Why Did I Listen To Love, Decoded by Jennifer Yen?
If you’re looking to expand your palate when it comes to AAPI authors beyond Jenny Han, might I recommend Jennifer Yen? Love, Decoded is Yen’s sophomore book and it is such a fun read. I really enjoyed reading A Taste For Love via audio and decided to also read Love, Decoded via audio. Good choice, self. Yen so far has kind of niched, with writing contemporary retellings of Jane Austen starring Asian American teens. Love, Decoded is a loose retelling of Emma. FYI, if Yen writes more of these retellings I will happily continue to listen to them while driving and getting things done.
What’s The Story Here?
Love, Decoded follows Gigi Wong, a high school student who has this drive to be the best. However, there’s always someone who is better than her in some aspect. Her friend Kyle is always gassing her up, however, so she doesn’t stay too down for long. When a new girl starts at Gigi’s posh, private school — Gigi has the idea for a friend matchmaking app. She believes this app will win her the competition for a prestigious technology internship which everyone else in her programming class is competing for. Soon, Gigi’s app goes viral and there’s some scandal and unintended consequences. She ends up making some big mistakes — how she goes about cleaning up her mess and setting things to rights — is key to her growth.
How Did I Like Love, Decoded?
I thought Love, Decoded was a cute audiobook. Jennifer Yen has a way of writing that made me really care about the characters. While I thought Gigi did come across as a little bit shallow at times, you could tell that she still had a big heart. She wants to do the right thing. For me, that intention does matter. Also, I liked that this book had a romance — even if it did take pretty much until the end to come to fruition. I won’t lie though, my only real understanding of Emma is Clueless so I kept making small comparisons and this did make me want to watch Clueless again. But, I thought Yen’s take was pretty unique and I did love the family that she gave Gigi too — also how it connects to A Taste For Love was awesome.
How’s The Narration?
The audiobook is narrated by Annie Q. It is 9 hours and 6 minutes long. I found this audiobook to be really charming. It is an easy listen — and easy on the ears. Annie Q’s narration style is one that I really like — I did not find myself zoning out. I’ll admit to having sped up the narration to 1.25x but that’s because I am feeling some pressure to get through the books on my TBR.
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