Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generation of immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family? You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue!
When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline. It’s the biggest job yet for the family wedding business - “Don’t leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!” - and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie’s perfect buttercream flowers.
But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy’s great college love - and biggest heartbreak - makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?
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This book had me in stitches the whole way through. Not only do you NOT expect something that looks marketed as a fluffy romcom to be centred around murder and death, but the comedic timing within the dialogue was perfect every. single. time! I was looking for a lighthearted read between major fantasy series’ and this was perfect. It’s 1/3 cozy mystery, 1/3 comdey, and 1/3 romance. All of it was so unreal and extremely dramatic but in the most entertaining of ways. I did find the main character a little bit irritating at first due to her not really having a backbone but her slow-burn growth was fun to see. I think the aunts were very relatable even if you aren’t a Chinese-Indonesian family. All the small moments of introducing modern tech and slang to older family members were hilariously familiar. I had a great time reading this book and, though it took me a few chapters to really get interested, it definitely hit that 5 star mark for me.
Meddy’s family has this typical “Freaky Friday”-esque family curse that causes all the men in the family to leave as soon as possible. Fathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, they’re all gone, dead, or far away. Everyone left the poor sisters, except for the perfect daughter and niece: Meddy. Meddy feels the pressure to be there with her family FOREVER even though she feels like she is drowning in their personalities and unable to find her own. She gave up everything to stay with them including the love of her life. So when she’s in a dating slump, her loving family decides to get meddlesome. This results in a murder and eventual body disposal but it happens during one of the most important weddings of their wedding service career so obviously all hell breaks loose.
The dialogue and relationship between Meddy, her mother, and her three aunts is so layered and complicated but also so loving and funny at the same time. My favourite moments were when, even though Meddy has literally committed the worst of crimes (by accident), they jump to her aid without a seconds hesitation because that’s what family does. You can see the love poured into these scenes from the author herself and the relationships she must have in her life to inspire these moments. But the golden moments that made this book so hard to put down were those when the “old fashioned” women had to be taught the ways of modern America by Meddy including, you guessed it, the proper use of emoji’s on dating apps (that absolutely killed me, never let your parents use an eggplant emoji ok? It’s for the good of society).
A surprising aspect of this book was the romance. That was something I truly didn’t expect (given that her date dies and all) but I really liked it because it added these sweet moments of escape from the hectic goings on of the rest of the plot and the main love interest, Nathan, was the sweetest character in the entire book. I didn’t love the flashbacks as they were a bit too choppy and sad for me but the “present” moments between Meddy and Nathan were everything. I usually don’t like right person/wrong time, reuniting, or miscommunication tropes yet this one managed to get each one right.
I really enjoyed this book and it’s the perfect fun read for summer. There’s also a sequel (HOORAY) so I highly recommend this book, this author, this “series” because it’s all so good. 5 stars.