BOOK REVIEW

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I just finished Kevin Kwan’s newest forthcoming book, Lies and Weddings (publishing May 21, 2024!) and it was so much fun!

This was quintessential Kevin Kwan and I loved it. The writing style, sharp wit and observations, engaging dialogue, and complex yet lovable characters were reminiscent of all the things I loved about the Crazy Rich Asians series, but with refreshing new twists and perhaps a bit more biting in his snarky hilarious commentary that is something I’ve come to associate with Kwan’s signature style. Also, I had to google brands. ALOT. I always learn so much about how the other half lives — plus I just want a visual of the looks we are talking about here!

I found myself drawn into the shocking storyline and choices his characters made (as usual, very Gossip Girl-esque), and while I wish we could’ve had more books and more development to get to know this cast of characters and some of the middle parts/choices felt clunky or bizarre (Rufus being whisked off to an air balloon wedding and all of Martha’s storyline?), it was nevertheless an excellent standalone book that I devoured once it sucked me in.

I really liked Eden as a character and liked seeing her explore her treatment outside of the small circles she had always run in, her reflections on her experiences with racism and microaggressions she faced, and her confrontation with Arabella. I think Kwan always does a good job of sprinkling his books with doses of reality and while these characters didn’t grapple with the internalized self-hatred/racism to the same degree that his characters did in Sex and Vanity, I think these truths and his poignant societal observations, while in conversation with others in the genre, also really modernize the comedy of manners genre successfully

The title echoes Kwan’s literary predecessors in the novel/comedy of manners, and yes there were many many lies and many weddings. While his endings are always a bit outrageously deus ex machina in their execution, it is something I’ve come to love and expect from him, and as predictable as the ending may have been in some ways, it was still exciting to try to guess the extravagant and yes, crazy twists and turns that eventually lead to a happily ever after.

Thank you Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the eARC!



View all my reviews