[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Sunshine Nails releases July 4, 2023


Sunshine Nails is a family centered debut novel set in Toronto, Canada, that explores what it’s like for an immigrant family with a nail salon, as well as gentrification.

I enjoy seeing a new voice in literature for diversity and representation, and I think Asian-Americans/Canadians will be able to resonate to some extent with the Tran family. However, that being said, I thought this was going to be more light-hearted and inspiring, but instead, we got malicious blackmail and a married couple that had really poor communication. I often failed to see the humourous side to this story.

While I appreciated the important layers and spotlighting the difficulties of owning an independent business that was to be overshadowed by a more modernized chain brand across the street, in a neighbourhood that was to be drastically changing by way of gentrification, I couldn’t get past the character traits found here.

I found it difficult to keep track of the timeline within the story, and the 5 pov’s at times were muddled and had so many different directions, with Thuy really fading into the background as an afterthought (though, I didn’t anticipate her betrayal, but honestly good for her! She ended up being my favourite character)

On one hand, we had Jessica, a 30 year old first born daughter, recently back from her time spent in Los Angeles. She’s jobless and loveless after catching her fiancé cheating on her. It was hard to get a clear read on her — first she’s saying that she’s above working a service/hospitality job that is meant only for immigrants with no education and poor English skills, but is soon found to be supporting her family’s nail salon when she is shit out of luck on job prospects and out of savings.

Then, we have Dustin, their 28 year old son who is an overworked tech employee to a man that refuses to give him a pay raise, and is also leasing a soon to be developed office tower right in the same neighbourhood as Dustin’s family’s salon, that will destroy the existing history. I really thought that Dustin would have played a bigger part in helping Sunshine Nails, but instead he was mostly off-page in a new workplace romance… And don’t even get me started on when he invited his girlfriend to someone else’s Buddhist funeral and said “all you have to do is look cute” - I’m sorry, what?

Maybe worst of all were the parents. I really didn’t care for the scene of them getting frisky (not saying that 60 year old's can’t do that, but it wasn’t needed here), or the part when Phil publicly urinated?!
The blackmail was so irritating even though I saw it coming with how much Savannah was being mentioned, it didn’t feel like the right type of characterization for this family and their business. And then for Debbie to act freaking holier than thou towards Thuy as if she just forgot the actions she did herself?! PLEASE. In the words of Thuy - a hypocrite.
Phil (aside from the gambling and heavy drinking that was triggering for me personally), was also low key pretty hypocritical about the scandals of other nail salons — the way he couldn’t understand how those immigrant Vietnamese workers didn’t up and leave for a better job elsewhere, when they most likely didn’t have the luxury and depended on every dime. I’m surprised he acted this way and judged them so harshly being a Vietnamese immigrant himself who still sends money overseas to help his struggling family there.
Plus, when his own son got diarrhea from his cooking for a week and his mentality was “oh, well one less mouth to feed” BFFR.

The arranged marriage/green card plotline was weaved in unnaturally and I still can’t get over the one white woman saying kimchi reminds her of a wad of wet toilet paper…
Also, when Jessica got a missed phone call at 10pm on the night of her parent’s party from a job interview - that was so illogical!!

And lastly, as a mixed race Chinese-Canadian, reading this following sentence really off centered me as someone who continually struggles with identity and sense of belonging, which is a shame, especially to read in a book written by an Asian author, centering Asian characters. I mean, is this what people really believe? It's so disheartening regardless if it's fiction.
<i>“What do you care, you probably can’t even read it anyway, Debbie thought. This must be what happens when people marry outside of their race and disassociate themselves from their culture and community. They sever their ties to their identity, then claim it back whenever it was convenient for them.” </i>

And that ^ sentence doesn't even align with Debbie's characterization either. How can she think that towards a "friend" when her son is in an interracial couple, dating a Desi woman, and both of her children can't even read or hardly understand Vietnamese anymore? Yet she somehow supports them? Are you sure about that?
This whole book is a big contradictory to itself and the more I think about it or write this review the more of a headache I get.