Edge Case Lib/E

by YZ Chin

When her husband suddenly disappears, a young woman must uncover where he went—and who she might be without him—in this striking debut of immigration, identity, and marriage. After another taxing day as the sole female employee at her New York City tech startup, Edwina comes home to find that her husband, Marlin, has packed up a suitcase and left. The only question now is why. Did he give up on their increasingly hopeless quest to secure their green cards and decide to return to Malaysia? Was it the death of his father that sent him into a tailspin? Or has his strange, sudden change in personality finally made Marlin and Edwina strangers to each other? As Edwina searches the city for traces of her husband, she simultaneously sifts through memories of their relationship, hoping to discover the moment when something went wrong. All the while, a coworker is making increasingly uncomfortable advances toward her. And she can’t hide the truth about Marlin’s disappearance from her overbearing, eccentric mother for much longer. Soon Edwina will have to decide how much she is willing to sacrifice in order to stay in her marriage and in America. Poignant and darkly funny,  Edge Case  is a searing meditation on intimacy, estrangement, and the fractured nature of identity. In this moving debut, YZ Chin explores the imperfect yet enduring relationships we hold to country and family.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Adult, Asian Literature, Mental Health

Audio CD

First published August 10, 2021

About the author

YZ Chin is the author of Edge Case and Though I Get Home. Edge Case is a New York Times Editors' Choice and an NPR Books We Love pick for 2021. Though I Get Home won the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and the Asian/Pacific American Award For Literature honor title.

YZ is also a translator of Mahua literature. Her translations into English include works by Li Zi Shu, King Ban Hui, and Teng Kuan Kiat. Her work has been supported by NEA and MacDowell fellowships. Born and raised in Taiping, Malaysia, she now lives in New York.

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A BEST-OF-2021 PICK FROM NPR BOOKS!

(Review to come on Friday.)

FRIDAY:
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: First, read this:

Being very polite to train conductors and building security guards for the past decade has made my deferential way of speaking second nature. Though what an odd saying. What is my first nature?
–and–
He stood out, his skin a shade that I had seen compared to food items like chocolate or coffee in American books. Looking at him, I thought not of food, but of a neutral coolness that disguised something else, like an envelope that contained either really good tidings or earth-shattering bad news.

First novelist YZ Chin isn't playing around. She wrote those two passages early in this book. There isn't, this writing informs you, going to be any false modesty in here. I am going to talk about how a Straits Chinese woman married to a Chindian man, a fat woman married to a lean, athletic man who loves her, feels when "America" does its number on them together, separately, and as Symbols. They're two damaged people, they're altogether too small to withstand the pressure of being Symbols, and they're cracking under the strains. Which is why the book is narrated by Edwina in phone-and-internet conversations with her not-quite-licensed (it's just a paperwork thing, nothing important) therapist (see INS form I-693) after Marlin leaves her.

Edwina is an abused daughter of a harridan of a mother (The Banana Tree Spirit Story! OMG!!), a vegetarian to her dark, lean husband's more exacting veganism, a "quality control analyst" in a dudebro startup firm called, fully explanatorily, "AInstein," that lost its VCs a boatload of money by screwing some important code up and still releasing it to a client. Oopsie. Get a girl to handle it...an immigrant who won't dare make much trouble, cause any stress but will fill the role...one who won't be missed when we have to fire her for whatever screw-up she can't make us fix.

The bug was what’s called an integer overflow, which is when a number is too large for its assigned storage capacity and thus can manifest instead as a negative figure. For example, if the number 128 were forced into a signed field that could express only up to 127, the input would ‘overflow’ and be displayed as ˗128. It was mildly gratifying to learn that the human body could also overflow. I idly wondered if, any day now, my pain would grow so great that it converted into happiness.

What a terrific job, no? Not even a company-sponsored green card application, no no, you'll get your H1-C visa and that's it. Why, if she didn't really, really, really want to stay away from the poisonous reach of her mother's awful, barbed "past-life stories." Marlin's job, less pointless it seems, even affords him a few American friends, like best buddy Eamon and the guys he goes to the rock-climbing gym with. But everything changes when Marlin's father suddenly dies back in Malaysia.

At his funeral, the pair of them expensively in attendance as the ceremonies take place, along comes Edwina's mother to tell the Banana Tree Spirit story about betrayal, misery, and hateful ignorance carrying the day. That was bad enough, being about her daughter's "past life," but the many, many echoes this latest piece of cruelty has bids fair to have broken poor Marlin. At this lowest, most grief-ridden moment, the words have twisted themselves into a noose around his logical self so the corpse is all that's left in an ever-darkening relationship to Edwina.

A little detail about the pair returning from Malaysia into Trump's Murruhkuh, how they were treated at Customs, should make your blood boil, your mouth taste sour, and your eyes reflexively leak tears. I half-wondered if Edwina's speculation that "America made Marlin feel unwelcome, and so he left me," wasn't at least half right....

The US government actually monitored immigrants online, and anything I typed might be used against me—that was what internet advice hinted at. Resources for immigrants cautioned that we should "avoid profanity and the use of aggressive or threatening language" while posting online, which really voided the whole purpose of being on Twitter.

Of course, that internet false-identity therapy makes all the sense in the world in that light, doesn't it. Especially since the internet has a random, unidentifiable Crazy Person (or two, or fifty) to tell the suffering how, exactly, not to suffer anymore:

Surely I was better than these people with their loud, false bravado. Yet wasn’t I on the internet precisely because I wanted someone to give me a to-do list? I objected to the content of the lists, found them laughable, but still—I wanted my hand held, didn’t I?

Oh Edwina...that kind of comfort is so, so cold.

I decided the problem was that none of the results mentioned meddling by spirits.

Attagirl!

But when I typed in "spirits told my spouse to leave me," there was a tidal wave of marriages ended by alcoholism.

See? See what I mean, Edwina? Cold comfort...there're people out there a lot more fucked up than you and/or Marlin.

What good is marriage if you can just cancel it like cable?

Well. Now we're gettin' somewhere, Edwina. "Grieving in the form of research, because we believed in productivity above all else," might as well be tattooed on every modern workerbee, don't you think?

Well...she wanted a way to manage her grief at Marlin's weird, sudden abandonment...what about being told you're so unvalued at work that your serious problems with the MVP beta are being ignored? Before one of the dudebros tries to kiss you at a company party? And yes, Edwina, in today's world that IS sexual assault. Her revenge? Condign. (If premature...?)

It was no wonder to me that Edwina ended up doing what she did at the Korean deli. And it was actually a lovely surprise, a way of taking charge of her unhappiness. I can't help but wonder if this isn't, in fact, something that's in fact true and just not being discussed:

I didn't buy that depression was caused by low serotonin levels. No, what I felt was way more aggressive than a simple deficiency of certain neurotransmitters. There had to be another neurotransmitter that carried sadness, that handed out hopelessness like drugged candy. After all, even matter had antimatter.

But when matter and antimatter don't find a safe place to co-exist, what do they do then?

I'd send nail clippers (he was fastidious that way, or at least he used to be when he lived with me), ramen noodles (the fancy, super spicy ones, not the kind that tasted like boiled water that someone had farted in), a throw, maybe even a handheld gaming console.

No one who can write that sentence is done with being A Wife. Edwina, my dear lady, I've spent a grand total of five hours in your company, and they were grand hours! that ramen line!, but your modern-love-immigrant-style story isn't a huge revelation to me. Not once have you startled me, or surprised me, or done anything the least bit out of character.

And do you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for providing me with a free advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

For her first novel, author YZ Chin has written a unique book about immigrants in America, one woman’s search for her husband as well as trying to find herself. The book is written from the perspective of Edwina, the wife of Marlin, both of whom are immigrants from Malaysia who are here on work permits and trying to navigate the complexities of life in the US.
The uniqueness of the book starts from the beginning as this story is told as if we are Edwina’s therapist and she reveals much about the couples lives, work and the issues they encounter. We also find out that even though they are from Malaysia they have certain differences. Edwina is light-skinned, a vegetarian, heavy, has a rather difficult relationship with her mother and lacks much self-esteem. Marlin is dark-skinned, lean, a vegan, a computer coder and worships his recently deceased father. They work at different tech companies and both need to be sponsored in order to get their green card.
Despite coming from the same country the differences are quite obvious and drive much of this novel. Edwina feels that all is going well with her marriage until one day she comes home and Marlin has left. Their suitcase is gone, as well as the couples cat/dog (a toy they made for themselves, not a real animal, but nonetheless something that had become a family pet). What had happened? Was he kidnapped, had he wandered off, and where had he gone?
And so it is Edwina’s attempt to find Marlin, and all the while using us as her therapist to review her life, their life together and her experiences in New York. She tells us that something has changed in Marlin since they returned to the US after his father’s death, and tries to explore the full nature of these changes, whether she has done something to cause the changes and at the same time try to overcome the negative relationship she has with her mother. To put it mildly, Edwina has had to overcome a lot with her mother, who believes and tells Edwina stories as to why she is heavy, a vegetarian, has a mole on her face and much more. Even Marlin starts accusing her of having lovers, as it appears that he, too, has lost touch with reality prior to his disappearance.
While searching for Marlin, Edwina begins to eat meat, change her own lifestyle and begins to come to grips with her own life, as well as why Marlin has left. She finds him, but that is only part of the story. Edge Case is not a typical lost person novel, but rather is a story that makes us all reflect upon the deeper things that drive our lives, our loves and our own self-worth.
This review was previously published at www.mysteryandsuspense.com

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀

3 ½ stars

“[I]f I could make Americans laugh, then I would be accepted. I would be embraced and admired.”

Realistic, subtly off-beat, and keenly observed, Edge Case couples an indictment of the rampant misogyny that permeates the tech industry with an unsparing depiction of the everyday inequities and hurdles immigrants face in their pursuit of green cards and citizenship. Our narrator, Edwina, is a Malaysian woman of Chinese origin now living in New York and employed at AInstein, a tech startup working on an AI that can tell jokes. She’s married to Marlin, who is also Malaysian born but is of Chinese and Indian descent (his darker skin combined with him being from a majority Muslim country make him a target to both racism and Islamophobia). After the death of Marlin’s father, he begins to drift away from Edwina, and, much to her surprise, becomes increasingly preoccupied with the spirit world. One day Edwina returns home to discover it empty. Marlin has left her without leaving a note or any explanation.
A confused and hurting Edwina tries to make sense of his actions, compiling a list of the places he might have gone all the while questioning the motives behind his departure. Did he decide to return to Malaysia? Did he fall out of love with her? Or does it have to do with his newfound interest in spirits?

The novel takes place over the course of 10 days or so and we witness Edwina slowly coming apart. She struggles with her body image and food (after years of vegetarianism she begins to eat meat even if this results in her being physically unwell), with her self-esteem, and seems to experience difficulties wherever she is. Her calls with her mother, who has always been quick to criticise her appearance and life choices, are strained. Her best friend Katie seems oblivious to her crisis, encouraging her instead to forget Marlin and find someone else. Edwina is the only woman working at AInstein which results in her feeling understandably isolated. Her clannish male colleagues either ignore her, speaking over her, boohooing her ideas and feedback (for instance, when she points out that, surprise surprise, many of the jokes in their robot’s repertoire are sexist and or otherwise offensive, she’s told that she has no sense of humor because she’s 1) a woman 2) a foreigner). A white colleague of hers repeatedly toys the line between ‘banter’ and harassment, forcing her to proofread his crappy books and implying that she’s sleeping with other male colleagues.
Interspersed through this are flashbacks detailing Edwina and Marlin’s first meeting, their early days together, and their slow dissolution.
I liked and admired Edwina. Despite her situation, she’s determined to find out what happened to Marlin. At work she tries hard to be polite and agreeable but eventually, she’s forced into taking matters into her own hands. Her insecurities related to her body were certainly relatable and I appreciated how frank yet empathetic the author was when discussing this subject. Edwina’s desires, to be accepted by Americans, to be reunited with Marlin, were certainly understandable even if I did find myself questioning her devotion to Marlin. He behaves abhorrent towards and much of its chalked up to ‘he’s grieving’, which, fair enough, but, that doesn’t negate the months of emotional neglect and abuse. He drives Edwina to self-hatred, something I had a hard time glossing over. Having once shared a roof with an incredibly paranoid individual prone to gaslighting those around them, it just hit too close to home. His character never comes fully to life, part of it is because by the time the story begins he’s already gone MIA, and part of it is that even in the flashbacks he appears as a somewhat remote sort of figure, never coming into full focus.
Edwina on the other hand was an all too believable character. From her insecurities to her motivations, Edwina was a multi-faceted character one can easily relate to and root for. This made much of her narrative really hard to read. Many scenes focus on her being mistreated or overlooked. Her mother is constantly undermining her, claiming that in previous lives she was a terrible person. Her best friend is blind to her pain and despair. One of her colleagues is increasingly inappropriate towards her while the others behave like sexist tech-bros. Edwina struggles to navigate her male-dominated workplace, their harmful ‘it’s a boys' club’ mentality.
Through Edwina’s perspective, we witness how her day-to-day life is punctuated by sexism (both in and outside the workplace), racism, discrimination, and body shaming. Edwina’s estrangement from Marlin affects the way she interacts with the world and she becomes increasingly disconnected from others. Her anxiety and loneliness are exacerbated by the fact that she’s surrounded by Americans. Her apprehension over Marlin’s welfare, her discomfort at work, her anxiety about her immigration status, her sense of inadequacy, all of these things result in a rather heavy-going narrative. While Edwina’s wry and self-deprecating tone does alleviate some of the tension, Edge Case is not a light read. The author’s deceptively simple prose belies the complex nature of Edwina’s story and this might not appeal to those who are looking for an easy-going or plot-driven narrative. Edge Case is a very introspective novel that provides a lot of food for thought.
I did find myself wishing for some more variety when it came to character interactions. Many scenes are just really uncomfortable to read, and, while I understand that they were realistic, it did get the repetitive reading time and again about people mistreating Edwina. Her passivity is understandable given her position, still, it was immensely satisfying to see her in action and I doubt many will condemn her for her actions. Marlin, as I said, remains a rather flimsy sort of figure, which detracted a lot from the story. The exploration of marriage also suffers because of it.
Another thing that detracted from my overall reading experience was the author’s choice to have Edwina recount these events—Marlin’s disappearance as well as their relationship—directly to us, her ‘therapist’, and addressing us as ‘you’. This framing device felt somewhat gimmicky and distracting. At times the prose could be a bit...icky, “ I felt his tongue spread like jam”, and we do get a few lines that were very superfluous, such as: “My belly button itched, and I scratched it”, or scenes that were trying to be 'out there' but struck me as contrived, such as that blood clot scene (it worked in I May Destroy You but here...eh).

In spite of these minor criticisms, I found Edge Case to be a thought-provoking and absorbing read. The author captures how it is to feel ‘other’, emphasizing how hard and exhausting it is to try to ‘assimilate’ into a culture different from the one you were born and raised in. Edwina believes that she will find acceptance through comedy, that by making people laugh she will belong but, as she herself realizes, it is all too easy to end up as the object of ridicule.

With acuity, clarity, and empathy, Chin presents us with an unsettling portrait, that of a woman in crisis. Alongside her exploration of Edwina's identity, her marriage, her attempts at connection, Chin provides us with a candid look at contemporary America, underlining how sexist and toxic the tech industry is and the absurd rules and draconian policies immigrants have to circumnavigate. There are two scenes, in particular, one at an airport and another on the street, that truly emphasize how vulnerable Edwina and Marlin are in the U.S.
Lastly, this novel gets a plus just for mentioning one of my all-time fave books, Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson.
I look forward to reading more by Chin. Bravo!

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edge Case was a wonderful surprise. Its topic—or should I say "topics"; there's a lot going on here—were pretty heavy, but there was a lot of humor, and the story really moved. I didn't want to put it down! Very happy to have discovered YZ Chin. I got this ARC on Netgalley; thank you to the publisher.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was something special and unique about "Edge Case" that I couldn't resist. Usually I don't like character-driven novels, but this one blew my expectations. It was such a fast and engaging read. I remember thinking I'm either really going to love or really hate it. It's just one of those kind of books. It's weird and quirky, and yet I couldn't stop reading it. The story is simple, Edwina's husband, Marlin leaves her, and Edwina begins to fall apart and is left to ponder what weren't wrong in their marriage.

The writing was excellent. YZ Chin's prose is electric, snappy, and emotional. I loved the banter/dialogue between Edwina and her controlling mother. It was so realistic. This story also touches on immigration. Edwina and Marlin are working towards getting their green card/citizenship, but as Edwina starts to unravel without Marlin, she begins to question if she really wants to stay in America or return to her home country. I'm not entirely sure why I loved this novel so much. I guess it was just the feeling it gave me. "Edge Case" was definitely a diamond in the rough.

Thank you, Netgalley and Ecco for the digital ARC.

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn on this one. On one hand, it's an interesting story about Edwina. She's immigrated to America and is living with her husband when he suddenly goes missing. She knows they have been having a few struggles lately, maybe fallen a bit apart, but not enough to just leave. So she makes a list and goes on a search for him.

In the midst of all this, she struggles to understand who she is. She isn't the same bright eyed girl who landed in American, anxious and eager to be here. Her work visa is also about to expire and she's struggling to assess if her employer will pay for her to get a more permanent status. It's a deeply moving story about it and I felt Edwina's confusion as she tried to get to know herself again and do a lot of reflection.

But the story is also a lot of side stuff. It's a co-worker Josh and her mother and her husband's friends. It's her work and AI and, just a lot of stuff thrown in that seemed to bog the story down and lose me a bit. I loved the soul searching and the struggle to see who she was if she wasn't his wife and a girl with a work visa. I just didn't love the rest.

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎]

Edge Case is a unique story, told from a unique perspective. I frequently heard myself thinking as I read that I'd never been in the company of this narrative voice before: smart, sensitive, observant, contradictory, and always a joy to follow to the next page.

[Britt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to Edelweiss and Ecco for an eARC of this book. The following review is my honest reflection on the text provided.

I enjoyed the concept of this story more than the execution. Edwina and Marlin are two Malaysian immigrants living in America, working towards their green cards. Their relationship in the "before" chapters seems easy if not overly emotional. Marlin is logical and vegan, Edwina is a vegetarian liberal arts graduate working at a tech startup surrounded by the nerdy version of frat boys. They meet in America and bond over their veg diets and shared background. In the "after" Edwina returns home from work to find her husband missing. This is just the next step in what seems to be the unravelling of logical Marlin into a strange, parallel reality following the unexpected death of his father.

The story is told from Edwina's point of view mostly in a therapeutic outpouring of her thoughts, emotions, and actions, tracing the history of their relationship non-linearly from meet to disappearance. Because of this, I found her incredibly relatable and easily accessible. There was no barrier between her deepest thoughts and the reader so it almost felt like her thoughts were my thoughts.

Unfortunately, I just didn't find Edwina's actions believable. Even with the fear of being ineligible for a green card, there are so many things she could or should have done once Marlin went missing. And even if I don't agree with her actions, because sure, people in shock or grief don't always react logically or the way you expect them to, I guess if she was going to fall apart and go on a mini version of self-discovery, I'd want a little more actual discovery. The plot seemed unfinished and a little rushed in the end after meandering through very thorough descriptions of the process of eating different meats and a highly unnecessary bathtub scene.

I found the "before" chapters much more enjoyable than the "after" - Edwina's stories growing up in Malaysia with her overbearing mother, her journey to America, her guilt and indecision about remaining in America. The "before" chapters were interesting, whereas the "after" chapters were messy and slightly illogical.

Overall this was an easy-to-read book from a unique, if slightly unpolished, point of view.

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[Sara M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not really sure how to feel about this book. It was engaging in some ways but left me with a lot of questions.

[Book Clubbed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

This is not a missing persons case. Well, it is, but now how it is being advertised. The person is missing in the sense that they have abandoned all pretenses of their former life. Our MC, then, must puzzle out what caused them to change so drastically in such a short period of time. Don't expect innocuous detritus that may in fact be clues, or tracking various timelines to figure out where the "missing person" may be.

The writing sings when Chin is writing about what it means to be an immigrant in 2018, one struggling to construct an identity as outsider: as an Asian green card holder (in which people love to play the game, where are you from?), as a female in the tech world, and as someone who relied on her husband to help present an unified front to an indifferent world.

The rest of the book is a slog.

Our narrator is trying to parse out how grief has fractured her husband's sense of being, but because he is a boring asshole before he started consulting with spirits, we have little motivation to actually figure him out. The tech bros are predictably terrible, the scenes set at work run the same formula every time, and her outside friends provide little solace. What we are left with is a woman circling the drain, having a short conversation and then pondering about its implications for the next five pages, offering no new insights into her husband's condition or her own path forward.

This book also falls victim to some of the worst trends in modern literature. We get "interesting" facts that are supposed to provide insight into the human condition but instead come across as the fruition of late-night Wikipedia sessions. Every emotional turn must be explained ad nauseum and the writer shows no trust in their readership. The minimal plot works as bare scaffolding for the author's musings about modern life, none of which are particularly insightful or thought-provoking.

Listen to full reviews at: https://bookclubbed.buzzsprout.com/

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edge Case concerns an immigrant couple of Chinese heritage from Malaysia trying to obtain their green cards, living in New York. Edwina relates their story in therapeutic sessions, of how she comes home one day and Marlin has vanished. Both work in tech, but the pressures of insecurity about their status and life away from family and home, plus Marlin's having lost his father relatively recently, strain their relationship. The idea of this situation is a sound one, but the editing needed tightening and Edwina needed more definition.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels like this one really went under the radar when it released, but man is it a strong debut! A lot is packed in to a relatively average-length book - the end of a marriage and its effect on the main character, Edwina; her navigation of a racist, sexist tech-bro workplace, complete with a dude who makes uncomfortable advances while repeatedly asking her to read his novel in progress (ugggghhhhh, I know this guy); her encounters with the immigration process and how fragile one's status in the U.S. can be when a marriage or job is in danger; her general feelings of being an "other" as she faces all these challenges.

Whether her experience resembles yours or not, Edwina is extremely relatable, pushing politeness in the interest of self preservation, becoming a bit self destructive when it doesn't work (she develops a negative sense of body image and abandons being a vegetarian - an interesting detail that reminded me of The Vegetarian that I just read). This is a heavy novel and also somehow quietly funny, giving the prose an impressive balance. Looking forward to more from Chin, for sure.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

edwina is a much better person than i am because if my delusional husband left me in the middle of his mid life crisis i would KILL HIM with a GUN

[Jill Dobbe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edge Case is a surprisingly different kind of read involving a Malay husband and wife who move to NYC to work in high-powered tech companies. Along with being immigrants, hoping for their green cards, their marriage sinks into despair. Edwina's husband leaves her, and she searches for him, trying to understand why he left her.
The author gives readers enough twists and turns to make the book an interesting read. I found that Edwina's flashbacks to how she and Marlin met and married gave the story a more touching and intimate feel.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the eARC.

[Carissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

when she ate her blood clot I reconsidered my life choices

[Sonali · Rating 1 out of 5]

absolutely insufferable. it felt like reading someone’s horribly written journal that has absolutely no point

[Yanique Gillana · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars

I am grateful to the publisher ECCO for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Hypnotic, touching, and illuminating

I absolutely loved this story. An immigrant story that explores the experiences of professionals who work in the US on work visas, and the difficulties that come from living between countries/cultures. We get to see how our characters struggled with their identities, expectations, and systematic issues that we all face here in the US.

I loved reading from a Chinese-Malaysian perspective, and the comparisons that were made between Malaysian and US society. I also enjoyed the exploration of grief. Grieving the loss of loved ones who have passed away, but also the grieving that we do for people who are still around but have left our lives. I liked how Chin structured the story. This plot centered a relationship, and we get moments from the relationship present and past, with a sprinkle of rich cultural stories.

The intersectionality of being Asian, fat, a woman, and an immigrant was powerful. The author showed how as an immigrant you can do everything right and still be faced with discrimination due to systematic racism and xenophobia. Some of the feelings that were described when dealing with immigration officials were so familiar that I felt a true connection to our MC. She was an accomplished professional but still found herself living with uncertainty and doubt, and her mental state mirrored the chaos that she was dealing with. Not only the MC but the supporting characters were well developed and used within the story was great. They added depth and texture to the story, and provided a microcosm for the society that out MC was trying to navigate.

Clearly I loved this story. I would recommend it to fans of literary fiction and stories about different human experiences.

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Edge Case" usually refers to an unexpected anomaly found while testing the boundaries of an algorithm. This author focuses not only on the literal anomalous presence of one woman in a male-dominated tech field (been there!) but also expands the concept to apply to human interactions in general.

The author locks in on how racism, sexism, and xenophobia really feel, even when expectations are low. Maybe the anomaly is the interaction which generates a positive result. If that's the edge case, we have a lot of work to do as humans.

[shubiektywnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,75

„Edge case” to pomieszanie duchowości o niewiadomym pochodzeniu z przyziemną codziennością pracy w startupie. Szukanie po omacku swojej tożsamości, próba zrozumienia zmieniających się emocji, odkrywanie siebie, a to wszystko wśród wymuszonych działaniach skierowanych na otrzymanie zielonej karty.

To historia o tym, że wiele przeszkód istnieje głównie w naszej głowie i, że czasem potrzebujemy w życiu kryzysu, aby te przeszkody przeskoczyć.

Książka idealna dla osób, które dopiero odkrywają swoją pewność siebie.

[Jessica Haider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy immigrant experience stories so was excited to pick up Edge Case, a debut novel by YZ Chin. In Edge Case, we are introduced to Edwina, a recent immigrant from Malaysia to America. She and her husband, Marlin, travel to Malaysia after Marlin's father dies. After their return to NYC, Marlin goes missing. Edwina works to find him and also in the process starts to change her own life.

There was A LOT going on here. I got kind of lost and distracted by some of the tangents in this one, and maybe that was the point. Maybe my mind wasn't in the right place at the right time to read this novel. There was some good stuff in here but it didn't truly capture me.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!

[Aliza Cotton · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book made me have stress dreams. still don’t understand what the cover symbolizes but it’s a beautiful cover

[firdaous · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's about Edwina, a Chinese Malaysian female immigrant software engineer, working as a QA analyst in a start-up that turns out to be a toxic environment for women. And that's what kept me hooked while reading this story (as a QA analyst myself). However, the plot was about the protagonist searching for her husband, Marlin, after his mysterious, uncharacteristic disappearance. We learn about Edwina's childhood: her mother's scathing criticisms and judgments, including stories of Edwina's "evil acts" in past lives to explain the present and her dismissal at work.

"In that supposed past life of mine, I possessed great beauty but acted rashly and dishonorably. As punishment, I am doomed in my present life to be homely. For most of my life, my mother has urged me to not “eat like a pig,” later amended to be “like an American” after I escaped to New York. She herself was svelte and youthful, and she relished nothing more than to be mistaken for my sister."

For most of the book, I did not know how the title corresponds to this story, but once arrived at the part where it is explained, I think it was a very appropriate and unique title. Overall, it's a very sad book about losing someone you love, but they're still physically present and navigating a world you don't feel you belong in. From the synopsis, I was expecting it to be a mystery/thriller novel, but it's not. It's a deeply moving journey as Edwina traces her relationship with Marlin and where things changed/went wrong.

[Amy Hagberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like to read a variety of genres from a variety of voices. This contemporary novel was disappointing. The writing was whimsical and darkly humorous, and the odd storyline did not scare me off, but the plot was clumsy and all over the place, here and there, without a semblance of organization. The characters were unengaging, and I was glad to make it to the anticlimactic ending. I wish I could get back the hours I spent reading it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of the book. 3 stars.

[Sonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a novel about a Malaysian couple who have immigrated to New York to work in tech and who are estranged. Edwina, the protagonist, agonizes over why her husband has left her following a severe change in his behavior and personality. She's the sole woman in a tech startup that is designing an AI joke generator and must deal not only with her broken marriage but the dysfunction of the tech culture she's immersed in. It's a quick read, sometimes funny but often full of Edwina's loneliness and obsession with figuring it all out. The story does a good job of portraying an immigrant experience during the Trump administration when the looming threat of deportation weighs on every action.

[Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensitive and endearing. Quiet but powerful. Funny but sad. A reflection on alienation, grief, and trying our best. ☀️

[cher · Rating 2 out of 5]

to think i continued through with this even after she ate her period blood,,,,all for the ending to be THAT oh i’m soooo ://

[Dana Al-Basha | دانة الباشا]

يذكرني هذا الغلاف بأحمر لارنج

[James B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Ecco for the early ebook. Edwina comes home to her New York apartment to find that her husband, Marlin, has packed a bag and left leaving no note. Thus begins a modern detective story as the story jumps back and forth as Edwina searches the recent past for clues: She and Marlin are from Malaysia and working in tech as the deadline approaches as they either have to secure a green card or go back. Marlin is also depressed as his father has recently passed away. Marlin has also been exploring alternative beliefs that leave Edwina mystified. Edwina gathers her clues, strays from her vegetarian diet and tries to deal with all her male coworkers who don’t seem to understand the first thing about how to deal with women. This is a very playful first novel that tackles a lot of tough issues with a great dark humor.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished reading this book two weeks ago and I’ve been thinking about the main character, Edwina, every day since. Edwina arrives home from her job at a software company to find her husband, Marlin, has left with their “cat” (actually a toy they have created). She uses an analytical approach to try to find Marlin while dealing with harassment from the males in her workplace, fear of losing her visa, criticism from her mother, and above all, loneliness. This is not a light-hearted book by any means! Edwina needs to do a lot of work to overcome her personal struggles and I found myself cheering her on.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco for providing an advance reading copy of this book for my review.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

wtf I read this book before and I didn't even remember it...I refuse to believe I wouldn't be able to remember if I read a book while reading the book T__T

well I am hovering between 2-3 stars. Usually I feel like if I know the character's inner thoughts I have more empathy but I was just like bruh such a passive character. I pushed through and finished it on account of the author being asian and a woman