Dial A for Aunties

Throughout the event, I couldn't stop giggling, and the humor gave a great counterbalance to the more tense sections. This was the most lovely and amusing book I've ever read, and it was such a treat!

This narrative is tough to put into words, which is part of what makes it so good.

Murder, second-chance romance, rich Chinese-Indonesian culture, humorous Aunties pulling the plot ahead, and about a million other things are all present.

What a crazy ride Dial A for Aunties was!

You can lose track of time and become thoroughly engrossed in Meddelin and her Auntie's hilarious antics.

"Alright, it's the lack of fruit that'll bring shame. Not the dead body in the car!"

Dial A For Aunties revolves around the characters, specifically Meddelin's aunties and mother. They were a close-knit family. Meddelin's Aunties, I have to admit, were by far my favorite aspect of the novel. Four separate individuals, each with distinct quirkiness and all equally amusing. These women pushed the plot and made me chuckle countless times.

It honors the Chinese and Indonesian traditions, customs, and culture of 26-year-old Meddelin "Meddy" Chan, who struggles between being a good daughter to her Ma and her four competitively rivaling aunts—who raised her and provided her with unwavering love and support—and being true to herself and accepting her needs and wishes. Although she attempts to learn the mother tongues, she just ends up irritating her aunts with her weak command of them. Meddy fears the family curse, which initially predicted that all the men would perish but has since changed to predict that all the men and boys will leave. Given that she didn't want to disappoint her family, she decided on the local UCLA in order to stay with her mother. As a result, she now works as a photographer for the family wedding company.

We hear about her best friend Selena and her three-year romance with Nathan, the love of her life, while they were both students at UCLA, as well as how she ended things while keeping her family entirely in the dark about him and deciding to stay in California rather than move to New York with him. The story alternates between the past and the present. And, oh, the romance.  If romance is your thing, I should point you that it is only a minor theme in the narrative. Concerned about Meddy's lack of romance, her naive mother impersonates as Meddy on a dating app, matching her up with hotelier Jake. She kills Jake unintentionally, nevertheless, because Jake won't accept the word "no." There's nothing Ma and her aunties won't do for Meddy, including try to dispose of the body; the only problem is that they're planning the greatest wedding ever on an island off the coast of California.

As everything works against her, she learns that she is compelled to take charge of her own life.

Meddelin was the ideal protagonist for this story. Throughout Dial A For Aunties, it was evident that she was devoted to her family and adored them all. Her relationship with each aunt was unique, and it was fascinating to read about how she handled and balanced her relations with each of them. Her path of discovering herself while managing her ties with her family was heartwarming, and her happy ending felt earned.

This novel begins with a bang. I went into this narrative expecting to uncover a mystery, but there isn't one to solve. But….

There's the mystery of the deceased body's true identity. Meddy wonders whether things can get much worse as the Aunties decide to outdo one other after decades of rivalry. Taking affairs into their own hands, regardless of how awful their ideas are. There was always a lot going on. The fact that I was constantly on edge and unsure of what to anticipate made it all the more enjoyable for me.

Jesse Sutanto's comic thriller is a blast, but you'll have to put your doubts aside to really understand and enjoy this out-of-the-box fun fest.

I can already tell that I'll be singing this one's praises for a while. 

Dial A for Aunties is a wonderful novel overall. It's genre-bending, with far too many elements to define logically, but it all works flawlessly.