The description along with the praise sucked me in. I couldn't wait to read it and was ecstatic when I was approved for the Netgalley ARC.

Then I started reading it. Reading and waiting. Waiting some more. Just waiting for the thrilling, dark, physiological mystery that was promised to actually start happening. It did not. It didn't even come close.

I had to force my way through this (non-existent) plot. I was bored, uninterested, and angry that what I was told would happen was not happening. At 38% I skipped to the end. That was disappointing also. Very predictable and unimaginative ending.

Rarely, and I mean 4 times, in my life do I not finish a novel. This is one of those times. I just couldn't fathom wasting my time reading this. It is a family drama at best and not even a good, exciting, dark-secret family drama.

On top of that, the writing seemed disjointed and forced. It didn't flow, it was hard to immerse myself into the story, and I couldn't connect with a single character.

On the positive side, the cover is STUNNING!

"The Majesties" was released yesterday. Yes, my review was supposed to be an ARC review to get the buzz going, but I had only one single positive thing to say (the cover) so I thought it best to keep my mouth shut until its release.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for allowing me an eARC to read and give my honest review.

The Majesties was a book I enjoyed but I do not think it will leave a long lasting impression on me. I loved the opening sentences as it just sets the tone for the book. This book is about the upper class living in Indonesia and how their wealth and luxurious lifestyle is paid for. It is a book about belonging to a family empire and the costs of living within the family. Sisters Gwendolyn and Estella are the main characters of this story and the story really begins with Estella poisoning and killing 300 family members and elite members of the upper crust. With Gwendolyn the lone survivor she retraces her past to try and see how things got to this point and this brutal act. I was entertained by this book and found the writing whisked me off into this luxurious lifestyle. Unfortunately I do not have any deeper thoughts on this one and will just enjoy it for what it was.

Unputdownable! It gripped me from the very beginning until the end. It's pivoting and heart pounding. You have to keep reading because you have to find out what's happened and why. Happy reading!

The Majesties is a great concept but I felt like the execution the concept was not up to par.

The first chapter opened strong and made me want to dive right in. I found the sister relationship and the cultural aspects of the book intriguing and I was really looking forward to diving in for those reasons as well.

The writing was clunky in some places and this book was definitely more family drama and less thriller. The twist at the end was predictable. I really thought I was going to give this 5 stars based on my initial impression, so I am sad to give it only 3.

I absolutely ADORE the cover art.

Thank you to Atria Books and #NetGalley for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

What a BOLD beginning! The novel starts with Gwendolyn - our narrator - in the hospital. She’s the sole survivor of a mass murder.

The scene: her Opa’s birthday party
The guests/victims: her wealthy family and their friends and colleagues, some of the wealthiest Chinese families in Indonesia
The culprit: Gwendolyns sister, Estella

Gwendolyn is in a coma and narrates the story from that state. She recalls moments from their privileged lives that may have led Estella to murder their family. The novel is a deep psychological dive into privilege, family, and secrets.

This novel wasn’t quite what I expected. It started with a bang and ended with a bang, but most of the rest of the novel was fairly slow paced and more a character study than anything else. It was definitely unique but if you’re searching for a “crazy rich Asians”-esque novel, this isn’t it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Majesties opens with a very intense and gripping line, “When your sister murders three hundred people, you can’t help but wonder why - especially if you were one of the intended victims...” and then Tiffany Tsao backpedals and takes us on a journey which delves into the family's deepest secrets and scandals.

The book is narrated by Gwendolyn, who is the sole survivor of her sister’s mass poisoning. As Gwendolyn lies in a coma, she thinks back on life with her sister Estella in their wealthy Chinese-Indonesian family. As the intricate story of life with excessive wealth and dysfunctional family relationships unravels, Gwendolyn ruminates on what shaped Estella into the person she became and what could have driven Estella to commit such a heinous act. But things aren’t always as they appear - towards the end of the book, readers get some more revelations and twists.

Without wanting to give away any more details, I will say that my favorite thing about this book was Gwendolyn’s unique business and the way it all ties into the book.

This book is not a typical thriller. It doesn't follow the typical mold of searching for the murderer, asking “who” and “how.” In this book, we know who the murderer is from page one, and the rest of the book serves to explain the “why” behind the murder. I loved it because this is exactly why I went to school for psychology. I want to know all about people's lives and the little details in their past that help to explain who they are and what led them to make the decisions that they make. This book read almost like a biography of a murderer. It was fascinating to me and I loved exploring all the details. I like the way Tiffany Tsao created a character whose psychotic break I could totally understand. I don't think this is a book that everybody's going to enjoy, which is evident from the plethora of mixed reviews that I read. But I highly enjoyed it and I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in the psychological components of character building.

My sincerest thanks to Netgalley, Atria Publishing and Tiffany Tsao for the ARC of The Majesties in exchange for my honest review.

This has the potential to be a DNF but stick with it. Narrated by Gwendolyn, it's her version of the reasons why her sister Estella has just poisoned 300 members of their family. Talk about an opening scene! It slows down quite a bit after that and the secrets of the family are spooled out slowly, with the explanation, and a twist, not coming til the very end. The family are wealthy Chinese-Indonesians who have an excess of privilege and not much else. I appreciated the insight into an unfamiliar (to me) culture. Many bad things have happened over the years, all of which lead up to Estella's actions. It's not an easy read by any means and it's not a thriller but it is interesting. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

According to the blurb, The Majesties is what readers could expect if Crazy Rich Asians had been written by Gillian Flynn, and since I loved both of those things, I was excited to pick it up. Author Tiffany Tsao has created a complex story of extreme wealth, dysfunctional family relationships, and the deep desire to understand who and what shapes us into the people we are today.

Sisters Gwendolyn and Estella have grown up in the lap of luxury. Their family is one of the wealthiest in Indonesia, and the girls are no strangers to fancy houses, exclusive boarding schools, and extravagant vacations, but beneath the surface of this super successful family lurks a darkness both girls try hard to avoid. When Estella manages to secretly poison 300 guests at her grandfather's lavish birthday party and Gwendolyn is the only survivor, it's clear some deep soul-searching is in order.

Gwendolyn hasn't survived Estella's attack unscathed. In fact, when the story opens, she's lying in a hospital bed in a sort of coma. She's barely aware of what's going on around her, but her memories of the past are stark and vivid. As medical professionals work to save her life, Gwendolyn struggles to piece together what led up to Estella's desperate act, hoping to come to terms with her own role in the tragedy as well.

What follows is a look at one family's path to destruction, a path littered with shattered trust and soul-deep betrayals. Tiffany Tsao tells this darkly disturbing story with a dream-like quality that allows readers to feel as though they themselves have taken up residence inside Gwendolyn's troubled psyche. Events don't always unfold in a linear fashion, and there were a few times I had to go back and reread certain passages just so I could make sure I had a firm understanding of the chronology of events. Hopefully, readers won't be put off by the slightly confusing nature of the narrative; everything really does become clear as the story progresses.

I do think the description of the novel is a little misleading. Comparing it to a Gillian Flynn novel implies a certain type of suspense, the kind that keeps readers glued to the pages, but that's not the feeling I got from reading The Majesties. This is a much quieter story, a slow unfolding of a chain of catastrophic events that don't initially seem all that terrible. It's not until readers are made aware of the enormous ripple effect each character's actions have on the world at large that the true darkness is revealed. I think I’d classify this book as more of a literary mystery rather than a novel of psychological suspense.

There are a lot of characters here, some of whom only make brief appearances while others show up again and again. It's a little challenging to keep everyone straight, but it's manageable if you aren't opposed to a bit of a mental workout. No character is superfluous though. Each has something unique and necessary to add to the story.

I've purposely avoided giving specific details about what prompted Estella to commit such a horrifying crime because part of this novel's appeal comes from allowing each secret to be revealed in its own time. Hints of what's to come would only serve to cheapen the reading experience, so, if my review has intrigued you, I hope you'll pick the novel up and try it for yourself. It's not an easy read, but it's definitely worth your time and attention.

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“When your sister murders three hundred people, you can’t help but wonder why- especially if you were one of the intended victims- though I do forgive her, if you can believe it.”
⠀⠀
I guess I should have stopped staring at the stunning (STUNNING!) cover of Tiffany Tsao’s #TheMajesties and started reading the actual book sooner, because if that opening sentence doesn’t grab your attention, I don’t know what will! I cracked this book open last night and was up late into the night trying to finish. If you’re like me (a sucker for a good multigenerational family drama), then you’re going to enjoy this book. In addition to the complicated family story, there’s the bizarre murder mystery, insect fashion line, and opulent world-building that really elevates this book into something different and unique. And that whiplash twist of an ending! Whoa. This book checks all of the boxes and is the perfect book to kick off a brand new year. It’s officially out January 21st, so make sure to pick up a copy in a couple weeks!

I love a good family drama.

I come from a huge family myself with with way too many aunts, uncles, and cousins to count. I’m a loner as life is draining and gossip is toxic to the mind and the soul so I tend to stay away from the negative.

Every family has its darkness, y’know?

But some are downright steeped in it and it’s all they know.

It’s how they survive.

The Majesties opens with the mass murder of over 300 people. The suspect is Estella Wirono, granddaughter of Chinese tycoon Irwan Sulinado and the victims were her entire family and their closest friends.

The alibi?

That remains to be seen.

There was only one survivor of the crime and that is Estella’s sister, Gwendolyn. Now on life support we navigate through the hazy glass of her memories and dive deep into this family’s past and secrets.

The dead cannot speak and the fog is thick with the recently departed. Can we find out what exactly drove one young woman to kill off an entire bloodline?

Or did the truth die with her?

I do not like to compare books with one another. That’s a rule I have with reviewing. So while other reviewers are stating this is comparable to Gillian Flynn I feel that this is unfair. Each author has their own unique flair of writing and with this book especially I find that that is true.

This was a mixture of women’s fiction and thriller for me and I found myself reading it rather late into the night.

The prose is gorgeous, hauntingly so and I found myself entranced in the characters and the journey they took us on.

The family dynamics were interesting and although upsetting were not shocking. Estella has come out of a relationship with an abusive ex husband and yes, both families know he is abusive but his family is OLD money so of course it is unspeakable that she leave him.

It is only events like this that are the tip of the ice berg.

To me this entire book felt like the character’s metamorphosis. Madness bloomed, she cocooned, hatched, and then she was free.

I don’t want to give too much away in my review but the turns this books takes are subtle and still have me reeling.

Sometimes family thinks they know best because they love you oh so much.

Sometimes that love can smother you and in return...

A vial of poison can be dropped in some shark fin soup at a large banquet.

In the end, what will you do my beautiful butterflies?



Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy of ARC. All opinions are my own.

Wow. It started with a bang and then just got progressively more boring. The twist at the end was unexpected but this was so dry I just skipped to the end to see what happened after trudging through the first 20%. Way too much unnecessary family drama that took away from the "thriller" aspect.

Thanks to netgalley for the arc.

The beautiful and mysterious cover the description of Gone Girl meets Crazy Rich Asians, and even the first few pages really drew me into this book. However, the story meanders around and does not focus very much on the main “incident”. In fact, it is not referenced again until 25% into the book. I continued to read it because I wanted to know what happened but found the ending to be uneventful. There were lots of tangents that were interesting, such as how the sisters became interested in bugs as children, but were too long. Had the book been marketed as a dark, family drama, I think my expectations would have been different, and I may have enjoyed the book more. I found the relationship between the two sisters fascinating. I also feel that the story could have been more organized into a “Then” and “Now” format. The story moved from present to past within the same chapter or even in the same paragraph which made it a little confusing to the reader. This book is hard to rate because I was intrigued enough to continue reading it, but ultimately felt that it did not meet my expectations.

2.5 rounded up.

Part of me thinks I’m being generous, but then I don’t know. Telling you what I think about this book will be very challenging. You will get a different answer every time. I haven't read Crazy Rich Asians, but from other reviews I've read - that characterization missed the mark. I would liken this much more to My Sister, the Serial Killer, minus the dry and dark humor that made that book really shine. I needed something else in this book.

The Majesties is a heavy read (with a really great opening), but I wasn't mentally prepared for the rest of it. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, but I've written in past reviews about being in the wrong headspace and how that hurts my ability to connect with a book. That definitely happened here. In fact, I almost DNF'd this after 50 pages, but I customarily like to wait until 100. I'm glad I kept reading because the writing is brilliant in places. Also, books about siblings (particularly sisters) interest me because I am an older sister. I think the sibling bond is very interesting to explore, particularly as siblings grow older. However, the writing was also confusing in other places. The pacing of the book didn't bother me, but the twist at the end came about so suddenly and was so jumbled (at least to me) that I'm still confused as to my reading comprehension of the matter and I read the end twice! There was a lot of work to be done for this book and sometimes I don't have the patience for that.

With all that being said, there were parts I liked and I also appreciated how this educated me on a place and people I am so far removed from. This is a book that helped me grow as a reader and I am grateful for that. I will watch this author in the future and I certainly hope I have a better experience with her next one.

Thank you to Netgalley, Atria Books and Tiffany Tsao for the opportunity to read and review this book honestly.

Review Date: 01/14/2020
Publication Date: 01/21/2020

This cover is quite captivating, isn't it? I was intrigued just from that. The butterflies/insect motif from the cover really makes sense while you're reading it.

Thank you to Atria books and #netgalley for the advanced copy for my honest review!


My Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.💫/ 5 stars

I was about to fall asleep when I opened the book as I decided to read super late. The first page jolted me awake. She poisoned her whole family and all their friends including all the kids? All within the first few pages of the book? I had to know why and Tsao really has you going through it gradually to build the back story as why someone was capable of doing something like this. The story is told through Gwendolyn who always felt like on the outskirts of her family looking in.  Similar to Crazy Rich Asians only in that it profiles very wealthy society in Asia - particularly Indonesia - in this story but much darker and serious. There is quite the twist at the end that even I didn't figure out until I read it. I felt maybe there was too many etymology references that it was starting to be too literal - but an enjoyable nonetheless.

3.5 stars. The Majesties is the story of Gwendolyn and Estella, two sisters from a wealthy Chinese-Indonesian family. They have always been close, and now Gwendolyn is the sole survivor of her sister's mass poisoning that killed 300 of their friends and family. As Gwendolyn struggles to regain consciousness she reflects on her sister's life and what might have led her to do such a terrible thing.

This book is 95% the story of Estella told from Gwendolyn's point of view, and 5% thriller. I don't want to give anything away, but the story is set up in a popular way that is starting to bore me. Tsao's writing is beautiful and the story was interesting, but I wanted more action, more drama...just a little more. Overall it is an enjoyable read.

The Majesties has an extremely interesting premise. I do really enjoy thrillers and mysteries, and I also (sometimes) like reading about the ridiculousness of the über-wealthy. This book had so many elements that should have worked for me. Unfortunately, it just didn’t.

When I first started reading this, it felt like something I could get into. The writing is unique and interesting and it was slowly starting to pull me into the story. It starts out with the aftermath of Estella poisoning her entire family, and after that I totally expected this to be a book I wouldn’t be able to put down. And then we starting getting into all the description of how rich this family is. Which was just a lot. It was kind of fun in Crazy Rich Asians (because it was meant to sound ridiculous), but here, I kept thinking “okay, we get it”. And then it kept going. It was just too much for me. It pulled me out of the story, and honestly annoyed me a little bit. I was kind of disappointed, because I think I might have enjoyed this story a lot more if I wasn’t so distracted by the description of all the rich people things.

I don’t think The Majesties is a bad book, it just wasn’t for me. I thought the idea behind it was intriguing, it just capture my attention in the way I was hoping.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria for sending me a digital ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

This book takes the approach of starting at the end portion of a story line and then weaving itself from the past back to the present to build the motivators for each character. I thought the writing style did a fantastic job building up the history of the characters, the families, and interlacing the two. For me, the story was one full of deception and deceit, of families that offered so little moral support, that the end result lead to an extreme attempt of salvation.

The allegory of the clustering monarch butterflies was fantastic -- the families clustering together to protect the investment of the conglomerate of business and wealth. Also, how clever was the irony that behind the beautiful insects and butterflies that made up business portions of Bagatelle and Mutiara, also was the potent component for the ending!!!

This book would make a fantastic movie or mini-series.

This book was well written and the story line was interesting. It is compared to Crazy Rich Asians, but don’t expect that. While Crazy Rich Asians is extremely fast paced, The Majesties is quite slow. After the denouement, I was disappointed overall. Without spoiling anything, I will say that the revelation is an exciting one, but the telling of that information was not done well. The writing made certain tidbits confusing and that lessened the surprise factor in all of it.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

From the very first line of this book, I was pulled into a story that explored a family’s chokehold on a legacy of darkness.

The description tells you that the book unravels the mystery as to why a woman would murder 300 members of her own family, and while it does that, it takes you on a journey that reveals the corrupting forces of unchecked wealth and privilege. As the book catapults to its inevitable conclusion, you just want to make it stop, but at the same time, you can’t look away.

I truly enjoyed this story. It’s gripping and imaginative, and I couldn’t stop reading.

Gwendolyn narrates to us from her hospital bed after her sister Estella has poisoned her and her entire family along with Estella's in-laws. What cause someone to snap and poison their entire family? This is the story we learn from Gwendolyn going through the life of Estella and the hardships she faced prior to her death.

First let me say this book is gorgeous and I was first drawn to it by the cover. I found the description of The Majesties a little misleading upon reading. I thought Tiffany Tsao captured the culture well especially for an affluent family living in Asia. I expected a little more mystery or suspense to the story. The Majesties was just literary fiction in my opinion. I tend to like literary fiction but this one slightly missed the mark for me. The characters overall fell flat. I wanted a little more depth to the characters, but that's a personal preference. I was intrigued enough to keep reading and found out why the poisoning happened. My overall reading experience with this novel was just fine.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.