Audiobook Review: Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen

Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen
Narrators: Carolina Do, David Lee Huynah, Quyen Ngo, Vyvy Nguyen and Trieu Tran
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release Date: July 4, 2023
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked.

Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business and everything they’ve built. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. Relationships are put to the test as the line between right and wrong gets blurred. Debbie and Phil must choose: do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon?

Sunshine Nails is a light-hearted, urgent fable of gentrification with a cast of memorable and complex characters who showcase the diversity of immigrant experiences and community resilience.

Debbie and Phil Tran have owned Sunshine Nails for years, but the neighborhood is becoming more gentrified by the minute. A fancy new nail salon opens across the street while Sunshine Nails’ rent is nearly doubled. What lengths will Phil and Debbie go to save their nail salon?

I enjoyed Sunshine Nails. It’s a heartwarming story about family and community. It has its serious moments. The microaggressions some members of the Tran family experienced made me angry. But there is humor to keep it from becoming too heavy. The audiobook had multiple narrators, which I thought worked well. Recommended.