Angela S. Choi

I was in San Franciso last week for LitQuake and debut author Angela S. Choi was doing a reading. Sadly I could not attend as I was flipping out trying to get my reading ready that night but I had really wanted to go see her.

Choi's book is the incredibly titled, "Hello Kitty Must Die," complete with an eye catching pink cover. Now I'm a fierce Hello Kitty fan but I won't hold that against Choi because her book seems all kinds of awesome. I mean, there's satire (the best kind of comedy), an Asian American protagonist, a serial killer, and oh so much more. Joy Luck Club meets Dexter is like a dream come true! I'm so jealous I didn't think of this first because it's brilliant.

Choi is an ex-lawyer -- who quit her career to write -- and just wrapped up some jury duty so we know she's not only smart and talented but a responsible civic minded person to boot. It's rumored that her next book is titled "Jesus Will See You Now" which makes another instant read for me.

"Choi's scorching-hot debut rips into the stereotype of Hello Kitties, young Asian-American women who are upwardly mobile, outwardly modern, but trapped by their families' old-fashioned cultural expectations. A week before turning 28, Fiona 'Fi' Yu, a San Francisco corporate lawyer who lives with her parents, uses a silicone device to take her own virginity, an act she soon regrets. When she consults Dr. Sean Killroy about restoring her hymen, the cosmetic surgeon turns out to be Sean Deacon, a former grade school classmate who once lit a girl's hair on fire. Fi renews her friendship with Sean, who draws her into a secret world that's empowering but also highly disturbing. As Sean encourages Fi to fight back when her parents suggest suitors, people who cause problems for Fi wind up dead. A demonic stir-fry of influences, including Amy Tan, Chuck Palahniuk, Clive Barker, and Candace Bushnell, infuses Choi's prose with passionate ferocity."
-Starred review from Publisher's Weekly

All this plus Choi's German publisher has created an online game where you get to shoot Hello Kitties. Like wow. The high score is 34,710 which I find unbelievable as my Starcraft honed skills only managed a 1,239 on my second go-around. I'm blaming my mouse.

• Website | Twitter | Blog
• The F Word review
• Indie Crime review
• Angela S. Choi’s Audacious Debut Blends Chick Lit With Crime Fiction
• A woodland discussion of the book (by Central Crime Zone)