Review: The Wangs vs. the World

The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm rating this book 3 out of 5 with an acknowledgement that I wanted this to be as good as Crazy Rich Asians and it wasn't. It wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't the fun, wild ride that is.

This book is about a self-made Chinese-American businessman who loses everything - goes completely broke. His (second) wife and children are used to living in luxury, and overnight they must give up their house in Southern California, their expensive schools and cars, and their pride. What keeps them afloat is the belief that there is ancestral land in China that belongs to them, and he decides to go seek it out.

I liked most of the characters (except for the ones I wasn't supposed to like, which I, appropriately, disliked), and the writing kept the book at a good pace. However, I didn't like how the plot came together in the end, which took an otherwise good idea and left me with a mediocre experience.

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