One of my favorite booktubers sometimes picks up books if an author she likes blurbs them. I realized I had never done it and when I noticed Shelley POne of my favorite booktubers sometimes picks up books if an author she likes blurbs them. I realized I had never done it and when I noticed Shelley Parker-Chan (aka the Quing of Chinese historical fantasy) had blurbed this, I went for it. A Song to Drown Rivers it’s a historical fantasy and a retelling of Xishi’s story, one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. Unfortunately, Parker-Chan’s praise made me think this would be a feast of cajun french fries and it turned out to be potato salad with extra mayo (I don’t eat mayo). Anyways, this is a 1.5 stars.
Xishi is a beautiful village girl who is approached by Fanli, a military advisor, one random day. He asks her if she’d be willing to marry the ruler of the neighboring kingdom - the enemy of her people, a drunk who only worries about having women around every night. But not as a wife per se... as his spy.
I hate describing things as “very YA” but I don’t know what to call it otherwise. The main character just came out of the same cookie cutter than 95% of YA books I’ve read: Mary Sue main character who’s only flaw was being so perfect and naive she seemed stupid at times. Xishi was, by definition, more beautiful than your regular YA MC girlie, of course (and she knows it, but she’s not proud about it, of course). The romance and just story overall asked me to suspend my disbelief too often. The writing was fine, I liked it. Simple and nothing too flowery. The story was just okay.
I think this is supposed to be adult and not YA, but I’m considering it YA because Xishi is supposed to be a concubine and this was embarrassingly PG-13. Don’t get me wrong, I usually hate sex in books, but this was a bit nonsensical and unrealistic. My other beef with the book is just how stupidly cheesy it was. I do appreciate the feminism but somehow the story is narrated as if everything was tough, and hard, and heartbreaking… while nothing really goes wrong at any point? Like, if you ever go to war, don't forget to pack a plot armor that's as thick as the one the characters in this book wear. ((view spoiler)[I mean sure, sure, the last chapter, the very last moments. But she was insufferable so I’m counting it as a happy ending. (hide spoiler)])
This is a shitty review but I’ve got nothing to say. It was just not for me. Someday I’ll read a YA book and not want to lobotomize the main character, but today isn’t the day.
*ARC received for free. This hasn’t impacted my review....more
A few weeks ago I read an academic paper about people in the asexual spectrum getting married to ‘cope’ living in China. I don’t think there are booksA few weeks ago I read an academic paper about people in the asexual spectrum getting married to ‘cope’ living in China. I don’t think there are books about that topic, but I happened to find Cinema Love available and I was instantly intrigued. As the blurb summarizes, Cinema Love is about “gay men in rural China and the women who marry them.”
This was a fantastic reading experience. I loved the writing and the characters and just the story overall. We start in a cinema theater in China that has the same movies all day, every day, because it’s not really a place to watch films. It’s a little utopia for (married) gay men to exist without judgment. The story centers around two women, Bao Mei and Yan Hua, and a gay man named Old Second. It goes from rural China, to Chinatown in NYC, to a contemporary Chinatown still dealing with the racism that emerged during the pandemic. The hardships and resilience of Chinese immigrants gets a lot of focus, which I really liked.
I thought the choice to follow mostly Bao Mei and Yan Hua was an interesting one. I was mostly expecting to learn more about the experience of gay men, but it was refreshing and surprising to see this focus on the women, the wives. I think my dumbass had wrongly assumed gay men would maybe marry lesbians to mask their orientations, but the couples depicted here sort of showed a sad life for the female counterpart.
I am not sure I liked Yan Hua or the end of the book. Maybe it’s the social justice warrior/snowflake inside of me, but I wanted things to end in a better light, but I understand where it all comes from. I’m looking forward to picking more stuff by Tang, this was beautiful and I loved the simple yet gorgeous writing. 4.5 stars rouned down because the ending/point of it all MADE SENSE but didn't work 100% for me.
A quote that I liked for no reason lol: “Gone were the days when sweatshop workers had to fuss with their MetroCards on the subway (many had moved to Brooklyn after 9/11), counting minutes and searching the windows for signs of their stop. They discovered the pleasure of a highway without traffic, of headphones in the ears and a window with a Gowanus view. A woman’s leg nudged her neighbor’s, asking him for more space, and sometimes this action stirred up a conversation. A pleasurable and banal discussion about the price of meat, the blandness of watermelon, the sales at Macy’s.”...more
This is Tahir Hamut Izgil’s memoir of this time in China as a poet and intellectual in Urumchi. Joshua Freeman, who used to translate Izgil’s poetry pThis is Tahir Hamut Izgil’s memoir of this time in China as a poet and intellectual in Urumchi. Joshua Freeman, who used to translate Izgil’s poetry prior to him becoming a refugee, adds a foreword explaining how he got into Uyghur translation and became acquainted with the poet and how he ended up translating this memoir. I tend to skip translator notes and I’m glad I didn’t in this case.
The book has a poignant title, Waiting to Be Arrested at Night, and it’s also a powerful and hard-to-read story about discrimination, repression, and surveillance over the Uyghur. Besides the actual genocide, I thought the cultural genocide this memoir highlights (removing words in Arab from Uyghur movies, banning classical Uyghur literature, etc.) was very interesting. The Uyghur genocide isn’t getting as much attention as other current issues, but the cultural genocide is something I had not heard of (at all, I dare say?).
Izgil explains how intellectuals and Uyghur are treated by the authorities and his story about how he found his way to the US. It’s a hard read.
“I wish the Chinese would just conquer the world,” one of my friends said suddenly. “Why do you say that?” asked one of our companions. “The world doesn’t care what happens to us,” my first friend replied. “The world doesn’t understand China. Since we can’t have freedom anyway, let the whole world taste subjugation. Then we would all be the same. We wouldn’t be alone in our suffering.”
Tomb Sweeping is a collection of slice-of-life stories focusing on the themes of family, relationships, and the Chinese diaspora. As with any short stTomb Sweeping is a collection of slice-of-life stories focusing on the themes of family, relationships, and the Chinese diaspora. As with any short story collection, I found this to be a mixed bag, but the good stories outweigh the not-so-good ones. Also, I did find the writing to be really fresh and easy to read, it felt very personable and not to diagnose Alexandra Chang with anything but most of her characters seem very anxious and big-time overthinkers.
My favorite story was Me and My Algo which focuses on how technology has invaded our lives and seems to know us better than we do ourselves (or does it). Other than that one, To Get Rich is Glorious was this feminist story about a woman giving the middle finger to Confucius and trying to do something for herself, it was fun. A Visit made me quite sad in the best way, it’s about a woman being visited by her now-old father. Special mention to Klara, Phenotype, Unknown by Unknown, and Cure for Life for the messages they made too, they were cute/fun.
The rest, including Tomb Sweeping, didn’t really do anything for me. I’m also tired of the cat obsession in books (and everywhere) so I just mostly eye-rolled to Cat Personalities....more
Boring and sappy. 1.5 rounded down because I will 100% not remember the story in three days.
Time traveling is not really my thing but I was a bit confBoring and sappy. 1.5 rounded down because I will 100% not remember the story in three days.
Time traveling is not really my thing but I was a bit confused as to why it was even added to this story. It was mostly mundane and I think it could have been replaced with something else (idk, people traveling). The book blurb is basically the first 10 pages and then it just becomes this long thing following irrational people doing mundane things and, again, it’s just very sappy and very much about feelings and family and water-down drama. The only interesting bit was in the last pages when the parents ‘discovered’ something but we really never get to know anything out of that so yeah, bye....more
This was such a great read, I highly recommended it to anyone who’s enjoyed Crying in H Mart.
In Seeing Ghosts, Kat Chow writes a life-spanning memoirThis was such a great read, I highly recommended it to anyone who’s enjoyed Crying in H Mart.
In Seeing Ghosts, Kat Chow writes a life-spanning memoir mostly following her grief after she loses her mother to cancer and how the sadness takes over her relationship with her father and everyone surrounding her. I also feel Chow loses her father for a while. As she grows up, she starts exploring her relationship with him and seeing how flawed he is. I thought all the bits about his father had very interesting notions about being Chinese American, the ‘American Dream,’ and the child-of-immigrant experience....more
'To this day, I don't understand how someone could be so hungry as to not feel pain. The steamed bun was like his life—he clutched it so tight, you'd 'To this day, I don't understand how someone could be so hungry as to not feel pain. The steamed bun was like his life—he clutched it so tight, you'd have thought it would vanish if he'd let it go. Perhaps in that moment he wasn't thinking about life or death, and his world contained nothing but that steamed bun. Right then, was it death or hunger that felt more real, more urgent, more significant?'
A deliberately tedious look into a man from Beijing sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. I loved the writing in the Introduction especially, but it's all nicely written (and translated beautifully).
I feel the book is supposed to feel exasperatingly boring, and it did at points, but it was bleak and poignant. Zou doesn't sugarcoat anything, not the deaths, the hate crimes, or the stupidity of some of his own actions. Fair warning that a minimal knowledge of the Cultural Revolution and what led to that may be needed to understand what is going on.
'Other people are always borrowing me. My wife says, "It's sunny today, come to the mall with me—I want to buy socks." Yes, dear. Then I have to leave myself at home for three hours, to await my return.'...more
(This book has too many explicit sexy things for my liking so I may drop it to 4 stars eventually, but for now, I'm rounding it up)
This was very d4.5*
(This book has too many explicit sexy things for my liking so I may drop it to 4 stars eventually, but for now, I'm rounding it up)
This was very different from She Who Became the Sun. I’ve seen a few reviews referring to the change as a “step up” from what the first book was but I’m not sure I’d describe it that way – I just did not like it as much, though I am sure I will be in the minority.
She Who Became the Sun got a lot of attention for being sapphic, gay, and bringing up matters of gender identity. While the topics are part of why I liked the first book (gender identity mostly, it was an interesting read), I was way more into the military strategy and the whole ‘how to win a battle before it starts.’ He Who Drowned the World was... different. Rather than known goals, it felt like watching Zhu going from point A to point B assembling a group of allies while Wang Baoxiang did his whole thing, and the changes in POV felt a bit drastic. The chapters were very sex heavy in Baoxiang’s parts and Zhu’s felt very anticlimactic, her chapters were divided into very character-driven pieces until the ‘climax’ where suddenly it would be just action. And then, bam, Wang Baoxiang is sucking dick.
Now, you may be wondering, “woman, weren’t you screaming about how good the first book was and how you kissed the floor Wang Baoxiang stepped on?” yup. And I feel weird complaining about his chapters because, inherently, they were not just sex. It was all his political strategy and complex plans to make all the puppets do their thing, but it didn’t feel right to me. I also struggled with his sexuality a lot. At times he’d say he didn’t get pleasure from sex at all and never had, then he’d talk about his desires with men, then sometimes women... I know I’m probably the only one who thought he was asexual from the first book, but I just got a weird bag of confusion in this one. But, anyways, it was just very sex heavy in every way shape, or form. I am personally asexual and seeing so much sex, especially in the first 60% of the book, put me off picking it up. It was just too much and too yuck, and we didn’t need Xu Da’s comments about semen, we really didn’t. I feel all of it quickly made my two favorite characters – Wang Baoxiang and Xu Da – into my least favorite characters because having them on the page would just be a warning that I’d feel nauseous in two paragraphs.
Overall, this book is complex. This book is thick, and Parker-Chan is a mastermind for making all the puzzle pieces fit together, I will be forever in awe at how good the strategies and battles are. The writing is also so interesting – I don’t want to say beautiful because it isn’t per se, but it’s unlike anything I’ve ever read, and I love it. It sometimes takes me out of the book because Parker-Chan just uses a voice I’m very much not used to. Characters and their relationships are explored all throughout. The exploration between Zhu and Ouyang’s similarities and how their fates are so intrinsically intertwined was beautiful, I have highlighted so much of it. Seeing Zhu and Xu Da’s ‘brotherhood’ evolve the way it does and, well, that was just... beautiful. I have no words for a lot of this. Many of these pages felt like someone was stabbing me in the heart, which is strange considering how I was struggling with the book up until the sex ‘stopped.’
So, anyways, I will just keep it short. I feel I can talk about this book for hours, it was a lot, but most of it felt like a character study of the ghosts we carry (and by ‘we’ I mean the characters but, really, Wang Baoxiang needs a therapist) (they all do, really) (I’m only paying for Baoxiang’s one though). It’s just complex and there are so many layers that I adore, and some that I just couldn’t like. But I’ll just say that if you liked the characters in the first book, you may want to pick this up. It’s a trip and a hard one at that, but it’s one that you may want to see the end of. (I suggest checking trigger warnings and just avoiding the book if you don’t want to read about sex because this book packs a lot of everything)....more
I feel this book would have conveyed its message better if it was 20-30% shorter. There seem to be a lot of meandering and going over details that werI feel this book would have conveyed its message better if it was 20-30% shorter. There seem to be a lot of meandering and going over details that weren't really relevant to anything. This happened especially when talking about who invented what; I get that the invention is an important development for the Chinese language and China, but I'm not sure why the chapters had to feel biography-ish.
Regardless, it was very interesting to learn about how the first keyboards/typewriters in Chinese came to be and the process for it; as well as later developments. ...more
The premise of this book grabbed my attention from the get-go. Humans live alongside mystical beasts in the fictional Chinese town of Yong’an. The unnThe premise of this book grabbed my attention from the get-go. Humans live alongside mystical beasts in the fictional Chinese town of Yong’an. The unnamed narrator is a writer working on a manuscript, a collection of stories about these beasts - most of them love stories. The book is not her manuscript, but the Writer's life as she writes about a beast and whatever meaning that has on her life at the moment.
This is one of the books where the premise is much better than the book, in my opinion. The grand reveal at the end was something I had been expecting for a while and I did not comprehend the Writer's relationships with anybody - Charley, Zhong Liang, the professor, etc. I felt the beasts were also not explored deeply enough. For the sacrificial beasts, it is said female can talk but the male ones cannot - yet there is a male sacrificial beast who can talk and this goes completely unmentioned.
I liked it, but I could not connect to the story nor care about the characters, so it's a 2.5 for me.
Ok, it's done. I did not like this book. I'm still giving it three stars because R F Kuang wrote a really good series with a complex plot and great chOk, it's done. I did not like this book. I'm still giving it three stars because R F Kuang wrote a really good series with a complex plot and great characters, but I feel the story was longer than necessary and I could not stand Rin (or Su Daji) at all. And it's weird, I love grey morality, I love evil-ish characters, but I just don't vibe (?) with them.
My biggest complain about the first book was how there was this one chapter that was very graphic (the horrors of war were sort of missing throughout the book but all of them were just exposed in that one, which seemed gratuitous). The Burning God sort of spread it out better, but the emphasis on violence towards women was there and idk, I think exposing it is necessary and the way Kuang wrote about it seemed appropriate, but there's always the line about how much is too much and I always feel she surpasses my line.
I can finally bid my farewells to Rin and Su Daji. We're never crossing paths again. You're never annoying me again. Bye bye. ...more
Click on that Want to Read button and look out for this gem later this year. You can thank me later And, Shelley Parker-Chan, if you are reading this:Click on that Want to Read button and look out for this gem later this year. You can thank me later And, Shelley Parker-Chan, if you are reading this: you did it - this book is now one of my Top 3 reads of all time. I finished this a while ago and I feel empty now that it's over and I can't fangirl with anyone about it because it hasn't been published yet *ugly cries*.
Now unto the actual review: 'She Who Became the Sun' follows a girl destined for nothing while her brother, Zhu Chongba, is destined for greatness. Starving and desperate, an unexpected event changes the trajectory of her entire future. She refuses to be nothing, seizing her brother's identity and assuming his fate in the process.
In her debut novel, Parker-Chan blends history with fiction in her re-imagining of the rise to power of Zhu Yuanzhang and the rise of the Ming Dynasty in 14th century China. The main story follows two main characters: Zhu Chongba (or the 'girl' who seizes his identity) and her journey to greatness and Ouyang, a eunuch general for the Mongols tormented by his terrible fate.
Ouyang and Zhu quickly become each other's nemesis and the war confronting the Mongols and the Red Turbans offer plenty of opportunities for both of them to scar each other's fate. Yet the book is so much more than revenge, wars, and political plotting (which, btw, there is a lot of - plenty of backstabbing in here. A lot of drama. I recommend bringing popcorn to this show); this is a book about gender identity. Ouyang is a eunuch with a gender nonconforming appearance who despises his femineity. Zhu rejected her own identity to become her brother - a man. And then, we also have Ma - who identifies as a woman, but feels slaved by her own gender until Zhu opens her eyes to her own chosen destiny. And Wang Baoxiang, a son never seen as a son for not acting like a "real man" should, yet choosing to live this failure on his own terms.
This book is a masterpiece. The writing is lyrical and impeccable, Parker-Chan writes deeply flawed characters with desires that aren't easily attained yet reachable - if sacrifices are made. When reading it, I found myself loving every single character (except Chen) - their emotions are explored beautifully, and their actions are justified and significant. They all suffer their fate as much as owe it and, some of them, even claim it. If you feel destiny is against you (you know, the usual "life is a soup and I am a fork") or you feel locked into something you aren't comfortable in, maybe this book will spark a fire for you to change things.
And now, just to have my oh-so-usual emotional word diarrhea: Wang Baoxiang and Zhu Da are my baes. Reading about them made me smile big time. Wang Baoxiang is such a flawed little asshole, I can't agree on anything he said or did, but I felt for him a mixture of pity, understanding, and respect. Zhu Da is just adorable and we all love him in my house. And, yeah, well, I got an ARC for this and I was very excited and all but now I'm just not cool with knowing I have to wait MORE time for the second book. Like, I need the second book yesterday if not now. Please.
Content warnings as posted by the author:(view spoiler)[* Dysphoria * Pre-existing non-consensual castration * Misgendering * Internalised homophobia * Life-altering injury (amputation) * Ableist language * Non-graphic depictions of death by torture * Major character death * Offscreen murder of a child * Scenes depicting extreme hunger/starvation (hide spoiler)] My prediction for the second book is short and perhaps not too relevant but here we go: (view spoiler)[you don't fuck with Wang Baoxiang. I hope he'll be showing up again because holy dang he is such a tiny little backstabbing cockroach and I still love him to death. (hide spoiler)]
To Hold Up the Sky is a collection of sci-fi short stories set in China. I wasn't particularly a fan of any story and rated most of them 2 stars, someTo Hold Up the Sky is a collection of sci-fi short stories set in China. I wasn't particularly a fan of any story and rated most of them 2 stars, some 1 star, and one of them was a 4 stars ('Ode to Joy', this one surprised me).
To keep it short and sweet: many things flew above my head and I was not keen on the random homophobia or sexist vibes I got from certain bits. The concepts are interesting but none of the stories drew me in; this is my first time reading Liu so maybe he's just not my style. He seems to like the whole idea of time traveling and sciency stuff that I usually avoid....more
I liked this one, I debated whether I should give it 4 stars but I did not care much about the characters. I feel I had a few issues at the beginning I liked this one, I debated whether I should give it 4 stars but I did not care much about the characters. I feel I had a few issues at the beginning reading about Lotus' expectations and anticipations, which seemed fantasies to me. But later on her naiveness was somewhat addressed and it was interesting to see her grow and progress.
Below, there's a spoiler of this book AND Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (important spoilers about this one lol). Probably unimportant but there's a parallel (sort of?) that I kept thinking about: (view spoiler)[It's taken me a re-read of Pachinko to come to terms with Noa's rejection of 'what Sunja did' with Hansu. He has strong ethics and, somehow, these crashed him. I think Min Jin Lee did such a beautiful job at coming up and portraying Noa that, seeing the 'other side of the coin' in Lotus, felt wrong. Lotus' brother rejects the money but does not hate or crucify his sister. I feel that conflict was not explored enough. I'm cool with the two of them maintaining ties, but it felt """so easy""", or at least I did not notice any important ethical-mental-psychological struggle from either of them other than a bit of 'whining'. Anyhow, totally unimportant, but this was on my mind because Noa, bye. (hide spoiler)]...more
I am always scared whenever I pick up a book with a 'big event' that breaks a friendship because I just assume it3.5 stars*
This was a difficult read.
I am always scared whenever I pick up a book with a 'big event' that breaks a friendship because I just assume it will have to do with romance (and I don't read romance nor care about it usually). I have read a couple books by Lisa See and I know she cares about historical accuracy and creating beautiful sisterhoods, but I was still worried about it. Luckily, I was wrong to be so - this book, as China Dolls and The Island of Sea Women, was about a sisterhood between two 'old sames' who communicate via a secret women language.
As a European female born in the 21st Century, this book was disturbing. I have read about feet biding before in East Wind: West Wind by Pearl S. Buck, but it wasn't so descriptive (luckily?). And I have to say, while I read that book in my East Asian Studies class to understand the role of women in Chinese society, I believe Snow Flower and the Secret Fan would have been SO SO much better for it. This book is beautifully written and painful to read all things considered. But I like how See constantly shows her characters chained in the 'patriarchy chains' and locked within their culture, yet still empowering them within society constraints. Do I make sense? Prob not, but okay.
Anyhow: beautiful writing + amazing book to read about women in China in the 1800s. It includes: feet biding, lao tongs, the role of women within their natural family + husband's family, the Taiping rebellion, etc.
PS: here is my favorite quote: "She was still as ugly as a pig’s genitals”. You are welcome....more
I have to say I actually really enjoyed this book and subjectively I'd rate it higher, but at the same time a few things were sort of conflicting: - BrI have to say I actually really enjoyed this book and subjectively I'd rate it higher, but at the same time a few things were sort of conflicting: - Brutal and graphic to the point it borderlined torture porn. - If you've read The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss, the school part of the story will sound VERY VERY VERY similar and it's annoying. - Rin is the main character. A woman. Every other main/important character in the story is a male (and I liked them a lot, but I lacked a female role model or... something in there?) - Rin's goals and character are a dichotomy and this book was just life slapping at her until she got a grip to do what she actually wants to do? - There's a pattern in which lower ranks are humans and higher ranks are assholes. Just one of these books in which power equals big egos and cruel selfishness.
Otherwise, all the Chinese history references are great: the Imperial examination system, the classics, folklore, the Nanking massacre, the tributary system + the savagery of the barbarians outside of it, etc. The story is also thrilling and packed with surprises and punches, nothing happens the way you think it will....more
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