Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt for the ebook. Diana, Errol, Vivian and Justin are best friends in the ultra competitive Maryland suburbs of the extended Chinese American community. They worked hard, went to the right schools, only to be dumped into the workplace desert that was the Great Recession of 2008. Bored and angry, an old classmate, Grace, makes a short doc about their frustrations and pressures of being a model Asian child. The video, called Bad Asians, catches on with this new platform, YouTube, and gets over a million views and will haunt the four over the next few years as they lose and then find themselves and each other.

Bad Asians by Lillian Li is a sharp, emotionally layered exploration of friendship, identity, and the disillusionment of adulthood. As a first-time reader of Li’s work, I was immediately struck by her ability to blend biting humor with poignant social commentary. The novel follows Diana, Justin, Errol, and Vivian, four Chinese American friends who, after graduating into the 2008 recession, find themselves back under their parents’ roofs in a hypercompetitive community. When Grace, a former golden child turned Harvard Law dropout, proposes a documentary about their lives, they agree, assuming it will go unnoticed. But when the video titled “Bad Asians” goes viral, their private frustrations and insecurities are broadcast to millions, unraveling their relationships and sense of self.

The characters are richly drawn and painfully relatable, each grappling with the weight of cultural expectations and personal failures. Diana’s quiet ambition, Justin’s simmering resentment, Errol’s emotional fragility, and Vivian’s biting wit form a dynamic that feels both intimate and combustible. Grace, the catalyst, is enigmatic and provocative her presence forces the group to confront truths they’ve long buried. Li captures the nuances of Asian American identity with precision, portraying how the pressure to succeed can fracture even the closest bonds. The twist isn’t just the viral fame it’s how each character responds to being publicly reduced to a stereotype, revealing the cracks in their carefully curated lives.

The conclusion is both sobering and tender. As the friends drift apart and attempt to rebuild, Li doesn’t offer easy redemption but instead a quiet reckoning with adulthood’s complexities. The novel asks: what happens when the people who shaped you no longer fit the life you’re trying to build? Bad Asians is a compelling meditation on the cost of visibility, the fragility of friendship, and the search for authenticity in a world that demands performance.