What do you think?
Rate this book
Bad Asians
Not yet published
Expected 17 Feb 26From the acclaimed author of Number One Chinese Restaurant comes an affecting novel about an unforgettable group of friends trying to make their way in the world without losing themselves, or one another.
Diana, Justin, Errol, and Vivian have been told their entire lives that success is guaranteed by following a simple checklist. They worked hard, got good grades, and attended a great university―only to graduate into the Great Recession of 2008. Despite their newly minted degrees, they're unemployed, stuck again under their parents’ roofs in a hypercompetitive Chinese American community. So when Grace―once the neighborhood golden child, now a Harvard Law School dropout―asks to make a documentary about the crew, they say yes. It’s not like her little movie will ever see the light of day.
But then the video, “Bad Asians,” goes viral on an up-and-coming media platform (YouTube, anyone?). Suddenly, two million people know the members of the group as cruel caricatures, each full of pent-up frustrations with the others. And after a desperate attempt at spin control goes off the rails, they are flung even further off course from the lives they’d always imagined. As they grow up and grow apart, the friends desperately try to figure out who they are and what it means to live a successful life in the new millennium.
Li’s novel is both an exploration of Asian American identity and a portrait of a generation shaped by the rise of the internet and the end of the American dream. An epic tale of friendship and coming of age, Bad Asians asks: What if the same people who made you who you are end up keeping you from who you’re meant to be?
Read less
Diana, Justin, Errol, and Vivian have been told their entire lives that success is guaranteed by following a simple checklist. They worked hard, got good grades, and attended a great university―only to graduate into the Great Recession of 2008. Despite their newly minted degrees, they're unemployed, stuck again under their parents’ roofs in a hypercompetitive Chinese American community. So when Grace―once the neighborhood golden child, now a Harvard Law School dropout―asks to make a documentary about the crew, they say yes. It’s not like her little movie will ever see the light of day.
But then the video, “Bad Asians,” goes viral on an up-and-coming media platform (YouTube, anyone?). Suddenly, two million people know the members of the group as cruel caricatures, each full of pent-up frustrations with the others. And after a desperate attempt at spin control goes off the rails, they are flung even further off course from the lives they’d always imagined. As they grow up and grow apart, the friends desperately try to figure out who they are and what it means to live a successful life in the new millennium.
Li’s novel is both an exploration of Asian American identity and a portrait of a generation shaped by the rise of the internet and the end of the American dream. An epic tale of friendship and coming of age, Bad Asians asks: What if the same people who made you who you are end up keeping you from who you’re meant to be?
Read less
336 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication February 17, 2026
10093 people want to read
About the author
Lillian Li
6 books212 followersLillian Li is a graduate from the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program, where she received her MFA in fiction. Her first novel is forthcoming from Henry Holt (Macmillan) in 2018. Her work has appeared in Granta, Guernica, Glimmer Train, and Jezebel. She writes for the Michigan Quarterly Review. Currently, she lives in Ann Arbor, teaching at the University of Michigan, and slinging books at Literati Bookstore. Visit her website for more info.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews
September 9, 2025
I received an ARC from Netgalley, and was immediately sucked in. As a 90's raised millennial, so much of this was nostalgic, but especially the introduction of social media into our everyday lives. I really appreciated the depth of each character and their back stories. Parts reminded me of Crazy Rich Asians, and not just because the main characters are Asian, but also because of the deeper personalities that lie beneath the mask of what everyone else sees which is similar in that series as well. However, since I took my time with it, some stories got lost in the rush of memory. Definitely recommend to millennial and just before as the target audience.
December 10, 2025
A interesting character study and drama about millennial malaise- this time specific to 1st and 2nd generation Asian immigrants.
A group of 4 friends from a private school are the subject of a documentary called "Bad Asians" that goes viral on YouTube. Their frenemy Grace takes advantage of them and films them and interviews them. The way they are portrayed is not flattering, but it is well done. The book is about the aftermath of this and how it occurred. Themes are around relationships and groups of friends, found family and how those closest to us know us and then become complete strangers.
Here are 4 people who did everything right and the economy and world just passed them by. This is them coming to terms with their parents' legacy and expectations and how they chose to integrate into adult life. All 4 main characters ad internal demons and all had really interesting and compelling character ARC. I can definitely relate to the struggles and the nostalgia over the course of the novel. I can't quite call it historical fiction, but it is a time span that shows how much we change from our early 20's to the late 30's.
I particularly enjoyed the audiobook performance, only one narrator, but she had great pacing and different voices that I felt were authentic to the author's intentions for the characters.
Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ALC. Book to be published February 17, 2026.
A group of 4 friends from a private school are the subject of a documentary called "Bad Asians" that goes viral on YouTube. Their frenemy Grace takes advantage of them and films them and interviews them. The way they are portrayed is not flattering, but it is well done. The book is about the aftermath of this and how it occurred. Themes are around relationships and groups of friends, found family and how those closest to us know us and then become complete strangers.
Here are 4 people who did everything right and the economy and world just passed them by. This is them coming to terms with their parents' legacy and expectations and how they chose to integrate into adult life. All 4 main characters ad internal demons and all had really interesting and compelling character ARC. I can definitely relate to the struggles and the nostalgia over the course of the novel. I can't quite call it historical fiction, but it is a time span that shows how much we change from our early 20's to the late 30's.
I particularly enjoyed the audiobook performance, only one narrator, but she had great pacing and different voices that I felt were authentic to the author's intentions for the characters.
Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ALC. Book to be published February 17, 2026.
December 6, 2025
Bad Asians feels like a book club pick type of book. There are a lot of things to discuss and unpack over the course of the story, and characters that are conflicted and complicated.
The main gist of the book is that four friends and a relationship they had with each other is irrevocably changed by a former classmate who creates a video documentary about them during the recession years in 2008-2009.
The group are not only in the unfortunate position of trying to find jobs in a bad economy, they are also from a hyper competitive Chinese community where expectations of children are sky high.
When the video comes out, Grace’s editing has made Diana, Justin, Vivian, and Errol into Asian stereotypes, an act that has dangerous consequences not only for their friendship, but their careers-and it turns Grace into a wild success at the same time.
The book follows the four friends in the aftermath and explores the different paths it sets them on, while questioning if their relationship with each other would have withstood the test of time even without the radical intervention of ‘Bad Asians’.
I wanted to like this more than I did, because books about relationship dynamics can be really interesting. But I struggled with multiple things. First was that I didn’t really like any of the characters much. Second is that I find books centered around the idea that social media can be life-changing annoying, even if it’s true. I read books to get away from social media, not to be dragged kicking and screaming back into it.
Finally, it just didn’t hold my attention. Unlike books where you can’t put them down, I struggled to pick this one up once I did put it down. Despite the shocking posting of the video, there just wasn’t anything in the story that kept me invested-not the characters, and not the events of their lives as they unfolded. Maybe another reader would relate to one of the characters and feel a deep connection with this book, but I just got bored.
A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The main gist of the book is that four friends and a relationship they had with each other is irrevocably changed by a former classmate who creates a video documentary about them during the recession years in 2008-2009.
The group are not only in the unfortunate position of trying to find jobs in a bad economy, they are also from a hyper competitive Chinese community where expectations of children are sky high.
When the video comes out, Grace’s editing has made Diana, Justin, Vivian, and Errol into Asian stereotypes, an act that has dangerous consequences not only for their friendship, but their careers-and it turns Grace into a wild success at the same time.
The book follows the four friends in the aftermath and explores the different paths it sets them on, while questioning if their relationship with each other would have withstood the test of time even without the radical intervention of ‘Bad Asians’.
I wanted to like this more than I did, because books about relationship dynamics can be really interesting. But I struggled with multiple things. First was that I didn’t really like any of the characters much. Second is that I find books centered around the idea that social media can be life-changing annoying, even if it’s true. I read books to get away from social media, not to be dragged kicking and screaming back into it.
Finally, it just didn’t hold my attention. Unlike books where you can’t put them down, I struggled to pick this one up once I did put it down. Despite the shocking posting of the video, there just wasn’t anything in the story that kept me invested-not the characters, and not the events of their lives as they unfolded. Maybe another reader would relate to one of the characters and feel a deep connection with this book, but I just got bored.
A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
June 14, 2025
I received this book as an ARC on Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my very own. This book really hit close to home for me. Also being a first generation born and raised in the U.S. this book resonates the hopes and dreams an Asian parent bestows on their child and the pressures one may feel not to be a "bad Asian". This group of friends going through life trying to discover who they really are outside their parents wishes is a fascinating one. I loved how the book thoroughly went through each characters' stories because you become invested in what is going to happen to them next. I also love at how the end you get to learn more about the parents and their backstories. Even if you are not of Asian decent, I feel like we can all relate to not wanting to disappoint our families. This book will make you feel all of that.
November 24, 2025
I’m going to round up a bit to 3.5 ⭐️. I received an DRC and started reading this because I got such a kick out of Lillian Li’s, Number One Chinese Restaurant. This one started off slow, as the story didn’t seem to have a clear direction. As I continued reading the pacing picked up and I became slightly invested in the four friends and was curious to see how their lives would play out. It seems to be a recurring theme in Asian fiction( at least in my reading experience) that parents pressure their children to succeed in school, careers and marriage.
This narrative theme is prevalent in Bad Asians as the group of friends are driven in ways by their parents that leads the friends to act in ways towards each other that causes a rift in how they relate to one another.
When “Grace Li (who) was the golden child of their neighborhood. She’d graduated summa cum laude from Harvard…..”Grace decides to create a movie about the four friends who’ve been inseparable since grade school, and guess what?
She turns Justin, Errol, Diana, and Vivian into internet sensations, all without even realizing it! This upends the lives of the four and interrupts their trajectories. They all suffer somehow from the notoriety, leading them to employ another internet sensation to gain control of their narrative. That decision turns out to be disastrous, creating more problems than it fixes.
Ultimately this story is about the pressure to be great, and the desire to seen as such by their parents, each other and in a nod to this current generation, by social media culture. The conclusion was anticlimactic, and it left me disappointed. Not a bad read, just short of very good. Big thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt. Book will drop in February 2026
This narrative theme is prevalent in Bad Asians as the group of friends are driven in ways by their parents that leads the friends to act in ways towards each other that causes a rift in how they relate to one another.
When “Grace Li (who) was the golden child of their neighborhood. She’d graduated summa cum laude from Harvard…..”Grace decides to create a movie about the four friends who’ve been inseparable since grade school, and guess what?
She turns Justin, Errol, Diana, and Vivian into internet sensations, all without even realizing it! This upends the lives of the four and interrupts their trajectories. They all suffer somehow from the notoriety, leading them to employ another internet sensation to gain control of their narrative. That decision turns out to be disastrous, creating more problems than it fixes.
Ultimately this story is about the pressure to be great, and the desire to seen as such by their parents, each other and in a nod to this current generation, by social media culture. The conclusion was anticlimactic, and it left me disappointed. Not a bad read, just short of very good. Big thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt. Book will drop in February 2026
2026
September 30, 2025ANHPI TBR
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co.
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co.
November 19, 2025
Thank you to my Asian American Literature professor, Victor Mendoza (U of M), for teaching this book and providing us with advanced reader copies of Bad Asians! Thank you to Lillian Li herself for coming into our class and answering our questions and having a fruitful discussion about the book (and signing my copy)!!
This book was full of contradictory emotions. I simultaneously enjoyed my reading and was stressed tf out. I couldn't help but feel both pitiful of the characters and annoyed that they couldn't have made better decisions. But, I feel like that is what friendship ultimately is. It's a lot of forces that push and pull on each other, threatening to break the tie and unravel. Lillian spoke on how she was interested in a story about a friendship breakup and what makes friends stay together that is different from romantic or familial relationships. I've def had a bad friend breakup before, and I think the main thing about it is that it simmers. They continue to linger in the back of your mind and you think about reaching out but then worry about their feelings and back out, and I feel like Bad Asians captured that well.
Full disclosure I was not in a mind of consciousness when the recession happened, so I don't know first-hand experiences of it. But, I do know experiences of being compared to other successful Asian kids (and perhaps being the one people compared their children to, which, I'm truly sorry if that was the case 😭) and having the "American Dream" surround getting into an Ivy League and getting a good job. I think the pressure and envy was well written, because at the end of the day, these characters desire personal success above all, and the external factors from the economic recession to their internet presence holds them back from that.
I do wish Vivian got a little more character development, as I didn't really feel her change as viscerally as Diana, Errol, Justin, and even Grace. I did, however, greatly enjoy the interweaving of perspectives, as each chapter had their own tone and vibrancy to them. I can't wait for everyone else to read Bad Asians!
This book was full of contradictory emotions. I simultaneously enjoyed my reading and was stressed tf out. I couldn't help but feel both pitiful of the characters and annoyed that they couldn't have made better decisions. But, I feel like that is what friendship ultimately is. It's a lot of forces that push and pull on each other, threatening to break the tie and unravel. Lillian spoke on how she was interested in a story about a friendship breakup and what makes friends stay together that is different from romantic or familial relationships. I've def had a bad friend breakup before, and I think the main thing about it is that it simmers. They continue to linger in the back of your mind and you think about reaching out but then worry about their feelings and back out, and I feel like Bad Asians captured that well.
Full disclosure I was not in a mind of consciousness when the recession happened, so I don't know first-hand experiences of it. But, I do know experiences of being compared to other successful Asian kids (and perhaps being the one people compared their children to, which, I'm truly sorry if that was the case 😭) and having the "American Dream" surround getting into an Ivy League and getting a good job. I think the pressure and envy was well written, because at the end of the day, these characters desire personal success above all, and the external factors from the economic recession to their internet presence holds them back from that.
I do wish Vivian got a little more character development, as I didn't really feel her change as viscerally as Diana, Errol, Justin, and even Grace. I did, however, greatly enjoy the interweaving of perspectives, as each chapter had their own tone and vibrancy to them. I can't wait for everyone else to read Bad Asians!
November 22, 2025
I won an advance copy of "Bad Asians" from a giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
Li's novel follows a friend group fractured by a viral-video-gone-wrong circa 2009. The overnight success of the titular video, "Bad Asians," alters the trajectories of all those involved, for better and for worse.
Millenials will connect with the depiction of the rise of social media and the post-recession jockeying for entry-level jobs. But the novel's core commentary centers the expectation of "success" for first-generation Chinese-Americans. Who defines your success? Do you have an obligation to succeed? How does the pursuit of success dominate the choices you make? Particularly in its third act, the novel speaks gracefully and empathetically on bridging the cross-generational understanding of success.
The novel is structurally tidy, bringing its characters full circle, and may strike some readers as contrived. Overall, it keeps a swift pace and well balances its ensemble cast. 4/5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Li's novel follows a friend group fractured by a viral-video-gone-wrong circa 2009. The overnight success of the titular video, "Bad Asians," alters the trajectories of all those involved, for better and for worse.
Millenials will connect with the depiction of the rise of social media and the post-recession jockeying for entry-level jobs. But the novel's core commentary centers the expectation of "success" for first-generation Chinese-Americans. Who defines your success? Do you have an obligation to succeed? How does the pursuit of success dominate the choices you make? Particularly in its third act, the novel speaks gracefully and empathetically on bridging the cross-generational understanding of success.
The novel is structurally tidy, bringing its characters full circle, and may strike some readers as contrived. Overall, it keeps a swift pace and well balances its ensemble cast. 4/5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
October 18, 2025
So many Asian American children of immigrants are pressured into being a "good Asian" and the pressure is immense. Here we have a friend group who become not so good Asians aka Bad Asians due to circumstance and/or rebellion. What made this particularly effective is the advent of social media and being on display. And, loved how the book tracks this group for years and how these "kids" start realizing things about themselves and their parents. The reality is, we are all good and bad Asians since we contain multitudes.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
i might need to reread it before saying anything
rtc
rtc
dnf
January 4, 2026DNF at 54%. But I should have stopped earlier and foolishly hoped something significant would change.
The writing is technically sound and evocative at times. She gets the psychology of her characters. However, three major factors prevent me from reading beyond 54%. One the "bad" thing they did is not that bad. It just plainly isn't so awful or worthy of any viral attention. Two, I was not invested in these characters. I didn't care who they were and how any event/action affected them. And three, the glacial pacing led me to care less about who they are and what they did.
Thanks to Henry Holt & Company and Netgalley for this DRC.
The writing is technically sound and evocative at times. She gets the psychology of her characters. However, three major factors prevent me from reading beyond 54%. One the "bad" thing they did is not that bad. It just plainly isn't so awful or worthy of any viral attention. Two, I was not invested in these characters. I didn't care who they were and how any event/action affected them. And three, the glacial pacing led me to care less about who they are and what they did.
Thanks to Henry Holt & Company and Netgalley for this DRC.
October 30, 2025
This is an achingly nostalgic read, and an uncomfortably accurate one for those who have graduated college and may or may not still be living with their parents 😵💫 following four friends from childhood to accidental viral stardom and its inevitable fallout, this story had me SAT as I devoured the increasingly messy narrative. Full of intimacy so intense that it turns dysfunctional, warring perspectives that puts reality into a thousand different lights, and people who love so hard they can’t help but hurt each other, this was an exploration of early adulthood that made me see myself and my own friends and family in a clearer (and perhaps more sympathetic) frame. Li captures reality in camcorder snapshots and prose-in-motion. You MUST add this to your TBR and 2026 anticipated releases. Do so or fear my wrath!!!
August 8, 2025
Unsure if it was the writing style ? the characters? but couldn't connect with this read.
Don't think a reader necessarily needs to identify with a character or a character's journey, but, do think that the reader needs to be sufficiently engaged that the reader cares about what happens to the characters. I didn't. And this feeling negatively impacted the read.
This ARC was provided by the publisher, Henry Holt & Company | Henry Holt and Co., via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy
Shoutout to my sister and her Asian American lit class for the physical ARC.
Really enjoyed this ARC! After reading it I come to the conclusion that there’s not really bad Asians, there’s just Asians who do a range of things because they’re humans. But personally this was relatable, of being in a very competitive environment and constantly comparing yourself to others and their success even when you know it makes you feel bad, of balancing stability with your passions. I liked that this examined a friendship that was close but also toxic, and how it unraveled and what was left behind, to the new form it takes once people mature. The characters were insufferable a lot of the time, like to the point it was hard to feel too bad for them. Like maybe there could’ve been something a bit more redeemable about them?
This book also took place during an interesting time, not too far in the last but not recent either, when times were tumultuous for everyone but especially to anyone looking to enter the workforce at the time. This is dealt with early instances of virality and when Youtube was establishing as more than just short videos. I was a bit young for this exact age group but it was still a bit nostalgic to me. I liked how the book was structured and we got to visit each character at various stages and mindsets of their life, but wished that there was maybe a bit more development in between that showed how they transitioned.
Overall enjoyed this. Would recommend!
Really enjoyed this ARC! After reading it I come to the conclusion that there’s not really bad Asians, there’s just Asians who do a range of things because they’re humans. But personally this was relatable, of being in a very competitive environment and constantly comparing yourself to others and their success even when you know it makes you feel bad, of balancing stability with your passions. I liked that this examined a friendship that was close but also toxic, and how it unraveled and what was left behind, to the new form it takes once people mature. The characters were insufferable a lot of the time, like to the point it was hard to feel too bad for them. Like maybe there could’ve been something a bit more redeemable about them?
This book also took place during an interesting time, not too far in the last but not recent either, when times were tumultuous for everyone but especially to anyone looking to enter the workforce at the time. This is dealt with early instances of virality and when Youtube was establishing as more than just short videos. I was a bit young for this exact age group but it was still a bit nostalgic to me. I liked how the book was structured and we got to visit each character at various stages and mindsets of their life, but wished that there was maybe a bit more development in between that showed how they transitioned.
Overall enjoyed this. Would recommend!
January 18, 2026
Five friends torn apart by choices they made when they were young and unsure of who they were other than the expectations (or lack of expectations in Justin’s case) put upon them. How those choices ultimately shape their lives for the next 10 years. Would their lives have been different if they hadn’t made that movie? How much can you blame on one bad choice and how much of it ultimately comes down to how you handle the fall out?
This audio both was perfectly narrated by Katharine Chin. I am not often a fan of a single narrator, especially when there are numerous characters throughout the story as they tend to struggle to have clear voices for all. Katharine was very good at voices all five of the main characters and all the side characters too. It helped me get lost in the story.
I think where my issues mostly lie with this story is the characters aren’t likable and they frustrated me with their endlessly poor choices. While I understood why they made many of them often I still questioned why they ultimately hadn’t grown intensely over the 10 years since the Bad Asian filming to the end of the story.
This book would be great as a book club book though as it has a lot of characters and a multitude of motivations and lots of major story events to dissect and discuss.
A solid story of friendship, familiar pressure and how social media and the internet can impact your life irrevocably.
This audio both was perfectly narrated by Katharine Chin. I am not often a fan of a single narrator, especially when there are numerous characters throughout the story as they tend to struggle to have clear voices for all. Katharine was very good at voices all five of the main characters and all the side characters too. It helped me get lost in the story.
I think where my issues mostly lie with this story is the characters aren’t likable and they frustrated me with their endlessly poor choices. While I understood why they made many of them often I still questioned why they ultimately hadn’t grown intensely over the 10 years since the Bad Asian filming to the end of the story.
This book would be great as a book club book though as it has a lot of characters and a multitude of motivations and lots of major story events to dissect and discuss.
A solid story of friendship, familiar pressure and how social media and the internet can impact your life irrevocably.
January 27, 2026
Bad Asians by Lillian Li is a coming of age and long term friendship story featuring 4 Asian Americans from junior high school through adulthood. The 4 friends have been conditioned by their parents from early childhood to excel in school in order to attend the best universities, only to graduate during a tough job market in 2008. Drama ensues when a former classmate’s viral documentary “Bad Asians” shows the group in an unflattering light. Their competitive sides emerge and each start to spiral in their own ways as they are thrust into the spotlight.
I wanted to enjoy this novel more but I think I’m simply the wrong audience for the story. I had difficulty relating to most of the characters, although I did root for Justin. I appreciated the author’s perspective on growing up under parental pressure, especially how the characters' ideas of success changed as they matured. I benefited from listening to the audiobook which was enhanced by the narrator’s subtle voice changes to differentiate the characters. Although this novel didn't quite work for me, I can see how its social commentary would be valuable to others. 3/5⭐️
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for an advanced listener copy of Bad Asians in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
I wanted to enjoy this novel more but I think I’m simply the wrong audience for the story. I had difficulty relating to most of the characters, although I did root for Justin. I appreciated the author’s perspective on growing up under parental pressure, especially how the characters' ideas of success changed as they matured. I benefited from listening to the audiobook which was enhanced by the narrator’s subtle voice changes to differentiate the characters. Although this novel didn't quite work for me, I can see how its social commentary would be valuable to others. 3/5⭐️
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for an advanced listener copy of Bad Asians in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Bad Asians* by Lillian Li, read by Katherine Chin, is a recessionary novel about a group of friends who graduate in 2008 and find themselves unemployed living at home again. This was NOT what their helicopter Chinese parents promised adulthood would look like when they were studying till late, attending Sunday school and doing every extra-curricular available.
Now Diana, Errol, Justin and Vivian are bored, listless and apathetic with nothing going for them. Until Grace, once their highest competition in their community, returns, announcing she’s dropped out of Harvard and wants to become a filmmaker, starting with a practice documentary about the gang. Harmless, right? Wrong. The video goes viral for all the wrong reasons which, in 2008 terms, is huge, and begins to follow them around for their lives, long after the recession has ended.
This is a sweeping exploration of Chinese-American life and an examination of friendship and what it means to come-of-age in the time of social media. Though neither Chinese-American nor a social media villain, I did graduate into the recession and felt such a kinship with the four as they tried to figure out how to become adults without being able to get jobs or leave home. There’s a real dose of Millennial nostalgia here for life when YouTube and social media was only just getting started and I think most people my age will enjoy this book.
Now Diana, Errol, Justin and Vivian are bored, listless and apathetic with nothing going for them. Until Grace, once their highest competition in their community, returns, announcing she’s dropped out of Harvard and wants to become a filmmaker, starting with a practice documentary about the gang. Harmless, right? Wrong. The video goes viral for all the wrong reasons which, in 2008 terms, is huge, and begins to follow them around for their lives, long after the recession has ended.
This is a sweeping exploration of Chinese-American life and an examination of friendship and what it means to come-of-age in the time of social media. Though neither Chinese-American nor a social media villain, I did graduate into the recession and felt such a kinship with the four as they tried to figure out how to become adults without being able to get jobs or leave home. There’s a real dose of Millennial nostalgia here for life when YouTube and social media was only just getting started and I think most people my age will enjoy this book.
February 2, 2026
So much of this resonated me especially the college graduation during the Great Recession and the school full of over achievers.
Read
December 4, 20252.5
Didn't like any of the characters - it was a lot of drama and messy as well. Just didn't get that into it.
Received a free copy from Netgalley.
Didn't like any of the characters - it was a lot of drama and messy as well. Just didn't get that into it.
Received a free copy from Netgalley.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Bad Asians follows four (or five if you include Grace, but you don’t get her POV) characters in a friend group and gives us chapters from each of their perspectives from 2008 to 2016. I am always drawn to books with multiple POVs in a group, particularly to get to see how each character interprets events, themselves, and each other differently. I listened to this book on audio, which often makes me more forgiving of writing styles I normally wouldn’t mesh with or plots I find too dull. However, in this case, I do think this was the case for Bad Asians. Even when listening, Lillian Li’s writing came across as something I would have enjoyed reading it physically as well. Her prose is never overly flowery and has a good balance of inner narration and speech. Especially at the start of the book, I felt the writing was very strong.
Over the course of the book, however, I found myself becoming progressively less invested in this book. Perhaps it was because some of the plot points started to feel too more exaggerated and unrealistic, I felt that the characters didn’t develop as much as I would have hoped for, or I found the plot became a little dull. Likely a combination of all of the above. Still, I overall enjoyed my time reading this book and following these characters, even if I don’t think this story will still with me for long. I would definitely still recommend if it sounds interesting to you.
Unfortunately, I do think this book suffered somewhat in having so many POVs over such a long period of time (which many books I have liked have pulled off, so this is not a critique of that decision, more so how it was executed) which resulted in the characters feeling like they each had one main character trait and nothing much beyond this. This also resulted in be feeling like the events of this book had little impact on the characters. Yes, physically there situations in life did change, but I never felt like the characters’ thoughts and feelings ever changed based on what they experienced (and if it did, we missed the development of that change during a time skip).
Also, a lot of this plot felt exaggerated and non-sensical. At one point, the characters meet up with an influencer to try and record a video that demonstrates the original Bad Asians video was staged. Their reasonings behind doing this didn’t make sense to me even before the day begun, and the way that they continued throughout the day made progressively less sense. Some of the characters are supposed to be extremely uptight and determined to succeed, yet they are willing to act in such a immature way in a video that they know is going to be published online?
The book’s summary says it is asking ‘What if the same people who made you who you are end up keeping you from who you’re meant to be?’, but I don’t feel the book every actually asked this question. For one, I never felt like these characters actually prevented each other from doing anything. If anything, as mentioned above with the influencer plot-line, each character’s actions were only keeping themself from becoming who they are “meant to be”. Yes, they do judge each other’s decisions occasionally, but are largely supportive of one another. Instead it was mainly all of the parents of the friend group who were holding them back from what they wanted. I think if the book had leant into this idea more I would have enjoyed it more. I felt like all the family dynamics were the most interesting, realistic, and heartfelt sections of this book.
Also, the notoriety of the Bad Asians video just didn’t feel real. Maybe this is a reaction to how over-saturated the internet is now and this would have been more feasible in the past, but the idea that so many people would be so obsessed with an indie documentary on YouTube that it would have such an impact on the characters’ life doesn’t feel real to me. I was willing to suspend my disbelief at the start of this book, but when the public impact of this video went further in subsequent plot-lines I couldn’t do so anymore.
I liked the idea of them all filming this video and how this would expose their secrets to one another and their close family and friends, but the video had more of an impact on the public’s perception of the friend group than the friend group’s interactions with each other an their families. The way the video ultimately impacts the group is because of how they all want to fix their public images, rather than being embarrassed that their personal thoughts told were now visible to people they already knew (which I think would have been both more interesting and realistic to explore).
The quality of the audiobook separate from the story itself was really good. I listened to the Bolinda audiobook narrated by Katharine Chin. Chin’s voice was clear and whenever she read character speech it sounded noticeably different to the narration in a way that allowed me to follow what was being said aloud and what wasn’t, without being annoying or jarring. The voices of each character were also subtly different from one another. My only qualm with the audiobook was that the numerous 4 year time jumps in the book are never read out in the audiobook. Especially at the start of the book, before I realised this, a new chapter would start and then part way into it (after feeling rather confused!) I would realise there had been a time jump but I didn’t know by how much and felt rather lost. I did then find that there were short, silent tracks in the audiobook which were titled with the time skips, but nothing was read out during these so when I was just letting the audiobook play I missed them. Just keep an eye out for these if you do listen via audiobook!
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.
Over the course of the book, however, I found myself becoming progressively less invested in this book. Perhaps it was because some of the plot points started to feel too more exaggerated and unrealistic, I felt that the characters didn’t develop as much as I would have hoped for, or I found the plot became a little dull. Likely a combination of all of the above. Still, I overall enjoyed my time reading this book and following these characters, even if I don’t think this story will still with me for long. I would definitely still recommend if it sounds interesting to you.
Unfortunately, I do think this book suffered somewhat in having so many POVs over such a long period of time (which many books I have liked have pulled off, so this is not a critique of that decision, more so how it was executed) which resulted in the characters feeling like they each had one main character trait and nothing much beyond this. This also resulted in be feeling like the events of this book had little impact on the characters. Yes, physically there situations in life did change, but I never felt like the characters’ thoughts and feelings ever changed based on what they experienced (and if it did, we missed the development of that change during a time skip).
Also, a lot of this plot felt exaggerated and non-sensical. At one point, the characters meet up with an influencer to try and record a video that demonstrates the original Bad Asians video was staged. Their reasonings behind doing this didn’t make sense to me even before the day begun, and the way that they continued throughout the day made progressively less sense. Some of the characters are supposed to be extremely uptight and determined to succeed, yet they are willing to act in such a immature way in a video that they know is going to be published online?
The book’s summary says it is asking ‘What if the same people who made you who you are end up keeping you from who you’re meant to be?’, but I don’t feel the book every actually asked this question. For one, I never felt like these characters actually prevented each other from doing anything. If anything, as mentioned above with the influencer plot-line, each character’s actions were only keeping themself from becoming who they are “meant to be”. Yes, they do judge each other’s decisions occasionally, but are largely supportive of one another. Instead it was mainly all of the parents of the friend group who were holding them back from what they wanted. I think if the book had leant into this idea more I would have enjoyed it more. I felt like all the family dynamics were the most interesting, realistic, and heartfelt sections of this book.
Also, the notoriety of the Bad Asians video just didn’t feel real. Maybe this is a reaction to how over-saturated the internet is now and this would have been more feasible in the past, but the idea that so many people would be so obsessed with an indie documentary on YouTube that it would have such an impact on the characters’ life doesn’t feel real to me. I was willing to suspend my disbelief at the start of this book, but when the public impact of this video went further in subsequent plot-lines I couldn’t do so anymore.
I liked the idea of them all filming this video and how this would expose their secrets to one another and their close family and friends, but the video had more of an impact on the public’s perception of the friend group than the friend group’s interactions with each other an their families. The way the video ultimately impacts the group is because of how they all want to fix their public images, rather than being embarrassed that their personal thoughts told were now visible to people they already knew (which I think would have been both more interesting and realistic to explore).
The quality of the audiobook separate from the story itself was really good. I listened to the Bolinda audiobook narrated by Katharine Chin. Chin’s voice was clear and whenever she read character speech it sounded noticeably different to the narration in a way that allowed me to follow what was being said aloud and what wasn’t, without being annoying or jarring. The voices of each character were also subtly different from one another. My only qualm with the audiobook was that the numerous 4 year time jumps in the book are never read out in the audiobook. Especially at the start of the book, before I realised this, a new chapter would start and then part way into it (after feeling rather confused!) I would realise there had been a time jump but I didn’t know by how much and felt rather lost. I did then find that there were short, silent tracks in the audiobook which were titled with the time skips, but nothing was read out during these so when I was just letting the audiobook play I missed them. Just keep an eye out for these if you do listen via audiobook!
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.
July 1, 2025
I was really excited to read this book. Growing up, all the examples I had around me were good Asians, Asians who were successful, who gave their parents bragging rights, who were absolutely perfect, the model minority. That pressure to not mess up and be perfect is so stifling and suffocating. Bad Asians was so perfect in creating these imperfect characters with imperfect lives who succumb to imperfect human emotions and desires. It created that stifling, suffocating environment perfectly. The author Lillian Li is such a genius writer; her words have such a distinct voice, it can go from booming to pleading in an instant. The characters were both hateable and loveable, I could understand them, yet I was like "Omg you're so stupid for making this decision" or "If I were you, I would've been so grateful for that opportunity." But that's what made this book so good and so true to its theme. It makes the reader feel like the characters and pushes us back out of the book to reflect on these thoughts and feelings. I think this book will resonate with a lot of people. But also, there was something so comforting in knowing that you can mess up and keep messing up but end up in an okay place as long as you try. Nothing is ever going to be the perfect state that we or our parents envision, but honestly that's okay. If we focus on that, we're never going to escape this shallow way of thinking. The book was really good in addressing that even though it's not pronounced, but it's softly there, guiding the narrative.
Also I really loved the nostalgia that the early YouTube days brought back! I think this is a really good summer read. It captures that post-grad feeling, but also I loved the spiraling of all the characters and how they keep being pushed to their brinks. I couldn't put this book down, I feel like I was totally drawn to the gossip of each character: Diana and her self-righteousness driving her on the path to picture-perfect success, Errol and his addiction to shallow pleasure to block out his brain-of-a-genius, Vivian and her people pleasing tendencies molding her idea of love, Justin and his indecisiveness bleeding through all his relationships, and Grace and her reckless and artistic approach to cutting people open.
Random Thoughts with Spoilers:
Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for the e-ARC!
Also I really loved the nostalgia that the early YouTube days brought back! I think this is a really good summer read. It captures that post-grad feeling, but also I loved the spiraling of all the characters and how they keep being pushed to their brinks. I couldn't put this book down, I feel like I was totally drawn to the gossip of each character: Diana and her self-righteousness driving her on the path to picture-perfect success, Errol and his addiction to shallow pleasure to block out his brain-of-a-genius, Vivian and her people pleasing tendencies molding her idea of love, Justin and his indecisiveness bleeding through all his relationships, and Grace and her reckless and artistic approach to cutting people open.
Random Thoughts with Spoilers:
Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for the e-ARC!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Lillian Li’s latest novel
Bad Asians
has an interesting premise that attempts to explore Asian American identity through the lens of contemporary social media and internet culture. The story revolves around the experiences of four friends growing up in a hyper competitive Chinese American community in Maryland who see their lives turned upside down after an amateur documentary that their friend makes ends up going viral. We follow these four friends – Diana Zhang, Justin Yu, Errol Chen, and Vivian Wang – through a roughly 9-year time span as they grow apart from each other and pursue their own life paths as well as careers while simultaneously having to deal with the aftermath of the unwanted notoriety that they gained from the documentary’s unexpected popularity. As the four friends navigate the impact of the documentary on their lives, they discover truths about their families and themselves that ultimately lead to unexpected insights about their relationship with each other.
Overall, I would say that this was an “okay” read for me. While there were some aspects of the story that resonated with me – for example, having Asian parents whose exacting expectations put a relentless amount of pressure on us (their children) to not only succeed, but to do so the “right” way – I unfortunately couldn’t relate to the aspects of social media / internet / influencer culture that basically formed the crux of the story. Perhaps this is a generational thing, as I grew up during a time when the internet was less prevalent and social media didn’t dominate every area of our lives as it does now, so it was hard for me to relate to what the characters were going through. It also doesn’t help that I’m a huge introvert and a bit antisocial, so it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the appeal of curating a social media presence and putting certain parts of my life out there for everyone to see (personally, this sounds horrifying to me, lol). I think this is why I found it difficult to really get into the story – as I was reading, I spent most of my time feeling shocked (and sometimes appalled) at some of the characters’ behaviors and actions and the lengths that people are willing to go for internet notoriety. Speaking of which, I also didn’t like any of the characters and while I did feel sorry for some of them, I couldn’t bring myself to root for any of them, so this of course made it more difficult to become invested in the story.
Aside from this though, I also had issues with the writing, which I feel didn’t flow well in some places and made parts of the story confusing. Specifically, there seemed to be quite a bit of jumping back and forth between things that happened in the past versus in the present – sometimes within the same paragraph -- and the transitions between them weren’t always clear. This caused the story to be a bit hard to follow at times, which made this a more tedious read than it needed to be. With that said, the version I read was an ARC so it could just be this one hadn’t gone through all the edits yet – there’s still a chance some of this will get fixed prior to publication.
While I can’t say that I “enjoyed” this one per se, I didn’t dislike it either. I think it’s more a matter of me not being the right reader for this book -- someone who is perhaps more well-versed in the world of social media and/or influencer culture may appreciate it better.
Received ARC from Henry Holt and Co. via NetGalley.
Overall, I would say that this was an “okay” read for me. While there were some aspects of the story that resonated with me – for example, having Asian parents whose exacting expectations put a relentless amount of pressure on us (their children) to not only succeed, but to do so the “right” way – I unfortunately couldn’t relate to the aspects of social media / internet / influencer culture that basically formed the crux of the story. Perhaps this is a generational thing, as I grew up during a time when the internet was less prevalent and social media didn’t dominate every area of our lives as it does now, so it was hard for me to relate to what the characters were going through. It also doesn’t help that I’m a huge introvert and a bit antisocial, so it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the appeal of curating a social media presence and putting certain parts of my life out there for everyone to see (personally, this sounds horrifying to me, lol). I think this is why I found it difficult to really get into the story – as I was reading, I spent most of my time feeling shocked (and sometimes appalled) at some of the characters’ behaviors and actions and the lengths that people are willing to go for internet notoriety. Speaking of which, I also didn’t like any of the characters and while I did feel sorry for some of them, I couldn’t bring myself to root for any of them, so this of course made it more difficult to become invested in the story.
Aside from this though, I also had issues with the writing, which I feel didn’t flow well in some places and made parts of the story confusing. Specifically, there seemed to be quite a bit of jumping back and forth between things that happened in the past versus in the present – sometimes within the same paragraph -- and the transitions between them weren’t always clear. This caused the story to be a bit hard to follow at times, which made this a more tedious read than it needed to be. With that said, the version I read was an ARC so it could just be this one hadn’t gone through all the edits yet – there’s still a chance some of this will get fixed prior to publication.
While I can’t say that I “enjoyed” this one per se, I didn’t dislike it either. I think it’s more a matter of me not being the right reader for this book -- someone who is perhaps more well-versed in the world of social media and/or influencer culture may appreciate it better.
Received ARC from Henry Holt and Co. via NetGalley.
November 29, 2025
4 out of 5 stars
I went into Bad Asians with high expectations—partly because I love a good coming-of-age story, partly because I’m fascinated by messy friendships, and partly because I understand the perspectives of those who grew up right as the internet was rewiring many peoples' lives. In that respect, Lillian Li delivered exactly what I wanted in a lot of ways; in others, however, she surprised me, frustrated me, and made me think more than I anticipated (sometimes all at once).
The novel follows Diana, Justin, Vivian, and Errol—childhood friends from a competitive Chinese American enclave in Maryland—who graduate straight into the 2008 recession and end up moving back home. When Grace, a former golden child turned dropout, films a tiny documentary about them, the group shrugs it off… until it goes viral on YouTube as “Bad Asians.” Suddenly, their private insecurities and resentments are public property, and the fallout stretches across years.
What struck me first was how vividly Li captures the texture of early friendships—the way childhood closeness can feel both inevitable and suffocating. I loved how she renders the small social hierarchies, the unspoken roles each person plays in a friend group, the tangle of love and resentment that builds over decades.
That said, I also felt the middle third dragging. There were moments where I wasn’t sure what direction the plot was heading, or what exactly I was supposed to be rooting for. And some chapters felt so sprawling that I lost track of the emotional through-line entirely.
Li is at her best when she pulls back the curtain on the pressures of Asian American identity: the weight of being a “good” child of immigrants, the quiet shame of failure, the way a community can bind and suffocate at the same time.
And by the end, I appreciated how Li refuses easy redemption. The characters grow, fracture, repair, drift—sometimes in satisfying ways, sometimes in ways that left me a little hollow. But the emotional honesty made the final chapters land for me, even if the ending is quieter than expected.
Overall, Bad Asians is layered, smart, occasionally meandering, and often deeply resonant. I didn’t always love the characters, but I believed them. And if you like messy friend groups, millennial nostalgia, stories about identity and expectation, or character-driven fiction with emotional bite, this one is worth picking up.
I went into Bad Asians with high expectations—partly because I love a good coming-of-age story, partly because I’m fascinated by messy friendships, and partly because I understand the perspectives of those who grew up right as the internet was rewiring many peoples' lives. In that respect, Lillian Li delivered exactly what I wanted in a lot of ways; in others, however, she surprised me, frustrated me, and made me think more than I anticipated (sometimes all at once).
The novel follows Diana, Justin, Vivian, and Errol—childhood friends from a competitive Chinese American enclave in Maryland—who graduate straight into the 2008 recession and end up moving back home. When Grace, a former golden child turned dropout, films a tiny documentary about them, the group shrugs it off… until it goes viral on YouTube as “Bad Asians.” Suddenly, their private insecurities and resentments are public property, and the fallout stretches across years.
What struck me first was how vividly Li captures the texture of early friendships—the way childhood closeness can feel both inevitable and suffocating. I loved how she renders the small social hierarchies, the unspoken roles each person plays in a friend group, the tangle of love and resentment that builds over decades.
That said, I also felt the middle third dragging. There were moments where I wasn’t sure what direction the plot was heading, or what exactly I was supposed to be rooting for. And some chapters felt so sprawling that I lost track of the emotional through-line entirely.
Li is at her best when she pulls back the curtain on the pressures of Asian American identity: the weight of being a “good” child of immigrants, the quiet shame of failure, the way a community can bind and suffocate at the same time.
And by the end, I appreciated how Li refuses easy redemption. The characters grow, fracture, repair, drift—sometimes in satisfying ways, sometimes in ways that left me a little hollow. But the emotional honesty made the final chapters land for me, even if the ending is quieter than expected.
Overall, Bad Asians is layered, smart, occasionally meandering, and often deeply resonant. I didn’t always love the characters, but I believed them. And if you like messy friend groups, millennial nostalgia, stories about identity and expectation, or character-driven fiction with emotional bite, this one is worth picking up.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
It's so unfortunate that law school has turned me into this monster who can't read without running social commentary, but alas, here we are (and I don't hate this version of myself, sorry h8rs!). I will admit, I almost DNFed this a couple chapters in. I could not connect with the writing style at all: Li is verbose, almost to a fault, and the sentences have a habit of meandering in a way that created a rift between the book and my enjoyment. However, I'm glad I stuck with it: a lot of these characters that I hated because of Li's writing style were incredibly well-fleshed out, and the book took this incredible turn of being a character study of these complex characters. I love a complex character! This was very thoughtfully done, genuinely fun to see where it was going next, and made me very invested in the plot line.
Now: social commentary. I cut a star because I thought this was far too long and needed an editor to cut some of those paragraphs down, but I have more nuanced commentary here too. I grew up in a super Asian community. I'm Indian, so I'm not as intimately familiar with some of these niches, but I believe myself to have a fundamental understanding of the pressures that dictate diaspora Americans, especially high-pressure diasporas, like the one I'm from in the Bay Area. I think any exploration of these diasporas and the sort of ticking pressure that they impose upon their children is incomplete without an exploration of other racial structures in the United States. I try not to get too involved in this sort of political discussion in the context of books (to some extent: books are inherently political and I am inherently annoying about that), but this is an explicit discussion of race, and I find that it was not flimsy commentary at all. Li is skillful, clearly incredibly thoughtful, but the backdrop of this book would be much more convincing if discussed with some context of the ways in which East Asian diasporas are sandwiched in the US. Model minority pressures dictate so much of what we (meaning, the big-A Asian We) do (and the plot of this book), and frankly, those can only be thought of within the framework of critical race theory. Anyway. I digress. Thoughtful, fun, and largely a good commentary on racial structures, and a great case study of five complicated and fun characters.
3.5 stars, rounded down.
Now: social commentary. I cut a star because I thought this was far too long and needed an editor to cut some of those paragraphs down, but I have more nuanced commentary here too. I grew up in a super Asian community. I'm Indian, so I'm not as intimately familiar with some of these niches, but I believe myself to have a fundamental understanding of the pressures that dictate diaspora Americans, especially high-pressure diasporas, like the one I'm from in the Bay Area. I think any exploration of these diasporas and the sort of ticking pressure that they impose upon their children is incomplete without an exploration of other racial structures in the United States. I try not to get too involved in this sort of political discussion in the context of books (to some extent: books are inherently political and I am inherently annoying about that), but this is an explicit discussion of race, and I find that it was not flimsy commentary at all. Li is skillful, clearly incredibly thoughtful, but the backdrop of this book would be much more convincing if discussed with some context of the ways in which East Asian diasporas are sandwiched in the US. Model minority pressures dictate so much of what we (meaning, the big-A Asian We) do (and the plot of this book), and frankly, those can only be thought of within the framework of critical race theory. Anyway. I digress. Thoughtful, fun, and largely a good commentary on racial structures, and a great case study of five complicated and fun characters.
3.5 stars, rounded down.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Friendship, Fame, and Fumbling Toward Adulthood
Lillian Li’s Bad Asians doesn’t waste your time with clichés or one-dimensional characters. Instead, she drops you into the orbit of Diana, Justin, Errol, and Vivian, four friends growing up in a tight-knit Chinese American community. You watch them stumble through school, weather the 2008 recession, and navigate the constant tug-of-war between what their parents want and who they hope to become. It’s a story that’s as much about belonging in America as it is about figuring out how to fit into your own group of friends.
All hell breaks loose after a classmate’s documentary about their group goes viral, pulling private mistakes into the spotlight. Suddenly, family expectations and childhood bonds have to survive the glare of internet fame, and the novel unspools into a sharp dive into friendship, self-doubt, and the minefield of model minority pressure. These characters feel real. awkward, ambitious, insecure, never boiled down to stereotypes.
Li’s signature wit is on full display, lacing observations about cultural identity and generational clashes with humour and keen emotional insight. She sketches the chaos of early adulthood with empathy, showing how friendships can become both your life raft and the thing that threatens to sink you. And while some reviewers mention that the plot drags in spots, the honest, funny writing and layered characters more than make up for it.
The audiobook version of Bad Asians adds another layer to Li’s storytelling. The narrator brings each of the four friends to life with distinct voices, subtly capturing their personalities and the tension simmering beneath the group’s dynamic. Pacing and tone feel natural, giving extra punch to the novel’s humour and the rawness of its more vulnerable moments. For anyone who prefers stories told out loud or wants to experience the characters’ banter in a way that feels even more immediate, the audiobook is a solid choice. Just be prepared, some of the awkward moments and sharp jokes hit even harder when you hear them.
Bad Asians is sharp, moving, and genuinely funny; perfect for anyone who loves stories about finding your way, screwing up, and coming to terms with who you are in a world that’s constantly telling you who you should be. If you’ve ever carried the weight of expectation or questioned your place in the world, this book is a worthwhile companion.
Lillian Li’s Bad Asians doesn’t waste your time with clichés or one-dimensional characters. Instead, she drops you into the orbit of Diana, Justin, Errol, and Vivian, four friends growing up in a tight-knit Chinese American community. You watch them stumble through school, weather the 2008 recession, and navigate the constant tug-of-war between what their parents want and who they hope to become. It’s a story that’s as much about belonging in America as it is about figuring out how to fit into your own group of friends.
All hell breaks loose after a classmate’s documentary about their group goes viral, pulling private mistakes into the spotlight. Suddenly, family expectations and childhood bonds have to survive the glare of internet fame, and the novel unspools into a sharp dive into friendship, self-doubt, and the minefield of model minority pressure. These characters feel real. awkward, ambitious, insecure, never boiled down to stereotypes.
Li’s signature wit is on full display, lacing observations about cultural identity and generational clashes with humour and keen emotional insight. She sketches the chaos of early adulthood with empathy, showing how friendships can become both your life raft and the thing that threatens to sink you. And while some reviewers mention that the plot drags in spots, the honest, funny writing and layered characters more than make up for it.
The audiobook version of Bad Asians adds another layer to Li’s storytelling. The narrator brings each of the four friends to life with distinct voices, subtly capturing their personalities and the tension simmering beneath the group’s dynamic. Pacing and tone feel natural, giving extra punch to the novel’s humour and the rawness of its more vulnerable moments. For anyone who prefers stories told out loud or wants to experience the characters’ banter in a way that feels even more immediate, the audiobook is a solid choice. Just be prepared, some of the awkward moments and sharp jokes hit even harder when you hear them.
Bad Asians is sharp, moving, and genuinely funny; perfect for anyone who loves stories about finding your way, screwing up, and coming to terms with who you are in a world that’s constantly telling you who you should be. If you’ve ever carried the weight of expectation or questioned your place in the world, this book is a worthwhile companion.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thanks to NetGalley, Lillian Li, and Henry Holt and Company for the ARC.
Bad Asians resonated with me so much as an Asian American who came of age during this time period. It was such an interesting juxtaposition of the characters' middle school aspirations vs the reality of young adulthood after the 2008 financial crisis. There were so many references that got me as well from writing Xanga posts to making mix CDs with Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" to using a Garmin GPS on the dash. The narrative explores the early days of YouTube and Asian American content creators (would love to hear takes on this book from early AAPI YouTubers like the Wong Fu creators or Cassey Ho). I really appreciated how Li illustrated scarcity mindset and the pressure from immigrant parents while including the nuances of how class can give way to race in the US.
Bad Asians resonated with me so much as an Asian American who came of age during this time period. It was such an interesting juxtaposition of the characters' middle school aspirations vs the reality of young adulthood after the 2008 financial crisis. There were so many references that got me as well from writing Xanga posts to making mix CDs with Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" to using a Garmin GPS on the dash. The narrative explores the early days of YouTube and Asian American content creators (would love to hear takes on this book from early AAPI YouTubers like the Wong Fu creators or Cassey Ho). I really appreciated how Li illustrated scarcity mindset and the pressure from immigrant parents while including the nuances of how class can give way to race in the US.
September 28, 2025
I was gifted a digital advanced readers copy of this upcoming novel from the Holt publishing team. This book caught my eye given its setting in Maryland, and it ended up being unexpected in terms of the plot covered in relation to the title. I thought the story would focus on the main video scandal but expanded far beyond that. The story largely explores the repercussions of our actions and words in the digital age during the height of YouTube. After a group of childhood friends is caught on video reminiscing on their past and recounting their woes in the midst of the 2008 recession, they go internet viral in the bad way. The author explores the impact their almost spoof video “Bad Asians” had for years after it goes viral, which was interesting given the video was published without their consent.
I usually enjoy books set in our fraught digital age, but ultimately all these characters were very unlikable, which drove my rating. Diana was a bitch at the beginning of the book and had no redemption arc, and the other characters were also so frustratingly stagnant in their growth, I was rooting against them all by the end of the story, despite their reunion that neatly harkened back to chapter one. I will say that Li does a very good job exploring the cancel culture of the 2000s and the pressure on young adults to fit a certain mold and the repercussions if they don’t. The technical career pivots all the characters made really appealed to me and made them seem relatable. Again, unfortunate about all their lack of personal growth.
Last thing I’ll note is that I enjoyed getting to peek inside the uber competitive Asian culture of southern Maryland. The author hilariously depicts the competitive families and striving parents that complicated their child’s lives at every turn. On the whole this was an enjoyable read but not life changing. Thank you to the publisher for advance access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I usually enjoy books set in our fraught digital age, but ultimately all these characters were very unlikable, which drove my rating. Diana was a bitch at the beginning of the book and had no redemption arc, and the other characters were also so frustratingly stagnant in their growth, I was rooting against them all by the end of the story, despite their reunion that neatly harkened back to chapter one. I will say that Li does a very good job exploring the cancel culture of the 2000s and the pressure on young adults to fit a certain mold and the repercussions if they don’t. The technical career pivots all the characters made really appealed to me and made them seem relatable. Again, unfortunate about all their lack of personal growth.
Last thing I’ll note is that I enjoyed getting to peek inside the uber competitive Asian culture of southern Maryland. The author hilariously depicts the competitive families and striving parents that complicated their child’s lives at every turn. On the whole this was an enjoyable read but not life changing. Thank you to the publisher for advance access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Diana, Justin, Errol, and Vivian are four friends who tried their best to succeed in their competitive Asian American community, and always had each other for support. But when the neighborhood’s former golden child/current Harvard Law dropout asks them to make a documentary about them, they agree thinking it won’t really go anywhere. But this 2008 - and the success of online videos is really taking off. Suddenly everyone knows about them, and they struggle with being associated with “Bad Asians” fame. So to dissociate from the video, they begin to disassociate from each other. But what happens when their shared identity keeps them coming back?
This is a novel just as much about growing up millennial as it is a dissection into Asian American identity. The novel has 5 main POVs, and alternating timelines, so it does take some careful attention at first but as the story picks up, but the effort Lillian Li made to cement the characters helps to make them uniquely memorable. The whole point is that they’re “Bad Asians” because they’re simultaneously not living up to the Asian stereotype while also showing how there is no Asian monolith. Throw all of that into the backdrop of the 2008 Recession and explosion of social media, and you have such a wonderful story that Katharine Chin makes so spellbinding to listen to. This book rather cleverly explores identity, friendship, and community; I can’t wait for others to read!
Reviewed as part of an #ARC from Macmillan Audio (via #NetGalley) for the #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. #MacAudio2026
Read this book if you:
🧑💻 remember religiously watching the “Sh*t ____ People Say” trend
♀ loved Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
📀 want a story centering Asian American identities, with queer, mental health, and millennial rep
Follow me on Instagram for more book reviews!
This is a novel just as much about growing up millennial as it is a dissection into Asian American identity. The novel has 5 main POVs, and alternating timelines, so it does take some careful attention at first but as the story picks up, but the effort Lillian Li made to cement the characters helps to make them uniquely memorable. The whole point is that they’re “Bad Asians” because they’re simultaneously not living up to the Asian stereotype while also showing how there is no Asian monolith. Throw all of that into the backdrop of the 2008 Recession and explosion of social media, and you have such a wonderful story that Katharine Chin makes so spellbinding to listen to. This book rather cleverly explores identity, friendship, and community; I can’t wait for others to read!
Reviewed as part of an #ARC from Macmillan Audio (via #NetGalley) for the #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. #MacAudio2026
Read this book if you:
🧑💻 remember religiously watching the “Sh*t ____ People Say” trend
♀ loved Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
📀 want a story centering Asian American identities, with queer, mental health, and millennial rep
Follow me on Instagram for more book reviews!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the advanced listener copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
Bad Asians by Lillian Li is a contemporary coming-of-age novel that explores friendship, ambition, and the shifting definition of success as adulthood sets in. Taking place in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC—specifically North Potomac where I grew up!—the book follows a close-knit group of Asian American friends navigating early adulthood, identity, and the growing pains that come with realizing life doesn’t always look the way you imagined. It’s a story grounded in relationships and personal growth rather than plot-driven twists, with a strong focus on how friendships evolve through different phases of life.
The audiobook narration by Katherine Chin significantly enhanced the experience and is, in my opinion, the best way to read Bad Asians. Her voice is warm and pleasant, and she handled the emotional range of the characters beautifully, making it easier to stay engaged through the slower sections of the story. Chin’s performance helped differentiate the characters and added depth to moments that might have felt flatter on the page.
The central theme of Bad Asians, what it means to be successful and how that definition shifts as you grow up, was one of the most compelling aspects of the novel. Lillian Li thoughtfully examines how cultural expectations, personal ambition, and real-world experience reshape the dreams we carry from youth into adulthood. I also appreciated the nuanced portrayal of lifelong friendships and how they stretch, strain, and transform over time. While I personally struggled to connect deeply with the characters (likely due to differences in age and lived experience rather than the quality of the writing), I still found parts of the story engaging and reflective. The pacing was uneven at times, with some sections more compelling than others, but overall this is a thoughtful listen.
Bad Asians by Lillian Li is a contemporary coming-of-age novel that explores friendship, ambition, and the shifting definition of success as adulthood sets in. Taking place in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC—specifically North Potomac where I grew up!—the book follows a close-knit group of Asian American friends navigating early adulthood, identity, and the growing pains that come with realizing life doesn’t always look the way you imagined. It’s a story grounded in relationships and personal growth rather than plot-driven twists, with a strong focus on how friendships evolve through different phases of life.
The audiobook narration by Katherine Chin significantly enhanced the experience and is, in my opinion, the best way to read Bad Asians. Her voice is warm and pleasant, and she handled the emotional range of the characters beautifully, making it easier to stay engaged through the slower sections of the story. Chin’s performance helped differentiate the characters and added depth to moments that might have felt flatter on the page.
The central theme of Bad Asians, what it means to be successful and how that definition shifts as you grow up, was one of the most compelling aspects of the novel. Lillian Li thoughtfully examines how cultural expectations, personal ambition, and real-world experience reshape the dreams we carry from youth into adulthood. I also appreciated the nuanced portrayal of lifelong friendships and how they stretch, strain, and transform over time. While I personally struggled to connect deeply with the characters (likely due to differences in age and lived experience rather than the quality of the writing), I still found parts of the story engaging and reflective. The pacing was uneven at times, with some sections more compelling than others, but overall this is a thoughtful listen.
Review of advance copy received from Author
A special thank you to Prof. Victor Mendoza and Ms. Lillian Li for both the ARC copy and our engaging discussion of this novel in class.
I was three when the Great Recession happened, so I'll never understand its realities beyond accounts from my parents or finance lectures. However, I was fifteen when the COVID-19 pandemic hit—meaning I was conscious enough to understand the economic and psychological impacts of such a crisis—so though I'm a generation below these characters, I still resonated with their malaise and frustration.
The premise of this book was a standout to me. It's one thing to write about the struggles of high-achieving Asian-Americans, but to juxtapose traditional pressures of academic and career success with the untraditional, uncontrollable possibility of unemployment was a fascinating choice. On top of that, the pressure of infamy on the lawless Internet, with content creation barely emerging as a lifestyle, turned this narrative into a refreshing and complex dissection of the modern American dream.
Our class discussion with Ms. Li left me with a lot to think about. As a whole, the push and pull of friendship and envy, children and parents, expectations and failures reminded me of my own overachieving community growing up. I thought the most unique dynamics were Errol's burnout and relationship with his (I presume) ADHD, the fading of Vivian and Errol's romance, Grace's fall and rise to internet stardom, and Justin's regret at the lack of accountability from his mother. From a writing perspective, the epistolary-style presentation of Grace especially added to her larger-than-life, fallen-angel characterization, since we never really get to see inside her mind. Overall I am grateful to have a signed ARC and look forward to Ms. Li's next work.
I was three when the Great Recession happened, so I'll never understand its realities beyond accounts from my parents or finance lectures. However, I was fifteen when the COVID-19 pandemic hit—meaning I was conscious enough to understand the economic and psychological impacts of such a crisis—so though I'm a generation below these characters, I still resonated with their malaise and frustration.
The premise of this book was a standout to me. It's one thing to write about the struggles of high-achieving Asian-Americans, but to juxtapose traditional pressures of academic and career success with the untraditional, uncontrollable possibility of unemployment was a fascinating choice. On top of that, the pressure of infamy on the lawless Internet, with content creation barely emerging as a lifestyle, turned this narrative into a refreshing and complex dissection of the modern American dream.
Our class discussion with Ms. Li left me with a lot to think about. As a whole, the push and pull of friendship and envy, children and parents, expectations and failures reminded me of my own overachieving community growing up. I thought the most unique dynamics were Errol's burnout and relationship with his (I presume) ADHD, the fading of Vivian and Errol's romance, Grace's fall and rise to internet stardom, and Justin's regret at the lack of accountability from his mother. From a writing perspective, the epistolary-style presentation of Grace especially added to her larger-than-life, fallen-angel characterization, since we never really get to see inside her mind. Overall I am grateful to have a signed ARC and look forward to Ms. Li's next work.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews