i was so excited to read this book, which is so many of my favorite things: women who spy! family drama! historical fiction about an under-discussed gi was so excited to read this book, which is so many of my favorite things: women who spy! family drama! historical fiction about an under-discussed geopolitical moment!
its purpose — to show WWII and the era leading up to it from the british- then japanese-ruled malaysian perspective — is excellent.
unfortunately, the way this book conveyed it undermined the message.
so much tragedy occurs here. violence of every type, deaths of multiple main characters, colonization, war, labor camps, comfort stations, racism, sexism, assaults, murders, torture. it's wrenching and difficult to read.
that isn't a con of this book, obviously. all of those things really happened, and the forgotten stories of the people that experienced it deserved to be told.
it's the fact that these don't feel like real people, or real stories. our characters kill people without regret. they see untold horrors and don't feel them. they keep unforgivable secrets, commit crimes, experience trauma, and give none of it a second thought. characters change from page to page, and motivations, development arcs, and things we hold to be true aren't consistently upheld.
there is nothing that will allow us to ground ourselves in order to really feel these stories as they deserve to be felt. a character who can't pick up a stick in one paragraph is running across a camp and doing his own stunts in the next. 4 people we've been following for hundreds of pages die within one chapter. these people do terrible things without the painful justification that would allow us to feel it alongside them.
bad things happen for no reason, to people who don't feel real—nor does their suffering, keeping us on the outside as one horrible scene after another unfolds.
bottom line: i am glad this story is being told. i wish it was better equipped to be shared.
this one's for all my true crime haters out there.
and also for my general haters out there. because i didn't like this book.
like s'mores, or the kind this one's for all my true crime haters out there.
and also for my general haters out there. because i didn't like this book.
like s'mores, or the kind of chocolate chip cookie that's currently popular where it's essentially grainy dough in the middle, this is a great concept that does not achieve what it sets out to. in the first two cases, it's to be yummy. in this case, it's to remind us that behind every garish crime headline, there are real people trying their best.
we are presented with a potential crime and some of the people that surround it: lucy, a lonely child who may have committed a murder; carmel, her distant onetime teen mom; richie, carmel's alcoholic brother; john, their withholding father; the specters of john's first and second wives; and tom, the journalist who's set out to write about all of them.
the goal of this book is to humanize this cast. and much like the outer bites of the aforementioned chocolate chip cookies, or the part of the s'mores process where you're toasting the marshmallow and you haven't yet undergone the gunky sticky textural nightmare eating of it, there are moments where it's very effective.
this is true of carmel's case. richie has moments of searing sympathy, too. but i felt equally left outside of lucy, john, rose, and tom by the conclusion as i did at the outset. we never get much insight into the first three, and what we do hear from tom happens early and contradicts itself often.
i like the intention here, which it shares with penance, a book i was very impressed by. but like the author's first novel, i think it fell a bit short.
bottom line: the disappointing cookie of books....more
i like an unlikable protagonist, but it turns out i can't stand 3 miserable ones.
for me, the experience of being alive as a woman isn't defined soleli like an unlikable protagonist, but it turns out i can't stand 3 miserable ones.
for me, the experience of being alive as a woman isn't defined solely by hating my body, or by thinking about men, or by hating other women. i have moments of all of those, sure, but they don't make up a significant part of my life. let alone the majority of my experience. let alone all of it!
in the universe of this book, that's all women have.
we have three perspectives and they are all the same: just absolute victims of patriarchy, with the same voice, living the same experience. one looks like emrata, one is thin with "bad boobs," one is fat, but all three are obsessed with their bodies and male validation and nothing else.
there's a lot this book is trying to do, but it overplays its hand a all of it. creating three of the exact same character to do the same thing in an over the top and nonrelatable way and facing down an abrupt and meaningless ending doesn't work for me even from that standpoint.
beyond that, the writing grated on me: all thoughts are merciless or relentless. people are both nervous and worried. skin is knotty and bumpy. this stacked adjectives on top of each other to see what sticks.
the answer to what sticks is my frustration, even reviewing this a month after the fact.
bottom line: i love women! i love being alive! i wish this book did too.
------------------ tbr review
this sounds more interesting to me than the alternative...more
the good news is this was part of my favorite niche subgenre: True Crime That Has Since Been Solved.
the bad news is that, though this was very thoughtthe good news is this was part of my favorite niche subgenre: True Crime That Has Since Been Solved.
the bad news is that, though this was very thoughtfully researched, it was also very weird. i enjoyed the first half that carefully constructed the girls' stories, but the author's attempts to switch voices and sometimes write from within the girls' worlds came off very strange...and almost...bigoted?
beyond that the second half got bogged down in theories and had nowhere to conclude, so it felt way longer than it actually was and then kind of just drifted off.
i guess i had more to complain about than i thought.
bottom line: i try to only read true crime that won't make me feel guilty about reading it. here i did not succeed....more
i am so sorry to say this...but this was borderline unreadable for me.
the description of this book — a family saga told with humor and a wry sociopolii am so sorry to say this...but this was borderline unreadable for me.
the description of this book — a family saga told with humor and a wry sociopolitical eye, with the intent of capturing what it was to be a person during a certain era — got me.
but this wasn't funny, to me, or clever; it was self-indulgent and self-serious, pretentious and mocking to its characters. i never managed to like any of them (despite my lifelong tendency to like the unlikable) because the book itself, and its narrator, clearly do not.
and that, as it turns out, is a dealbreaker.
bottom line: this review — not funny but kind of trying to be, extremely self-important, and pointless reading — mirrors its subject!...more
when will i stop accidentally buying graphic novel adaptations!
i intended to buy a copy of Kindred, a great book, and mistakenly bought this, a versiowhen will i stop accidentally buying graphic novel adaptations!
i intended to buy a copy of Kindred, a great book, and mistakenly bought this, a version of it that was not for me. this art style isn't my cup of tea, and this medium isn't really for this story. what was an excellent novel is an emotionally and thematically inconsistent and shallow-feeling graphic novel.
but then again, an accidental review is probably not the best one to trust.
first book in a while to make me Rage. this put me right back in my mean era!
it sets out to write about love and ambition, about who owns stories, abofirst book in a while to make me Rage. this put me right back in my mean era!
it sets out to write about love and ambition, about who owns stories, about the flaws of people and of writing and of science. all interesting things.
unfortunately it chooses to do so with a writing style and a protagonist that seem to be in an annoying-off, endlessly undermining its own purpose. i don't know whether the author or the main character is more self-absorbed and self-impressed, but i do know that there was no character or narrative growth here.
i wanted to like this very badly, and i thought that maybe i would, but all of it rested on my belief that eventually the self-insert self-interest would end in a flurry of character development and redemption and recognition.
unfortunately, the book and i seem to disagree about what was happening throughout. and nothing ever changed.
just that it be the cutest thing in existence and make me happy and fill the void within me.
not a recipe for disai didn't ask for much from this book.
just that it be the cutest thing in existence and make me happy and fill the void within me.
not a recipe for disaster at all!
unfortunately, it seems that those expectations were "too tall of an order," an expression which reminds me of when i go to a diner for breakfast which of course means pancakes and a side of crispy bacon and a cup of coffee that is somehow simultaneously too strong and also water and i bypass the "shortstack" option and i go right for the big boy and i am overwhelmed by a mountain of buttery syrupy goodness.
but here it means i didn't like this book that much.
it has a cover that implies that it will be quirky, and cute, and funny, and romantic, and possibly sexy.
besides maybe that last thing, this wasn't really any of those. it was heavy!!! which is fine. i think romance has as much right as any other genre to Contain Emotional Multitudes.
but i do feel like the rest of the book felt shallow because of everything going on - not enough time for romance, or humor, or, you know. character development.
the little things.
bottom line: back in my resting state (having unpopular opinions and craving pancakes).
give me a group of losers with tragic backstories striking out on their own and building banter alongthere is no trope i love more than found family.
give me a group of losers with tragic backstories striking out on their own and building banter along the way? i'm in heaven.
that's what this book is ostensibly about. i saw the synopsis (four misfits on the run) and simply thought...goals.
but it's as if there was no love there.
i feel like we reallytruly got to know 2 men who hate women as they make one extremely gross and convoluted exception apiece, but the aforementioned one-gal-each ration of women doesn't seem to get in on the lovefest.
to be honest, i started writing mini reviews for each story, but then eventually i realized i felt the exact same way about each one.
which was that ito be honest, i started writing mini reviews for each story, but then eventually i realized i felt the exact same way about each one.
which was that i didn't like them.
i have something i do not want to say, and i do not know how to say, and i wish i did not have to say, but it is the difficult to pin down point that all of my feelings on this book revolve around, so:
this has that certain je-ne-sais-quoi Debut writing style. kind of overwritten. kind of cliché. kind of nonsensical, like not every sentence connects to the next. kind of trying to be impressive. kind of giving the same vibe as, like, instagram poetry.
unfortunately, i decided i didn't like this book early, and despite my best efforts and the fact that stories began to be slightly different from each other, all of them continued to value drama and impressive writing over characters or story or themes or relatability or sense.
y'know. the little things.
bottom line: it should be illegal for me to dislike a book with a cover like that.
(thanks to the publisher for the copy)
--------------------- tbr review
a weird dark collection of lit fic stories exploring women's grief?? yeah. i'm interested...more
it's been so long since i read lit fic by a man that i forgot why i read mostly female authors.
this had a lot to say and a lot going for it, but unforit's been so long since i read lit fic by a man that i forgot why i read mostly female authors.
this had a lot to say and a lot going for it, but unfortunately my reading of it was constantly distracted and brought down by the terrible female characters and the awful man-writing-lit-fic sex scenes.
sorry! i wanted to like it. i promise.
bottom line: sheesh.
------------------ pre-review
blacked out in a barnes & noble in the midst of a sale and emerged with 8 books. anyway it was the best afternoon of my life and this was one of them...more
well, i met the definition of insanity again (reading short lit fic with a low average rating over and over and expecting it to work).
i love a hatefulwell, i met the definition of insanity again (reading short lit fic with a low average rating over and over and expecting it to work).
i love a hateful individual as much as the next person, so give me 3 hateful individuals and that's even better. and on the worst days i wonder if i love fiction so much because it scratches the same itch as my real passion: gossip. so this seemed like a recipe for success.
unfortunately, this book tells the same events happening 3 times (in 3 technically different but essentially identical voices) before ending right before the juicy part.
bummer.
bottom line: i would take literally any interesting anecdote about my coworkers over this. which isn't as bad as it sounds since office gossip is what life is all about....more
the most wicked, evil, devious part of this thriller was the romance.
for a long time i couldn't decide if this was overwritten or underedited. plot twthe most wicked, evil, devious part of this thriller was the romance.
for a long time i couldn't decide if this was overwritten or underedited. plot twist: the answer is it's both!
there's just too much information in here, and very little of it is necessary. on top of that there's the writing-based stuff: many instances of the same word being used in back to back sentences (one of my hundreds of pet peeves), plus the overall sense that this was written at a desk with an open thesaurus on it...
this was an incredible premise that overcommitted and underdelivered, offering disappointing characters who treat each other terribly, no development, and a disappointing plot.
and again, just about the worst romance i've ever read. negative chemistry. terrible influences on each other. continually calling each other ugly and/or terribly personality'd in their truest and most internal thoughts.
bottom line: the horror.
(thanks to netgalley for the e-arc)
--------------- tbr review
selecting the single mystery/thriller book i'll read this year...more
unfortunately it appears i will keep reading these books as long as they keep coming.
even as they continue to ruin my life.
these are peak guilty pleasunfortunately it appears i will keep reading these books as long as they keep coming.
even as they continue to ruin my life.
these are peak guilty pleasure content and are also sometimes not pleasurable at all.
at its best, this series is a pretentious guy who is also an unreliable narrator who is also truly hilarious getting up to hijinks on the regular. and of course by hijinks i mean felonies and murder — the best kind.
tragically this installment contains a lot more writing about writing than it does writing about murder. and also a lot of self-soothing.
all i'll say is that a fairly major character in this book is a female author who longs to write respected works of (self-insert) literary merit, but when she breaks from her beloved but unrespected bestselling thrillers she is roundly mocked. and i will leave it at that.
giving yourself some therapy while getting paid thriller-series-contract money...that's great work if you can get it.
generally this lacks the same MAGIC as its predecessors. each entry in YOU seems to have less and less fun, forcing itself to become serious for no reason and losing the goofiness and originality that made the first one among my favorite thrillers of all time.
but this one did coin the phrase "Dunkin' Sally Rooney," so it can't be all bad.
bottom line: keep em coming, kepnes. masochism awaits me.
well. i thought i was back in my magical realism era.
i have been having a lot of success lately with Experimental Literary Fiction About Mothers And Dwell. i thought i was back in my magical realism era.
i have been having a lot of success lately with Experimental Literary Fiction About Mothers And Daughters, and since the synopsis implies that this book is literally exactly that, i thought we had a success on our hands.
also, look at that cover.
but spoiler alert, we did not! this book had 900 half-baked side plots, from stray dogs to greek retellings to lexicography to weird made up language words to Alzheimer's to OH MY GOD NO WAY PLEASE TELL ME THAT ISN'T WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT, and then also just about no time spent on that.
this started off frustrating and ultimately became annoying! and over the course of my life, i have been an eldest sibling, a teacher's pet, an introvert, and a hater.
i don't do well with being annoyed.
bottom line: weird! and not in the way i'm a fan of....more
i liked the author's other poetry collection and i LOVED his novel, but this book was...honestly...antrying to be a poetry person again...
didn't work.
i liked the author's other poetry collection and i LOVED his novel, but this book was...honestly...annoying.
there were moments of that same total brilliance in it, but for the most part, it fell flat. i like to joke that poetry makes me cringe as part of my devil-may-care cool-guy persona, but this book actually made me cringe.
multiple times.
eek.
bottom line: ocean vuong, we will rise again!...more
it's hard for a book this short to be way too much. but here we are.
this was goofy and fun and then it was less goofy and fun and then there was a 3 pit's hard for a book this short to be way too much. but here we are.
this was goofy and fun and then it was less goofy and fun and then there was a 3 paragraph description of poop and then it was unadulterated suffering for every remaining page.
this committed the biggest crime than a romance can commit: it isdoing the unthinkable (reading a booktok book)...
and receiving my karmic retribution.
this committed the biggest crime than a romance can commit: it is not fun!!!
there is literally no tension here. these people fell in love in 2 days, ten years pass, they are still in love with each other and there is no obstacle. not even a miscommunication. not even a separation. not even a trope.
the love interest is so perfect and boring. i thought this would have some SPICE to it. some BANTER. but no. the dialogue is unforgivable.
keep the jesse eisenberg interview out of your mouth...do not mention andrew garfield x chicken shop girl...chris evans is also boring but even the gq article this steals its entire plot from is more interesting than this.
bottom line: making fiction more of a snooze than life is almost impossible. this achieves that and also makes it look easy....more
this is a relatively small book about very small things and it is trying to fit way too much.
there is so much goddamn furniture in this proverbial dolthis is a relatively small book about very small things and it is trying to fit way too much.
there is so much goddamn furniture in this proverbial dollhouse, if you will. a romance. 3+ different timelines. a fantasy. a family history. multiple perspectives.
i picked this up because i like cute small things and i was a dollhouse kid. but i spent most of this book confused.
and not in a fun mysterious way.
bottom line: can i just...read about a dollhouse? is that a thing?
Loading...
