“Isn't it strange?
I am still me
You are still you
In the same place
Isn't it strange?
How people can change
From strangers to friends
Friends into lovers
And strangers again”

I am working my way through Ted Lasso. At the end of season one episode seven there is a song by Celeste. The song is haunting and the placement in the show was amazing.

But strangely it seeped from the show that I am watching into the book that I’m reading. Isn’t it weird how that happens sometimes?

Yes, there is more to this book. It’s about a Malaysian immigrant wife who is left by her husband. Her struggles with finding who she is. Is she married or divorced, Malay or American, vegetarian or omnivore?

But to me it was a story chronicling their relationship. The beginning, the middle and the ending. Strangers to friends, friends into lovers and strangers again.

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book.

With immigration and the hatred towards them such a big thing in our society today, I requested to read Edge Case for a good read and some insight. The story is about a Chinese couple from Malaysia who move to the US to take tech jobs in the hopes that they can eventually get their green cards and stay forever. While Edwina thinks all is well in their marriage, her husband one day ups and leaves without so much as a warning or even a note. She spends much of the rest of the book trying to figure out what went wrong and searching for him. IN searching for her husband, she begins to find herself instead. She goes through a decade's worth of changes in a very short time, and the upheaval should have netted more dramatic results, IMHO. The ending didn't go anywhere in the way I expected. Perhaps that is on me, but I think author YZ Chin could have wrapped the story up better. However, it was still a very interesting read about the nature of immigration, identity, and the intersection of both in the USA.

I finished reading this book two weeks ago and I’ve been thinking about the main character, Edwina, every day since. Edwina arrives home from her job at a software company to find her husband, Marlin, has left with their “cat” (actually a toy they have created). She uses an analytical approach to try to find Marlin while dealing with harassment from the males in her workplace, fear of losing her visa, criticism from her mother, and above all, loneliness. This is not a light-hearted book by any means! Edwina needs to do a lot of work to overcome her personal struggles and I found myself cheering her on.

I loved the idea of this book. I enjoyed reading the "before" parts about Edwina's life growing up in Malaysia and guilt over leaving but the "today" parts seemed forced. I don' t think we needed a before and after type set up for the book. The story would have been served better by a linear storyline. I just didn't buy anything that happened in the current timeline.

I was provided an ARC by Ecco in exchange for an honest review, which can be found below.

There’s really a lot to admire about this novel, but on the whole it left me feeling flat. The writing is consistently good and it’s packed with lots of unique details and insights. However, it felt cluttered, as a lot of those details distract from what should be the crux of the story: the relationship between Edwina and Marlin.

The backdrop to the book and the source of many of Edwina’s anxieties is the looming prospect of her visa expiring and her ambition to secure a green card. Chin does an excellent job of dealing with this particular aspect of the story, but at its heart this is a procedural problem, full of forms and qualifications and checkboxes. And yet it seems to bleed over into the relationship aspect, too, which ultimately becomes a binary: he wants x and she wants y. Some of this is understandable, like Edwina’s need for a spousal endorsement for her green card application compounding her worries about finding Marlin. But ultimately, it leads to a deeply unsatisfying conclusion to the book. Chin demonstrated throughout the ways in which Marlin and Edwina differ: the fact-oriented engineer vs. the imaginative literature major, sudoku vs. crosswords, etc. Interestingly, the conflict ends up being a reversal of their personalities, it seems. Marlin becomes the irrational one, desperately searching for meaning in the occult following the loss of his father, while Edwina is paralyzed by her fixation on her immigration status. Chin addresses this explicitly towards the climax of the novel:

“Was I now taking cues from a government form in the same way? Learning how to be a person, a wife, a daughter, from numbered questions? Maybe that was precisely what Marlin was resisting.”

I thought this was the setup to reconciliation and compromise, with each party recognizing the other’s needs and feelings, and the couple ultimately drawn back together by their shared experiences — chronicled so lovingly in the “Before” chapters. But no! In one of the final paragraphs Edwina states:

“But it was impossible. I might manage to go along with his vision for a moment—this moment—or maybe even an hour, a day, a week. Yet even if I didn’t know myself very well anymore, I was certain I would forever regret not finding out whether that green card would materialize.”

And so it turns out that the problem at the beginning of the novel, “my grief-stricken husband spiraled out of control and left me,” is the problem at the end of the novel. There is a lot that goes on in between, almost all of which felt fresh and novel, detailing their lives back in Malaysia, their experience as immigrants in the Trump era, and Edwina’s ordeals as the only woman in a toxic tech startup. But given the conclusion to the main storyline, all of this felt inconsequential, like it was just inserted to pad the middle of the book.

I can’t say that I’d recommend Edge Case to a friend, but Chin is clearly a very talented writer and I look forward to reading her future works.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I did not finish this book. It was not what I expected; per the synopsis, I thought I would get more of a mystery/thriller vibe. However, it was more of a literary fiction vibe, and I found myself disinterested in the plot and characters almost right away. However, this is not the fault of the book. It’s the fault of my expectations. So, I rate this an average 3 stars because I think other people would enjoy it. It’s just not for me.

Not your typical missing persons crime story, Edge Case follows Edwina as she must decide whether she can bring her husband back to her, or if she ever really knew him at all. Bonded together by their shared Malaysian nationality, vegetarian and vegan diets, and perils of trying to navigate the US immigration system, Edwina and Marlin are a solid couple. However, after the death of his father, Marlin vanishes inexplicably, leaving behind a destroyed memory of his proposal to Edwina.

I thought about the story and its characters long after putting it down. Edwina's exploration of her own place in her relationship, family, birth country and current country are all extremely compelling. The immigration story from the perspective of skilled workers/professionals is one I am interested in reading more of and learning about.

Note: I received a free ebook copy of Edge Case from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What makes this book different from all others?
- The narrator is a weak female, living in the U.S. as an immigrant. It's a unique POV, but I would have appreciated if the narrator had some redeeming qualities- something that made me root for her success. Instead, there are numerous moments in which we're led to question the narrator's sanity. I quit early. The story line became muddied with extemporaneous scenes written to shock and awe the reader.

I would not recommend this book. Certainly not for students, but not even for adults.

This book presents a deep dive into the lives of immigrants coming to America, their American dream, and the struggle for green cards and then citizenship. The format and storytelling of the protagonist, Edwina, is different from most books; I felt the author handled the story well, and though the story was told in flashbacks as well as present-day, I was always anchored well. This story is about Edwina's search for Marlin, her husband, who suddenly leaves her one day after weeks of odd behavior. However, I believe this is a story of a bigger picture: this is a story of immigrants in America, as well as the different relations and allegiances pulling at them. A story of love, as well as family, if you enjoy reading first-hand or first-person accounts or diaries I would recommend it.

This was a strange little book. The premise was intriguing, but the unreliability of the narrator made it hard to buy into the story. It was funny in parts, but mostly cringey and I just didn't want that for this protagonist.

I’m truly unsure of how I feel about this book. The writing is excellent, at times, but the story feels overall rather disjointed. At the end, I found myself feeling unsatisfied, which is unfortunate, as I feel this story could have been so strong. I am settling with a 2.5 right now, but I feel that as my thoughts settle I could be swayed to go higher or lower. I guess I just wanted a bit more from this novel. I can deal with a certain amount of ambiguity, but this almost felt incomplete.

Thanks to Ecco for giving me access to a galley. After reading Chin's excellent, award-winning story collection "Though I Go Home" a few years ago, I knew I wanted to read her next book and couldn't wait to get my hands on this one once I learned of it. To be honest, I merely scanned the synopsis before diving in.

The novel follows the professional, marital, and bureaucratic trials of Edwina, an immigrant from Malaysia working as the only woman on the team of an AI-tech startup in New York while trying to figure out why her husband left, where he's gone, and how she can find him and secure their permanent resident status as the expiration on their visas approaches. All the plot elements could have added up to a novel vastly different in tone—this would make an illuminating pairing alongside Lisa Ko's "The Leavers." There are certainly serious sections of heartbreak and melancholy as Edwina deals with separation from her husband and her mother back home in Malaysia, but the overall balance of comic banter with blissfully ignorant friends, cringey office encounters, and some P.I.-lite investigation kept surprising me to the very end.

The anxieties of immigration bureaucracy give the whole narrative a through-line of ambient stress that occasionally shatters through the surface. Even as legal immigrants, the weight of visa expiration dates and the quest for green card sponsorship hums in the mind of the narrator. I found Chin's brilliance in keeping this apparent in the narrative without soliloquizing about it to be one of the real strong points of the novel, along with Edwina's patience in dealing with friends and coworkers blissfully unaware of her struggle. There's enough exposition to clue in readers without personal experience of it, but my own background in working abroad on a visa and of helping my wife in her years-long navigation of the U.S. immigration system made it really hit home.

I plan to read this one again, and to pay more attention to the moments when Edwina meditates on her motivations for immigrating. While the twists and turns of her tracking down Marlin kept up the momentum in the middle section, and Edwina's dietary experimentation added some psychological tension reminiscent of Han Kang's "The Vegetarian" (including a scene or two that truly shocked me), the ending surprised me. Certainly, the elements threaded throughout made it a logical and satisfying conclusion, but I believe it will reward a second read with renewed focus.

In Edge Case, author YZ Chin tells the affecting tale of Edwina, a Malaysian immigrant in the US who suddenly finds her marriage on the brinks when her husband leaves without warning. It’s the story of Edwina’s attempts to find her husband, of her navigation of life in the US while waiting to qualify for a green card, of the discovery that her identity is both fractured and hers to reconstruct.

YZ Chin’s writing is unique and appealing. The layers she exposes in her characters’ relationships are real and relatable. At times the characters seem a bit lacking in development, but I think that reflects the complexities of the relationships and Edwina’s own processes of discovery within them, including with herself. The window opened into what it’s like to be an immigrant in the US is absolutely essential, and for that, Edge Case is an important read.


My thanks to Netgalley for a review copy of this book!

Edge Case is a refreshing take on an immigrant story surrounding a couple from Malaysia. I could easily imagine Edwina and Marvin as friends or coworkers of my own, submerged in the depths of tech company culture. Chin captured the nuanced ways immigrants cautiously navigate the "American success story," and challenged the very meaning of identity when you leave your home behind. Unfortunately, midway through things begin to feel repetitive as Edwina cycles through hunting Marvin down and dealing with her ignorant tech colleagues. Overall I enjoyed Edge Case and would read more of Chin's work.

Edge Case by YZ Chin is an adult fiction novel about Edwina, whose husband named Marlin, suddenly packs up and leaves. Throughout the book, she struggles to figure out why Marlin might have left her. Edwina grapples with her identity and clashes with her view of herself, of her marriage, and of her immigration status.

She flips between the ideas of her not being an adequate partner and the possibility that Marlin might have went back to Malaysia after giving up on securing their green cards or because of the grief of losing his father.

The story takes place in New York City, setting a comforting, tough-love sort of tone — immigration and living in city have much in common. One escapes in either situation, more often than not, in search for a more fulfilling life with more opportunity. If you like atmospheric realism, this may be your cup of tea.

Edwina was an enjoyable character, with her dark humor and poignant descriptions of her relationship with her mother, her husband, and herself. However, the connection I had with her was short-lived and now unimportant. I did not particularly enjoy reading about any of the other characters, besides her mother who was a bit cartoonish and reminds me of my South Asian grandmother given her many allegories.

The story is a conversation between her and a therapist. Therefore, it read very well and easily, and yet was professional.

The plot description was enticing, but the delivery was not what I expected it to be. I wanted more thrill, but I still enjoyed the story for what it was.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This book was well-written but was not my type of book. I am over 65, and I felt frustrated with the main character, who was in her late twenties or early thirties. Her husband leaves without a word and, of course, she is upset and wants to find him. But she goes through a whole lot of self-pity and introspection in the process, and she will seemingly do almost anything to get him back. At some point, I grew tired of hearing her internal dialogue, and I decided not to finish the book. I probably read over half and peaked at the ending, which does look interesting. Does she go back home with her husband or stay in the US now that she has been promised a path to citizenship? The reader is left guessing.

I think I grew impatient with this book largely because of my age. As stated earlier, it was well-written.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

This is not a missing persons case. Well, it is, but now how it is being advertised. The person is missing in the sense that they have abandoned all pretenses of their former life. Our MC, then, must puzzle out what caused them to change so drastically in such a short period of time. Don't expect innocuous detritus that may in fact be clues, or tracking various timelines to figure out where the "missing person" may be.

The writing sings when Chin is writing about what it means to be an immigrant in 2018, one struggling to construct an identity as outsider: as an Asian green card holder (in which people love to play the game, where are you from?), as a female in the tech world, and as someone who relied on her husband to help present an unified front to an indifferent world.

The rest of the book is a slog.

Our narrator is trying to parse out how grief has fractured her husband's sense of being, but because he is a boring asshole before he started consulting with spirits, we have little motivation to actually figure him out. The tech bros are predictably terrible, the scenes set at work run the same formula every time, and her outside friends provide little solace. What we are left with is a woman circling the drain, having a short conversation and then pondering about its implications for the next five pages, offering no new insights into her husband's condition or her own path forward.

This book also falls victim to some of the worst trends in modern literature. We get "interesting" facts that are supposed to provide insight into the human condition but instead come across as the fruition of late-night Wikipedia sessions. Every emotional turn must be explained ad nauseum and the writer shows no trust in their readership. The minimal plot works as bare scaffolding for the author's musings about modern life, none of which are particularly insightful or thought-provoking.

Listen to full reviews at: https://bookclubbed.buzzsprout.com/

Edwina's husband suddenly and mysteriously leaves her. What she thought was a solid marriage suddenly is not and she is in many ways unmoored and adrift from other parts of her life she thought were certain too. She had come to the US dreaming of a new start, free of a mother who has never accepted her the way she is. But in the midst of a week that almost seems like a fever dream she comes to realize that her efforts to blend in have led her to lose sight of who she really is. Her mother with her strange stories of past lives is more a part of her life than ever. Her job and its requirements are increasingly bizarre. She ends up doing things she never would have dreamed of doing a week before. Her search for her husband is in reality a search for herself.

Edwina is a funny likeable charachter and narrator. I found myself rooting for her every step of the way. Far from action packed, this is a novel which is a page turner simply because you want to go along for the ride. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and think at the end of the day it will be on many lists of the year's best books.

This novel definitely had it's smart and funny moments, but overall I didn't get it. There were themes in the story, such as being one of the few women in tech, which shone through, but the structure was a bit disorienting. Finally, at the end I understood, despite wondering what was really happening for much of the story. There are elements of this story that others may enjoy more than I did, but this one wasn't really for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for providing me with a free advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

For her first novel, author YZ Chin has written a unique book about immigrants in America, one woman’s search for her husband as well as trying to find herself. The book is written from the perspective of Edwina, the wife of Marlin, both of whom are immigrants from Malaysia who are here on work permits and trying to navigate the complexities of life in the US.
The uniqueness of the book starts from the beginning as this story is told as if we are Edwina’s therapist and she reveals much about the couples lives, work and the issues they encounter. We also find out that even though they are from Malaysia they have certain differences. Edwina is light-skinned, a vegetarian, heavy, has a rather difficult relationship with her mother and lacks much self-esteem. Marlin is dark-skinned, lean, a vegan, a computer coder and worships his recently deceased father. They work at different tech companies and both need to be sponsored in order to get their green card.
Despite coming from the same country the differences are quite obvious and drive much of this novel. Edwina feels that all is going well with her marriage until one day she comes home and Marlin has left. Their suitcase is gone, as well as the couples cat/dog (a toy they made for themselves, not a real animal, but nonetheless something that had become a family pet). What had happened? Was he kidnapped, had he wandered off, and where had he gone?
And so it is Edwina’s attempt to find Marlin, and all the while using us as her therapist to review her life, their life together and her experiences in New York. She tells us that something has changed in Marlin since they returned to the US after his father’s death, and tries to explore the full nature of these changes, whether she has done something to cause the changes and at the same time try to overcome the negative relationship she has with her mother. To put it mildly, Edwina has had to overcome a lot with her mother, who believes and tells Edwina stories as to why she is heavy, a vegetarian, has a mole on her face and much more. Even Marlin starts accusing her of having lovers, as it appears that he, too, has lost touch with reality prior to his disappearance.
While searching for Marlin, Edwina begins to eat meat, change her own lifestyle and begins to come to grips with her own life, as well as why Marlin has left. She finds him, but that is only part of the story. Edge Case is not a typical lost person novel, but rather is a story that makes us all reflect upon the deeper things that drive our lives, our loves and our own self-worth.
This review was previously published at www.mysteryandsuspense.com