Ma’s hand flies to her mouth again.
“Did I get boy killed because I say I want to eat his eggplant?”― Jesse Q. Sutanto, Dial A for Aunties
This is the story of a loyal daughter, who accidentally murders her date, and the group of aunties who have no choice but to help her cover up the crime while running an over-the-top Indonesian Chinese wedding. It’s Dial A for Aunties.
I bought this book while on vacation. Although I didn’t read it until I got home, the yellow cover and cute description made me feel as if I had extended my vacation in some small way. This book follows Meddy, an only child raised by her mother and a group of three aunties: Big Aunt (the matriarch), Second Aunt (living in Big Aunt’s shadow), Ma (Meddy’s mother and the third sister) and Fourth Aunt (always in competition with Meddy’s mom). After her mom sets her up on a blind date, things go from bad to worse when Meddy accidentally murders him. Meddy does what she always does: she goes to her mom and aunties for help. The five of them are forced to deal with a dead body while putting on an elaborate destination wedding where they serve as the one-stop-shop family business for flowers, cake, make-up, photography, and entertainment. To make things more complicated, Meddy has to face “the one that got away” while keeping tabs on her aunts as they try to outdo one another in pursuit of the perfect wedding and keeping the dead body out of sight.
The good: The aunties are so damn funny. Meddy is the voice of reason to their ridiculous comments and behavior. The author shows how Meddy is torn between her need to please and earn the respect of her family, while also wondering if she is going crazy by going along with their nonsense schemes.
The bad: The plot isn’t great. I loved the details about Indonesian-Chinese culture and the marriage traditions. But the plot didn’t really interest me. That’s okay. I wanted silly auntie shenanigans and I got them. The love interest as the perfect-but-forbidden-love is a bit boring to me, but it seems to be a pretty standard plot device and this is a romance so, no big complaints there. I probably won’t read any of the other aunties books, but this one was enjoyable.