Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Iris was supposed to be having the best summer of her life. Instead, she isn’t graduating high school, didn’t make it into any universities, her best friend isn’t a friend at all, and like Becky in Confessions of a Shopaholic (2001), she’s deep in debt. Hoping to give her some perspective and a fresh start, her parents send her to live with family in Beijing for the summer. In the beginning, it will be easy for readers to dismiss Iris as vapid—as her peers do—but she is uncomfortably aware that her impulsive shopping and deep desire to be well-liked are just ways she distracts herself from the shame that’s always creeping in on her. Wong addresses, through Iris’ experiences in Beijing, the feeling that many children of immigrants have of belonging in neither one culture nor the other. While Iris’ behavior may seem extreme on the surface, it reflects the common experience of insecurity and highlights that these isolating feelings don’t just apply to one group of people.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A series of poor life choices earns high school senior Iris Wang a one-way ticket to China. As a flower-hearted girl born in the Year of the Tiger, Chinese American Iris was destined from birth to be unlucky. She prefers to live in a rose-tinted bubble, determinedly ignoring the consequences of her reckless decisions until things spiral out of control. When she fails her final year of high school and is rejected by all of the colleges she applied to, her parents send her to live with her estranged Uncle Dai and his family in Beijing in order for her to reflect on her mistakes. Iris’ initial terror, followed by delight at discovering that her uncle is a construction tycoon, fades when Uncle Dai insists that she not only work on improving her academic and Mandarin language skills, but also help her haughty cousin, Ruby, learn English. Though well-meaning, Iris is impulsive and careless, especially when it comes to spending money. Her bubbly first-person narration, rife with similes and brand names, occasionally veers from humorous to immature. The importance of family bonds is a theme that runs throughout, but it is overwhelmed by the force of Iris’ effusive and self-absorbed personality in this novel that reads like Confessions of a Shopaholic meets Crazy Rich Asians. Like spun sugar—glitzy, sweet, and airy. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

School Library Journal
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Gr 9 Up—In this YA Crazy Rich Asians read-alike, Iris Weijun Wang was born to be unlucky; and in her senior year, it certainly seems true. After constant partying and skipping school, she is failing. Dismally. She also has a credit card bill of over $6,000. Then, after catching her best friend and boyfriend making out, she drunkenly backs her parents' Mercedes into their garage door. To top it all off, she doesn't get a single college admission offer. Attempting to curb Iris's behavior, her parents send her to Beijing to stay with her estranged (and super wealthy) aunt and uncle. As an American child of Chinese immigrants, Iris does not fit in. She looks Chinese, but she doesn't even speak the language. With nonstop faux pas, shopping sprees, and sexy, "Chinese-Parent-Approved" college boys, it seems Iris will never learn the importance of self-control and hard work. While extreme wealth inequality plays a significant role in the plot, this book is primarily about family and self-discovery. Iris is over-the-top with delusions of grandeur, but her growth is satisfying, if a bit rushed. VERDICT Purchase where romantic comedies or books like "Gossip Girl" are popular.—Erica Ruscio, Ventress Memorial Library, Marshfield, MA