A short story collection following queer Asian main characters? Sign me up! This short story collection really digs deep into those experiences and shows us heart and hope throughout. An enjoyable read for sure!

Wat's short story collection was a refreshing portrayal of queer Asian people just trying to live their lives. I found it to be very heartfelt, hopeful and realistic. While I don't read short story collections often, I really enjoyed this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel. All my thoughts and opinions are my own.

Daddy Issues is a collection of stories showcasing snapshots of the lives of several different Asian-American people in the LGBTQ+ community.

This was a quick and enjoyable read from start to finish. The stories are of varying lengths that offer me a mere peek into a random moment from an average day of these beautiful, twisted, and often-complicated characters. There’s something so intimate about how most of these stories aren’t about some big events in the character’s lives. I really loved that detail. There’s so much quiet sacrifice and struggle that’s happening in each of these people’s lives

Each story left me desiring another glimpse into their lives, for another opportunity to check in on them and their overall wellbeing. I didn’t want to leave any of these characters after their story ended. And I think that’s the sweet spot.

There is something quietly revolutionary about this book. The author writes lives that are so often ignored or flattened into stereotypes like queer Asian American people living with grief, tenderness, rage, desire, shame, creativity, and love. These stories feel like they’ve been waiting for someone to finally tell them with care.

Reading it felt like being seen and punched in the heart at the same time. The characters aren’t polished or perfect. They’re messy and soft and angry and trying. A father who cannot yet name his truth to his son. A social worker so overwhelmed by other people’s trauma that he forgets how to hold his own. A trans man packing up his family’s home while his father slips away in fragments. And all of it happening in a Los Angeles that is not glamorous but raw and real and full of ghosts. What moved me the most is how the author writes solitude. Not as a punishment but as a space where longing lives. And from that longing, sometimes, comes connection. Sometimes not. But the hunger for it is always there. The hope is always there.

I wish more people would read stories like this. Not just because they’re good — and they really are — but because they’re necessary. We need queer Asian American stories that aren’t written to explain themselves to anyone. Stories that don’t apologize or simplify. Stories that exist in their full emotional range.

This book is for anyone who has ever felt too much and not enough at the same time. It’s for the kids who grew up with silence and the adults still learning how to speak through it.

If you’ve ever wondered where your story fits in the world — or if it even matters — this book will tell you that you are not alone. You never were.

4 stars
Thank you University of Nebraska Press for an early copy.
This is such an amazing read for me.

The short stories in Daddy Issues highlighted a significant amount of the Asian American queer experience, especially in United States. I also found it interesting that most of the protagonists were from Los Angeles and explored creative occupations. The most impactful story to me was the last one, which focused on the fatigue of growing older as you are still becoming your own individual. There is considerable societal pressure to achieve certain milestones at specific ages, such as marriage and attaining a respectable career.
I would say that since there seems to be an Asian woman on the cover, I was expecting for some of the stories to focus on the queer Asian American experience for women. Tackling the intense patriarchal standards that are rampant in many Asian communities while accepting their own queerness is something that I was expecting to be addressed in here, but wasn't. All of the narrators in the short stories were men (including a short story about a trans man caring for his father with dementia), and I wish there had been at least one lesbian protagonist, all things considered.