A story about an immigrant family suffering generational trauma, Eleanor and Narisa Lui grew up without proper parenting, their parents Rita and Jing are stunted, self-centered and incapable of communicating effectively in any language. So everybody just leaves.

Eleanor left home for school, then got a job and a husband in a lab. Older sister Narisa dropped out of school and abandoned her boyfriend in her escape. Jing too just went away. Rita simply died. Nobody is forewarned, there are no discussions, also no nurturing, encouraging or joking. It is all quite frustrating and painful to read.

It isn't until Eleanor loses her job and her way and a monkey that she realizes that her dead mother is not haunting her, but rather that she is haunting her dead mom. "Grabbing hold of her ghostly sleeves, the hems of her phantom dress. Seizing every word she's ever spoken. I can't let go. I'm afraid to."

I had a hard time getting into this book. I think I prefer a more straightforward plot structure, though I did admire the writing style. Unfortunately, this one just wasn’t for me. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It is difficult to review books like this. On one end of things, I highlighted so many passages that I could likely make a new book just from quotes alone. And yet, I didn’t entirely connect to it at parts.
I had to sit with it for a bit, is what I’m saying.
This story is split into two segments— there’s the story of Eleanor and her attempt to navigate the grief she feels after losing her mother. And then there is the story of how her family came to be.
I thought this was a tender exploration of family and all of the tiny little universes that each person creates for themself. 3.75, rounded up.

First, thank you NetGalley for early access to this book. Unfortunately, I didn’t love this novel. I can tell the author is a good writer with thorough creative writing background, but I finished the book thinking, “what was I supposed to get from this?”

The main character Eleanor is slightly insufferable, and hell bent on destroying her own life and making it more difficult. She’s a truly terrible communicator on all fronts, and cheats on her husband for what? It’s unclear. The book revolves around the passing of Eleanor’s mother Rita and how Eleanor deals with that event. Rita was seriously unlikable, along with her husband (Eleanor’s father), who literally abandons the family from time to time.

I also found the organization of the book confusing. You think going into it that it will be from Eleanor’s perspective the entire book, but it (confusingly) jumps between how Rita and her husband got together, and Eleanor’s life in present day. I really didn’t know what to make of the ending. It felt like the author just wanted to stop writing.

The reason it’s 3 ⭐️ is because the writing is good and the author does a good job describing the emotions of Eleanor despite a lack of reasoning for her actions. I did want to read to the end of the book despite the lack of actual plot. Certainly an interesting read but don’t go out of your way to pick it up.

Chang is talented and at no point does this novel feel like a slog to get through - it's compelling and genuinely hard to put down! That being said, the dual storylines were... less than ideal. In order to fit both within the novel, neither timeline got the development they deserved. That being said, this is a really gorgeous depiction of grief and real family dynamics.

3.5/5, downgraded to 3 for review purposes.

Eleanor Liu secretly married her boyfriend of eight months, quit her PhD program, and is now performing unauthorized research on extra lab mice. Her mother is also dead. But Eleanor knows she's fine. As she navigates her new identities—grieving daughter, wife, PhD dropout—Eleanor contemplates the meaning of family.

QUITTER is a quiet and contemplative read following the POV of three Liu women, Elanor, her mother, and her older sister. The book is reminiscent of CHEMISTRY (Weike Wang), GOODBYE, VITAMIN (Rachel Khong), DAYS OF DISTRACTION (Alexandra Chang), TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM (Yaa Gyasi), and SEA CHANGE (Gina Ghung). This type of plot-light and character-driven story with a quirky FMC that sometimes makes questionable life decisions has slowly become a genre of itself, and I'm all for this messiness 🤣

I appreciate the exploration of complicated family dynamics, where no one in the Liu household is perfect, and everyone contributes to the fracturing of the family. I also adore the juxtaposition of the three Liu women: the choices concerning the men in their lives & the consequences of those decisions.

At just over 300 pages, QUITTER is a quick yet poignant read. I wish the story focused on Eleanor's perspective, as there wasn't enough space to develop each character fully. I've had a deeper connection with the MCs in the books mentioned above with similar tropes, whereas Eleanor is somewhat defined by the things she "quits," and I felt I was held at arm's length reading QUITTER. But maybe that's the point of the book, and I just missed it 🥲

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC*

I love this writing style and I can't wait to see what else Chang has to offer in the future. I enjoyed the dual timeline and POV aspect of the novel .

While the writing and emotions that Chang wrote about are beautiful, I found the story to be a bit slow at time. I found myself feeling unmotivated to finish it when I got towards the middle of the novel. I don't think it really had anything to do with the author. I stopped reading for a bit before getting back into it.

Overall, this is a solid 3 star read for me.

A Quitter's Paradise follow's a woman's journey as she picks up the pieces of her life following her mother's death, but we find throughout the novel that perhaps the pieces have been falling apart for many years before that. It's a dual-timeline and multi-pov novel where the past timeline is told in omniscient with lots of head-hopping. We get an intimate understanding of the characters in this novel, but not always to a satisfying conclusion.

I found it to be beautifully resonant with evocative language that deeply immerses the reader into the world. Personally, I felt connected to the characters because of shared cultural values and because of my experience as an immigrant. While I read this book very quickly, I think it's best served for people who like to take their time. I do see myself coming back to this, because there are pieces of the book that I know will make me feel differently if I was in a different place in my life.

I'd recommend this novel for lovers of literary fiction or those who are just starting to dip their toes in. The language is digestible and the novel explores crucial questions like "what is love," and "what does it all mean?" but without providing any real answers, as with most literary fiction. If you enjoyed Chemistry by Weike Wang, I think this will strike a chord with you.

A Quitter's Paradise is a debut novel by Elysha Chang that follows Eleanor Liu who is struggling to come to terms with her mother's death. Her grief starts to unravel all parts of her life - her marriage, her career, and her relationships with her estranged family. The novel in parallel follows both Eleanor's current struggle with grief over the death of a mother she never truly knew, and flashbacks of how her parents immigrated to America from the military villages of Taipei. Elysha Chang beautifully interweaves these stories and alternates between points of views throughout the novel.

I loved the writing and found the non-linear timelines very engaging. I found the exploration of Eleanor's complicated relationship with her parents to be the highlight of the novel. We see how Eleanor's childhood affects her present life, through her complicated relationship with her husband and her propensity to hide parts of herself in order to please others (even though in the long-run it only negatively affects her and the people around her who care for her). Despite the occasional disconnection caused by the abrupt time jumps at times, the book is an enjoyable read, highlighting Chang's remarkable writing skills and I am excited to read more from her!

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando Projects for providing me with a digital arc in return for an honest review.
A Quitter's Paradise comes out June 6th!

I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the second half, it feels like the setup was not fully fleshed out to its conclusion. I think the multiple perspectives were interesting, but I found myself wanting more from Eleanor at the end. The ending is meant to be ambiguous I assume, but I would have liked more of her coming to decisions or at least thinking about her husband, baby, and career. That being said I found her trajectory very readable and surprising, and there were some quotes that stuck with me. Fans of “Chemistry” by Weike Wang and “Disorientation” by Elaine Hsieh Chou might love “A Quitter’s Paradise.”

A Quitter's Paradise is a debut novel by Elysha Chang that is charting dual storylines. In the present, Eleanor has dropped out of her graduate school program and has pivoted to working as an assistant in her husband's lab while still performing some experiments on the side. To put it mildly, she is making some poor decisions that have consequences in both her personal and professional life. The other storyline is about her mother Rita and father Jing and their history together. They immigrate to the US and sell goods from Taiwan. They have two daughters- Narissa and Eleanor who are quite different. Eleanor's relationship to her mother is interesting, and one can pick apart the threads of why each woman makes certain decisions. Chang is a talented writer and the themes in this book are intriguing, but I found it to be disjointed and had a difficult time following where she was going in the end. This would not dissuade me from reading what she write next.

Thank you to Zando Projects via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

The book never really came together for me. The switches between time periods was unsettling and made me struggle at times. I personally prefer plot-driven stories, so I am sure this book will do well and get lots of accolades! It just wasn't for me.

Eleanor is not sure how is she is supposed to feel or what she is supposed to do really after her mother’s death. As she finally goes through her mother’s things, she learns more about her past and what it means to be a family.

The writing style here wasn’t for me - others might enjoy it more though! I also think it could’ve started out with more of a catching opening to draw me in.

A Quitter's Paradise follows Eleanor, a young Asian American woman who self-sabotages and seems unclear on her goals. I enjoyed the sections written from her (1st person) perspective, and found it jarring when the perspective shifted to third person omniscient. While these sections often follow her family, and help to elucidate who Eleanor is, Chang also jumps around in time and the combination of shifting perspectives and time periods weakened the narrative and disrupted the flow of reading. However, this is Chang's debut novel and the characters were interesting enough that I would read a sophomore novel from her.

A Quitter's Paradise, debut novel of Elysha Chang, follows a young woman's journey to make sense of herself, to find who she is and what she wants, and to process the grief she holds inside her heart after the death of her mother. Her unique story intertwines with others of Chinese immigrants looking for a chance in America, the struggles they had to face during their lives and their choices.

Let me start by saying that this book is so beautifully written and charming, that I'm already a fan of Elysha Chang. The narration is intimate, poignant, it's almost like reading someone's deepest thoughts: truly beautiful. Many described this book "hilarious": I don't agree with this, the main character is quite unique and quirky at times, but I would never say that she is funny or the book hilarious. In a sense, she reminds me of Keiko of Convenience Store Woman.

The story switch between three POVs and three time periods: this was a bit difficult for me to follow, mostly because I didn't have enough time to connect with the characters and I was unfamiliar with Chinese names (this is a lack on my part), so I struggled a bit with following who was who and doing what. The time jumps were abrupt and breaking the flow and the characters' evolution, which unfortunately made me disconnect and consequently care less about them.
I was more interested in the POV of Eleanor Liu, the main character who hides lots of secrets and has a troubled relationship with her mother even after her passing, and I wish we had the chance to follow her a bit more into her present and her future choices (will she stay with her husband? and most importantly: will she find the marmoset she stole from the lab??).

Overall I enjoyed this book, I just wished the timeline was a bit more defined or linear (personal preference, of course). The writing however is fantastic, so I can't wait for Chang's future works.

* I'd like to thank Elysha Chang, Zando Projects and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review. * A Quitter's Paradise is out on June 6th, 2023.

Thank you NetGalley and SJP Lit/Zando for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Eleanor Liu is fine. She is doing great, actually. Her life is falling apart and her mother is dead but like, honestly, she couldn't be better, even if she's having an affair and dropped out of her PhD program and can't seem to properly grieve. She's fine. She's super duper fine.

I liked A Quitter's Paradise and I think that Chang is an excellent writer whose work I will keep an eye out for, but I found this novel to be a little bit muddled. This is a story with dual timelines: one in the present, where Eleanor is rapidly unraveling in front of us, and one in the past, which encompasses her parents meeting and her childhood up until she leaves for undergrad. While it was nice to get these peeks into the events that shaped the Eleanor we're introduced to, I'm not entirely certain they worked for me. I did generally like Eleanor's character arc—a lot of her feelings hit maybe a smidgen to close to home, especially when it comes to imposter syndrome in science—but at times she did truly baffling and outrageous things. I did like that there was a lot of room in this novel for the reader to draw their own conclusions and I like that Eleanor's self-destructive tendencies were handled in a way that felt true to adults, especially adults who really don't feel like they have it all together. There were a handful of times I couldn't fully suspend my disbelief at what she got away with, but I did think this was very enjoyable and a well-written portrait of a woman who is really Going Through It.

A hilarious debut! Loved Eleanor and her family. A must-read for fans of dark humor! Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ebook arc!

I am not completely vibing with the writing style currently but as of right now its a DNF. Hopefully in the future I will pick this up again as it does still intrigue me.

A Quitter's Paradise was a struggle for me. It confused me as a reader more than gave me satisfaction of reading. Although the writing style was lovely and the prose was intriguing, the non linear timeline and the way the chapters jumped sporadically, left me not connecting to the characters or to the story. I enjoy reading diverse books and I think this did well in giving an insiders glimpse to the culture and experience of Chinese immigrants living in America. I would have been happier if more focus was placed on the present day timeline and the domestic drama in Elysha's life. Overall an okay read. I think folks that love meandering literary novels and great prose will find enjoyment between the pages of A Quitter's Paradise.

Writing style: A
Characters: C+
Plot: B
Execution: C
My enjoyment: C-

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review honestly an advanced digital copy.

I loved the cover, title and synopsis and was excited to read this. The writing is top notch, and some parts of it were interesting, particularly the present time period. The past was not as engaging, and at times the transitions felt jarring. Chang is a good writer, however, and I would read her work again. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.