Hello Kitty Must Die

American Psycho meets The Joy Luck Club, with a pinch of Heathers for the thirty-something set.

Publishers Weekly

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. (Apr.)

Angela S. Choi is a writer who lives in San Francisco, California, where she refuses to be anyone's mother or hole-in-a-mattress. Born in Hong Kong, she practiced law until she no longer wanted to live life in six-minute increments, and so took up the pen at the tender age of 30.