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Nice Places
Vincent Chu
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Forest Avenue Press
296 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction | Literary Fiction | OwnVoices
This story is about Georgie, who quits his job at a technology company and plans to travel the world for a year. He just needs an escape and time to find himself, and he wants to do it in faraway lands. BUT (there’s always a but), his plans hit a snag before they even get started. He gets robbed on the way to the airport and wakes up in a different part of his own city. Instead of coming clean, Georgie lies. He posts a photo of boat noodles, and when his friends and family think he’s away, he decides to keep up the lie. He then begins to “travel” through his own backyard. A staycation, you may say, but he doesn’t tell anyone that! Then, an artist named Ant wants to collaborate with Georgie on his fake journey.
I loved what the author is saying here. What Georgie does on social media is far from reality, and it shows you can never trust what you see online. I have watched so many “expectations vs. reality” videos (like “what I ordered vs. what I got”), and it blows my mind. The story also makes a bit of fun at the “go and find yourself” cliché… you don’t have to go to any extremes to do that. Georgie feels small and adrift, and I think he was really just looking for a connection of some sort.
I also loved how Georgie started to find something good in the most mundane things, like a good bowl of boat noodles. For all the problems Georgie is feeling, this book didn’t feel overly cynical. It’s just a book about a man learning about himself and the human condition, and how complex both really are. It was filled with humour, empathy, and wit, and I enjoyed it very much.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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