The story begins with a brief introduction about the background of Nicholas Young and Rachel Chu and slowly progresses toward their families and friends. From the two main characters, the story develops further to another stage when Rachel agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with Nick which she would never envisioned herself of facing crazily rich people and experiencing ridiculously lavish lifestyle.
In the meantime, Nick's family and relatives as well as other upper class families have been circulating the news and gossiping when one of the most eligible bachelors in Asia is going to bring home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season. Since Nick never reveals much about his family background to Rachel, this causes a big shock to her when she arrives in Singapore. She never ever expects that Nick's family home looks like a palace and she'll ride in more private planes than cars. As the story develops further, the summer vacation which Rachel initially looking forward to it, has gradually turns into the worst experience in her life. Does she able to adapt to such an extravagant lifestyle and accept their hypocritical attitudes toward her?
There are two main storyline in this novel. One of the main focuses in this story is how Rachel perceives with all these unexpected luxurious families and lavish lifestyle. The story also focuses on the impressions and views from Nick's elite family and upper-class relatives since the day they know the existence of Rachel and after they met her in person.
As a Malaysian Chinese, I do believe the perception of having in-laws with a similar family background, wealth or social class still exist in certain families especially in a traditional Chinese wealthy family. This even brings to a stricter requirement if the grandparents are still alive and all the major decisions will be made by the grandparents, not the parents. Most of the Chinese still believe that we should obey and respect the decisions made by the grandparents despite the parents have a different view about it.
A simple storyline with a complicated family as the story includes almost every family member from parents to cousins, cousins' partners and to grandmother as well. However, if you get confused with the relationships when you are reading it, you can always go back to the first page to check the diagram of the family tree for a better understanding. That is something very thoughtful from the author as the family tree diagram is really useful for the readers as a reference to understand the story. There was nothing outstanding which I can point out from this story. In fact, the story will be much better for me if the author can avoid being too draggy and long-winded like the current one.
Rating: ★★★
More reviews can be found on Goodreads: Crazy Rich Asians.