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A Queer Chinese Indonesian review of Next Time Will Be Our Turn

Hey why are you talking about this book

I've been aware of author Jesse Sutanto's work for a while. As one of the few other Indonesians in American trad pub, it can't be helped. Sutanto is the best selling author of books like Dial A for Aunties and Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice For Murderers among so many. With film rights to Dial A For Aunties bought by Netflix, Sutanto has made a big splash in publishing, and that's great to see from such an underrepresented minority in this space! Sutanto's works range from all sorts of genres and demographics. She's written for middle grade, YA and Adult.

Until now I hadn't gotten a chance to read Sutanto's works fully. Outside of her writing for an anthology I illustrated, I never got to sit down and read a whole book of Sutanto's. But I always heard that queerness inhabited the edges of her stories. Something about a not-so-well received lesbian couple in Dial A, and something about more queer characters, along with the state of queer rights in Indonesia being talked about in her other book Well, That Was Unexpected.

So to find out that Sutanto released a new sapphic romance book last year was a delightful surprise! It's clear that whatever's going on, queer representation matters to Jesse Sutanto. And since this is the only other explicitly queer and Indonesian book in trad pub outside of Lunar Boy, I made sure to prioritize reading it.

I want to come into this analytical review with good faith since this is a peer of mine (that I've even met in person!) in the industry. I'm fully aware of how difficult it is to pitch Indonesian stories into publishing. So I don't want to give the impression that the more critical parts of my review are malicious. I mostly want to use my perspective to open up a broader conversation and to fill a space in media criticism I think is missing. I wish Sutanto all the success, regardless of my criticism!

Speaking of perspective, I might be the worst person to read this book. It's a story about a Chinese Indonesian woman who studied abroad in the US and had a queer crisis before returning home to a patriarchal Indonesia between the late 90's and early 2010s. And as a Chinese Indonesian who studied + lived abroad in the US and wrote the first award winning queer Indonesian book in America, I know an awful lot about this book's subject matter. It's exciting because this is the closest representation of my identity and experiences reflected in media, but it's also terrifying because I'm horrifically qualified to perceive its shortcomings.

With that in mind, let's get into the plot! Apologies if any names are misspelled or if any quotes have misplaced punctuation, I listened to the audiobook.

Plot Summary

When Izzy Chen's grandmother Nainai Magnolia Chen brings a girlfriend to the high class Chinese New Year family celebration, it sends the whole family into a shock. After the party falls apart from the scandal, Izzy meets up with her grandmother to talk about what happened. Seeing herself in her confused granddaughter, Magnolia decides to tell her the story of her life.

It's a story of a young Chinese Indonesian woman navigating her family's strict patriarchal expectations for her, her move from Jakarta to Los Angeles for community college, her tumultuous relationship with her outcasted Mean Girl older sister Iris, and her newfound romantic feelings toward an older American gay white woman named Ellery.

(enjoy this wikipedia image of Los Angeles to break up the text)

Magnolia's story spans over a decade of her life. Covering her friendship break up with Ellery, how she went to University at Berkley while Ellery left for a school in London, Magnolia's difficult move back to Indonesia, her marriage to a Chinese Indonesian man named Parker, how Magnolia came to protect her now pregnant sister as she flees her abusive husband named Erik, and their eventual move back to Los Angeles.

Iris moves back to America to provide for her daughter Hazel since she's been blacklisted by Erik in Jakarta. Magnolia convinces Parker to continue his education in Los Angeles. But when Iris recognizes that Magnolia wants to pursue a higher education too, she offers to fund Magnolia's tuition with her own money.

Ellery miraculously shows up in L.A again, so she and Magnolia rekindle their friendship. The two eventually confess their romantic feelings for each other, only to find out Iris died in a car crash. Leaving her daughter Hazel in Magnolia's care. Magnolia is forced to stay in a relationship with her husband since it's the only way she can win custody of Hazel from Erik. She and Ellery tearfully break up as Magnolia returns to Indonesia.

(Enjoy this wikipedia image of Jakarta, ain't it grand)

Now in the present, Magnolia is a successful phycologist who put her family clinic on the map for providing mental health services. She outlived both Parker and Ellery, but decided to live out the rest of her life as an openly queer woman to provide an example for her granddaughter Izzy. It turns out Izzy is actually her grandniece, since Izzy's mother is Hazel.

Magnolia gives Izzy the funds to study abroad where she can live her truth freely. Many years later, as she is studying in college, Izzy and her (probably white) girlfriend Kate go out to the L.A seaside to spread Magnolia's ashes to the sea. Izzy is certain that Magnolia and Ellery have finally reunited in the afterlife.

A General Review- 2 ⭐stars

For the purposes of this review I will be nicknaming the title of this book "Next Time".

This book was a 2 star read for me. The writing felt rushed, juvenile and repetitive for reasons I'll expand on later. There was so much tell not show about these characters and their relationships, with the author only zooming in to make us privy to the most bland, pathos-less mundane conversations between them, especially regarding the relationship between Magnolia and Ellery. There were many moments where the dialogue also felt on-the-nose and cheesy; "You'd think that women would want to support other women." Or "Even in the western media, there's so much toxic bullshit!" Again, makes the overall tone of this adult book feel juvenile.

The characters also felt kind of two dimensional. It's like they had a switch that toggled them all between two modes; Iris is a mean girl until she's not, Magnolia's a reserved traditional Chindo girl until she's a bespoke sassy feminist, their parents are traditional and oppressive until they feel sorry.

Rarely do these characters feel like they have these different parts of themselves existing together in complex, nuanced and bittersweet ways. I wish Iris' challenging, protective attitude came from a place of mean spirited tough love. Or for Magnolia to have a scene that more properly established her feminist radicalization through the gender study classes she took in university. Of all the characters, I think Parker nailed this balance of complex contradictions the best. He's a traditional success-seeking Chindo husband. Parker can be both considerate and controlling in a way informed by his established insecurities.

The cast also feels small in Next Time. For a narrative that takes place between continents and years between them, the world feels cramped. I don't need an extensive cast system for this story, just a better prioritization on who to flesh out and the impression of a larger world. During Magnolia's time in community college for example, she joins a badminton club and meets a Hong Konger American girl named Winnie, whose only role in the story is to introduce the reader to James, the hunky sleazy Asian American guy who's into younger girls. Sure, the narration talks about how Winnie feels like a better older sister to Magnolia than her own sister- but after that, she basically disappears from anything meaningful that happens. That stuff about being a better sister had no real bearing on the overall story.

Other than Magnolia's family members, the main cast consists of her love interests and Iris' abusive husband. Adding some friend characters, even just named impressions of them would stop the book from feeling like it's just about family and lovers. This got better towards the end when Magnolia gets in touch with a female Indonesian lawyer, but by then we were really late into the story.

BUT Next Time does have its moments! I can tell the writer is most passionate about discussing Chinese Indonesian patriarchy and how that limits the agency of women in whatever they do. It's in moments of discussing social taboos and impossible contradictory standards set on women that the writing shines past its meager moments. There are many things this book says about Chindo misogyny that I found personally relatable and cathartic to read about.

Iris is by far the best character. She brings with her the strongest conflicts as the American-assimilated, black sheep of the Chen family. I loved the part where she moved back to Indonesia and saw an opportunity to be an entrepreneur there where her sister saw her home country as suffocating and limiting. This gets turned around when the brutal structures of misogyny punish Iris' confidence by trapping her in an abusive relationship with Erik. It's genuinely thrilling to read. The way Iris and Magnolia's sisterly relationship went from estranged and troubled to caring and supportive make it the true love story of Next Time.

And even then, the main thematic discussion of Chindo misogyny still felt juvenile. I'll expand on this in detail later.

We need to go deeper

I had a hard time figuring out how I'd structure my deeper analysis of Next Time. But after much consideration, I figured the best way I could uncover my feelings for this novel is to break down why I removed a star (out of 5) from my rating as I read.

Let's pretend I was socializing with Next Time in The Sims. Imagine that as I read along and found something I concretely disliked, the "Sims negative social interaction" icon floated above my head. Personifying my dissatisfaction. And that is how I'll be visualizing a removed star from my overall rating:

➖🧑‍🤝‍🧑The Prose

She's Giving Rushed

Jesse Sutanto has an impressive reputation for being a very fast writer. She's spoken out about how she essentially speedruns through her books before the critical demons in her head catch up. And I'm not here to say speed or slowness make for a good writer or story. I'm mostly bringing this up because this book in particular absolutely feels rushed.

The writing is deeply repetitive. Metaphors are repeated not long after each other, passages and character interactions felt overly similar (inciting many a de ja vu reaction out of me), and there are so many repetitive author go-to-phrases that should've been edited out upon a more critical revision. The author's favorite go-to-phrases are "In the end", "at the end of the day", "the thought of Ellery...!" among so many more. It's mind numbingly painful to read after a while. I forbid you from doing a drinking game based on this issue if you read Next Time. You will not survive.

When I say that metaphors are repeated in this book, I don't mean it's done in a way that adds motif and thematic throughlines. I mean we'll get a description of how Iris is like the Moon because she's cold and uncaring vs how Ellery is like the Sun because she's warm and inviting. And not long (like a few pages) after this, the writing will then describe Iris as being like the Sun because she loves being the center of attention and Magnolia is like the Moon because she's demure and wants to be left alone. It feels like the writer had a Sun and Moon metaphor in her pocket and just threw it in there to describe contrast and didn't realize she did it so soon after she first applied it. This metaphor never returns for the rest of the book.

The rushed feeling doesn't end there. This book has many anachronisms, some with big consequences to the commentary it wants to make, but others are small and easily removable. One obvious mistake being that for some reason, Ellery and Magnolia text each other IN THE 90'S. It's in a scene that could easily be changed to Ellery knocking on Magnolia's door to talk to her. Or! She can call Magnolia on her home telephone. It's such an easy thing to double check, but texting (as we know it) wasn't normalized until the early 2000s. This minor mistake gets weird when technology becomes such a plot point in the book. Iris' job in tech relies on the current state of apps at the time, and Magnolia's suggestions to help her family clinic modernize by using a digital database are reliant on a consistent understanding of the state of tech in the early 2000s.

All these things put together make the book feel like a rushed sloppy job. Regardless of writing speed, this novel is in desperate need of more thorough revision.

From Grandma to Grand Niece: The framing device is sloppy

The large majority of the way we experience Next Time is through the elderly Magnolia reciting her life story to her young grand niece, Izzy. Magnolia makes occasional remarks to Izzy, or takes the time to stop and explain cultural and historical context that Izzy might not be familiar with. A few short interlude chapters take place in Izzy's point of view. While some middle chapters are told through the perspective of young Magnolia's old unsent letters she had written to Ellery, where she fills Ellery in on details of her life.

And yet, the prose for elderly Magnolia's narration is nonsensically juvenile. It's abundantly clear that elderly Magnolia is characterized as this confident, charismatic, progressive woman who cares not for social norms. She cusses and swears, speaks confidently of intimate aspects of her past, and is critical of patriarchal norms. But that doesn't make reading the elderly Magnolia describing her sister as "freaking brutal" any less uncanny. I was under the impression during the early chapters that the narration was young Magnolia speaking in first person, in the past- just because of how juvenile the narration was written. But no, with the exception of the old letters, elderly Magnolia just talks like this. And it is agonizing to read.

The Flaws of the Framing Device: Indonesian Exposition and a Lack of Trust

I think the writer has this understandable habit of explaining aspects of Indonesian culture to the presumably non-Indonesian reader from her other books. And it carries over to this book in a way that doesn't make sense. Canonically, we are experiencing this story through a Chindo grandmother telling her life story to her born-and-raised-in-Indonesia Chindo grand niece. But every now and again Magnolia will stop the story and explain basic Indonesian concepts to Izzy.

It works when she's explaining things like how it was like in the 90's or 2000s. It even works when she's explaining things about Indonesian customs that Izzy would only know when she's older. But it makes no sense for Magnolia to explain what mie goreng is to Izzy. Or that family honorifics (and what they mean?) are very important in Indonesian culture. Or that Indonesia is a muslim majority country where it's hard to obtain pork bacon. Izzy would know this already! It's not done in a way where Magnolia says "You know how hard it is to get bacon in a Muslim majority country like this!" No, she stops and tutorial-style exposits aspects of Indonesian culture to Izzy. That kind of thing takes me out of it.

I wish the writer would just trust that the reader can follow along with the story even when certain cultural aspects are foreign! We do that all the time for American stories, so why not make them do the same for us? It's as if Magnolia is speaking past her own grand niece to hand hold the non-Indo reader through basic concepts. They can pick it up from context! At most, I can blame this on an unfair standard set by American editorial.

Speaking of not trusting the reader! Every single time young past-Magnolia exhibits any internalized misogyny or other character flaw, we get this irritating interjection from her future-self assuring the reader that she recognizes how flawed she was. And Grandma Magnolia will lay it flat like "purity culture sure sucks!" or "internalized misogyny made me think this" or "I was so selfish back then". I want to live in this character's flaws without the narrator constantly assuring me that she knows she messed up. It comes off as defensive to read. And just makes the moments where we don't get an anecdote about her flaws questionable.

To bring this back to the framing device, it just comes off in bad taste that elderly Magnolia is so freakishly open about her sex life to her 16 year old grand niece. There's the (once again) repetitive joke that whenever sex or lustful attraction comes up in the story, elderly Magnolia teases Izzy for being uncomfortable with it. Magnolia calls Izzy a prude for not being a progressive horny queer woman like she is. I wish this could've been some ominous foreshadowing that Magnolia was groomed by James and Ellery as a young woman but the story is not smart enough for that (we will get to this btw, it's a whole can of worms). If talking about feminine lust and sex was so necessary, then perhaps expositing this story to a minor shouldn't be the framing device. Especially when the minor is written to have made it clear multiple times that they're uncomfortable. Just a thought.

➖➖🧑‍🤝‍🧑Lack of Broader Cultural Context

A Missing Elephant In the Room

If criticism and commentary on Chinese Indonesian misogyny is at the heart of this novel that spans across a decade of Magnolia's adult life, then why did it feel like such a juvenile discussion of sexism? I attribute this to a lack of cultural and historical context that would've given the story some nuanced intersectionality over the issues it covers. And I know that sounds surprising, that a story specifically about the Chinese Indonesian brand of misogyny doesn't feel intersectional. So let me contextualize why.

The story of Magnolia and Iris' troubles with patriarchy start with their mother. Although she studied rigorously to be a doctor, their mother did not get as many clients as her husband did as a male doctor at their family clinic. Jaded by the misogyny of Indonesian society, the mother tells her daughters that the only thing that matters is marrying a well off Chinese Indonesian man that can provide for them. Because making a career for yourself as a woman is pointless.

We then follow how Magnolia and Iris are at odds with each other. Iris is the black sheep of the family. When a scandalous picture of her surfaces, she's banished to California so that she would not ruin her family's reputation. And because of this, Iris grows up to be this catty, westernized, forward thinking assimilated Asian American sister. Meanwhile Magnolia is raised to be the ideal obedient Chindo daughter by her parents.

Magnolia, Iris and their mother all internalize misogyny in their own way. Magnolia worries that Parker might hesitate marrying her because of Iris' reputation on their family. Iris falls for Erik's abusive manipulation. And their mom defends the system that oppresses them as women, to the point of victim blaming Iris when she comes forward about Erik's abuse.

But for Next Time, Chindo misogyny exists in a vacuum. It's the only kind of misogyny we are privy to in the story and it exists without context. Something you won't learn from reading this book is that Chinese Indonesians are a marginalized ethnic minority in Indonesia. And that single fact is deeply important to contextualize the most unavoidable elephant in the room of this story's biggest anachronism; that until 1998, Chinese culture was under mandated suppression from 32 years of authoritarian rule.

The flaws in Jesse Sutanto streamlining her life story

To understand Sutanto's decisions in crafting Magnolia's backstory, look no further than her own life. This book is a love letter to Sutanto's time studying at Pasadena City College in L.A. Like Magnolia, she too graduated high school at 16 years old because of the Singaporean school system. Similarly as Sutanto, Magnolia is fluent in three languages from school: Bahasa Indonesia, English, and Mandarin.

Unlike Magnolia, Sutanto actually lived in Singapore and attended school there. Instead of having Magnolia move from Indonesia to Singapore and then to California, Sutanto streamlines this to having Magnolia graduate from a Singaporean high school in Indonesia. So now there are only two locations: Jakarta and L.A. Seems harmless enough of a change to simplify the locations, right?

The problem here is that being a Chinese diaspora in Indonesia vs being a Chinese diaspora in Singapore are radically different. In Singapore, the Chinese make up a majority of the population and have systemic advantages over minority groups. There are many thought pieces written on Chinese privilege in Singapore that demonstrate this better than I could.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, the ethnic Chinese are a minority group. Back when Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch, the Dutch tried to break apart the movement for Indonesian Independence by turning pribumi (native Indonesians) and Chinese Indonesians against each other. So they planted stereotypes about Chinese Indonesians. The best way I could describe these stereotypes to a western audience is to compare it to the way Jewish people are treated. Chinese Indonesians are seen as greedy invaders, loyal only to their own group, untrustworthy rich businessmen, etc. It's the same colonial playbook to scapegoat a minority group. Certainly, there are rich Chinese people just as there are rich Jewish people- but that really is just a stereotype that some people happen to fill. Me and my Chindo friends are not rich. Many Chinese people migrated to Indonesia without generational wealth.

By the time the red scare came along, Chinese Indonesians were stereotyped as being loyal to communist China. In the 60's many Chindos were massacred as a result of a US-funded communist purge in Indonesia. After that, the first Indonesian president was overthrown and the US helped install a puppet dictator who plunged Indonesia into 32 years of authoritarian rule (also heavily backed by the US btw). And as a part of that rule, Chinese culture (in all its forms) was banned. Schools weren't allowed to teach any Chinese language, there was to be no public display of Lunar New Year, and Chinese Indonesians were required to assimilate their names into Indonesian sounding ones.

(My Name Is... by Iskandar Salim)

So why is this important to the novel I'm discussing? It's because that authoritarian rule ended in 1998. After a huge protest that also resulted in the mass deaths of Chinese Indonesians in May of that year. This happened within my lifetime, and is the exact year Magnolia in this book graduates high school to study abroad in the US. And yet when Magnolia explains her language proficiency to Ellery, Magnolia says;

"We speak English in Indonesia. Well, not everyone does. But the school I went to was a Singaporean school. So we spoke English all the time. [...] Yeah, I do. And Chinese." "You speak three languages? Damn." [says Ellery] "Most Chinese Indonesians do."

That last line made my stomach drop.

Sutanto's streamlining is at odds with her historical commentary. Magnolia couldn't have received an education for Chinese languages back in Indonesia because it was banned. She could have learned it if she moved to Singapore like Jesse Sutanto did. But not in Indonesia. Many Chinese Indonesians no longer speak or know Chinese languages. By the time Magnolia moves back home to Indonesia, her parents do not speak of a violent massacre that realistically, happened to them or their friends while their daughters were away. They live in Jakarta, where one of the worst massacres happened. It's jarring to have each early chapter headlined with the year "1998" and not have such a horrific time for Chinese Indonesians acknowledged.

Before I move on past the topic of language, anecdotally I was flabbergasted when I read Magnolia confidently telling Ellery that Indonesians speak English and that most Chinese Indonesians speak three languages. Not only for the blatant historical anachronism that Chinese language was prohibited from being taught in schools during the New Order, but also the comment on English and "knowing three languages".

During that era, English was taught in schools, sure- but Indonesians were not at all proficient at it. When Magnolia says "Well not everyone does (speak English)" is such an understatement. Back then (before the mass globalization of media and accessibility of the internet like today) English was seen as a language you had the privilege to become fluent in. It denoted wealth and ability to travel to places where English is common place. It was rare for me to find anyone who spoke English back then.

(My Name Is... by Iskandar Salim)

Similarly, when Magnolia confirms that most Chinese Indonesians speak three languages (Bahasa Indonesia, English, and Mandarin) like she does? This feels...simplistic and monolithic. For my non-Indonesian readers, "Bahasa Indonesia" is an amalgamation of regional languages in Indonesian islands. The term "Bahasa" means language. This "Bahasa Indonesia" was designed to be a simplified, easy to learn, national language. It's described as rather stiff and formal by locals, but it gets the job done. Bahasa Indonesia is what's formally taught in schools. But in reality, most Indonesians prefer to speak in "Bahasa daerah" or regional languages. These are specific languages to regions in Indonesia, like Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese, etc. That's what most Indonesians (including Chinese Indonesians) speak in, and many of them speak multiple of these languages! My parents can understand up to six languages. This is a natural biproduct of vibing with people here, btw. No formal education necessary.

Lastly, "Mandarin" is included in the three languages Magnolia confidently tells us most Chinese Indonesians speak. I can't even give Sutanto a win on this one, because this isn't true either. Even with Chinese culture and language being banned during this era- the Chinese languages Chindos are most likely to speak are Hokkien, Hakka, or Teochew. It's not impossible for a Chindo to know Mandarin, but it's not as likely as these other languages. Mandarin was taught in schools post-New Order, but whether that translated to fluency is another thing (it did not for me lol). Knowing Mandarin isn't as mandated as it would be in a Singaporean school. After all, barely anyone spoke it in Indonesia from generations of authoritarianism.

Okay I lied. I have one more nitpick; but it lends to my general feelings of how monolithically Chinese Indonesian experiences are written in Next Time.

"While we're on the subject, don't call me "Cici"

What? I only ever called Iris "Cici". Which was Indonesian for "Big sister"

This is just incorrect! Cici is not the Indonesian term for big sister. It's specifically a Chindo term. With roots from the Hokkien term 姊姊, or the mandarin Chinese term jie jie or the Cantonese term Cece. Pribumi Indonesians would more likely call an older sister "kak" (older sibling). Chindo honorifics are usually how you clock someone as Chinese even. Similarly, "mei mei" isn't what pribumi would say to refer to a little sister in Bahasa Indonesia. They would say "adek" (younger sibling). I charitably believe that this has to be a result of the speed writing making Sutanto slip on calling "cici" an Indonesian term. Because she has to know this from learning Mandarin.

For the most part, one could assume that Sutanto doesn't know about this side of Chinese Indonesian history. And that's what makes it read like a mind boggling omission. My best way of making sense of it is to assume that Sutanto's time growing up in Singapore shielded her from this history. It's part of what makes the book feel like its structural criticisms are coming from a sheltered and juvenile place. I don't enjoy making assumptions like that though, so I'll stick to being generally confused.

The one thing that breaks this assumption but adds to my cosmic confusion is the surname of Magnolia's family. They're the Chens. Why didn't the Chen family get their surnames assimilated into Indonesian sounding ones like it was mandated to under the authoritarian New Order? Granted, not every Chinese Indonesian changed their name. But the ones who held onto their Chinese names were heavily discriminated against because they were more easily identifiable as Chinese. And that's not reflected in the Chen family at all. Their only problem is misogyny. The novel never acknowledges sinophobia in Indonesia. Most of the Indonesian cast is Chindo, so we don't get to see them bounce off against pribumi characters and their bigotry.

(My Name Is... by Iskandar Salim)

And you know what makes it even weirder for me? It's because Sutanto is the Indo-ified translation of the surname Chen. The thing about the Chinese generation affected by the New Order is that we carry that history in our names. As Chinese people become gradually more accepted in Indonesia -and we see more blatantly Chinese names- our Indo-ified ones become an old signifier of that history we suffered.

I think Sutanto knows this to some extent. Modern Chindos give their children wacky Hong Kong-style historical celebrity names. Sutanto names the characters from her other book Well, That Was Unexpected things like "George Clooney Tanuwijaya". But to take her own surname and reverse the sinophobic history that went into it by naming her characters "Chen" in Next Time feels reflective of this book's fear to talk about Chindo issues within the context of its full history. Was she not curious about how her name turned out that way? I really can't know.

It's one of the things that makes Next Time a difficult read for me. The Chindos here are presented as rich and privileged by natural occurrence with barely any mention of class. There are no middle or lower class Chindo characters, to dispel this as a stereotype or to present the Chen family as particularly privileged. It's just a given that if you're Chinese in Indonesia, you must be rich.

If it were up to me, I'd have racebent Erik to be a pribumi character. Not only would it make him look more like a scandalously inappropriate suitor for Iris (since it's established that Chindos are encouraged to only marry other Chinese people). But it would also bring to light the issue of racism within an interracial couple. Erik's behavior could represent the abuse and fetishization Chindo women go through in Indonesia. It would add a whole new dimension to their fears.

Acknowledging history would even add dimension to Magnolia and Iris' parents. It contextualizes why, even in their flawed beliefs, they're so hell bent on protecting their daughters. The parents have witnessed how bad it can get for the Chinese Indonesian community, and they act out of fear. But instead, the mom just represents internalized misogyny from lack of female support. Imagine if she struggled getting patients as a doctor because she's Chinese AND a woman. But instead, both parents come around from their established misogyny because they feel bad over Iris' death.

I think about how the May 1998 riots included many reported and unreported incidents of sexual violence. That even further back in the 60s, feminists and even women who were just part of a labor union, were targets of violence. All these events happened between the Chen family's lifetime. Magnolia and Iris' parents witnessing the US backed 60s bloodbath that was the anti-communist purge, and then witnessing the end of it in 1998 while their daughters happened to be abroad. How all this could easily enforce a flawed but understandable desire to assimilate.

Could a story that seeks to engage with the topic of Chinese Indonesian misogyny really work when you have to decontextualize so much of our history? I know all this can look like I'm basically saying "why didn't you talk about x in your book about y" but I hope I've made it clear that these things inform each other. And as I continue to the next reason for why this book fell flat for me, that issue becomes so much more apparent.

➖➖➖🧑‍🤝‍🧑Queerness, America and Ellery

Queerness without historical context

It's not just Chinese Indonesian history that's missing from this book. It's queer history too. I think it's completely fine that Next Time doesn't delve into queer Indonesian history. It's a story about a Chindo woman travelling to the US where being openly queer is far more accessible than it is in Indonesia. It's purposely a story about this woman being trapped in Chindo patriarchy so that she's unable to break out of that system to find non-conformity in Indonesia. That is all completely fine.

My issue is that the way queerness is portrayed in America feels like the gay characters live in this nebulous "Obama legalized gay marriage in America" void. The main story takes place between 1998 to 2011. Gay marriage wasn't legalized in all of the US until 2015. And for California specifically, it wasn't officially legalized until 2013. When a now married Magnolia returns to L.A in 2010 and meets up with Ellery again- Magnolia asks Ellery:

"Are you...married?" [...] Ellery laughed. "Classic Tulip! Comes out with guns blazing. No, I'm not married. Not seeing anyone."

(Tulip is Ellery's nickname for Magnolia). "Are you married" is not narratively framed as a charged question to ask a queer person. Ellery doesn't respond "Hey uh, Tulip? Gay people can't just get legally married willy nilly. There's laws stopping that. You know that, right?" It's that feeling of omission that makes the Chindo parts of this book so weird for me to read. But it affects the queer aspects too. Here's another more Indonesian example I need to talk about:

"Because up until I met Ellery that very morning, I'd chugged along through life thinking I was straight. It was the kind of thing I never questioned. Like breathing. Why do you breathe air? Who the hell cares! Everyone breathes the same air. Why was I straight? I was straight because I assumed I was. Because I never knew anything different."

Then later in the story, Ellery asks Magnolia:

"Do you have a girlfriend?" "What!" My cheeks burned. "No I'm not- I'm straight!"

These scenes are an oxymoron to me. The word "straight" exists to define itself in opposition to "gay" or most other queer terms. Much like "cis" "white" and "able bodied", these terms come about from marginalized spaces so that the word "normal" isn't used to define the privileged. So that the privileged are not treated as default. But if you grew up in a place like 90's Indonesia and (as described by Magnolia) had no exposure to queerness, you wouldn't call yourself "straight". You'd call yourself normal. And if you saw queer people, you'd call them mentally ill or sinful. If you knew a little bit more about queer people then, you'd call them a slur.

(Lunar Boy by Jes and Cin Wibowo, the experience of not knowing and fearing- even as an out queer person.)

Part of why I yap a bunch about the importance of having queer terminology in fiction for young readers, is that I lived exactly what Magnolia's talking about in her first narration. Indonesia's not like that anymore since kids today can go on the internet or watch Kipo and the Age Wonderbeasts where characters say they're gay in dialogue. But back in the day, queerness was really something you had no way of knowing about. It was systemically kept from you. If you somehow stumbled upon queerness, you were quickly assured that that person was sinful or mentally ill. I remember spending years of my pre teens not knowing what "gay" meant, just recognizing that it was something bad that made you the object of ridicule.

And the thing is, Sutanto nails this when talking about mental health in Indonesia. She talks about how back then "You were either normal or crazy". And I find that relatable considering my upbringing at that time as well. Much like with misogyny, you can feel the story's passion show up for topics of mental health too. But that passion does not manifest for how queerness and racism would intersect with those experiences.

Ellery's backstory; homophobia with no real impact

That's not to say that the subject of homophobia is not present in Next Time at all. The novel is bookended with homophobic Chinese Indonesians disgusted by seeing Magnolia and her girlfriend kissing in public, and some shallow narration about how long Indonesia has to go for queer progress. But the only prominent discussion of homophobia within Next Time's story within a story is through the reveal of Ellery's backstory. This is what Ellery recalls of her time in Ohio:

"I uh…I sort of fell in love with a straight girl junior year of high school. My best friend. Well, I thought she was my best friend. I told her how I felt and she told me it was fine. Then she went and told everyone at school." "Oh god." Never before have I wanted to hurt someone more than this "friend" of Ellery's. Who had betrayed her like that. "Yeah, it wasn't great. My parents hadn't known about, y'know, me liking girls, so… the place basically became unlivable for me. I dropped out of high school in the end. It took a long time for me to find my legs again. That's why I'm still a freshman at PCC at the ripe old of age of twenty."

Outside of the future-present-day parts of Next Time's framing device, queer conflict feels like it solely exists before the person comes out. Magnolia has suppressed confused feelings about her sexuality and Ellery has a tragic backstory. But after that, it's basically sunshine and rainbows for these characters.

This homophobic incident in Ohio doesn't have any bearing over the story or Ellery as a character. It feels out of place even. Moving to L.A is described to have saved Ellery's life and made her appreciate the little things no one else would notice. But when Ellery is not given the same motivation-driven characterization as other characters, it feels like I'm just being told this detail about her. Homophobia and all the ways it can affect someone on a personal level, is not treated to the same systemic discussion that Chindo misogyny is given in Next Time.

America: There's No Place Like Home

Next Time places America, California L.A as Magnolia's true home. It's a place she constantly longs for and where she felt like she spent the best years of her life. It's the place Magnolia felt most like herself. And this a fine sentiment to have! No Indonesian has an obligation to be patriotically attached to their source culture. And diaspora stories of finding home elsewhere are near and dear to me. That's not my issue with how America is portrayed in Next Time.

My problem is that America in this story, with all its vague Obama-legalized-gay-marriage-ness, is narratively placed in opposition to Indonesia's bigotry in an uncomfortable way. In Next Time, America is basically depicted as The Promised Land. A place where you get radicalized into discovering gay people and feminism. It's a romantic class-less escape from Chinese Indonesian patriarchy. I know that looks contradictory since I just covered how bad Ohio was for Ellery, but the deeper I went into Next Time, the more it felt like that backstory was an out of place exception to America's characterization.

I want to clarify that there's a difference between accessibility and liberation. I experienced firsthand how queer communities and queer media are so much easier to encounter in the U.S. If you miraculously know about queerness in Indonesia, your best bet to find community outside of hunting down a gay bar is finding someone on twitter who'll let you in on a private whatsapp group where you better have the means to drive and meet everyone in a safe private spot. Good luck getting that done if you have a language barrier. In America, I just found a poster for a school GSA and walked in during their stated hours. I still experience culture shock seeing a Pride flag in public whenever I travel abroad.

I am not at all insinuating that it's impossible to have queer and feminist discoveries in Indonesia. Just that's it's less accessible. Queerness and feminist teachings are easier to find abroad. There are many historical cases of Indonesians leaving their home country and coming back with a new critical and radicalized lens for Indonesia's problems. In the case of our Gay Founding Father, Dede Oetomo (a Chindo man, btw) he came back and put that knowledge into local activism.

So I hope I made it clear when I say I GET IT. I understand what Next Time is saying about accessibility. The problem is that it conflates that with liberation. And I attribute this conflation to how America is never depicted with its flaws during Magnolia's time there.

We get hints of racism. When Iris helps Magnolia move into her L.A apartment, she discourages Magnolia from acting like a "fresh off the boat" Asian. She tells Magnolia to get rid of her Indonesian accent and to stop calling people by familial honorifics. All this so that she won't get teased for it. But we never encounter a white person who demonstrates this fear for us. We are told, not shown, of racism in America.

There's a crucial slip the author does later in the story. It's where she accidentally showed her hand, you could say. When Magnolia is shocked to discover that the thick-accented Hong Konger named Winnie is American, she asks Winnie what American high schools are like:

"Yeah, it was vicious. I hated it." I thought of Winnie with her thick accent navigating her way through an American high school that was filled with people like Iris. And I grimaced.

People like Iris? Magnolia's first thought is "Man, it must suck for this seemingly fresh off the boat Asian to deal with other racist assimilated Asians like my sister." And not.... the white people who pressured those assimilated Asians to turn against each other?

Much like with the Chindo misogyny lacking its wider context of sinophobia, and the queerness lacking any history, America is lacking racial context for how its characterized in Next Time. Sure, Chindo women internalize misogyny and are therefore sexist to each other. Sure, Asians internalize racism and are therefore racist to each other. But there's an elephant in the room again. And it's white people.

A consequence of Next Time's miniscule cast is that Ellery is our token white character. Ellery starts the story dating a (presumably white) brunette woman named Trish. Trish is a background prop with no lines of dialogue. Dahlia is a book store employee background character who's on friendly terms with Ellery. But she exists just to help Magnolia get a text book. There's a coach Magnolia meets in the badminton club. They're not characters.

Imagine how much dimension it would add to Magnolia's radicalization into feminism if we got a scene of her in gender study class. In that class she could've had a brief encounter with white feminism through an unpleasant white classmate. It would make Magnolia better understand how Iris assimilated out of defense. Paired with adding sinophobia to her mom's experience as a doctor, Magnolia would realize why her family assimilated all those years ago. Fear causes people to hide themselves- and in turn this gives her understanding of why she fears her own queerness so much. All by adding this flaw in America, this book could've had more nuance through presenting the different layers of privilege that can exist within marginalization. Imagine finding out that queer spaces aren't always safe if you're not white!

So that leads to the question, what is Ellery like? Does she demonstrate the conflicts that can come from a queer interracial relationship with a white person? If she bears the flaws of America on her shoulders as the token white person, does she deliver on conflict? Well.

Ellery: The Perfect Queer Dream Girl

Earlier in this review I said that every character in Next Time feels kind of two dimensional. Like they have 2 modes of themselves they switch between. There is however, one character who serves as the sole exception to this. And that character is Ellery. Because she is strictly our one dimensional perfect love interest.

I don't particularly like the phrase "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" even though I like what the term criticizes: how a certain type of (not always female tbh) character is written. So for the more specific purposes of this review, I'm dubbing Ellery "The Perfect Queer Dream Girl." Ellery has no life or interiority outside of being an object for Magnolia's desires.

Everything about how Ellery interacts with Magnolia feels like she's way too invested in a stranger. I know the author intended this to be reflective of how (because she herself graduated at 16) many older people were so willing to help a youngster in college. But it comes off more like making everything you wish your crush would do, real.

Imagine you go to college and fall instantly in love with the first blonde woman you see. This woman then recommends a place where you can get textbooks for class. She even offers to drive you there. That's a nice enough gesture, but wait! She says it's lunch time so you might as well get tacos with her, how nice. But wait! She's also your apartment neighbor so now she's offering to drive you to college all the time. But wait! She's suddenly at your door asking you to just... walk for hours around town and talk with her at night. But wait! Now she's inviting you over to her apartment where you cook random recipes together. But wait! Instead of letting you go back to your dorm since you live so close by, why don't you make it a tradition to nap together at her place after every cook out? Wow! It sure is convenient that your crush is initiating literally everything. It's like a dream come true!

So much of Ellery's characterization is watching her say something completely generic and bland, only to have Magnolia's narration hype Ellery up as the second coming of heartthrob Christ. One time, Ellery just googled Indonesia being colonized by the Dutch and Magnolia genuinely swoons at this. Everything we're told about Ellery bares little to no effect on how she's characterized. Her tragic backstory doesn't inform whether she's guarded about her queer identity or if she's proudly out regardless of what anyone thinks.

We're shown that Ellery likes to take in random plants she finds on the street and tend to them in her own apartment. Okay, so Ellery likes taking in strays. That makes sense, since she's so eager to help a lost Magnolia through college. But, where's every other "stray" Ellery takes in? Why is it just Magnolia that she's taken a liking to? Ellery is described as someone so friendly she can make anyone fall for her. But she has no friends outside of Magnolia, her girlfriend Trish and maybe Dahlia from the store. Both of whom (Trish and Dahlia) we never hear from not long after their introduction.

The Generational Soulmates Love Story of Two Acquaintances Who Are Horny For Each Other

Magnolia and Ellery have no chemistry. Whenever Magnolia is around Ellery, Magnolia's "2 modes" module switches her from shy and modest to a sassy back talker. The narrative just hand waves this by saying Magnolia is shocked about how Ellery brings out this side of her. But there's no pathos to this. We don't get a moment where Ellery invites a rule-following Magnolia to skip a class just for fun so that Magnolia can learn to chill out a bit. Magnolia's just magically a different person around Ellery because they're soulmates. Whenever they hang out, we are only shown the blandest talking wallpaper of small talk. Then the narration will skim ahead and say something like "we talked for hours and hours and became best friends" and you're just standing there wishing you were invited to witness that part of the bonding.

Ellery truly comes off as an acquaintance Magnolia is attracted to. Which is fine, but annoying when you have a narrator constantly assuring you it's an emotionally romantic true love soulmates relationship. There's a part in the story where Magnolia and Iris' mom visit them in community college after their first year there. Magnolia invites Ellery over to their family dinner to introduce her best friend to her mother. And as they're having an awkward dinner together, Magnolia's mom asks Ellery this:

"Where are your parents? Magnolia said you live alone?" "They're in Ohio. I moved out here on my own." "How come you're twenty and still a first year student at PCC?" "Ma!" I hissed. "It's a fair question. […] I went through some stuff and missed a lot in high school. So I had to make up for it." "What kind of stuff?" Iris said. […] "Mostly about me liking girls-"

Ellery is interrupted by Magnolia causing a distraction to change the subject. We don't see Ellery navigate and judge whether this space with a traditional Asian family is a safe place to casually mention she's a lesbian. She doesn't even react to Magnolia changing the subject as a microaggression. Ellery does not bring this up to Magnolia afterwards.

"Do you have a boyfriend, Ellery?" Mama said. "Where is he applying to?" […] After an eternity, she finally said "No. I don't have a boyfriend." "Really? You are so beautiful. […] I bet you have many boys going after you."

Iris later stops this part of the conversation. And Ellery doesn't internalize how heteronormative this space is. Through this whole dinner, Magnolia and Iris' mom make stereotypical comments about white people eating bigger portions than Indonesians, and Ellery just laughs it off like a good sport. Her head is empty, she doesn't internalize anything.

Magnolia remembers this conversation and decides to ask Ellery about it way later. Leading to one of the few pathos-filled moments of understanding between the two. What's damning about this scene is that it's proof the author painted herself into a corner in regards to when she wants to reveal Ellery's backstory to Magnolia and the reader. To buy this scene, you have to believe that Magnolia was never curious enough about her best friend Ellery -from the whole year they got to bond together- that she never asked "Hey, what was high school like in Ohio?" (like she asked Winnie) or "Hey, why are you older than most first years here?". The narrative is sort of aware of this, because this basic question comes about during literal small talk between Ellery and Magnolia's mom.

You have to ask yourself at some point, if Magnolia and Ellery are such best friends, why doesn't Magnolia want to learn about Ellery over the course of the book?

You could argue that Magnolia felt it was rude to ask an older woman why she's a first year. But I thought Ellery brought out the sassy more honest person in Magnolia, so what's the hold up? Ellery's queerness or the rest of her life is not a point of interest for Magnolia. There's never moments where she asks Ellery "So when did you know you liked girls?" that could get them to bond in more meaningful ways. Something like that could cause Ellery to wonder if Magnolia could be queer too. Instead, whenever Ellery is with her girlfriend Trish, we just get Magnolia fantasizing about how they're probably making love. Queerness exists as mere sexuality, devoid of history, community and identity. So much of Next Time's story engine weirdly relies on assuring us that Magnolia is so in love with this white woman she expresses no deeper interest to get to know.

But being a bland love interest is not a crime. The reason Ellery is this low in my review, is because she represents the nexus point of Next Time's problems with Tell Not Show, one dimensional characterization, omission of historical context creating juvenile commentary, the romanticization of America, creepy age gaps, and infantilization of sapphic relationships as an escape from misogyny. To fully paint a clear, graphic image of why Ellery is the worst part of Next Time, I need to tell you what led to the chapter that Jokerified me.

I buried the lead in my synopsis of Next Time when I retold it this way: "Ellery miraculously shows up in L.A again, so she and Magnolia rekindle their friendship. The two eventually confess their romantic feelings for each other, [...]. " It's actually way more complicated than that. And so much worse than my initial summary can make it out to be.

Magnolia and Ellery's relationship

In community college, A 16 year old Magnolia had a one sided crush on a 19 year old Ellery. They have an age gap friendship because Magnolia graduated from a Singaporean high school system and Ellery dropped out of high school due to a homophobic incident back in Ohio.

The two become best friends, bonding over bland conversations and hangouts all initiated by Ellery. After witnessing Ellery kissing Trish, Magnolia asks Ellery if she has a girlfriend. Ellery confirms that Trish is her girlfriend, and asks if Magnolia has a girlfriend too. Magnolia defensively replies that she's straight.

A year passes and they both start their college applications in hopes of either going to the same university or being close enough to visit each other often. Magnolia is accepted into Berkley and realizes that she truly does have feelings for Ellery. When Magnolia sees Trish kissing another woman, she confronts Ellery about it. Ellery tells Magnolia that she broke up with Trish. Ellery also reveals that she got into a college all the way in London, that she applied to on a whim. This makes Magnolia furious. How dare her now 20 year old best friend not tell her 17 year old teenage best friend every detail of her life? Magnolia feels entitled to know about Ellery's love life and what college she applied to. This escalates and their friendship breaks apart.

Magnolia goes to Berkley and then returns to Indonesia when she graduates. Magnolia enters a handful of comp-het feeling relationships with men. All the while, she writes letters to Ellery she never intends to send. In these letters, Magnolia vents out her personal feelings about her relationships and how despite their fallout, she can't stop thinking about Ellery.

Magnolia eventually gets married to Parker, but has to deal with Iris fleeing her abusive husband Erik. Iris moves back to the US to provide for her daughter. Magnolia convinces Parker to continue his education in the US, secretly longing to return to the place she felt most at home. But surprise, when (a now 28 year old) Magnolia and Parker land in L.A, (a now 31 year old) Ellery is there to greet them.

As Parker and Magnolia continue their education, Magnolia gets to spend time with Ellery again. They seemingly brush off their friendship break up like nothing happened for the sake of old times. 2 years pass and Magnolia dreads graduating and returning to her comp-het life back in Indonesia. With encouragement from Iris, Magnolia confronts Ellery about not wanting to return to Indonesia.

And so. We get our big twist: Ellery wants Magnolia to stay because she's been in love with Magnolia this whole time. And by "this whole time" she means literally since they were younger. Ellery broke up with Trish all those years ago because she had feelings for Magnolia. Ellery hated herself for this since the homophobic incident she faced in high school happened because she fell for a straight girl, and it seemed to be happening again. Ellery couldn't stand how in love she was with Magnolia so she spontaneously enrolled to a university in London to get away from Magnolia. But no relationship she started there felt the same.

It turns out, Iris discovered Magnolia's vent letters and got in contact with Ellery through facebook to give Ellery PHOTOCOPIES OF MAGNOLIA'S PRIVATE LETTERS. Upon reading all these letters, Ellery realizes that Magnolia felt the same way for her all this time. Ellery moves back to the California in hopes of rekindling their relationship.

Thanks to Iris outing a closeted Magnolia to her crush, Magnolia and Ellery are finally on the same page. They lovingly embrace and make love like everything is right in the world at last. The only call out Iris gets for outing her sister is through a phone call where Magnolia tells Iris she and Ellery finally got together. It's a celebration, Magnolia sassily tells Iris "We need to have a conversation about boundaries!". Shortly later, Iris dies in a car accident. Outing Magnolia is framed as the last kind thing Iris did for her sister.

Sapphic Relationships As An Escape From Patriarchy

The deeper I read into Next Time's plot and got to the part where the story shines- which is the part when Magnolia returns to Indonesia and navigates Chindo patriarchy with her sister- I began to wonder, "What is the point of Ellery? Why is she in this story?". And then it dawned on me; a relationship with Ellery, with her flawless bland characterization, is an escape from misogyny. Ellery is the White American Lesbian Promised Land. An Aryan Goddess who got away because Magnolia is doomed by Indonesian bigotry to never be with her.

Every life changing decision Ellery makes is because of Magnolia. She breaks up with her girlfriend, moves to London and then moves back to California all for the teenager she fell in love with in community college. After Magnolia breaks up with her as an adult, Ellery supposedly never enters a relationship with anyone else ever again. Knowing that Magnolia is her soulmate, she stayed single until her death, hoping they meet in heaven. While this kind of characterization straight out of Crazy Ex Girlfriend would be concerning and horrifying to anyone sensible, the story frames it as romantic.

Everything about Ellery's role in the story is rooted in infantilizing sapphic relationships. Despite Next Time clearly demonstrating that women can internalize misogyny and defend the culture that oppresses them- Ellery, in all her perfection, is the exception. She's a lesbian after all! She loves women! So she can't possibly internalize any bigotry towards them. Sure, she's a white woman, but Next Time's depiction of racism from white people only happens off page. The racism we actually see is only between assimilated Asian Americans and fresh off the boat ones. A relationship with Ellery is pure and simple, it's the stuff of fairytales. They're soulmates who never have to put in the work of a real relationship.

Ellery is like a robot that shuts down whenever Magnolia isn't around. I spent so much of the book wondering what kind of experiences fleshed her out outside of her relationship with Magnolia. Why did Ellery break up with Trish? When Ellery's education was interrupted in Ohio, did she run away and maybe befriend trans people of color who took her in? This was not long after the AIDS crisis after all. Is that why she's so chill around people of color and struggled making friends in the UK? She just said the people she met in London were unfriendly, but she could've opened up about how transphobic it is in lesbian spaces there. What got her into journalism and poetry?

Ellery doesn't have a life outside of Magnolia. She has a semblance of backstory and traits that don't give her pathos. But all her actions are motivated by being a lesbian and liking Magnolia. Whenever Magnolia wonders what Ellery spends her time doing with Trish, she imagines them making love, instead of like....going out to watch movies or playing UNO. Sure this is an expression of Magnolia's suppressed sexuality, but we never get to see who Trish is outside of Magnolia's fantasy. When Ellery reveals that she's taken up poetry, Magnolia fantasizes about Ellery writing poems. Poems about women she's dated of course, instead of poems about nature or something. So what do we get of Ellery's passion for journalism and poetry? She writes a poem for Magnolia when they break up, promising to meet in heaven. Because Ellery's life begins and ends as an object of Magnolia's desire.

And that's the part where Next Time became less of a problem for me because of its juvenile and bland writing, and more of something deeply problematic. Sapphic relationships in Next Time are infantilized as an escapist fantasy from patriarchy. Queerness is framed as yet another aspect of sexual liberation that is robbed of women under patriarchy, rather than being a whole other marginalized experience all its own. Sure, these experiences intersect, but that's not how they're framed in the story. That's why queer and racial identities land so flat, they serve as footnotes to Next Time's commentary about Chindo misogyny.

We need to talk about that age gap

In an earlier advanced e-arc copy version of Next Time, Ellery was 22 years old when she met Magnolia (who was 16 years old) for the first time. This was, understandably, received very badly by the advanced readers. It led to the adjustment where Ellery is aged down to being 19 years old upon first meeting a 16 year old Magnolia in the final version of the book. For some reason, texting in the 90's was not a priority for correction. I did not read this advanced early copy, only finding out about it through reading reviews.

But the thing is, Ellery still feels like she's 6 years older than Magnolia in Next Time. It's like the author just ctrl + F'd every instance of Ellery's age and redid the math without reworking the story around it. Because it doesn't make sense the way it is now.

"Great, the weird neighbor." Iris said. "What weird neighbor?" [said Mama] "This white girl who's like a million years older than her." she said. At the mention of "girl" Mama visibly relaxed. It was the whole reason why I brought up Ellery. Girls were safe. Platonic. Didn't threaten Mama's ambitions of finding us good, rich husbands. "Ellery is nineteen. Well, twenty now. We're good friends."

Not that there's ever been any pathos to it, but Ellery is placed in contrast to Magnolia. While Magnolia graduates early as a Singaporean-school-system student, Ellery was held back. Magnolia is the perfect traditional achiever, while Ellery had an interrupted education. So then why is Ellery the same age as the other average high school graduates like James, Winnie and Iris? Why does Iris describe Ellery as being "a million years older" than Magnolia when Ellery's just one year older than Iris? Ellery narratively feels like she's still 22 despite the surface level changes.

"Girls were safe. Platonic."

It would be one thing if Next Time's stance was just "I personally don't think 16 and 19 are that big of a gap if they can wait it out." But the problem is, there's a double standard. Because every other instance of older men courting a young Magnolia is treated as predatory. But Ellery is a hypocritical exception to Next Time's rules.

Iris' friends. I remember one of them, a boy of about nineteen once said "Your sister's cute. What's her name?" Iris had made gagging noises and said "Fuck off! She's a minor!" and that was that.

Early on, Iris is established to be protective of Magnolia. Magnolia is clearly framed to not know any better. An attractive guy could just look her way and she'd be mentally planning their wedding. Which is fine, since she's a clueless and excited kid.

"What's so bad about James?" "One, he think he's hot shit. Two, he's nineteen, and you, my dear little sis, are a minor. What's he doing driving you everywhere? That's some predatory bullshit Magnolia. […] Three, didn't your friend Winnie warn you off him? Even Winnie knows he's a little prick!"

In the final version of Next Time, Ellery is the exact same age as James. From what I could find of people reviewing the advanced copy, Ellery used to be older than James (As in, Ellery was 22 and James was 19. There is no older version of the text where James was also 22). And that makes the hypocrisy of "it doesn't count as predatory if a woman is doing it" way weirder the more these two inhabit the same story together. Because Ellery is also an older person who drives Magnolia everywhere.

"Where the hell have you been?" [said Iris] "Ellery wanted to celebrate my birthday." I said. […] "Why does she keep hanging out with a kid? I don't get it."

Even Iris doesn't let up on Ellery being an older woman hanging out with Magnolia. "Why does she keep hanging out with a kid?" is never answered by the narrative. Ellery is just so flat and one dimensional that they don't expand on why this grown ass woman is so devoted to a teenager like she has nothing else going on.

"It's all Iris' fault. She brought up James, so I had to deflect and bring you up!" "James, the cradle robber." [says Ellery]

And to make it weirder, ELLERY HERSELF recognizes James as someone who likes to hit on younger girls! Ellery is disgusted by that. So what's going on? This is coming from the woman who will later reveal that she was in love with a teenage Magnolia the whole time to the point of breaking up with her girlfriend and flying off to London. Is that's not also creepy?

Later when James and Magnolia start dating in college, they have sex. James waited for Magnolia to turn 18 before dating her, and the narrative clearly shows that Magnolia didn't understand that this was predatory. She thought it was sweet of him to wait. But when Magnolia and Ellery have a heated confrontation about their feelings for each other way later, Magnolia exclaims that if Ellery was in love with Magnolia the whole time, she should've just waited for Magnolia to grow up.

So is that just it? Does the age gap exist to be an arbitrary reason Magnolia and Ellery couldn't immediately get together? Ellery said so herself that she thought Magnolia was straight. That's a good enough reason to pine over a girl you can't be with. So why throw all this hypocritical age gap stuff in the mix to complicate it? I think the author's just really attached to having Magnolia be reflective of her own experiences as a Singaporean-graduate 16 year old surrounded by 20 year olds helping her out in community college. And if that were the case, why not have Ellery be another Singaporean student? Ah, but then the narrative wouldn't be thirsting over a white American woman the whole time. And we can't have that.

When Magnolia and Ellery have their friendship break up in community college, Magnolia blurts this out:

"I'm relieved, actually. Because I think it's weird how much time we spend together. Why don't you hang out with people your own age?!"

And once again, it's something that's never answered by the narrative. I guess the answer is "Ellery is spending so much time with Magnolia because she's in love with a teenager." But Ellery really should have friends her own age. Friends that slap Ellery's hands from what the book describes as "cradle robbing".

We can talk to the moon and back about how queer people are stereotyped to be predatory groomers by society, but I'm more concerned with how Next Time is so at odds with itself. The book does a good job of describing the personal feelings of queer questioning; how girls struggle to recognize attraction to one another when they're socially raised to already be so affectionate with each other. Sometimes you can't tell if you envy another woman's beauty because you want to be her or if you're actually attracted to her. The book talks about how parents will get suspicious if you're a girl and bring up the boys you befriend, but don't view girls as a romantic threat.

The problem is, Next Time's internal logic does actually believe that queer women aren't a threat. Sure, they're a romantic possibility, but they aren't capable of being predatory and harmful like men are. They love women after all. And you can't be a woman and hurt the women you're attracted to, right? Ellery broke up with her girlfriend, flew off to London, immediately flew back to L.A upon learning Magnolia has feelings for her, hung around Magnolia and her husband for 2 years, then confessed to Magnolia and had sex with her before immediately asking Magnolia to move in with her on the spot. Just cute girl behavior, gross if a man does it though.

Even men who aren't older predators to Magnolia do the same things Ellery does. But when men do it, it's framed as problematic. One of Parker's nuanced flaws is that even though he's a considerate person, he also plans every date he has with Magnolia first. Although these lead to grand romantic adventures between the two, elderly Magnolia reflects on this with a bittersweetness. She realized that it took her a while to recognize that Parker initiated everything they did. Magnolia never really had a say in their relationship, but was too tired to call it out since she was exhausted by far worse suitors before meeting Parker. Younger Magnolia liked being taken care of, but because of that- it was easy to take advantage of her. Meanwhile when Ellery initiated everything with Magnolia during their hangouts, there's isn't a peep of self reflection from elderly Magnolia.

Which circles back to that feeling of this book infantilizing sapphic relationships as inherently pure and innocent. Magnolia constantly describes Ellery as her "safe space" from the world of patriarchy. Iris apparently reverses her reservations about Ellery being an older woman hanging out with Magnolia when she found out her sister was in love with Ellery. I guess Iris just didn't want Magnolia to be friends with old cougars? But if you're in love with the old cougar, now that's different! Ellery is so flawless in this narrative that she could do the exact same things the men do to Magnolia, and it'd be okay. Because Magnolia's soulmate, the harmless woman, is the one doing these things.

Romantic Entitlement

When I look back at Next Time, I think there's only one instance where the narrative attributes a flaw to Ellery. It's during the heated confession Magnolia and Ellery have when they're much older. When Magnolia tells Ellery she doesn't want to go back to Indonesia, Ellery asks her to stay in L.A. And this unlocks all the bottled up anger Magnolia has been suppressing from their earlier friend break up. It's necessary to dissect this to round off this section about Ellery, because it lays bare so many of Next Time's issues with intersectionality:

Because when it came down to it, she continuously chose every other thing but me. She chose London over me. She chose Trish over me. I was never her first choice. And now here we were. And we'd just spent close to two years seeing each other almost every day and when I wasn't studying, my thoughts were consumed by her. Just like before. I'd fallen into Ellery's spell. And god! I felt so fucking stupid. Nothing about us had changed. I was still the little kid who latched on to her. And for her, everything was so easy. "Stay" she said. And that was it. Nothing more to it. Stay and remain as the friend who was obsessed with her. Stay and just hang out at her place. Talking about dumb shit and wasting time until we grow old. Stay and give up everything while she gave up nothing.

Earlier in Magnolia's letters, she considers that maybe a 20 year old woman doesn't have to tell her 17 year old teenage best friend every detail about her life. So I assumed Magnolia had grown from her teenage entitlement to Ellery. But here it is, resurfacing again when she confronts Ellery years later as an adult. And Magnolia is narratively placed as in the right.

Ellery's one character flaw according to the narrative of Next Time, is that she wasn't more of an object devoted solely to Magnolia's desires than she already was. Yeah that's right! Even though she was already dating Trish (an out queer woman), and was never placed in a situation where she could choose between Trish and Magnolia (a teenage girl who told Ellery she was straight), it's somehow Ellery's fault that Magnolia didn't feel like a first choice. Ellery going to London for college was a personal attack on Magnolia feeling like she should be the first priority in Ellery's life.

Can we talk about how Magnolia's righteous confession describes Ellery? "And for her, everything was so easy." "Stay and give up everything while she gave up nothing." It's in moments like this where Next Time shows its hand. Ellery may have a backstory where she dropped out of high school due to homophobia, but she's still someone you can casually ask about marriage like it's not a charged question. Ellery's apparently someone who, as an out queer woman, had everything easy.

Ellery never has to worry about being denied service and employment, being threatened by homophobes, or being ostracized by family and friends for being gay. Were there ever any moments where Ellery had to "give up something"? Like passing as a straight woman just to get by? Ellery is described to prefer presenting in masculine clothing, has she ever had to give that up to survive? How could we ever know if the narrative only wants to portray Ellery as perfect? Magnolia is never proven wrong for assuming this about Ellery. Ellery has nothing to say to her. Because the only systemic problem in Next Time is Chindo misogyny. And since Ellery doesn't go through that, her life is easy.

So how does Ellery overcome this critical character flaw? After Magnolia leaves her to stay with Parker and adopt Hazel, Ellery never dates anyone again. She goes to her deathbed single because she wants to meet Magnolia in heaven. At least that's what an elderly Magnolia hopes happened. Ellery wasn't married by the end of her life. And Magnolia headcanons that it's because Ellery kept her promise to forever wait for her. Meanwhile, Magnolia is allowed to date other women after Parker and Ellery died. Magnolia even kisses her newfound Ellery-lookalike girlfriend in front of everyone at the Chinese New Year family reunion. This isn't an equal relationship, it's a narrative where Ellery must remain an object and Magnolia gets to be a person who moves on.

Magnolia gets to move on so much that she no longer writes letters to Ellery after they break up. Swearing to actually devote herself to her family, Magnolia writes letters to Iris instead. It's honestly so insulting, and has sent me into queer cosmic agony.

Next Time and Queerness, some final thoughts

The Omission of Indonesian homophobia

I was frankly shocked by how squeamish this book ended up being when it came to the topic of Indonesian homophobia. Especially since this book began with an elderly Magnolia smooching her white woman arm candy at the Chinese New Year family celebration, and everyone reacting in homophobic disgust and confusion. But honestly apart from some generic non-specific musings about how "nobody suspects anything when girls are affectionate" and "is it a girl crush or an actual crush" there's nothing here that is specific to Indonesian branded homophobia. None of the religious fear mongering, the ties to mental illness, etc. We get no uncomfortable internalized homophobia from Magnolia, she's just politely tolerant of Ellery's gay life.

One of the early tells that tipped me off on this squeamish reluctance to talk about Indonesian homophobia was near the beginning of the story, where Izzy confronts the elderly Magnolia on her controversial gay smooch:

"You can't have a girlfriend, Nainai!" [says Izzy] [...] Now she raises her eyebrows at me and says, so innocently, "Why not?" [...] "Because! You! You're old!" "That's ageist." "You know what I mean! I-! You-! You're a grandmother!" "And grandmothers can't have girlfriends?" "No!" I cry. Then I realize how stupid it sounds.

Izzy is a teen so I get that she'd be flustered and say something childish to her grandaunt- but why didn't she just say "because being gay isn't accepted here, Nainai! You can't just barge in and think you wouldn't cause a fuss!" Suddenly Magnolia wouldn't have some quippy progressive comeback to Izzy, wouldn't she? Because yeah, why the heck would she do that. In Indonesia if you're out and queer, you could be disowned out of shame, forced into religious conversion therapy, declared mentally ill, and probably be blamed for a natural disaster. But instead, Magnolia is conveniently graced from an uncomfortable conversation about Indonesian homophobia. She flaunts her queerness around like an obnoxious American tourist with nothing to lose.

Izzy never gets to offer her perspective as a born and raised Indonesian, who is discovering her queer desires right at home. The narrative frames her as the student to the wise elderly Magnolia's Americanized teachings. By the end, Izzy will follow in Magnolia's footsteps- and we conveniently, yet again, never have a true intersectional conversation on queer identity as an Indonesian.

Even as a student-teacher relationship, I find that angle oddly limited in how it's explored too. I talked extensively before about how a major part of Indonesian homophobia back then was how they systemically kept the words for queerness away from people. Because if you found the word "lesbian" "bisexual" "gay" "asexual" or "transgender", it would mean you weren't alone or broken. You could use those words to find others like you. That's why saying the words is so important. Not every story needs it, but I think it would benefit Next Time to strengthen its themes about accessibility.

"I like girls" and "straight" are mentioned in Next Time way more than any queer terminology. "Sapphic" "Lesbian" or "Bisexual" are never said. Queer terms are only mentioned at the end (98%) when elderly Magnolia talks about her "gaydar" and "LGBTQ rights". Imagine how much it would've meant for younger Magnolia's queer self discovery if Ellery just outwardly said "Yeah, I have a girlfriend. I'm a lesbian." It could've given her a whole new avenue to reassess what she thought being "normal" was. It could further strengthen how she didn't have access to these words back in Indonesia. It would also add to elderly Magnolia's characterization as someone who doesn't care for the rules. Let her casually say she's queer to freak Izzy out. At some point it reads as ridiculous that Ellery, a character meant to represent Americanized liberation from Chindo misogyny, can't even call herself a lesbian.

I'm not asking for some Lunar Boy style queer representation of indigenous queer culture or community. It's clear this book is about how the patriarchy can trap a woman from having any opportunity to explore her identity. Magnolia is supposed to be detached and have no one to talk to about this. I've discussed at length about how inaccessible finding queer community is in Indonesia. But you know what is easily accessible? Indonesian homophobia. And that's where my fanfic-y suggestion comes in:

Throughout the story, Magnolia is lucky to avoid any conversation or mention of her queerness to anyone in her family. She hears them say some heteronormative things that make her question if being queer makes her less Indonesian. But when she moves back to California and ends up pursuing higher education thanks to Iris' financial help, Magnolia can't take it anymore and tells Ellery her feelings. Magnolia wants to elope with Ellery, but she has to tell Iris. After all, she's tied by her familial love for Iris and Hazel. To Magnolia's shock, Iris is unaccepting. Despite her time living abroad, she still retains that Indonesian homophobia and is disgusted by Ellery and Magnolia being together. Iris tells Magnolia to stay away from her daughter, Hazel. She also threatens to tell Parker about Magnolia's affair with Ellery.

In Iris' rage, she drives recklessly and gets into a car crash. She doesn't have long and calls for Magnolia to come see her at the hospital. Iris apologizes to Magnolia, for her internalized hatred getting in the way of all the kindness Magnolia has always offered her and Hazel.

I think this would lend a much needed bittersweetness to Iris' passing. We would still retain how the sisters are culturally at odds with each other to the very end. The sudden way Iris' death is framed in the narrative feels like something straight out of a soap opera. Magnolia and Ellery hook up, call Iris who congratulates them, and then discover that Iris died shortly after. This is made weirder by the fact that Magnolia blames herself for making Iris uh... so happy that she drove too fast. It's unintentionally goofy in a way that robs the tragedy.

But more importantly, I feel like we need to see Indonesian homophobia demonstrated more clearly in the story. I disagree with the reviewers who found it unbelievable that Next Time's futuristic present (the time elderly Magnolia talks to Izzy would be in the 2050's) still had homophobes. But I get where they're coming from because the author didn't paint a clear enough picture of how far Indonesia has to go for queer rights.

"It is a big regret of mine that despite everything I managed to do for mental health, I was never able to shift the way this country views LGBTQ rights. Pretty ridiculous really, that even now we'd still be fighting for those basic rights. But this country will come around at some point, I'm sure."

Again, the way Magnolia talks about homophobia just lacks cultural context. "We sure have it hard! I wonder why? I guess it'll get better eventually."

It's easy to look at Thailand legalizing gay marriage and assume that things are going well for Southeast Asia. But that's not remotely true at all. Being queer in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Myanmar and even Singapore is still a nightmare for many people. Colonialism messed us up in different ways. And that often gets ignored when people gloat about the Philippines, Thailand or Vietnam as gay capitals of SEA.

I'm not saying that Next Time needs to give us this history lesson, but I think having a prominent character like Iris act out this bigotry could go a long way. In Dede Oetomo's many talks about queer progress in Indonesia, he mentions that family is often the first barrier to overcome. Because if you have family by your side in our culture, that means you have a community already looking out for you. Having that kind of familial support robbed of Magnolia could demonstrate all of this in a personal way.

Also, as someone who has witnessed the lives of many queer Indonesians fall apart after being outed to their families, I think it's super gross to portray that kind of violation as a quirky wingman move. But I guess it's a chill thing to do in the world of Next Time if homophobia only exists in Ellery's backstory.

For the Gayze: Queer as a spectacle

As a final analysis of how queerness is treated in Next Time, I'd like to bring this back to the premise that serves as the hook for this book in the first place: elderly Magnolia kissing her girlfriend at the Lunar New Year family reunion.

So often in queer fiction designed to educate the non-queer viewer, queer characters are objects of spectacle and shock value. They exist to be gawked at, and to perform their non-conformity to the shock and entertainment of the allocishet masses. Queer characters are out here kissing people you don't expect them to, they're publicly rejecting perfectly suitable traditional suitors, they're wearing extravagant clothes you don't expect them to, they're flashing people with body parts you weren't expecting them to have. All for the benefit of the allocishet gaze. Isn't that's so much more exciting than having a conversation with queer people about who they are?

Well, I thought to myself- "I could sit Izzy down and lecture her about being honest with herself, or I could show her by example."

This is why Iris outs Magnolia to Ellery instead of having an honest conversation with her. This is also why Magnolia would rather shock-value-style kiss a white woman at the Chinese New Year party before having a conversation with Izzy. It's all a performance to entertain. Not to connect. A brazen, misplaced use of Show not Tell. Something, I've heard in passing, is a common trope in Sutanto's queer representation from Dial A for Aunties and Well, That Was Unexpected. "Surprise Lesbians" is a shock value trope Sutanto seems to really enjoy.

General audiences really like stories about queer people dressing the way they're not expected to and kissing people they're not expected to- all for the consumption of the non-queer audience's entertainment. And if these queer characters do a good job entertaining the formerly bigoted masses, they can earn acceptance. Isn't that inspirational?

Part of the many reasons I adore the limited manga series Our Dreams at Dusk is that it was the first time I saw queer characters reject that spectacle. They constantly assert that they don't want to perform their non-conformity for anyone. They just want to exist in peace and be left alone to understand themselves. When the trans feminine character Misora dresses up, it's in the privacy of the queer drop in center. And when they feel ready to take the risk of dressing feminine in public, it's not to put on a big show. It's just to hang out at a festival with their friend.

The series explores how a lesbian couple are at odds when one of them is too casual with disclosing their relationship to strangers. It digs into how a trans man rejects his former classmate who expects him to constantly educate people about his transness. It's a breath of fresh air from the non-stop spectacle made of queerness in most fiction. This single piece of characterization makes these queer characters feel so real and ordinary. They have boundaries like real people do, instead of feeling like objects to educate the reader.

So when an elderly Magnolia walks into a Chinese New Year celebration likened to a met gala event, with an unapologetically red outfit and a girlfriend who she kisses in front of the homophobic Chindo masses- it doesn't read as an engaging hook to me. Heck, the kiss she shares is even described as like something out of a Hollywood movie. It's that spectacle I'm so used to seeing. Queer characters performing to spite, entertain, and shock the bigots. Magnolia and her girlfriend are quite literally, cinema to behold. This girlfriend has no say in what is happening. She is simply a prop for elderly Magnolia to prove a point. We don't learn her name until the end of the book- because the reader is meant to falsely assume she is Ellery.

And ultimately, that's how I feel about the way queerness is integrated into Next Time. Despite the novelty of who the representation is about, nothing here is particularly new or unique.

I've read and watched many a fiction where queerness is a spectacle to behold for the benefit of educating the audience surrogate. I've read and watched many a GL about a girl with a shitty boyfriend who has a queer crisis when she meets a butchy girl, only for that butch to be framed as a perfect superior boyfriend and an escape from misogyny. I've seen many a queer media where outing a closeted person is treated as quirky. I've experienced many a queer story that portrays the meat of the queer struggle as solely taking place before you come out.

Sure, I can relate to how Magnolia suppresses her queer feelings, but they're pretty universal in the way they're described in Next Time. They're not specific to an intersectional queer Chindo experience.

Conclusion: Use It To Buy Your Freedom

Financial independence is a moral theme for Next Time. It's what Iris offers to Magnolia when her husband isn't supportive of her continuing her education in psychology. The lack of it is what dooms Magnolia to being bound to Parker so that they can win custody over Hazel. And it's ultimately what an elderly Magnolia offers to Izzy when she gives her the funds to pursue her education abroad.

"...it's not safe for you here. I know that. But in just a few short years, you'll be off to college. Go someplace where you can be yourself. I've put a side some money for you. A lot of money, actually. Use it wisely. Use it to buy your freedom."

That's the root of where I'm at odds with Next Time and its characters. Their liberation is based in money. The story frames it as aspirational, rather than dystopian, when these characters overcome bigotry through their wealth.

The Chen family are rich; they banish their scandalous daughter to a first world country, they can send their daughters to an American community college with Indonesian catering so that they don't have to learn how to cook like most college kids do. After Magnolia puts their family clinic on the map, the Chen clan are off having met gala-style Chinese New Year celebrations at Jakarta's only Michelin star restaurant.

It's not a flaw when a story is about rich characters. But it becomes a problem when you're trying to make social commentary about bigotry without a critical interrogation of how class difference plays into privilege. The story never deconstructs the wealth of the Chen family. Next Time talks about how the women are financially dependent on men, but it refuses to talk about how these very women might be richer than other women around them. Class is the big factor that can turn the most marginalized members of society into an oppressor. And it's the reason all of Next Time's commentary feels sheltered and juvenile.

After I finished the book, I found myself comparing Next Time to the film (not the book) Crazy Rich Asians a lot. Much like how Eleanor Young buys her way out of racism in the first scene of the movie (demonstrated by her buying a hotel, when its receptionist denied her family service)- Magnolia buys her grand niece's liberation from Indonesian homophobia. Unlike the book version of the story, the film Crazy Rich Asians is uninterested in talking about class as a force of conflict. While Crazy Rich Asians focuses on diaspora tension and avoids racial class discussion, Next Time focuses squarely on Chindo misogyny while being squeamish around class, racism and homophobia.

In Crazy Rich Asians, there are two types of white people; the bigoted ones and the generous elite one who lets Eleanor buy his hotel. After the first scene, racism is so eradicated from the narrative that no white people are present in the rest of the film. In Next Time, there is one white character, a bunch of white props around her, and the vague semblance of an idea that racism causes Asians to assimilate. In other words- there are white people who cause problems and white people who solve problems. White people who serve justice for the marginalized by transferring their privilege to the diverse elite.

That's who Ellery is in Next Time. She may not be rich, but she is a queer woman who is written in a fictional America that forgot gay marriage hasn't been legalized yet. Ellery is a woman who doesn't go through misogyny, who has it "easy" and "gives up nothing". And by staying in America, you can share in that liberation from Indonesia with her. So long as you decontextualize real history, you can ignore how this liberated country slaughtered your people back in Indonesia throughout the 20th century. America is where you belong, and there's no place like home.

America is the gift Magnolia gives to Izzy. The money to travel abroad and have a white girlfriend who narratively echoes the way Ellery acted. Next Time wants to portray Magnolia and Ellery's love as generational and spanning lifetimes. Through Izzy and her white girlfriend Kate, Magnolia and Ellery get to be together in a cosmic way. The queer Chindo girl whose liberation was paid for, and the uncomplicated accepting white girl of an object she won. Next Time Will Be Our Turn.

Accessibility, Liberation and My Existential Queer Agony

Unlike most readers, I'm engaging in Next Time from a very unique perspective. I'm not just a reader, I'm the other Chinese Indonesian writer in trad pub who worked my butt off to use this platform to make queer representation for a deeply underrepresented group of people. I spent many a sleepless night stressing over how, if I retired from this, all that representation would leave with me. Because there wasn't anyone else doing what I did in trad pub.

So as I read Next Time, I kept asking myself "do I feel that weight lift from my shoulders, knowing there's something else out there?" and the answer is "Kinda? But knowing that all Indonesian sapphics currently have in trad pub is a book where liberation is bought to hype up America? This unfortunately fills me with indescribable dread." Despite picking up Next Time for its rare queer representation, the queer parts were honestly its weakest offering.

I don't need Next Time to be a perfectly happy and fluffy queer story, in fact I think it's bold to go for something bittersweet and heartbreaking- but that doesn't save Next Time from all the problems I've analyzed. I don't even need another queer Indonesian book in trad pub to be extraordinary. God forbid I set an impossible standard on whoever comes after me. I just want a story to be explicitly and intersectionally queer and Indonesian without perpetuating something so harmful. And that's the tough part, isn't it?

What Next Time demonstrates as a book is how flawed well intentioned representation can be. While we can debate authenticity until the end of time, the quality of representation doesn't necessarily improve if it comes from within your own community or not. Because unlearning patriarchy, heteronormativity, colonialism and white supremacy is something everyone struggles with. That's where I'd like to focus my analysis instead of arguing about authenticity and who deserves to tell what story. There's no point in digging into an author's privacy to make assumptions about them for the sake of labor justice.

While some problems with Next Time are as easily fixable as googling when texting was normalized, its other issues are structurally built into its beliefs. Elderly Magnolia can't romantically send her grand niece to America if the book showed how queer spaces can reject people of color. Magnolia can never be a true friend to Ellery who takes genuine interest in learning about her queer life, because that would add texture and conflict to how queerness and America are depicted. Ellery can never be a fully formed person, because she would cease to be a blonde prize that is won or lost. Class can't be deconstructed, because then it wouldn't look aspirational to have generational wealth fund Izzy's liberation.

"These women grow convinced that running away will not solve anything, that there is no dream land out there, and that you may be able to pursue one dream in exile, but you will also lose many others." -Bareed Mista3jil

In reality, there is no dream land like the America depicted in Next Time. Many immigrants of color who move to countries that have made more progress in queer acceptance are rejected and presumed to be straight by these majority white spaces. Even when immigrants find solidarity in queer communities, they often feel a guilt that they are not embraced fully as themselves. You're either queer or Indonesian, and finding a way to be fully accepted as both is the struggle.

Knowing the reality of that struggle is what fundamentally breaks Next Time for me. Because when you get right down to it, isn't sending the message that "liberation can only be found in the west" encouraging assimilation? The very assimilation that Next Time criticizes through the way Asian diaspora treat each other? Don't call Magnolia "mei mei" in America. Call her "Tulip". The name bestowed to her by the Perfect Queer Dream Girl from the American Promised Land.

Magnolia's Chinese surname was never taken away from her like it was for many Chinese Indonesians in real life. So you don't have to feel uncomfortable when a white American gives her a new nickname out of the blue. It's just a quirky thing friends do! Sure, Asian Americans often get anglicized names when they assimilate cuz their Asian names are deemed too hard to pronounce- but you don't have to worry about that when every Asian character presented in Next Time (other than the lawyer who shows up 90% in) just happen to already have anglo names. It'll make America look bad if we talked about why white people don't want to say our names. It's a microaggression in real life, but it's a gift when Ellery does it.

Who is this for?

In an interview for Book Crushin', Sutanto talks about how systems like patriarchy won't change unless they're disrupted.

"That we [women] are always beholden to these rules of what a girl or a woman should be like, how she should dress, and how she should behave. It made me so happy to write these scenes where Magnolia urges Izzy to face up to these rules and–well, basically tell them to eff off."

Despite my many criticisms, I think Next Time could be a life saving text for Indonesian women who need it. Learning about how tied patriarchy is to financial dependence could go a long way in getting someone out of an abusive system. But despite Next Time's constant assurance that you need to "take life by the horns until it gives you what you want", that's not really reflected in how the author feels about queer representation. So here's my final disappointment:

In a different interview on the Friends and Fiction substack, Sutanto discloses that she sought out legal advice on Next Time's queer content. She concludes that she couldn't sell the book in Indonesia for fear it would be in conflict with Indonesia's law against "promoting" queer content. I have to wonder what the point of a narrative that encourages women to "face up to the rules and tell them to eff off" only to have the author turn around and say "I always want to be compliant with whatever laws exist in the country." is.

From what I heard of how Sutanto discusses queer issues in her other book Well, That Was Unexpected, she has a pretty alarmist understanding of Indonesian homophobia. She conflates the lack of legalized queer rights with full blown criminalization of queerness. That fear is reflected in her anxieties for promoting Next Time in Indonesia.

And that defensive, paralyzing anxiety for hyperbolized bigotry is inherently rooted in a lack of curiosity about queer progress already made by Indonesians. Regardless of the changing tides of its acceptance, local queer art will always be made here. It's not even obscure, the theatrically released film Memories of My Body came out in 2018. Yes, it received pushback and was banned in some areas for its queer representation, but no one's out here arresting the director. In 2024, the award winning graphic novel Lunar Boy was published under American trad pub, and I am also not behind bars. I feel like I'm on the receiving end of Magnolia's lack of interest in Ellery's queer life.

I'm fully aware that queer work is casually made, shared and sold here all the time, but I'm also aware that sometimes it takes just one incident for a moral panic to overtake the country and place the most vulnerable in our community as targets of religious vigilante violence. So I empathize with the fear, even if it's misplaced. I've been there, and I went through the trouble of making sure Lunar Boy could safely find the people who needed it the most. I certainly didn't stop it from being sold in Indonesia though.

Because let's face it- what does self censorship achieve? Why be compliant to homophobia? Who does that serve? Is this book just for diaspora and non-Indos to read about how much the patriarchy sucks in Indonesia? Was it never for the women in Indonesia struggling with an abusive system? How is anything going to change if we're not willing to challenge the systems that oppress us, even if it's through our art?

It's a privilege to be able to create representation on a stage as large and international as American trad pub. Everyday I'm inspired by queer elders who traveled abroad and shared what they've gained with queer communities back home. It's something I strive to continue by making representation for Indonesians in the diaspora and source land through a platform I worked so hard to get in.

Next Time is a story about a queer woman with the privilege to travel abroad and access experiences that are harder to find in Indonesia. She takes everything she's learned abroad to give back to her family, in hopes they'll find liberation too. But for Sutanto, giving back is against the law. And so waiting it out through compliance, is the only option.

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