Central Places had an interesting take on someone who was stuck in the past without really realizing it.

Audrey is an Asian American living what she thought was her best life in NYC rarely coming home to her small hometown of Hickory Grove to visit her parents. She brings her fiance, Ben, home to meet her parents when her father has to have a medical procedure.

Her best girlfriend doesn't want to see her since she hasn't spoken to her since their freshman year in college, but her best guy friend, Kyle, is nothing but friendly to her even though she also hasn't spoken to him since the summer after high school graduation. She had always had the biggest crush on Kyle so she started to have those old feelings again and fall back into hanging out with him.

In the meantime, Ben has to leave Hickory Grove for work and Audrey starts to really examine herself and her relationships and she realizes that some things aren't what they seemed. She also knows she needs to make amends to people she has hurt in her past and her current life.

I really loved the first half of the book, but it lost me just a little in the 2nd half when she treated her fiance poorly and would ignore texts from him and others as she tried to figure things out making them just as confused as she was. However, I am sure that there are many people that have similar realizations when they return back to where they grew up and are most comfortable.

Twenty-seven-year-old Audrey Zhou is leading a life most of us would be envious of. Living in New York City as a sales rep for a newspaper, she has many friends and is engaged to a witty and handsome man from a wealthy family.

In contrast, Audrey is from Hickory Grove, Illinois, a small Midwestern town, where she hasn’t been back to for eight years. As the daughter of working-class Chinese immigrants, she felt like an outsider. Add to that, she always had a contentious relationship with her mother and didn’t understand her father.

When her fiancé Ben wants to meet her parents, which means spending Christmas in Hickory Grove, Audrey panics. She is desperately trying to leave her past behind, especially Hickory Grove which she feels was toxic and suffocating.

But what ensues is what no one, especially Audrey herself expects. She not only sees her parents after all this time, but also runs into old friends in which she has unresolved issues with. The visit brings out tensions and irrational and self-destructive behavior. But there’s more to it.

Though I couldn’t understand all of Audrey’s choices, I did relate to wanting to leave one’s past behind and the people and memories that come with it.

Central Places takes a common, relatable situation and makes it one that most will enjoy reading and find difficult to put down.

This one was just meh for me. I liked the premise. I liked that I could literally feel the tension during the conflicts and arguments. It reminded me of Crying in H Mart at times when describing the Asian-American/immigrant/mother-daughter relationships and struggles. I did not like Audrey though. She was just so unlikable to me. I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t go into deeper detail of why I really didn’t like her. I got bored with the story and was just reading to finish it by the end. I probably should have just DNF’ed it but I’m not good at that lol.

Central places follows Audrey, a Chinese American woman who the job and a fiance, she loves. Ben, her white fiancé decides for them to take a trip to Chicago, Audrey’s hometown to meet her parents. When they arrive, Audrey must face her past, her complicated relationship with her mother, and her relationship with Ben. I loved the story and the concept of it, however, the story was rushed. I wanted more on Audrey and her relationship with her mother, since that was a major focus in the book. Audrey’s character development was lacking. As I kept reading, I felt so annoyed at Audrey hoping she would at least change by the end of the novel. I think the author did an amazing job showing the readers Audrey’s complicated relationship with her mother, but how the author decided to resolve their tension didn’t make sense to me. At some point in the novel, I related to Audrey. The complicated relationship with your immigrant mother, I relate to that. Audrey and Ben’s romance was interesting to say the least. There wasn’t a connection between them and Ben annoyed me throughout the book. Then there was Kyle, no chemistry between him and Audrey. I wanted more for Audrey, and to see her grow. I really loved the concept of this book, and Delia Cai’s writing style. Thank you to Random House for my advanced readers copy of this book.

Sometimes it is hard to live up to a parent’s expectations. Audrey Zhou grew up feeling that she was never good enough for her mother, who set strict limitations on her daughter and always expected her best. When Audrey graduated college she refused to attend graduate school, causing a rift in the family. She moved to New York instead, where she worked for a magazine. She has not been back to the small town in Illinois where she grew up for eight years and has limited calls to her parents to just a few each year. Now she is engaged to Ben, a rising photojournalist, who agrees to a Christmas visit to meet her parents. Originally from China, her mother switches to Mandarin whenever she criticizes Audrey or her choice of a future husband, while her father seems to genuinely like Ben. Trouble begins and doubts creep in when Audrey runs into Kyle, a close friend throughout school that she secretly had a crush on.

In New York Audrey was happy with her life as “new Audrey”, but coming home she has to confront “old Audrey”, including the life and friends that she lost contact with. She also realizes that Ben, who made her life so easy in New York, is actually more controlling than she realized. Delia Cai’s story explores the mother-daughter relationship, the changes that take place over time and the real meaning of home and family, making Central Places a book that is easy to recommend. I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine for providing this book for my review.

We're interesting book I like how She had to come to towns with her life. Audrey grew up in the Midwest as a Chinese person I'. This place was in Illinois outside of Chicago. It was small town America and she was one of the only Chinese people in the school. She know she went to New York and she had a very different life there and she was very happy. She met a guy named Ben Who became her Partner to be married. Ben was a photographer for different newspapers Magazine Ben Grow up on the upper West side in New York City And he was very Very wealthy. Audrey wanted this type of life because she thought it was very Remember glamorous compared to her life I And where she grew I j Find out what her childhood is like and she comes home with Christmas with SBEN. Her mother was very nasty to her father was OK with everything. . Things start to know how to sideways When It's her own friend KYLO. Then an Audrey started hanging out with Kayla And Ben. Then we're having a hard time because your family really couldn't understand him. Audrey was trying to go off the rails because her mother was making her very jumpy. And it was really interesting to see how like sometimes changes when you go away for 8 years and then you come back.. Audrey was trying to show Ben T How Life was when she was going up when she went to M ALLS And driving around her car. Ben was trying to really understa But he came from a different type of life. I like how everybody is playing with chess pieces and And how all this put in together in the book everybody had a different piece of Chess board and everybody seemed to have different says and different views in this book I think Audrey made up with her friends and how she accepted her family at that point. There's a great ending to this book Your Love it

Wonderful debut. A novel about growing up, recognizing your roots, and what it means to want different things from your parents, and well as realizing that maybe you need/want those roots after all. A story of an immigrant family, and how it feels to grow up in the very white midwest as a Chinese-American. Audrey is a wonderfully complicated character - any woman who's survived her 20s will recognize at least some part of herself in Audrey.

"Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny town in central Illinois where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancé, Ben. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she's become, from those she left behind.

But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Audrey's relationship with her parents has been soured by years of her mother's astronomical expectations and slights. The friends she's shirked for bigger dreams have stayed behind and started families. And then there's Kyle, the easygoing stoner and her unrequited crush from high school that she finds herself drawn to again. Ben might be a perfect fit for New Audrey, but Kyle was always the only one who truly understood her growing up, and being around him again after all these years has Old Audrey bubbling up to the surface.

Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey's proximity to her family and to Kyle forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she's worked toward and everything she's imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?"

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Central Places is an immersive character driven debut by Delia Cai. We follow Audrey Zhou, daughter of Chinese immigrants, as she returns home to a small midwestern town after many years away in NYC, white fiancé Ben in tow. Audrey has an incredibly tense relationship with her "central places," namely her parents and the friends she left behind. She is at times an absolutely infuriating character, but I appreciated seeing experiences through her eyes, and her evolution over the course of the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House - Ballantine for the advanced copy, in exchange for my honest review.

“I’d never imagined not having a tether, however flimsy, leading back to this central place.”

This was a great debut novel from Vanity Fair writer Delia Cai. It’s a story about finding yourself. A story about complex family relationships, nostalgia, old friends, and finding out that sometimes things don’t work out quite the way you expect them to— and learning to accept this.

I seem to be reading a lot of books with tense mother-daughter relationships lately, and this book is no exception. Observing the relationship between Audrey and her Chinese immigrant parents, her mother in particular, was at times heartbreaking, and others heartwarming. I felt Audrey’s pain in her arguments with her mother, and felt the discomfort at watching her white fiancé navigate Audrey’s family, so foreign and different from his own wealthy parents and presumably privileged youth.

The element of the book that stuck with me most was the main subject of the book: Audrey returning to her childhood hometown after years of separating herself from her old life, old friends, and old flames. I liked how her attitude changes as the story progresses and she realizes what she missed all those years away from home, how she begins to discover what “home” really means.

Maybe this was the intention of the author, maybe not, but I did not like her fiancé Ben very much at all. Big shot photojournalist sounds appealing on the surface but he gradually lost brownie points with me throughout the book and I just…no. On the other hand, I adored Kyle’s easygoing nature and the way he and Audrey seemed to pick up right where they left off. I also enjoyed Audrey’s friendships with old friends like Kristen and new ones like Zadie, and her parents also grew on me big time by the end of the book.

This was the perfect read to compliment the Lunar New Year, and I hope that it gets the attention it deserves once released, because there is something in it for every single reader to relate to.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House - Ballantine for the advanced copy!

I couldn't put Central Places down! The author does an incredible job of really putting you inside the mind of her main character, Audrey Zhou. Audrey's decision-making will frustrate you at times and then you turn the page and there is an emotional gut punch waiting. No spoilers but there is one sweet scene between Audrey and her dad in the kitchen that will linger with me for a while. Fantastic read!

Actual rating 3.5

You can't go home again, except when you have to. That's pretty much the idea behind Audrey's journey back to her hometown to introduce her fiance to her parents. I loved the idea of challenging home visits and the dynamics that play out, but the problem here is that Audrey was just a bit too unlikeable. The parents were very realistically portrayed and even though the mother was also on the unlikeable side, I was able to reserve irritation with her more than I was with Audrey. Perhaps I'm too far removed from her experiences to understand her position? Or maybe I've been a mother for too many years to be as accepting of adult immaturity? At any rate, Audrey kind of ruined the story for me, which is a shame. The ending resolution also felt too rushed to be realistic based on how the rest of the story had played out. That said, Cai did an excellent job of putting the reader in place with her descriptions of life in the Midwest and everything that it entails.

My thanks to Ballantine Books, the author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I can’t say if I liked this book for sure or not. Most of it made me cringe and not like Audrey so much. I can’t say I blame her or am above her actions and thoughts and I guess she is 28. And ahh Asian moms. I get it.

I am proud of how the ‘real’ Audrey ended up. Good for her.

Thank you to Random House Publishing - Ballantine and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

What I liked the most about this novel was its Midwestern location. I am very familiar with the area the author wrote about is, and is apparently from.
Audrey fled her hometown and has t been back but now she is engaged and coming back for the holidays.
I thought she had a huge chip on her shoulder and was unreasonable when she encountered people she had cut off years before.
Her relationship with her mother was strained, which was sad, but then neither one really tired to understand the other.
Audrey does make some key changes by the end of the book.
It is a decent read.

It’s very hard to enjoy a book when the main character is so unlikeable. I wanted redemption for her and redemption for the time I spent sludging through her selfishness, but alas it wasn’t to be. Did she finally grow up a bit? Yes. Was it enough to redeem the story? No.

This book made me happy and this book made me sad.
It made me miss a lot of people.
It made me appreciate New York City.
It made me appreciate going home.
It made me feel less alone.

Audrey Zhou hasn't visited the small town in Illinois where she grew up in years - nor has she kept in touch with anyone from high school. She has made a life for herself in New York City and hasn't looked back. Recently engaged, she heads home with her fiancee for the holidays so that he can meet her mom and dad. Her visit home forces her to look more closely at her relationship with her immigrant parents and with her long-abandoned high school friends. Is the life she is now living the best choice for her? A thoughtful novel that looks at relationships of various types, this was a compelling read. ARC courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley.

This is a five-star read for me because the author was able to capture so much intergenerational feeling in it. The conflict between generations is only magnified when it is an immigrant story with each generation also having linguistic challenges in communication. Add to that a setting in a small Midwestern town and you have a compact stage for the drama being played out. Audrey is a little difficult to like. She has issues, problems, preconceived thoughts, and a lack of sensitivity. Yet, you do end up liking her and rooting for her despite wondering how much of her drama is her own fault. Then you take a step back and try and put yourself into her shoes and realize... well, those are difficult shoes to wear indeed. This is a perfect read for anyone bi or multiracial as well. And there's plenty to digest for a book club as well.
The writing is both tight and descriptive. I liked it more than I thought I would!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I hope it attracts many readers!

4 stars
Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC

I was a little surprised by how much I enjoyed this story. I really loved being in Audrey's mind and traveling back to her hometown with her to relive her time growing up in the midwest. As someone also from the midwest, I feel like I could relate to certain things Audrey talked about, both good and bad. Audrey wasn't a perfect character, but I feel like that made her much more relatable and real. I loved seeing her growth and the changes she went through during the story. This was a quick read for me, and although it's definitely more character driven, I was pulled in and wanted to know what was going to happen next. I enjoyed reading about all of the different relationship dynamics that take place in this story, and I related to Audrey's struggle of feeling tied to home even if we don't always want to be. It was just an interesting and surprinsingly deep story, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes character driven stories about families, friends, and relationships.

Central Places is about Audrey Zhou, the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Audrey does not have a good relationship with her parents, mainly her mother. Her relationship is so bad that she has not seen them for eight years and has had very little contact with them. Audrey is recently engaged and her fiance would like to meet her parents, so a trip home is planned for Christmas.

Audrey is from a small town in central Illinois. Audrey could not wait to get away from her hometown, Hickory Grove, IL. Growing up in a small town and especially being Chinese did not leave Audrey with many good memories of growing up.

Audrey is not a very likable character. She has her been very successful in her career but still blames most of her problems on either her mother or Hickory Grove. At times while reading this, I could relate to some of the things she was saying about small towns but at other times I wanted to scream at her that this is your fault!!

Thanks so much to Ballantine Books for the copy of this book!

I LOOOVEEEDDD the first half of this novel. I’m a sucker for character-driven literature and was really enjoying Audrey’s story growing up in small-town Illinois and entering the upper middle class in NYC. Her Asian American upbringing took a starring role as she and her white boyfriend, Ben, travel back to her hometown for the holidays. However, Audrey makes some really questionable choices in the second half of the book and her personality takes a bit of a negative turn - and it’s hard when you don’t want to cheer for an MC anymore. Luckily, she did redeem herself a bit in the end and I got back into it, but I really wish she would've made some different choices! It took away from the central narrative of the book for me and I think her actions were used to develop her character's progress when I would've preferred dialogue in that area instead. I LOVED her dad so much and enjoyed watching the character dynamics play out. Overall, I liked but not loved this read.

Read if you:
- like character-driven stories
- have ever been in an interracial relationship
- listened to The Killers in high school
- always feel called to a 'central place' that feels like home