"Goodbye Vitamin" follows Ruth, a recently dumped PhD dropout who moves back home to help her mother care for her father Howard, a former history professor struggling with Alzheimer's disease. Khong structures the novel as Ruth's diary entries over the course of a year, creating an intimate, episodic narrative that mirrors the fragmented nature of memory itself.

The book excels at balancing heartbreak with humor—Ruth's voice is wry and observant, finding absurdity in family dynamics even amid genuine grief. Khong captures the particular frustration and tenderness of watching a loved one's mind deteriorate, as Howard repeats stories, forgets basic facts, yet occasionally surfaces with startling clarity.

The supporting characters feel authentic: Ruth's practical mother Linus, her overachieving brother Bonnie, and her father's former students who still revere him. The novel works best in its quiet, specific moments—Howard's obsession with vitamins, family dinners that go sideways, Ruth's attempts to reconstruct her father's past through his old papers.

However, the diary format sometimes feels constraining, and certain plot threads (Ruth's romantic subplot, her career uncertainty) feel underdeveloped compared to the central caregiving story. The pacing can be uneven, with some entries feeling slight while others carry significant emotional weight. This book will resonate strongly with readers who have experience with dementia in their families, or anyone navigating the complex emotions of caring for aging parents. It's perfect for those who appreciate literary fiction that finds meaning in everyday struggles without being overly sentimental. Readers seeking plot-driven narratives or those uncomfortable with stories about illness and family dysfunction should look elsewhere. Khong's debut is ultimately a compassionate meditation on how we hold onto the people we love even as they slip away, told with enough wit and warmth to keep it from becoming maudlin.