I’ve tried time and again to read this, but it no longer holds my interest. I only manage to read 10 pages every time I get to it. That doesn’t make it a bad book... just not one for me.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

I’m not a fan of family dramas. Usually. If the storyline is able to pull me in, I keep going. This story was off for me and it wasn’t for me.

What a strange book. I was expecting a thriller (as advertised) but it never really felt like a thriller other than the first page. I slogged through the whole book waiting to find out why 300 people were murdered only to have a (to me) less than satisfying ending. I'll say no more about that - don't want to give spoilers.

I didn't care about any of the characters and there just seemed to be so much unneeded filler in the book that it just wasn't a very enjoyable read.

Gwendolyn and Estella live in a world where the money is no object. A career is senseless, but if you must, here’s a huge conglomerate you can run. Food, travel, fashion, everything is within reach. Growing up in the lap of their Chinese-Indonesian family’s luxury, what could possibly go wrong?
As Gwen slowly regains consciousness while lying in the hospital recovering from an apparent attempted murder, she must untangle the web of deceit and lies that she and her sister navigated through in order to appease their family. While Gwen lived more by her own rules, her mild-mannered and demure sister did whatever her family requested to appease their status, including marrying a less than loving man. Gwen’s memories of their childhood, their grandmother, and events that created each of their distinctive personalities slowly come back, as does the realization of what has actually happened to her and her family.
This is an interesting read, somewhat slow at times; more interesting for people who enjoy the lifestyles of rich Asians, with a sobering message interweaved within.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for making it available.)

It is hard to classify this book. I think of it more as being a family drama. It was an interesting read, however I don’t feel that I ever connected with any of the characters.
Many thanks to Atria Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

If you like page turners with well crafted plots then this book is for you. . The main characters of this mystery are two wealthy Indonesian sisters who have family members murdered. The storyline works backwards to explain how these events came about. Well worth the read.

At the outset of Tiffany Tsao’s The Majesties, Doll Worono has suffered a nearly instantaneous reversal of fortune. She was the founder of an innovative jewelry company, scion of a rich and powerful family of Chinese-Indonesians. Then, in one evening, she is poisoned along with 300 of her friends and family. She is left blind and in a coma. At least she’s not dead, like the others who had some of the shark fin soup that her sister poisoned. Even though we know who done it and how, we don’t know why. To be honest, as she lies in her hospital bed, neither does Doll.

Doll tells her story from that hospital, looking back on her life with her sister, Estella, to try and figure out where it all went wrong. Doll and Estella had every advantage in life. Their parents sent them to the finest schools. They never wanted for material comfort. The price they paid for all this luxury is that they have to toe the family line. They will work for the family company and keep the family’s secrets. For Estella, it means that she will also marry the man her family thinks is a good match, even though everyone knows he is a controlling, volatile mess of a human being.

Lurking in the background of all the family drama are questions about parasitism. Doll’s company, Bagatelle, uses a modified Cordyceps fungus to alter the behavior of insects, to turn them into living jewelry. This horrifying idea is explained away; people are told that the animals are dormant and not intelligent enough to miss anything. This idea of beautiful parasitism hung around in my brain. The idea started to blossom as I read more about the peculiar lives of the ultra-rich Chinese-Indonesians. They are isolated from the lives of people who make their lifestyles possible. They think nothing of bribing officials, firing potential unionizers, and worse. By the end of the book, it was hard not to think of the ultra-rich in the same way we think about the Cordyceps fungus.

I wrestled with the ending of this book, even as it made its thesis of parasitic capitalism more clear. Although Doll figures out her sister’s motivation to her satisfaction, I didn’t really buy it. If The Majesties had been narrated by Estella, I might have understood. This isn’t the first time I’ve read a book I felt was narrated by the wrong character. That said, I enjoyed spending time in Doll’s head as she reviews her family history and comes to terms with crimes that she had always glossed over in the past. Apart from this flaw, I enjoyed a lot of this book and would recommend it to readers looking for a twist on the usual tales of dysfunctional families.

I have tried to pick this up numerous times but it just didn't click for me. It was a good book but I just didn't connect with the story. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

THE MAJESTIES is a complex, epic tale of family deception, murder, and gross wealth. The story is wild, and it starts off with something so shocking that I think the book has some trouble finding it's footing after the fact. Estella has murdered 300 (!) members of her family and the sole survivor, her sister, is lying in a coma and relaying their lives which lead up to this horrid event. This book truly baffled me, honestly.

Set in Indonesia around the time of the 90s financial crash (which took be back because I also lived in SEA during the crash, and remember how scary it was well), I can see this being marketed as the next Crazy Rich Asians, but there is nothing fun or funny about this story (remember, the 300 murders). It was a slog at times, unfortunately. A lot of it is recounting exposition when you, as the reader, are just dying to get back to WHAT HAPPENED IN THE BEGINNING WHICH, AGAIN, WAS INSANE. It's a much quieter story than you can imagine, and I just didn't connect with the characters. They were neither evil nor redeemable. Perhaps something like this would work better as a screenplay?

DNF. This book does not live up to being the thriller promised by the blurb, and it didn't hold my interest.

Well written and interesting story about the many facets of life. I enjoyed the settings and the characters. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

I am feeling very conflicted about this even though I rated it 4 stars. The ending of this book knocked it down from a solid 5 to an almost 3.5/4. I did not enjoy the oddball ending after an amazing, richly detailed novel. The ending of this book was so confusing that I re-read it, and am still trying to figure out if I got it right. I do not want to spoil it, so I won’t say what has confused me so much, but I would honestly love to speak with the author, or the publisher to get an explanation. Ha! Aside from the last part of the story, I loved it. I found myself experiencing the rich culture of this family through the details in the authors writing, and seething with frustration at what Doll and Estella’s family did to them all in the name of wealth and family obligations. I’m going to ponder on this a bit more, and do some more research on what other reviewers are saying to ease my mind a bit. Let me know if you read this, and private message me your thoughts. bookitblog@gmail.com

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

Before I begin, let's take a moment to marvel at that beautiful, eye-catching cover. Ahh. What a sight!

I wish I could say "The Majesties" was just as beautiful and riveting as the outside but unfortunately, this book was a disjointed mess. I'm kind of a stickler when it comes to a certain writing style. I found the descriptive imagery and dialogue to be forced, awkward, and mundane. Almost every sentence was clunky. If you don't have picky standards as I do, then you should be fine with the writing and tone. A lot of the story is told in flashbacks which made the pacing extremely draggy.

Second, I couldn't stand the main character, Gwendolyn, or anyone of the secondary characters for that matter. Usually unlikable characters don't bother me, but I was so baffled and annoyed by the horrible things they do to each other, that I didn't care what happened to any of them. They were awful.

So I can't really give away too much of the plot but that "twist" ending was INSANELY PREDICTABLE. To me, there's nothing worse when you got the twist figured out less than halfway through. I kept hoping I was wrong, but ugh, not the case. I don't think an ending has aggravated me this intensely in a long time. A major disappointment.

Release date: January 21, 2020

Gwendolyn and Estella were as close as sisters can be, but when Estella poisons the entire family and Gwendolyn is the only remaining survivor it forces her to reflect on their relationship. Set in the opulence of upper-class Indonesia, the sisters have wanted for nothing. However, as Gwendolyn retraces her footsteps, it becomes apparent that the family has dark secrets that might have contributed to Estella's betrayal.

This mystery is a jigsaw puzzle that is explored through memories, you pick up pieces as you progress to reveal a surprising conclusion. It is told at a leisurely pace but will definitely keep you guessing.

The Majesties by Tiffany Tsao just fell flat for me. This novel is supposed to be “Crazy Rich Asians as written by Gillian Flynn” but I didn’t find the book particularly thrilling. To me the mystery aspect of the plot wasn’t enticing enough.
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The story is about two sisters, Gwendolyn and Estella but it’s mostly Estella’s story told from Gwendolyn’s point of view. I couldn’t connect to either of them. Neither character was likeable in any way.

I wanted to love this book so badly. The description sounded amazing but sadly the book and I didn’t connect. I can’t really put my finger on the reason it fell flat for me but it just never got my attention.

I was really excited for this book, but it ended up just not being for me. I found myself not wanting to pick it up to read which is a sign I am just not feeling a book. I was really interested in the synopsis, but the story just felt disjointed and forced to me.

I wanted to absolutely love this novel. The opening was amazing, it had me wanting more, but then somewhere in the middle it fizzled out. This made me sad. It did pick up towards the ended, but I felt it was a little too late. There was so much potential here and it ended up being meh for me. 3/5 for the story/plot and 5/5 for the cover.
Thanks to Netgalley and Dial Atria Books for providing me with an ARC.

This novel is described as a thriller in the lines of Crazy Rich Asians written by Gillian Flynn. It was more of a family drama where the main character opens the story by waking up in the hospital after fatally poisoning 300 members of her family, including children.

No Gillian Flynn book has reached this level of destruction, so no, it was not as described.

However, I needed to know why the main character felt the need to eradicate her family's line so I dutifully read on, and as I did I found out about the characters' back stories, although it was touch and go in terms of development. The novel had a somber tone, moved slowly, and I was unable to relate to the characters' motivations, but it was an interesting, different type of read.

Overall, it was ok. I recommend it to those looking for something different and interesting to read.

ARC provided by Publisher via Netgalley

'Blood does run thick. Even if poison trumps all.'

A wealthy, successful, prominent Chinese Indonesian family has been poisoned, every single one of them, by one of their own. “It was caught on a surveillance tape, so there’s no denying that Estella was the culprit”. As Gwendolyn “Doll” lies in and out of consciousness she is left trying to comprehend how her sister Evelyn could commit so evil an act. Why would she want to destroy their entire family, and herself? Why did she want to put an end to the family line? Yet… “the wealthy don’t need reasons”, for anything else they may do, is the reigning belief in Indonesia about the affluent. Doll knows first hand the rot in the line, the many calculated actions of her entire clan. How can she possibly find the one moment, the seed of destruction?

Scavenging through her memories, family secrets are brought to light. What exactly happened to their mysterious young aunt “Tante Sandra” who was there one day and tragically gone the next? What are the sisters to think when it dawns on them that you can’t take your family’s ‘stories’ as fact anymore? How are they to to understand that evil is excusable if in the name of snuffing out any threat to the family’s reign? How much can the reader rely on Doll’s own retelling, when she herself has often “blinded myself” to the family she moves through?

Doll takes us back through her memories, in their youth “despite our mother’s disgust” the sisters had been enthralled by bugs, ants, carpenter bees, and grasshoppers, as if there was something ‘illicitly fascinating’ about their ‘indulgence’ in the world of creepy crawlies. College abroad, they find themselves studying in America with the freedom to explore as they wish “infected with American enthusiasm” though they now stick out as outsiders due to their ethnicity and all that difference entails. They take a class on entomology, which leads to a fascinating career for Gwendolyn, something she can create on her own after she feels cast out in the cold when a man named Leonard enters Estella’s life, as insidious as a disease. It is this love that comes between the sisters, that serves as the measure of family loyalty. A brutal, abusive love, but with the alliance of two prominent families their future success is iron clad, one must endure, one must always save face. Married life changes Estella, ending the closeness Doll once felt for her big sister, who now faces her days feeling like she isn’t good enough, brow beaten by her mother-in-law, confused by the changing behavior of her husband Leonard. In the meantime Doll’s busy with her own life, from the rise of Bagatelle to it’s success as other empires begin to fall.

When her sister needs her the most, she admits to falling short, but there is so much more to the story, and we must wait for Doll to divulge it, while she can still draw her breath, ravaged by poison.

This is a story of sisterly bonds, family loyalty and shame, and the atrocities only the wealthy can commit. Who is the victim, who is the criminal? It is a strange novel with a dark ending, yes read it.

Publication Date: January 21, 2020

Atria Books