are two quotes that sum up my feelings about the main character and the book.
Audrey's fiance says "But as far as I can tell, you're just another girl who thinks everything is your parents' fault, or because some guys you liked a million years ago rejected you"..."How have you not gotten over this already? Grow up, Audrey. Everyone grows up feeling different." Aubrey's response? "That is a really white thing for you to say."
Much later her high school bff says, "You're always so, like, 'things happen to me.'...Poor me, living in New York. Poor me, I don't get along with my mom. Poor me(spoiler). This is classic you, and you know it."
Audrey does eventually grow as a character - in the last 20 pages or so. Too little, too late, and too unrealistically - trying to tie the story in a neat little bow at the end.
Poor me for having to read this book.
Audrey's fiance says "But as far as I can tell, you're just another girl who thinks everything is your parents' fault, or because some guys you liked a million years ago rejected you"..."How have you not gotten over this already? Grow up, Audrey. Everyone grows up feeling different." Aubrey's response? "That is a really white thing for you to say."
Much later her high school bff says, "You're always so, like, 'things happen to me.'...Poor me, living in New York. Poor me, I don't get along with my mom. Poor me(spoiler). This is classic you, and you know it."
Audrey does eventually grow as a character - in the last 20 pages or so. Too little, too late, and too unrealistically - trying to tie the story in a neat little bow at the end.
Poor me for having to read this book.
August 31, 2023
Twenty-something Audrey Zhou seems to have the perfect New Yorker life. She has a good job at a magazine, a great Brooklyn apartment, and now, a loving fiancée whose wonderful parents want to buy them a condo. But Ben wants to meet her parents for Christmas and see Hickory Grove, where she grew up, but where hasn’t been in eight years. There’s lots to worry about, not least of all her combative relationship with a judgmental mother. Sure enough, it’s cringe time the moment they enter the door, and on a trip to Walmart, they run into Kyle, Audrey’s high school crush.
Those are relatable topics right there. Audrey doesn’t want to relive the awkwardness, pressure, and angst of those years, which is why it’s been so long since she’s visited. Cai makes a good case for her MC, painting the mom as vicious and bitter, and the interactions are testy at best. Audrey’s past anxieties come rushing back at every turn, every time she and Ben venture out into town. Hickory Grove and supporting cast are described well. The relationships with her best friends at the time, Kristin and Kyle, have plenty of depth. Even the parents feel complex and textured.
For me, the story could have used more action description, and a lot more dialogue. After all, if we’re meant to understand the deep-seated conflict between mother and daughter…shouldn’t we hear their grievances? Sure, there’s some of it, and yes, people who don’t like each other don’t tend to speak to one another. But the debate gets only one side: Audrey’s. And it’s all worked out in her head, through introspection and reflection, which goes against the mantra of “show, don’t tell.” It cooled off a story that could have been explosive and edgy.
Now, some reviewers remark that Audrey isn’t likeable. Well, my benchmark for unlikeable MCs is Rabbit in Updike’s Rabbit, Run (and series). Audrey might act petulant and self-righteous, and tends to blame others for her situation, but she hasn’t come close to Rabbit’s level of bad behavior. Yes, she’s immature and a little snobbish, but I was more indifferent, watching her from a distance.
That said, I did think the effort to make Audrey’s situation complex falls a bit flat. See above for one thing: not enough to “see.” For another, the issues seem to run into one another: being one of the only Asians in a white, Midwest town; the expectations of an immigrant family; high school regrets; past love; young adults establishing themselves; and what it means to get married. This needed something to pull it together.
There’s an effort to do just this around 75%, where the action picks up and the characters begin to act and talk things out. I enjoyed this: Audrey seems to get some clarity on things as her world shifts with some real-world interventions. It’s crisp, interesting, and dramatic. The ending is satisfying.
One note: reading it, I was thinking, “Boy, does this ever feel biographical.” Sure enough, the author notes indicate that she grew up in Central Illinois, and has worked for publications like Buzzfeed. A lot like Audrey. Would love to talk to her about it all!
It’s an interesting take on the “you can’t go home again” theme, and certainly worth a look.
Thank you to NetGalley, Ballantine and Cornerstone for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Those are relatable topics right there. Audrey doesn’t want to relive the awkwardness, pressure, and angst of those years, which is why it’s been so long since she’s visited. Cai makes a good case for her MC, painting the mom as vicious and bitter, and the interactions are testy at best. Audrey’s past anxieties come rushing back at every turn, every time she and Ben venture out into town. Hickory Grove and supporting cast are described well. The relationships with her best friends at the time, Kristin and Kyle, have plenty of depth. Even the parents feel complex and textured.
For me, the story could have used more action description, and a lot more dialogue. After all, if we’re meant to understand the deep-seated conflict between mother and daughter…shouldn’t we hear their grievances? Sure, there’s some of it, and yes, people who don’t like each other don’t tend to speak to one another. But the debate gets only one side: Audrey’s. And it’s all worked out in her head, through introspection and reflection, which goes against the mantra of “show, don’t tell.” It cooled off a story that could have been explosive and edgy.
Now, some reviewers remark that Audrey isn’t likeable. Well, my benchmark for unlikeable MCs is Rabbit in Updike’s Rabbit, Run (and series). Audrey might act petulant and self-righteous, and tends to blame others for her situation, but she hasn’t come close to Rabbit’s level of bad behavior. Yes, she’s immature and a little snobbish, but I was more indifferent, watching her from a distance.
That said, I did think the effort to make Audrey’s situation complex falls a bit flat. See above for one thing: not enough to “see.” For another, the issues seem to run into one another: being one of the only Asians in a white, Midwest town; the expectations of an immigrant family; high school regrets; past love; young adults establishing themselves; and what it means to get married. This needed something to pull it together.
There’s an effort to do just this around 75%, where the action picks up and the characters begin to act and talk things out. I enjoyed this: Audrey seems to get some clarity on things as her world shifts with some real-world interventions. It’s crisp, interesting, and dramatic. The ending is satisfying.
One note: reading it, I was thinking, “Boy, does this ever feel biographical.” Sure enough, the author notes indicate that she grew up in Central Illinois, and has worked for publications like Buzzfeed. A lot like Audrey. Would love to talk to her about it all!
It’s an interesting take on the “you can’t go home again” theme, and certainly worth a look.
Thank you to NetGalley, Ballantine and Cornerstone for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
January 19, 2023
What a lovely debut from Delia Cai. I've been a longtime reader of her newsletter, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on her first book.
As someone who very deliberately moved away from home at 18 and has reckoned with that in the ensuing decade, I empathized with many of the experiences that the protagonist Audrey contended with when going back to Hickory Grove. (There were also a few points where Audrey was wistfully thinking about her life in alternate universes, and whew, that cut deep!!!!) Moreover, I appreciated the level of complexity Cai brought when unraveling Audrey's complicated relationship with immigrant parents and her feelings of otherness — on a number of fronts — in a tiny town.
This novel seemed to struggle a little bit with the transitions into moments of major conflict; at times, they were a tad clunky and missed some connective tissue, which in turn made it difficult to fully understand characters' motivations. Additionally, this book might've benefitted from alternating points of view between at least Audrey and her mother (and maybe even other characters); I felt like there was so much we didn't really get to learn about her mom specifically, and Cai set up her character so beautifully for more depth.
Still, I will always look forward to seeing what comes next from Delia Cai!
Content warning: Anti-Asian racism and slurs
As someone who very deliberately moved away from home at 18 and has reckoned with that in the ensuing decade, I empathized with many of the experiences that the protagonist Audrey contended with when going back to Hickory Grove. (There were also a few points where Audrey was wistfully thinking about her life in alternate universes, and whew, that cut deep!!!!) Moreover, I appreciated the level of complexity Cai brought when unraveling Audrey's complicated relationship with immigrant parents and her feelings of otherness — on a number of fronts — in a tiny town.
This novel seemed to struggle a little bit with the transitions into moments of major conflict; at times, they were a tad clunky and missed some connective tissue, which in turn made it difficult to fully understand characters' motivations. Additionally, this book might've benefitted from alternating points of view between at least Audrey and her mother (and maybe even other characters); I felt like there was so much we didn't really get to learn about her mom specifically, and Cai set up her character so beautifully for more depth.
Still, I will always look forward to seeing what comes next from Delia Cai!
Content warning: Anti-Asian racism and slurs
March 30, 2025
You know when you’re reading and you’re like “I feel that, I get the protagonist”, and it’s a little spark and it makes you feel connected. Well that was practically this whole book for me.
The summary is an Asian girl moves to the city and visits her hometown after 8 years of being away. And wow I feel like this book is a letter from myself who’s 8 years older. I’m about to move out for college and this whole book just resonated so much with me.
The writing felt very real and the story was captivating, especially for me since I feel like protagonists like this are rarely portrayed. I hope this book gets more attention because it’s amazingly written, and also I love seeing diverse experiences in books.
Also I skimmed the other reviews and some were like “this book is a little cliche and seems unrealistic.” Wellllll y’all need to come talk to me because I basically lived every single event in this book it’s crazy. So maybe my life is cliche but I thought it felt very real.
The summary is an Asian girl moves to the city and visits her hometown after 8 years of being away. And wow I feel like this book is a letter from myself who’s 8 years older. I’m about to move out for college and this whole book just resonated so much with me.
The writing felt very real and the story was captivating, especially for me since I feel like protagonists like this are rarely portrayed. I hope this book gets more attention because it’s amazingly written, and also I love seeing diverse experiences in books.
Also I skimmed the other reviews and some were like “this book is a little cliche and seems unrealistic.” Wellllll y’all need to come talk to me because I basically lived every single event in this book it’s crazy. So maybe my life is cliche but I thought it felt very real.
January 13, 2023
Audrey Zhou grew up as one of the very few Asian Americans in small town central Illinois, had a difficult relationship with her mother and couldn’t wait to get out. After college, she moved to New York where she obtained a good job and a white fiancé, Ben. She hasn’t returned home for eight years but his called there over Christmas when her father has to undergo a medical procedure. Ben travels with her, but her visit is complicated by her difficulties with her mother as well as encountering her high school crush and her former best friend with whom she had a falling out years ago.
There are many emotional rabbit holes in this story. There is the poignancy of being ethnically different in a white bread American town where kids can be really cruel, the effects of parents who are different from the “norm”, and never feeling that you truly fit in, the often fraught mother daughter relationship especially when the mother is demanding and seemingly cold. There is dealing with parents who are aging and the inner conflict in a child about what debt is owed them. There is the draw of a first love; finding equality in a mature human relationship, and letting go.
This is well written by a debut author. She captures so well those feelings about returning to your parental home (your “central place”) as a young adult when your parents are moving on and you see your childhood room for the last time. I really liked the first half of the book. It became a tad tedious for a while because I thought Audrey was a bit immature and bratty and Ben a bit snobbish and dickish. But it ended strong with the satisfaction of resolution. This is a worthwhile read.
Thanks to #netgalley and #randomhouse for the ARC
February 11, 2023
Thanks to #BallantineBooks for an ARC of #CentralPlaces.
Way back in November, 𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗟 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗦 by Delia Cai was the first 2023 book I read. I was hoping this story of a twenty something Chinese American woman taking her fiancé home to meet her immigrant parents would start my reading year off right. Audrey Zhou had not stepped foot in her midwestern hometown since the day she left for college, had only seen her parents a handful of times, and had lost touch with all her local friends. Audrey liked it that way, but her fiancé wanted to know her parents and glimpse the place she came from.
While that was all well and good, a nice set up even, for me it got bogged down in Audrey, herself. She was just so dogged on her mother and the people she went to school with, so unable to see things from anyone else’s point of view. She had such little faith in herself that even after success in NYC, Audrey still constantly doubted herself and anyone who cared about her. It grew tiresome…and repetitive. I wanted to shake her! While this is a debut novel with strong writing, the story itself felt a little too YA for my tastes. So, my 2023 reading year didn’t begin on the high note I’d hoped for, but I was left interested enough that I’d definitely try Delia Cai again.
Thanks to #BallantineBooks for an ARC of #CentralPlaces.
Way back in November, 𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗟 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗦 by Delia Cai was the first 2023 book I read. I was hoping this story of a twenty something Chinese American woman taking her fiancé home to meet her immigrant parents would start my reading year off right. Audrey Zhou had not stepped foot in her midwestern hometown since the day she left for college, had only seen her parents a handful of times, and had lost touch with all her local friends. Audrey liked it that way, but her fiancé wanted to know her parents and glimpse the place she came from.
While that was all well and good, a nice set up even, for me it got bogged down in Audrey, herself. She was just so dogged on her mother and the people she went to school with, so unable to see things from anyone else’s point of view. She had such little faith in herself that even after success in NYC, Audrey still constantly doubted herself and anyone who cared about her. It grew tiresome…and repetitive. I wanted to shake her! While this is a debut novel with strong writing, the story itself felt a little too YA for my tastes. So, my 2023 reading year didn’t begin on the high note I’d hoped for, but I was left interested enough that I’d definitely try Delia Cai again.
Thanks to #BallantineBooks for an ARC of #CentralPlaces.
June 3, 2022
It's like if that Taylor Swift song "tis the damn season" were a novel. Really strong characterization, even with a slightly unlikeable narrator. Will make you think lots of things about your hometown whether you've moved on or, like me, planted roots there forever.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for this review.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for this review.
August 15, 2022
I don't know if I am the target audience for this rendering of You Can't Go Home Again. Or maybe you can since you misread the signs the first time. There was a good start, if a bit slow, but this account of a successful woman in her 20's taking her fiance to her hometown was, for me, predictable despite how it wrapped up.
December 13, 2023
this ended up being a little too hallmark movie for me which is not what I expected going into 🙃
December 18, 2023
Audrey Zhou is the only child of Chinese immigrants living in central Illinois. She currently lives in NYC with her white fiancé, Ben, who comes from a privileged background. Her father's failing health causes her to return to her hometown to introduce Ben to her parents and her background. Her contentious relationship with her mother is the main reason she hasn't returned in eight years.
A random meeting with her old friend, Kyle, stirs up memories that are bittersweet. She also encounters her previous best friend, whom she summarily dismissed in a hurtful way years before this encounter. Audrey sees herself as a victim in many ways. She is not a likeable character given her self-absorption and inability to see anyone else's viewpoint.
I finished this novel with mixed feelings, hoping that Audrey would eventually develop compassion for someone besides herself. It is told from her perspective, but there is understanding for those people in her life who deserved a better daughter and friend.
A random meeting with her old friend, Kyle, stirs up memories that are bittersweet. She also encounters her previous best friend, whom she summarily dismissed in a hurtful way years before this encounter. Audrey sees herself as a victim in many ways. She is not a likeable character given her self-absorption and inability to see anyone else's viewpoint.
I finished this novel with mixed feelings, hoping that Audrey would eventually develop compassion for someone besides herself. It is told from her perspective, but there is understanding for those people in her life who deserved a better daughter and friend.
March 2, 2023
***Possible Spoilers***
Too many "strikes" (what I will affectionately call Progressive B.S.) for me and decided to bail @ 16%. Not bad up to that point, but nothing too evocative or memorable either.
3%: "young white couple": Why is their skin color important? 😯
12%: "a generally aware white guy": Huh? Are you saying he's "woke"? And surprisingly because he has pale skin? 🤔
12%: The boyfriend is disappointed in "all the plastic" at the H-Mart? 🤦♀️
16%: The high school mascot is a Dalmatian in a fire fighter hat, because it used to be "the other kind of chief" until someone started a petition. (This always kills me - you pick a mascot as a tribute, an honor, something/someone you admire.)
16%: this former all-white farming village turned slightly less white suburb, where there were maybe four other people who looked like you." So you want to he around people who look like you? You mean, you're for segregation, then?
16%: Regarding Obama's inauguration, "we waited to see if we'd witness the assassination attempt that all the kids with the really Republican dads loved warning us about." Okay, this really jumps the shark at this point.
Too many "strikes" (what I will affectionately call Progressive B.S.) for me and decided to bail @ 16%. Not bad up to that point, but nothing too evocative or memorable either.
3%: "young white couple": Why is their skin color important? 😯
12%: "a generally aware white guy": Huh? Are you saying he's "woke"? And surprisingly because he has pale skin? 🤔
12%: The boyfriend is disappointed in "all the plastic" at the H-Mart? 🤦♀️
16%: The high school mascot is a Dalmatian in a fire fighter hat, because it used to be "the other kind of chief" until someone started a petition. (This always kills me - you pick a mascot as a tribute, an honor, something/someone you admire.)
16%: this former all-white farming village turned slightly less white suburb, where there were maybe four other people who looked like you." So you want to he around people who look like you? You mean, you're for segregation, then?
16%: Regarding Obama's inauguration, "we waited to see if we'd witness the assassination attempt that all the kids with the really Republican dads loved warning us about." Okay, this really jumps the shark at this point.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 30, 2023
This story, while not wholly original, was different from most books that I read and finish. In this miserable tome, the main character was so completely unlikable I'm not sure why the author thought anyone would be cheering for her at the end of the book. While she clearly feels the world is against her, her bratty and self-indulgent behavior (and attitude; the book is from her single POV, the only way she'd have it, I'm sure) forces the reader to only decide whether to finish the book or throw it out the window. If you are contemplating this book, I can save you time and tell you to pass...no spoiler, but the protagonist reaches out for a redemption she doesn't deserve while barely realizes she is her biggest problem. Terrible characters filling in an insufferable book that goes nowhere.
February 24, 2023
at first I was feeling like this was an enjoyable, if unremarkable, read but uh then it really punched me in the gut, emotionally speaking. my life has been very different from the main character's, but the book so accurately described my own feelings about leaving my hometown and growing apart from many of the people I grew up with that it was almost physically painful at points. I think anyone who feels some amount of tension between their old and new lives would get something out of it. obviously far from the only book to take on these themes, and the writing is more serviceable than exceptional, but I thought it was very well done.
February 9, 2023
Of all the things to love about this novel, the pace was my favorite. The plot was lovely, the characters were real and raw and vulnerable, and the setting was familiar to anyone who has ever tried to “go home again,” but the true beauty for me was the comfortable reading pace. I kept telling myself I would just read one more chapter and, while nothing terribly exciting ever happened, I just wanted to stay wrapped up in the story a little bit longer. A sparkling debut!
January 9, 2023
Very interesting read - huge fan of the ending.
Audrey and her new fiancé, Ben, return to her hometown for a Christmas visit and it provides a much needed dose of introspection for Audrey.
Caught between who she was and who she thinks she is, this story encompasses what it means to try to embrace your past.
ARC kindly provided via Net Galley.
Audrey and her new fiancé, Ben, return to her hometown for a Christmas visit and it provides a much needed dose of introspection for Audrey.
Caught between who she was and who she thinks she is, this story encompasses what it means to try to embrace your past.
ARC kindly provided via Net Galley.
August 24, 2022
At 28 years of age, Audrey Zhou is finally returning to her quiet hometown of Hickory Grove, Illinois for the first time since leaving home for college. And it's not entirely by her own will; her newest engagement to her fiancé Ben forces them to leave their familiar world of New York City, and means that Audrey has to return to a place that she thought she'd already escaped. When Aubrey arrives, she's immediately confronted with memories of her past - her demanding, never satisfied mother; her demure father who needs to undergo an endoscopy; her childhood friend and secret crush, Kyle; and her then-best-friend who she hasn't spoken to in years, Kristen.
Told from Aubrey's first person perspective, we watch as her current life as a successful professional in NYC clashes with her past life, despite her best attempts to keep the two apart. She struggles to reconcile with her former childhood friends and classmates, to come to terms with her immigrant parents, and to realize the truth about herself - both in the past and in the present.
Speaking purely from a personal perspective, this book hit home for me in a lot of places. The complicated relationship I had with my own immigrant Asian parents, the pressure to do well and leave your hometown, living and working NYC as a young professional, navigating the complicated world of dating and friendships as an adult - these were all themes and struggles that Audrey experiences and describes, oftentimes in very subtle and nuanced ways. Her desire to adopt a brand new identity and abandon the person who she was before (and all the mistakes she made as a child or teen) drives a lot of her present behavior and motivations, which is also a feeling I can empathize with. Aubrey also has to come to terms with the fact that the people who know her in the present may not accept who she was (and still is) - and that underlying conflict is what drives the bulk of the novel.
On the other hand, I can understand that this book is not for everyone. Cai has written about some very specific, nuanced situations and characters and the novel is very character-driven versus plot-driven; not that much actually happens throughout the novel. The pacing can feel slow at times, and the jumps across time periods can also be frustrating and difficult to follow. I personally feel like this novel would have been more impactful if written from a third person perspective, or even across alternating perspectives as Aubrey's mother stays fairly one-dimensional and negative until the final few pages of the novel.
For a debut novel, I think Cai has written a nuanced, character-driven story that clearly pulls from many of her own personal experiences, and will be appreciated by others who have had a similar upbringing.
Thank you Random House Publishing for the advance copy of this novel!
Told from Aubrey's first person perspective, we watch as her current life as a successful professional in NYC clashes with her past life, despite her best attempts to keep the two apart. She struggles to reconcile with her former childhood friends and classmates, to come to terms with her immigrant parents, and to realize the truth about herself - both in the past and in the present.
Speaking purely from a personal perspective, this book hit home for me in a lot of places. The complicated relationship I had with my own immigrant Asian parents, the pressure to do well and leave your hometown, living and working NYC as a young professional, navigating the complicated world of dating and friendships as an adult - these were all themes and struggles that Audrey experiences and describes, oftentimes in very subtle and nuanced ways. Her desire to adopt a brand new identity and abandon the person who she was before (and all the mistakes she made as a child or teen) drives a lot of her present behavior and motivations, which is also a feeling I can empathize with. Aubrey also has to come to terms with the fact that the people who know her in the present may not accept who she was (and still is) - and that underlying conflict is what drives the bulk of the novel.
On the other hand, I can understand that this book is not for everyone. Cai has written about some very specific, nuanced situations and characters and the novel is very character-driven versus plot-driven; not that much actually happens throughout the novel. The pacing can feel slow at times, and the jumps across time periods can also be frustrating and difficult to follow. I personally feel like this novel would have been more impactful if written from a third person perspective, or even across alternating perspectives as Aubrey's mother stays fairly one-dimensional and negative until the final few pages of the novel.
For a debut novel, I think Cai has written a nuanced, character-driven story that clearly pulls from many of her own personal experiences, and will be appreciated by others who have had a similar upbringing.
Thank you Random House Publishing for the advance copy of this novel!
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