The Wangs vs The World by Jade Chang- Book Review

I know The Wangs vs The World by Jade Chang will sell well. I know this because it has early hype, I  have seen ads for it already, it is well written, and it has a The Nest vibe. Even knowing all of this, I really struggled with the book, but I am going to make a promise to myself.

The book is about a very rich family- The Wangs, who's father Charles, made all of their money through women's cosmetics, but then lost all of it when the market crashed after some bad investments.

Charles is going to gather his kids up one by one and go on a cross country trip to see his daughter Saina who is a successful artist and is hiding out in Upstate NY. Each child now has to not only deal with the fact that they were once rich and are now poor, but also have do deal with each other throughout this trip. Hilarity ensues. 

The book itself is extremely well written and very funny. There are lots of comedic scenes that hit the mark and some that I will simply not forget. The writing itself is so good and the Chang's sentences move the story along well. 

It took me a long time to get to the point when the book became enjoyable though, which is why I struggled. I almost quit reading it several times because of the way The Wangs are portrayed in the beginning chapters. I just did not like them and didn't really connect with them, but that is not the author's fault. I have been becoming weary of the dysfunctional family genre recently and I believe that is why I struggled. From TV shows to several recently published books, the only family seems to be the dysfunctional one, which makes for good comedy, but also over saturation. I think this was my problem with the book, hence the promise to myself.

When the book comes out officially, I am going to read it again. I now know the characters and know their quirks. I am no longer looking for story, but rather how the family interacts with one another. I want to give The Wangs another shot because I know this is such a good book. I see it in there, but where I am right now, I just couldn't connect with The Wangs, so it seemed to drag until about New Orleans, which is pretty far in the book. I am going to give it another shot though when it isn't a galley and I can read it strictly for fun.

Even with everything, I am going to give the book 4 stars. I know it is good, but I had a hard time.

Here is your Amazon link- The Wangs vs The World by Jade Chang

*I wish to thank NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to read the book. I received it for free in exchange for an honest review.