China Rich Girlfriend
“I know the average outfit in your wardrobe costs more than a semester of tuition at Princeton, but it makes you look like a community college during summertime: NO CLASS.”
China Rich Girlfriend takes off where Crazy Rich Asians ended. Rachel and Nicky are finally going to get married, in secret, after the shenanigans that Nicky's mother Eleanor pulled. My fear was that now that the main tension of the first book was resolved, there wouldn't be any more delicious drama, but I was wrong because now there's a new drama to replace the old: Rachel's father. Remember how Rachel not knowing who her father was was a huge deal-breaker for the Young family? And remember Kerry's teary story about her own upbringing? Well, now we know who Rachel's dad is and, more importantly, who he became - and trust me when I say it's shocking.
In addition to this new drama, there are new characters: Carlon, Rachel's brother; Colette, said brother's crazy-rich society girlfriend; and Corinna, lifestyle makeover artist to the rich and famous. Kitty Pong also makes an appearance, but now she's desperately (and with mixed, but mostly failed success) trying to remake her image. I really liked the Pretty Woman trajectory of her narrative ARC. I liked her character in the first book, so it was kind of hilarious seeing her waltz into the narrative again and break one social more after another in her attempt to be one of the "in" crowd.
China Rich Girlfriend is a different story than Crazy Rich Asians, which I think might be why some people are ambivalent about it. Crazy Rich Asians is a much more traditional "us vs. them" romance story in which the underdog heroine snags the dreamy prince, despite the fact that everyone and their grandmas are against them getting together. China Rich Asians is more like those bloated glitter-trash doorstop novels that were so popular in the 80s. Think lifestyles of the rich and famous. Yes, there's still romance, but in this book the focus is more on the drama between all the different families as they seek wealth, power, and acceptance. It's an incredibly fun series, and even though it may be vapid, I think it's important to note that representation is important in all forms of books, not just high literature: trashy books with people of color are just as important as rep in literary fiction, if not more so. After all, this is pure escapism.
