Meddy Chan has been to countless weddings, but she never imagined how her own would turn out. Now the day has arrived, and she can’t wait to marry her college sweetheart, Nathan. Instead of having Ma and the aunts cater to her wedding, Meddy wants them to enjoy the day as guests. As a compromise, they find the perfect wedding vendors: a Chinese-Indonesian family-run company just like theirs. Meddy is hesitant at first, but she hits it off right away with the wedding photographer, Staphanie, who reminds Meddy of herself, down to the unfortunately misspelled name.
Meddy realizes that is where their similarities end, however, when she overhears Staphanie talking about taking out a target. Horrified, Meddy can’t believe Staphanie and her family aren’t just like her own, they are The Family–actual mafia, and they’re using Meddy’s wedding as a chance to conduct shady business. Her aunties and mother won’t let Meddy’s wedding ceremony become a murder scene–over their dead bodies–and will do whatever it takes to save her special day, even if it means taking on the mafia.
- Title: Four Aunties and a Wedding
- Author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
- Publisher: Berkley
- Publication Date: March 29, 2022
- Genre: Contemporary, Romance
- Source: Physical ARC received through Goodreads Giveaway
- Targeted Age Range: Adult
- Content Warnings: murder, attempted sexual assault, alcohol, drugs, casual racism, description of dead bodies, kidnapping
- Rating: ★★★★.5
Up until last fall, I was pretty convinced that Goodreads giveaways weren’t real — or that you had to be incredibly lucky to win one. And incredibly lucky I was to win a Goodreads giveaway for an ARC of Four Aunties and a Wedding.
I’m a huge fan of Dial A for Aunties, and have read it three times since it first came out, recommended it to my own cousins (you know it’s good when I go out of my way to recommend a book to my extended family), you know the drill. After all, with complicated family dynamics and enthralling characters that felt like the ones I know all too well, packaged in a cozy murder mystery — how could I resist!
Four Aunties and a Wedding takes us through Meddy and Nathan’s wedding day, although like every other perfectly planned event, there’s a couple unexpected roadblocks. This time, it just so happens that their wedding planners are part of the mafia, and are determined to use the wedding as a cover up for an assassination. But when you’ve got a family as fierce, determined, loyal, and loving as Meddy’s, you know they’ll do everything in their power to save the big day.
From the get go, Four Aunties and a Wedding had me in stitches. I’ve always respected how Sutanto always manages to tiptoe the line between laughing with and laughing at, and have just genuinely loved her comedic timing. Sutanto’s quirky one-liners, as well as the way you have to completely suspend all disbelief makes Four Aunties and a Wedding (and Dial A for Aunties) just that much better. While some people might get frustrated with how unrealistic the plot of both Dial A and Four Aunties, I personally loved it. It’s a true homage to how completely wild and nonsensical Chinese dramas can be.
More seriously, though, a theme in Four Aunties and a Wedding is how there isn’t just one monolithic immigrant experience. Meddy and her family are a lot more connected to their culture and heritage than Nathan’s father who immigrated at a very young age and is fully assimilated into British society, and subsequently, Nathan as well. Furthermore, Nathan’s father married a white woman. The contrast between Meddy’s family, and Nathan’s much richer one, further emphasized the difference in their experiences. Sutanto touches on this in her author’s note as well, and I really appreciated that.
While Four Aunties revolves around Meddy and Nathan’s wedding, the wedding is much more so a catalyst for a larger picture — how strong familial love can be. At first, Meddy is embarrassed by her loud, abrasive family. And I get it, really, I do. My family, like Meddy’s, is also incredibly loud, and flashy, and out there sometimes. Sometimes they overcompensate, in an attempt to fit in. There’s a recurring joke in Four Aunties and a Wedding that really isn’t a joke at all — Meddy’s aunties and her mom secretly take “British Slang” lessons for weeks in an attempt to fit in better.
The copious amounts of British slang is funny at first, but then you realize that it’s just another example of people of color trying to fit into a world that they’ve been excluded from for so long. Aside from Nathan, very few wedding guests, or other characters try to make Meddy’s family feel at home. No one else puts in the effort. Why is it that people of color always have to try and work so much harder? There’s another recurring storyline where Nathan’s mother is embarrassed and perplexed by Meddy’s family, because of course she is. It’s equally infuriating and heartbreaking to read about. I know that when two families join together, there can be tension, and differences, and it takes some time to get used to, but it was just so upsetting to read about. But despite all this, Meddy’s family always have their head held high, always determined to do what’s best for Meddy. There is nothing that the Chans wouldn’t do for Meddy, and vice versa. While sometimes the aunties’ attempts are misguided, Sutanto makes sure that the reader understands their motivation is always love. The aunties truly think that they’re doing what’s right for her. It’s a refreshing take on the “overbearing Asian parent” stereotype that the media seems to be peppered with nowadays.
Four Aunties and a Wedding was funny, delightful, and everything I loved about Dial A for Aunties. Just like its predecessor, I completely adored Four Aunties and a Wedding, and didn’t want it to end. I wish we had more of the wedding planning process, and got to read more about Meddy and Nathan together, but overall, I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
Links for Four Aunties and a Wedding: Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop | IndieBound
Jesse Q Sutanto is the author of Dial A for Aunties, The Obsession, and Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit. She has a master’s degree in creative writing from Oxford University, though she hasn’t found a way of saying that without sounding obnoxious. The film rights to her women’s fiction, Dial A for Aunties, was bought by Netflix in a competitive bidding war. The novel will be out in April 2021. Jesse lives in Indonesia with her husband, her two daughters, and her ridiculously large extended family, many of whom live just down the road.
Can’t wait to read this one