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The Fortunes of Jaded Women

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Member Reviews

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC of The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh in exchange for an honest review.

CW: toxic relationships, grief, death of parent, infidelity, racism, body shaming, disordered eating, drug use, mental illness, misogyny, pregnancy, cultural appropriation, racial slurs, see full list on StoryGraph.

The Duong sisters are cursed. Just like their mother was cursed, just like their grandmother was cursed, just like their great grandmother was cursed. What's the curse? They are unable to have sons, who in traditional Vietnamese society, are the ones who are able to invite spirits back to their ancestral home after they have passed on. They will be without a home in the afterlife. Following the Duong sisters and their daughters, The Fortunes of Jaded Women explores what it looks like to rekindle relationships within the family, and the true meaning of inheritance.

Never has a multigenerational drama engaged me so completely! I loved all of these characters, despite and because of all of their flaws. Huynh beautifully balances humor with the nitty gritty of family politics. I wanted to stay in this world for a long time. This story is both cozy and hard hitting, bringing the reader to question what is truly important in family relationships, and what drives togetherness. This is for fans of Kevin Kwan and Jesse Q. Sutanto's writing. I had a blast!

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There were too many characters to make it enjoyable. The story was ok but I just couldn't keep track. Plus some of the characters had bad character traits and I didn't like how they were portrayed.

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This story is messy and complex and mostly a joy to read. At times things felt overly complicated or not realistic but overall it was a strong story with characters I grew to love. Also appreciated the discussion of racism and the way cultures change over generations as it made the characters’ experiences richer and more relatable.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is such a wonderful reminder of why I love diverse literary fiction. The story featured a widespread cast of Vietnamese-American women, each of which were unique and distinct in their character and beliefs. I loved bouncing between everyone's stories, and the pacing ensured that I never wanted to put the book down. I cannot begin to describe how many different emotions I felt over the course of the story, and appreciate the undercurrent of hope. As an American daughter of Asian immigrants and an eldest sister myself, I was able to pick out so many moments that related to my own family's dynamic. I wish I could thank the author for providing me with such a beautiful (and almost cathartic at times) reading experience.

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I can't think of much else to say besides GO READ THIS BOOK. It is beautiful and breathtaking in all the most wonderful ways that you can expect. You will not be disappointed by this lovely story.

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Sometimes a reputation can precede you.

Take for example, the Duong sisters. Anyone who is anyone knows the Vietnamese family has been cursed for years. After all, the proof is right there. Every birth, every generation, always a girl- never a boy.

The story focuses on two main generations of women. First there’s sisters Mai, Minh, and Khuyen. Estranged in their relationships, when they do manage to gather, all they do is bicker and attempt a sad round of one upsmanship. There’s a fourth half sister as well, who known of them like (and what just might be the only thing these women can agree upon). Of course the irony is the sisters are more alike then they are different, each one touting their own offspring’s accomplishments while not so secretly hoping they gave birth to the daughter who will ultimately break the curse.

The grown children of the sisters is also a focal point of the story. We get to know each woman’s daughters a bit, but the main focus is on Mai’s daughters: Priscilla, Thuy, and Thao. Cliché in their determination to not turn into their overbearing mothers, the independent next wave has a deeper desire to have it all, but still hopes this includes having a family of their own to meddle in, I mean, mother. 😉

Things come to a head when one of the elder sisters turns to a psychic for insight. There, the woman serves up an ominous prediction. In the upcoming year the family will live through a marriage, a funeral and a birth. But not just any birth. The birth of a celebrated first son. But who will be the chosen one for each milestone? Are the predictions even to be believed to begin with?

The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a captivating story, infused with relatable humor. It covers nuanced differences across differing generations, but manages to highlight what all the women have in common more than anything. After all, they don’t say the phrase, like mother, like daughter for nothing.

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I don't know how to describe this book other than to tell you - it is a must-read! A beautifully written family story with layers upon layers happening.

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This book had all the elements to attract me. I love stories of Asian women over multiple generations. This book did not disappoint. I really enjoyed all the characters and their stories. At times I felt some of the stories were a little rushed, and I wanted to know more, but in all the story was engaging and a resolution was reached. I enjoyed the family myth that the story was based around and how that impacted each generation's outlook on the world. I found myself not only looking up the pronunciation of words but also the places that were referenced. I felt I learned some things about Vietnamese culture and especially some of the gender norms as well. I also found the overarching theme of migration interesting as well.

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Fortunes of Jaded Women is multi-generational story about family. Deeply rooted in immigrant experiences, it's a story about how the world treats daughters and mothers. How there are only fights family can get into. With siblings and generations all stacked on top of each other, there are memories and ghosts of the past. Can they put it to rest at last? From the beginning I was already obsessed with their drama - and love. If you love complicated mother daughter relationships you have to read Fortunes of Jaded Women.

It's about how we don't understand our parents until we are adult or until we become parents ourselves. About families who have nothing to pass down because they are forced to start over. Families who have to teach survival with tight lipped sacrifices and sharp words. Who only have disapproval in a world that works against them. Fortunes of Jaded Women also gets a tinge of the supernatural with fortunes, prophecies, and destiny.

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This was a solid 4 star read for me. I love a generational saga and the tale Carolyn Huynh is able to weave amongst may layers of family is remarkable. My only problem was my ability to keep characters straight at points but that maybe have been more of a me thing. I loved the overarching themes of family, fate, and sisterhood.

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This is a very well written, compelling story. The character development was strong and the storytelling very readable. An overall enjoyable experience.

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Troi oi.

This new influx of books that aren't quite bilingual, but almost, are giving me life. For the longest time, I was uncomfortable being Vietnamese American. I grew up in Houston, one of the three largest enclaves for Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. I didn't want to bring Vietnamese food to school. I was proud to have never visited Vietnam. Suffice to say, I am quite ashamed to dwell on that person now.

Well within the third decade of my life, as a proud(er) Vietnamese American woman living in Southern California, near enough to Little Saigon, this book brought such joy to my life. I laughed. (More like cackled.) I cried. I felt each and every thing these women felt.

In Vietnamese culture, and probably most East and Southeast Asian cultures, giving birth to sons is prized over giving birth to daughters. And yet in immigrant families, it is the daughters who later take care of you as you age.

Every time one of the aunties did something so typical, I cringed, but understood. Every time one of the first generation cousins did anything, I felt as if I had done something similar. The men they're into? Trash. There's the white guy with yellow fever. There's the Vietnamese fuckboi. There's the Korean fuckboi.

Maybe you won't enjoy this as much as me if you didn't grow up in the culture. But if you grew up with a Vietnamese American friend and spent any time at all at their houses growing up, surely something will resonate.

I will leave this review as I started it. Troi oi, indeed.

And now I'm craving my mom's food.

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My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

While the writing was well done, I didn't enjoy reading this book because of the many toxic relationships that were portrayed in this book, regardless of whether or not they were resolved to a better type of relationship by book's end. I also found myself confused by too many main characters, although the author did mark each chapter as to which characters were being focused on.

The book did give interesting insight into various Asian cultures (primarily Vietnamese), particularly in mother/daughter relationships, in both current times and going back a few decades.

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This is a humorous and emotional saga of a Vietnamese family in America. Though not a perfect book for me, I expect this book will resonate quite a bit with those who are mothers and who are Vietnamese-American. Generations ago, the family is cursed because a woman runs off with a man who isn't her husband. The curse is that this family will bear only daughters, not sons. Only a son can welcome a dead mother's spirit into their home, so a woman who bears only daughters will have no place to rest in the afterlife.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book, but it's challenging to review because it's steeped in Vietnamese-American culture and language. I enjoyed those elements, only that I don't feel I could review this book as well as someone who is Vietnamese-American themselves. There were aspects of this story that were harder for me to relate to, but others I certainly could, such as estranged family members, to competition among siblings, to the difficulty of figuring out who you are and what you want in life.

I could definitely relate to this book as a daughter. And while not a mother myself, I appreciated how hard the mothers in this book tried to give their daughters the best lives possible -- while at the same time making them absolutely miserable. I could appreciate all the struggles these women faced in terms of adapting to the U.S. and building family and economic stability, and the one place they have some control is raising their daughters. Each mother in this book is so sure she knows what's best, and it's hard seeing their daughters make all the mistakes they did Yet they also struggle to understand their daughters' differences, like not wanting a high-powered career, flashy jewelry, or a wealthy husband. Their outlet for their frustration is to compete with their sisters for who has the most successful offspring.

I appreciated Huynh's insights into how Asian women are treated in America -- the ways that Asian women are both fetishized and diminished by white men was truly appalling. Huynh's depiction of Mark is particularly memorable. The guy only dates Asian women (younger and younger), he insists on going to the most "authentic" Asian restaurants, and then he spends all his time telling the servers about his life-changing experiences living in the East. It's funny, but it's not.

One of the reasons I didn't love this book was the large number of characters and narrators - the perspectives switched so quickly I never felt I got to know any one character, which is a problem for me. I particularly wanted to know more about the sister in Saigon; her story disappointed me. Also, keeping track of the family members and how each were related was distracting, particularly given similar names like Thy and Tho, and Mai and Minh.

It's written in a really humorous, over-the-top way, which made me think of Dial A for Aunties a bit. The women in this book don't just yell, they have outright food fights and are evicted from restaurants. Readers who like Alice Hoffman will also appreciate the fantastic elements of the book, with its psychic predictions and magical potions. But that's where focusing on fewer characters would have given this book more depth. I enjoyed both the humor and the magical realism but it didn't feel "real" to me.

I enjoyed one recurring theme of this book, which is how many cultures value sons above daughters. I come from a daughters-only family myself, and it's amazing to me how often, even today, it gets commented on, like there's something wrong with that. The other theme is that even in the most estranged families, there's a way to come back together and support each other. Those important family relationships can be rebuilt - not easily, and not without some damage, but they can be restored.

Note: I received an advanced reading copy from NetGalley and publisher Atria Books. This book published September 6, 2022.

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Such a fun story - loved the dysfunctional family dynamics. Both funny and heartwarming. So glad to have the opportunity to read!

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When I first began to read The Fortunes of Jaded Women, I was not sure what to expect. As it turns out, Carolyn Huynh's novel of family dynamics was a lot more interesting than I had anticipated. I am not sure what I expected, but what I read was the story of a family knit together by traditions and culture, who are both embracing the past and trying to escape it. The women in the Duong family have given birth only to girls, a fact that has been attributed to a witch's curse. In the year depicted in The Fortunes of Jaded Women, the family endures a death, celebrates a wedding, and is surprised by a birth. In other words, the Duong family lives are not that different than those of most other families.

Admittedly, I had some problems initially keeping track of so many female characters, but Huynh does a nice job of helping readers keep all these characters straight by referencing family member groupings, which assists readers. The first 75% of The Fortunes of Jaded Women is actually quite sad. The sheer dysfunctional family dynamics can be distressingly sad. But the last quarter of the novel is very funny and even slapstick in many ways. I was reminded that families are often a carefully constructed balance of humor and grief. I am not Vietnamese, and so I occasionally was confused by some traditions, but the best part of reading literature is how a book can teach readers about the world in which we live and the world in which we do not live. Life would be so boring is we only had to know about our own lives.

I want to thank the author and publishers for making this ARC available for me to read in exchange for my thoughtful and honest review. And thank you also to NetGalley for suggesting The Fortunes of Jaded Women.

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I enjoyed the premise and plot of the story, but I had a hard time keeping track of the characters, which caused me not to be able to connect with them. Overall a really enjoyable read.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC of The Fortunes of Jaded Women.

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The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh is a debut novel that is unapologetically Vietnamese.

For generations, the women in the Duong family have been cursed never to find true love/ happiness, nor will they ever bear any sons-- only daughters. But now, the Duong's family eldest daughter Mai Nguyen's psychic revealed to her that next year; there will be a wedding, a funeral and a pregnancy within the family. There are multiple POVs and we get to understand each and every one of the Duong women in the book.

This was really entertaining to read and I enjoyed it a lot! There is a lot of family drama and strong and flawed women that make everything that goes on and the relationships between each woman so relatable! Carolyn Huynh does a wonderful job of exploring the themes of identity, familial relationships, the immigrant experience, and what it means to be a Vietnamese-American woman.

It was hard trying to remember every character's name and their relationship with each other. I'm grateful for the family tree at the beginning of the book as I found myself having to constantly flip back and forth with the numerous characters in the story. However, even with the family tree, I found the writing to be confusing when the author switches between a character's first and last name within the same sentence. I think there could've been more consistency in that. Otherwise, this was an enjoyable read that I will recommend!

3.5/5 stars

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✨Book Review✨
The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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While it took me a minute to get into it, I ended up truly loving this book. It had me constantly laughing out loud! I also gasped quite a few times at some surprising and unexpected connections.
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Huynh did SUCH a great job intertwining the stories of the Duong women. This story was such a beautiful depiction of fucked up family dynamics and the way that our families drive us insane but we somehow feel obligated to try to keep loving them. It's a little bit happily ever after, so if your own family dynamics have not played out well and you are triggered by the idealized family, you might want to steer clear of this one.
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I also want to shout out how fun it was to read a book set in Little Saigon! Scenes at Mile Square Park and the Asian Mall were literal flashbacks to my childhood and made me so so happy.
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If you read this on the Kindle like I did, I do recommend screenshotting or bookmarking the family tree at the front of the book. I didn't do this until over halfway in, and it took me a very long time to keep all of the characters and their relationships to each other straight.

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I loved the start of the book and the end as well. Some of the middle got a little slow for me but overall I enjoyed this. Easy read that also has some harder topics. I loved the drama as well, it was almost like a reality tv show. 3.5 rounding up!

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

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