ARC Review: Central Place by Delia Cai

Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny town in central Illinois where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancé, Ben. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she’s become, from those she left behind.

But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Audrey’s relationship with her parents has been soured by years of her mother’s astronomical expectations and slights. The friends she’s shirked for bigger dreams have stayed behind and started families. And then there’s Kyle, the easygoing stoner and her unrequited crush from high school that she finds herself drawn to again. Ben might be a perfect fit for New Audrey, but Kyle was always the only one who truly understood her growing up, and being around him again after all these years has Old Audrey bubbling up to the surface.

Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey’s proximity to her family and to Kyle forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she’s worked toward and everything she’s imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?

• Title: Central Places
• Author:  Delia Cai
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication Date: January 31st, 2023
• Genre: Literary Fiction 
• Source: Print ARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review)
• Targeted Age Range: Adult
• Content Warnings: Estranged parental relationship, death of a friend, cancer, infidelity, alcoholism, addiction
• Rating: ★★★.5

If I had to describe Delia Cai’s debut, Central Places, in a few Taylor Swift songs, it’d be a mashup of Midnight Rain, ‘tis the damn season, and this is me trying. Reading Central Places was a bit like being on a rollercoaster — not in terms of wild plot twists, but because of my personal enjoyment level. One minute, I was texting one of my best friends and saying that she’d love it, the next minute I was rescinding my recommendation. Ultimately, I texted her saying “sigh i’m so conflicted on it but it made me weep”. 

Central Places follows Audrey Zhou, who left Hickory Grove, Illinois, eight years ago and never looked back. Her life is seemingly perfect, with a well-paying job (despite it being high-pressure) and a wonderful fiancé, Ben — until she has to go home for the holidays, per her father’s request. Going home is always complicated for many, and Audrey’s certainly no exception. Her relationship with her parents are tumultuous and complex, at best. Returning to Hickory Grove also stirs up unpleasant memories, and ghosts of her past — lost friendships, and people she’s left behind in the dust. But as she spends more time in Hickory Grove, Audrey’s forced to confront her current reality, and her past. 

One of the highlights for me was how Central Places explores complicated family dynamics; particularly, the strained relationship between Audrey and her mother. The love, hopes and worry that Audrey’s mom has for her daughter and how that masquerades as criticism was explored in such a poignant way. We also get to see Audrey’s relationship with her father in contrast, and while it’s still tense, it is easier for the two of them. There were several moments between Audrey and her mother that left me teary-eyed, or even weeping. Honestly, Audrey’s parents were some of my favorite characters in Central Places; they felt like people I knew, and I saw so many traits that reminded me of my own family. That being said, I am weary of the fact that Audrey’s parents play into a lot of stereotypes about Asian parents, and I wish that Audrey took more responsibility in her actions and the role that she played in their relationship. 

Part of my disappointment with Central Places lies in the fact that Audrey isn’t a very likable character. I’m not saying that all characters should be likable, and I most definitely feel that characters should be flawed, but there were so many times that I just wanted to yell at her to go get therapy. I found a lot of her actions to be inconsiderate, annoying, and incredibly self-destructive. Audrey fails to see things from other people’s perspective, and is so caught up in herself and her “woe is me” attitude that it makes it quite hard to root for her. It’s almost as if she views the world from an extremely passive lens and I spent most of the book waiting for her to realize that she’s an active participant in her own life. It’s easy for Audrey to blame the downfalls of her relationships on other people, even when she is equally responsible. Still, I found myself really empathizing with some of her background, and relating to her quite a bit. Because of our shared identity and shared experiences, I was able to understand why she made the decisions she did, and how her family dynamics and her trauma impacted her in her adult life. 

I really loved Cai’s commentary on how people frown upon small towns, and also how Audrey’s experience being one of the very few people of color in her town was written. The juxtaposition between Ben, a wealthy New Yorker, and the rest of the people we meet in Hickory Grove, was striking, and done beautifully. However, it felt like Audrey was also incredibly hypocritical and just as judgmental as Ben was at times. I wish we’d gotten to see more of Audrey falling in love with Hickory Grove, or at the very least, coming to terms that there were some good aspects of it. 

Truth be told, I felt that Central Places could’ve been longer — and I don’t just mean it in the way I normally do, when I want to spend more time with the characters and within the story, but because I genuinely think it would’ve been beneficial if the events of the book took place in more than two weeks. To an extent, it felt unrealistic that the damaged relationship between Audrey and her mother could be repaired so quickly and seamlessly. I personally wanted to see more of Audrey and her mother repairing their relationship and healing from the hurt that was on both sides. 

Overall, I do recommend Central Places, and it did leave me in an emotional state.  

Links for Central Places: Goodreads | TheStorygraph | IndieBound