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

To start, this cover is STUNNING. Absolutely beautiful.

I had so many feelings reading this book. Nostalgia, anger, heartbreak, frustration, anxiety, STRESS.

The author wrote her characters so well, everyone was fully fleshed out and had a purpose and an important role to play in Audrey’s life.

The scene with Audrey’s dad, when he tells her he follows her Instagram to see what she’s up to, and makes a terrible roasted chicken because he saw her photo she posted from a NYC restaurant, like Omg, the kindest, sweetest man, I was near tears 🥲.

While I appreciated the ending and the hopeful turn it too, I was surprised at how quickly Audrey’s mother turned around, and suddenly they are able to call each other and have a more positive relationship. I don’t think it’s entirely unrealistic, I like an ending with some hope.

And I also love that Audrey ended up on her own. I was wishing throughout the book that it would end up that way, and was pleased to see she was taking control of her own life.

I really loved reading this book, the writing was really well done, and the story was simple yet powerful.

This book comes out January 31. 📚

<i>Central Places</i> is ultimately a story about home and our former selves. These themes were my favorite throughout this novel. Audrey, our main character, returns home to visit her small midwest town after eight years away in New York City. She has her fiance in tow and quickly descends into a former version of herself as she relives memories and rekindles friendships from her high school days.

Cai's exploration of memory and our younger selves was the most exciting part of this novel for me. I felt nostalgic for my younger self while reading this book, and I appreciated Audrey's experience of returning to a place that shaped you after you've gone off and been shaped by other places. And how that changes your perception.

I also enjoyed the family dynamic aspect of this novel. While frustrating, the parent/child relationship was interesting to understand, and the themes of immigrant parents woven throughout added another layer of depth to these relationships.

The one thing that I struggled with in this novel is Audrey herself. I do not mind an unlikeable main character in general. I typically think they are interesting, and I love seeing characters on the page grow and change as they experience things. But Audrey was a tough one for me. She was childish, immature, self-centered, and pretty unpleasant to everyone she cared about. I appreciated that she had some growth from start to end, but I struggled to feel empathy toward her. I wanted more depth and dimension to her.

Overall I enjoyed this debut and would have enjoyed it even more if Audrey had been an even more nuanced character.

In Delia Cai’s debut novel, Central Places, Audrey Zhou returns to her small hometown in Illinois for the first time in 8 years, with her rich white fiance Ben. Audrey is financially secure, but regresses emotionally upon returning to Hickory Grove and confronting all the tension that she left behind. All of the characters are unlikeable in their own ways, and the story of combined self centeredness and self loathing is deeply relatable. Audrey constantly asks herself about how her life could have turned out differently. She observes the past with a self critical lens, thinking about the context of her childhood, and the expectations of her immigrant parents. The author avoids over romanticizing the small town, showing how truly impossible it would have been for Audrey to continue to live there. While Ben sees the visit as a small blip on the way to getting married, Audrey’s trip to her hometown causes a monumental shift in relationships old and new. I don’t want to say too much about the plot because it is truly special.

This was a quick read, and Audrey’s internal thought process, which may seem like overthinking, was a highlight. I would compare the plot to a realistic version of a Hallmark movie.

Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the eARC.

What a complex and interesting book. Reading Delia Car's story reminded me of how we often lose connections with high school friends as we step put into the world and grow, how many of us have complicated relationships with our parents and peers, and how we often think we know exactly what we want in life until life shows us what's truly important. Added to this mix of emotions are the cultural differences and the experience of being different..
Thanks #NetGalley #PenguinRandomHouse

Audrey Zhou left home as soon as possible after graduating college. Leaving the small, often racist, town of Hickory Grove, Illinois behind and the high expectations and judgements of her Chinese immigrant parents, she’s made a new life for herself in New York and hasn’t looked back. Engaged to a Photo Journalist that has the perfect family and credentials, she’s even cut all ties with the friends she grew up with. It’s finally time for Ben to meet the parents and they make a Christmas visit home after years of her absence. What will her parents think of Ben, her wealthy white fiancé? Her past and present are about to meet, but is she prepared for the outcome? Audrey was not a very likable character. While she had every reason to be scarred by her past, she also took no responsibility for her own actions, not caring who she hurt in the process. As her two worlds collide and things start to fall apart, we finally meet the real Audrey, not the theoretical Audrey that she has created. Sometimes you have to come to grips with your past before you have any chance of a future. Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This was a solid debut from Cai, perfect for readers who enjoy realistic, flawed, unlikeable main characters. audrey zhou having a pretty successful stable life in new york city with a fiancée she's satisfied with, we see her return to her small town in illinois bringing him to meet her parents. this upturns all her feelings and past growing up in that small town that she had left all behind. and also a focus on her complex relationship with her mother being another factor in her never looking back. i thought the character development and self realization of flaws was well done overall and a lot of healing resentment. it was interesting seeing how use of high school relationships and past was used in order for this development, but it was quite realistic in terms of audrey having to come to terms with a variety of things she had been running away from

Audrey's home in Hickory Grove for the first time in 8 years- 8 years in which she more or less reinvents herself in New York. She's brought her fiance Ben, a caucasian man from a wealthy NYC family with her so that he can meet her parents and see where she grew up. This is in some ways a coming of age novel because to be honest, Audrey comes off as very immature at the start of this novel which I suspect will resonate with many readers. She's focused on herself and has a fraught relationship (to put it mildly) with her mother, who has placed many hopes and expectations on her. And she's got a former BFF and an ex, both relationships which need resolution. This is less humorous than I'd hoped but it's pointed and smart. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

What’s it like growing up in middle America and not ever fitting in? Cai’s novel addresses this from the point of view of a Chinese-American daughter of immigrants who returns to her childhood home with her fiancé and successful career selling magazine ads. Full of angst, anger, and unresolved issues familial and otherwise, the main character returns for a routine procedure on her father which reveals he has cancer. She runs into estranged friends from high school. In the process of a couple of weeks in town, she succeeds in blowing up her established life and starting over again with a new attitude.

Audrey Zhou has largely avoided her hometown in central Illinois since she graduated from high school. Now living in New York, with a pressure-filled career and a perfect fiancé, she rarely sees her parents or gives much thought to those she grew up with -- other than when she is reminded during her work or her time with her fiancé's family and friends all the ways her background and experiences differ from theirs. After she gets engaged and her parents ask her to come home so they can meet her fiancé, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip for Christmas. But over the course of an eventful week, Audrey must grapple with her relationships with her parents, especially her hypercritical mother, and the friends she left behind and whether the life she so carefully built in New York is what she really wants.

This is an impactful and thoughtful story about what it means to leave and return home, the complications of parent-children relationships especially as both get older, and navigating identities.

Highly recommended!

I wish this book had come out before the holidays because it perfectly captures the bizarre feeling of returning to your small hometown at Christimastime.


Audrey Zhou fled her tiny Midwestern hometown for NYC and lived up to her own definition of success. Now she’s returning home to her parents at the holidays with her white fiancé — confronting her tense relationship with her parents and the high school friends she basically cut off when she went to college. Over the course of a week, Audrey has to reckon with what she really wants out of life.

Oof, did Cai nail all the feelings of returning to a tiny hometown from a bigger city. I’m talking TINY towns, the kind too small for a Starbucks. This is a tense read, and you’ll probably think Audrey is a (27 year old) brat for a lot of the book. But it’s also deeply relatable for anyone who’s ever left a small hometown.

This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author!