Kathleen Cheng has gone through a humiliating breakup, dropped out of her graduate program, and left everything behind. Now she’s back in her childhood home in Oakland, wondering what’s next. To her surprise, her mother isn’t the same person Kathleen remembers. No longer depressed or desperate to return to China, the new Marissa Cheng is perky and has been transformed by love. Kathleen finds herself helping her mother plan her wedding to a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur. Grasping for direction, Kathleen takes a job at a start-up that specializes in an unconventional form of therapy based on touch. While she negotiates new ideas about intimacy and connection, an unexpected attachment to someone at work pushes her to rethink her relationships—especially the one she has with Marissa.

I’m behind on reviews, mainly because I’m still digesting this book. It definitely had its thought provoking moments, but so many bizarre and unrealistic things happened that I’m not quite sure how to feel. The character development was a bit lackluster; there was a lot of focus on the main characters’ shortcomings and difficult relationships, but I never really feel like the characters progressed beyond that. Kathleen had a lot of moments where she was really unlikable;  I had a hard time understating her motivations and she didn’t do much throughout the book to redeem herself. I enjoy books with dysfunctional characters, but there was no growth in this group and they became grating after a while. There were some funny and entertaining a moments, as well as commentary on millennial culture and growing up as a first generation American in the shadow of immigrant parents’ expectations that I enjoyed. The book was an easy read but if you prefer books with character progression I’d skip this one.