Reviews with content warning for Violence - Interior Chinatown

Fantastic read. I loved the formatting and style the most, probably. It was engaging and really heightened the surrealism feel of the whole story. I think presenting it as a screenplay is really commentary all its own and it made the story itself more effective. It took me a minute, but teasing out the story that was layered into the “script” was very fun.

I really appreciated the stark lens on Chinese history in America that was presented in the book. It’s something I’ve always been aware of, as someone of Chinese descent, but I never really learned in a lot of detail the facts and timelines that Yu brought up in the final part of the book. It was interesting to read the experience of the main character because some of it was familiar from my own life, but at the same time it was new to me as I’m not first generation myself. I also particularly liked the commentary around Karen as a mixed-race Asian American, and the commentary around the sort of dichotomy between Black and Asian communities. I thought it was all very well presented and fit well in the story.

I really still can’t get over the style, it was just so, so cool. And so much fun to read. I would say at least half of why I liked this so much was because of that writing style. I think it’s very original and so creative and works perfectly for the story.

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siebensommer's review against another edition

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funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Watching her is like finding old letters, of things you knew thirty years ago and haven't thought of since.. How to feel, how to be yourself. Not how to
perform or act. How to be.

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elizabeth_lepore's review against another edition

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funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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yuyuv's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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hendrixpants's review

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adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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cozyscones's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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samchase112's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A brilliant, distressing satire about Asian stereotypes and American culture. Both devastating and hopeful at once.

I highly recommend the audiobook, it was well-performed and, thanks to the narrator’s fantastic portrayals of multiple characters and voices and accents, I never felt lost even in this uniquely structured story.

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skudiklier's review against another edition

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funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really liked this! At first I found some of it hard to follow, just in terms of what was "really" happening vs what wasn't, but overall I don't think that diminished the quality or anything like that. I'm glad I listened to the audiobook as I feel like that works really well for this sort of screenplay format. This book was engaging, heartfelt, and funny, and I'd definitely recommend it.

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