Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto
Summary
The women in Meddy Chan’s family are cursed. Seriously. No man has ever survived a relationship with the Chan women. Not even their own sons. So Meddy is determined to stay by her mother and aunts’ sides, because when the curse comes for her, who else will she have? Of course, Meddy wasn’t really expecting the curse to hit her so soon. In this fantastical and exaggerated tale she will find herself relying on her family more than ever when an encounter goes from bad to worst. Add murder to the mix and you’ll be laughing as you try to keep up with Meddy and her meddling aunts.
Corner Thoughts
I’m not even entirely sure how I came across this book. I know for a fact that I read it as an e-book. And e-books are not my favourite type of format. But this one was so interesting and such a quick read that I couldn’t put it down for awhile. It kept getting more and more and more ridiculous. And I was loving that I was along for the ride.
Now I will warn you that in order to really enjoy this book, you have to suspend your disbelief. Plus you have to kind of be okay with dark humour and having murder treated in such an absurd way. The aunts are all their own exaggerated characters and Meddy is just kind of taken along trying to keep up with their crazy shenanigans and ideas. All with Meddy’s best interest at heart of course. Though they can be a little overbearing.
I did find myself having a little trouble allowing the story to just be as I was reading it. I kept thinking maybe there was something I was missing or like it couldn’t seriously be this dark without really addressing how dark it is. Once I reconciled that part of myself and just let myself enjoy the wild story, it did get pretty fun.
Though sometimes it was just like “Okay, seriously, what next?”. What else could possibly go wrong? It was still enjoyable and I loved how fiercely protective of Meddy all her aunts and her mother were. They are the definition of ride or die.
To be very transparent, I read this one a little while ago. So it’s not quite as fresh in my memory. What is fresh is that I kept shaking my head in silliness and laughter. And I ultimately enjoyed the entire story. I felt like I almost needed to go back and re-read it with a better understanding of just letting the story be. I kept thinking some big twist was going to happen and that things weren’t really what they seemed, so that kind of held me back sometimes from just losing myself in the story. Again, I think it was because I didn’t allow my suspension of disbelief to occur. I kept trying to be logical about this crazy and over-the-top story. Add a big wedding that is happening on a beautiful private island, it was sometimes a little much to take in.
This book was my lesson that sometimes you just need to let fiction be fiction and not pick apart details or overthink too much about the realism of a story. You just gotta buckle in and enjoy the ride. I know the author has come out with another one, so that might be one I will pick up and gave a chance. And this time I’ll start it with a much more open mind and just let the story be what it is – a fun, good time with a lot of love from an overbearing and hilarious family.
Deanna’s Corner 