Review Archive
Browse in-depth AAPI book reviews.
Reviews
Explore every Lantern Lit review to discover standout AAPI reads.
Comedy Exoticization Family Food History Immigrants Memoir Model Minority Satire Storytelling
Simu & Bowen, Saturday Night Live
Let’s face it. No two people have better chemistry than Simu Liu, the first Asian Marvel lead, and Bowen Yang, the first fully Asian cast member on Saturday Night Live. In just three minutes, the two actors hit it off like old bros catching up with each other. They are what Bowen calls “fellow yellow…
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Crazy Rich Asians, directed by Jon M. Chu
Jewels. Glamor. Drama. Jon M. Chu’s film Crazy Rich Asians did not fail to impress. A romantic comedy based off of Kevin Kwan’s novel, it bedazzles the reader with the tale of Rachel Chu, an American-born Chinese economic professor at NYU, and her boyfriend Nick Young, a Singaporean man from one of the wealthiest families…
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Minor Feelings, by Cathy Park Hong
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong is in no way minor. It is more than major. It is the ultimate handbook to Asian American empowerment. It is what every Asian American should read at least once in their life. Hong builds memoir of growing up Korean-American, finding her voice as a writer, and navigating the…
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The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
When I read the first few pages of Amy Tan’s masterpiece, The Joy Luck Club, I saw not words but my own family’s story reflected back at me. A Chinese immigrant brings a swan to the US, only for officials to take it away, and leave her with nothing but a feather symbolizing her hopes…
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Kim’s Convenience, by Ins Choi
While watching Ins Choi’s play Kim’s Convenience, there was not a single moment I felt like I was sitting in a theater. I did not watch the characters’ lives but rather lived it with them. Kim’s Convenience renders the dynamics between an elderly Korean immigrant, who owns and runs a convenience store in Canada, and…
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Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang
Hear me out. R. F. Kuang deserves the Nobel Prize for Bravery for sending Yellowface out into the world. In this dark, satirical novel about an unsuccessful white author, June Hayward steals friend and literary star Athena Liu’s work following her sudden death. June rebrands herself as Juniper Song to publish her edited version of…
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Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
From culinary traditions to cutting tragedy, Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart is a beautiful autobiography of how Zauner—now the primary songwriter of indie pop band Japanese Breakfast—navigated her half-Korean identity from childhood to adulthood, when she lost her mother, a Korean immigrant. At the beginning, Zauner describes witnessing families enjoying cultural food together—something she…
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