Then I started reading it and I was actually pretty interested in the story. The writing is very well done and in the beginning when the characters are being introduced and described, I was intrigued.
Then.............nothing major really happens for the rest of the 370+ pages.
Basically the story follows 5 characters who are all currently living in Shanghai, but were born in Malaysia. I didn't realize Shanghai had a lot of Malaysian immigrants. However, if nothing else, this book does give you good geography lessons. Anyway, one character is a pop star who gets TMZ'd after a fight in a nightclub and falls into a depression that ultimately leads him to a more "true to self" music career. The second character is a simple village girl who is obsessed with appearances and goes to great lengths to appear more successful than she is. All she really wants is true love, but she goes about it the wrong way. The third character is a successful businesswoman who is haunted by her past. Her father was involved in a political corruption scandal and she carries the shame of that. The fourth character is the son of a real estate magnate. He is on the verge of closing a huge deal on a property when he is blindsided and loses the property, thereby sending his family into financial ruin. He, too, goes into a depression and isolates himself.
Which brings me to the fifth character, the five star billionaire. He is connected to each of the characters in some kind of way. He tries to date the simple village girl. He swindles the successful businesswoman. He's the one who steals the property deal from the real estate guru. He hires the pop singer to perform at a charity concert. Throughout the story, other connections are revealed as well. The businesswoman used to date the real estate guy's brother. The simple village girl is hired by the businesswoman to work in one of her spas. The pop star is chat-room friends with the simple village girl. And so on. You get the picture. We're all connected.
The big reveal towards the end of the book is *why* the billionaire has intervened in all these lives, more specifically two of the lives. Then you see elements of a revenge novel. Even with all the interconnectedness, nothing really happens. At its core, it's just another story about everyone trying to make it in a big city. Some people make it, some don't. Some people stumble and stay down. Some people stumble and get back up. It wasn't horrible, but I wasn't terribly interested in the characters. I wouldn't go out into the streets and tell the world they need to read it, but I also wouldn't tell the world they shouldn't read it. After all is said and done, my ambivalent lukewarm feeling remains.
