Book Review — Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So

I received an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book from Netgalley and Ecco. This has not impacted my rating and this review is voluntary.

Genre: Fiction
Published by: Ecco
Publish date: August 3, 2021
Number of pages: pages
Author’s website:
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Seamlessly transitioning between the absurd and the tenderhearted, balancing acerbic humor with sharp emotional depth, Afterparties offers an expansive portrait of the lives of Cambodian-Americans. As the children of refugees carve out radical new paths for themselves in California, they shoulder the inherited weight of the Khmer Rouge genocide and grapple with the complexities of race, sexuality, friendship, and family.

A high school badminton coach and failing grocery store owner tries to relive his glory days by beating a rising star teenage player. Two drunken brothers attend a wedding afterparty and hatch a plan to expose their shady uncle’s snubbing of the bride and groom. A queer love affair sparks between an older tech entrepreneur trying to launch a “safe space” app and a disillusioned young teacher obsessed with Moby-Dick. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.

With nuanced emotional precision, gritty humor, and compassionate insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities, the stories in Afterparties deliver an explosive introduction to the work of Anthony Veasna So.

_{via Goodreads}

Rating: 2.5/5

This book was hard for me to get into so much so that I ended up getting the audiobook in order to finish it. The late Anthony Veasana So gave vignettes into the lives of Cambodian-Americans in a unique way, but perhaps that’s what lost me, I wish we saw more character development or more story arches rather than snippets. Each character felt like they were holding back how they really felt but maybe that was the point and each story ended as if it was missing a final chapter. Some stories did stand out more than others such as the first one about a family running a late-night donut shop. I would still recommend this book if you want to reach short stories about Cambodian-Americans and I want to give this another try with a physical copy to see if I read it differently.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? I’d love to know!