This is some of the first poetry I’ve sat down and read in my life and now I’m mourning the time lost with years of my life filled with a weird aversiThis is some of the first poetry I’ve sat down and read in my life and now I’m mourning the time lost with years of my life filled with a weird aversion to poetry because this is one of the best things I have ever read. Harjo has such an incredible way of using words to convey such strong emotions. I picked this up on a whim today and sat, reading it aloud to myself, until I finished it. There were multiple times where I had to stop because I was so amazed that I couldn’t find the words to keep reading for a moment. The introduction on Harjo’s connection to horses was such a beautiful way to start this collection as well.
I’m not too well-versed (ha ha) in writing reviews for poetry yet, so I’ll let the collection speak for itself through some of my favorites; maybe after poetry summer I’ll be able to convey my awe with proper words.
Vision The rainbow touched down “somewhere in the Rio Grande,” we said. And saw the light of it from your mother’s house in Isleta. How it curved down between earth and the deepest sky to give us horses of color horses that were within us all of this time but we didn’t see them because we wait for the easiest vision to save us. In Isleta the rainbow was a crack in the universe. We saw the barest of all life that is possible. Bright horses rolled over and over the dusking sky. I heard the thunder of their beating hearts. Their lungs hit air and sang. All the colors of horses formed the rainbow, and formed us watching them.
She Remembers The Future “We are closer than blood,” Noni Daylight tells her. “It isn’t Oklahoma or the tribal blood but something more that we speak.”
(The otherself knows and whispers to herself.)
The air could choke, could Kill, the way it tempts Noni to violence, this morning. But she needs the feel of danger, for life.
She feels the sky tethered to the changing earth, and her skin responds, like a woman to her lover. It could be days, it could be years, White Sands or Tuscon. She asks, “Should I dream you afraid so that you are forced to save yourself?”
Or should you ride colored horses into the cutting edge of the sky to know
that we’re alive we are alive.”
II. Two Horses
I thought the sun breaking through Sangre de Cristo Mountains was enough, and that wild musky scents on my body after long nights of dreaming could unfold me to myself. I thought my dance alone through worlds of odd and eccentric planets that no one else knew would sustain me. I mean I did learn to move after all. and how to recognize voices other than the most familiar. But you must have grown out of a thousand years dreaming just like I could never imagine you. You must have Broke open from another sky to here, because now I see you as a part of the millions of other universes that I thought could never occur in this breathing. And I know you as myself, traveling. In your eyes alone are many colonies of stars and other circling planet motion. And then your fingers, the sweet smell of hair, and your soft, tight belly. My heart is taken by you and these mornings since I am a horse running towards a cracked sky where there are countless dawns breaking simultaneously. There are two moons on the horizon and for you I have broken loose.
What happens when a family secret is revealed and you discover your entire life is a lie? How do you still feel joy for people who loved you? Should yWhat happens when a family secret is revealed and you discover your entire life is a lie? How do you still feel joy for people who loved you? Should you even still love them, or is what they did too great to forgive? How do you even know who you are when your past has been covered up so thoroughly for so long? How do you go on living? And who do you blame and question when the people who were behind this secret are dead? Wilkerson explores these questions in her novella from the Good Intentions Collection as the narrator discovers a jarring secret while she is rummaging through her late mother’s boxes. Deluge focuses on this morally grey area of motherhood in a really interesting way and raises some valid critiques while still portraying that nothing is ever black and white.
“The truth was rarely told in its entirety. The full story of your origins did not spring up clean and cool out of the ground, but gurgled and spat and had to be picked clear of the mud like a stranded crayfish, it’s legs flailing in slow, spindly motion.”
Shoutout to S and their brilliant review for encouraging me to pick up this one as my next read in this collection. With the utilization of second person point-of-view and her incredible prose, Wilkerson makes the reader feel the grief and confusion that the narrator feels in such a vivid way. We are pulled through this confusion and unraveling of the narrator’s life as though we are her, making the emotional effect extra strong. While there is anger, there is mainly sadness and confusion and this sense of lostness as the narrator’s life is upended. Who is she really? Should she love her mother?
“This was how a story could seep into the bones of your identity and into the foundation of your home.”
This topic reminds me a bit of the main subplot in Little Fires Everywhere as it raises hard questions with incredible grey areas about who has the right to do something that they think is helping when it requires hurting an existing family. This book really feels like a gut punch as you feel unmeasurable amounts of betrayal and hurt and have nowhere to put them. Someone else made a decision that impacted you and your family without your consent and now you have to live with the consequences. Now you have to ask questions you’ll never have an answer to and all you can really do is learn to be okay with that.
“Because a person can fail another person and still do right by them.”
Both short stories I’ve read in this collection (this and Mother Country) have been incredibly impactful in different ways and I am eagerly looking forward to continuing with the collection. This was the first Charmaine Wilkerson I’ve read and I really loved her writing style as well and am excited to get to her full length novel soon.
“I wish I had understood what you endured back then, how much you sacrificed. I wish I had learned to reserve judgement. Dear Mama, I begin. Maybe th “I wish I had understood what you endured back then, how much you sacrificed. I wish I had learned to reserve judgement. Dear Mama, I begin. Maybe this way I can reach you at last.”
This short story is a heartbreaking letter to our second-generation Palestinian-American immigrant main character’s estranged mother. Rum does an excellent job showing this war that our main character faces between the expectations that come with growing up in as a second-generation immigrant in a religious, conservative household and her dreams that don’t necessarily align with the lifestyle everyone wants for her.
“What do you mean, all that had been done? I can hear you say now, your voice trembling. You make it sound like you were tortured, like I was some sort of monster. I gave you everything I had, sacrificed my life for you.”
A lot of this letter is about the trauma that came from her upbringing, specifically from her mother, but a lot of it also shows this understanding and forgiveness she feels towards her mother. While she is critical of her mother, she also understands her and recognizes that her mother was killing herself to give her children the best life she thought she could have. Tears were shed as I listened to our main character reminisce on her relationship with her mother and finally find it in her to forgive and understand her while still understanding the trauma that came from her.
“I had ideas about motherhood. Mostly based on my relationship with you. I was afraid I would hurt my little girl, that I wouldn’t be good enough for her. I was afraid she would see all the ugliness you saw in me. But what if I was better? What if I did things differently?”
A major focus of this book is generational trauma, specifically in immigrant families. Rum does a fantastic job portraying the cycle of generational trauma and how hard it is to break that cycle, no matter how hard you try. The glimpses we get of the main character with her daughter are not always pretty. They’re raw and highlight the fears that have been hammered into our main character’s heart. What if she turns out like her mother? What if her mother was right and her daughter hates her? While the end is hopeful, it is not complete, showing the amount of work you have to keep putting in to break that cycle.
“I want to continue, want to shed my guilt and let go of old grievances, want to bridge the miles and years between us. But my flight is boarding now and I have to go.”
I’ve been looking to pick up some of Etaf Rum’s works for a while now, so when I saw this 50 page novella from Amazon’s “Good Intentions” collection I had to grab it. This sad yet hopeful look at motherhood made me increasingly excited to check out Etaf Rum’s full length works and to continue this collection of short stories....more
This is a brutal book. And I mean brutal. It’s a book that makes you stare unblinking into the eyes of the graphic violence of war. As the reader, youThis is a brutal book. And I mean brutal. It’s a book that makes you stare unblinking into the eyes of the graphic violence of war. As the reader, you will want to turn away, have some reprieve from this nightmare, but Diop will not let you look away. He grabs your head and forces you to keep on staring. It’s gruesome, but it’s brilliant. It’s also why this review is a bit short and took so long for me to get to – I was dreading being plummeted back into the nightmares this book holds.
“But before you, Mademba, I was incapable of being a man. I let you curse me, my friend, you, my more-than-brother, as soon as you were dead, I knew, I understood that I should not have abandoned you.”
Plagued with guilt after failing to mercy kill his “more-than-brother”, Mademba Diop, we follow Senegalese Chocolat soldier (aka a tirailleur sénégalais) Alfa Ndiaye as he fights in the trenches for the French army during World War II. During the first half, Ndiaye is plagued with guilt, leading him to do a string of killings that would be considered “barbaric” and “savage” as he continues to lose his grip with reality. The more he does this, the more isolated he becomes from his trench as he is seen as “barbaric” and “savage” (ironically the exact reason that the Chocolat soldiers were recruited). This part of the book is insanely repetitive and written in a way that made me really feel how this traumatic event (and the general trauma of war) was breaking Ndiaye. His paranoia makes him an incredibly unreliable narrator at this time, but there is still enough of him grounded in reality that makes one question the hypocrisy of war.
The second half has more to do with Ndiaye’s past as we are transported back to Senegal and get a better understanding of the climate under colonialization. Part of this section is focused on Ndiaye’s guilt and obsession to “make it up” to Diop, but there is a shift in how that manifests that, while still a bit jarring, was less painful to read about. There’s a lot more insight here into how colonialization negatively impacted Sengal and it makes it incredibly heartbreaking to read. While we see more anger in the first half, this half is focused more on a deep sadness as we are shoved back into reality. Diop really does an incredibly job showing the gritty details and effectively portraying how horrific war and colonization really are in these pages.
Because of the language barrier between the French and West African soldiers, the translators have an incredibly important part to play in the book. French and West African soldiers cannot understand each other with their translator and some things may be lost in translation or told differently because of that. It’s interesting to see the divide in this especially since these people have been conscripted to join the French forces and given many promises that would push them further away from their roots and more into French culture.
“To translate is never simple. To translate is to betray at the borders, it’s to cheat, it’s to trade one sentence for another. To translate is one of the only human activities in which one is required to lie about the details to convey the truth at large. To translate is to risk understanding better than others that the truth about a word is not single, but double, even trouble, quadruple, or quintuple. To translate is to distance oneself from God’s truth, which, as everyone knows or believes, is single.”
This work was brilliantly translated from French by Anna Moschovakis and shows an incredibly important look into Senegalese (and other West African) soldiers fighting for their French colonizers during World War I. It is a hard read, but I would recommend it if you have the stomach for it.
Leap years are magical and unexplainable times. Ricki Wilde, youngest child of Atlanta funeral home owner, has had her path set out for her since she Leap years are magical and unexplainable times. Ricki Wilde, youngest child of Atlanta funeral home owner, has had her path set out for her since she was a child. She has always been one to forgo this plan, so, when she decides to leave Atlanta and head to Harlem to open her own flower shop her family is disappointed, but not surprised. She settles in with her loving benefactor and proclaimed new grandmother, Miss Della, and her new best friend, former child star Tuesday. In the midst of navigating a new city and starting a new business on her own, February 2024 rolls around and weird things start to happen, centering around a strange yet handsome man.
My favorite part of this one was the exploration between the contrast of Harlem in the 1920’s and the gentrified Harlem that exists today. There were a lot of really interesting historical tidbits and commentary on how an overwhelmingly high amount of black people have been pushed out of Harlem. There were also a lot of really fun references to some old black musical icons. I wish we got to see more of it, but it was done really well.
Ezra and Ricki, while seemingly drawn to each other, felt very bland to me. I liked both of them on their own but felt no spark when they were together, which was unfortunate. Take this with a grain of salt as I am a lesbian who hates 99% of the M/F sex scenes that I read about, but the sex scenes were very meh to me. I made it through one of them, then skipped over the second one as I just didn’t want to deal with it. That being said, that could be (probably is) a personal thing.
Here is the thing, this book had a lot of stuff packed into it. So much stuff that it felt like I was reading a long prologue for about 40% of it – which is not something I’m really interested in when I pick up contemporary romance books, or really any books besides high fantasy. This book somehow dragged out yet had some many points that felt incredibly underdeveloped and moved too fast. I firmly believe that this could’ve really shone as a trilogy or at least two separate books. There were so many things I wish could’ve gotten more developed, but there genuinely was no time. A lot of plot points suffered (namely Ezra’s entire past), but so did the romance. The concept of this book really is the textbook definition of insta-love, so I didn’t mind it that much, but man I felt like there was no development or chemistry between Ezra and Ricki. I liked them separately, but it really felt like the only reason they were interested in each other at all was the mysterious pull they felt. The most fleshed out part of this book was Miss Della, Ricki’s elderly landlady, and I adored her and her story (even though I do think she could’ve been more fleshed out). The epilogue was also very sweet and warmed my heart.
While I didn’t particularly enjoy this one, I can see how others will and would still recommend checking it out if it sounds interesting. I think I probably would’ve enjoyed this a lot more if it was a movie.
Audiobook
The narrators, Mela Lee and Preston Butler, did an incredible job with this audiobook. While it wasn’t my favorite audiobook, these are some of my favorite narrators I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. If you’re interested in reading this one, I’d definitely recommend checking out the audiobook.
2.5/5
Thank you Net Galley and Grand Central Publishing for the audio arc. ...more
"What's interesting about animals, my wife explained, is that even though a cat may be a cat, in the end, each individual has its own character."
Th "What's interesting about animals, my wife explained, is that even though a cat may be a cat, in the end, each individual has its own character."
The Guest Cat follows two writers who work from home as freelance editors as their neighbor's cat invites herself into their home. We watch as the cat, Chibi, begins to worm her way into their lives and hearts of this young couple. Takashi Hiraide really does something incredible in making the mundane enchanting. Chibi truly is such a prominent character in this book as we see her perfectly cat like interactions with everything throughout the days and weeks and months.
"I wonder where it all comes from - this need to go to the place where the body has been laid to rest. It's the need to reconfirm how precious someone was and how replaceable, and the desire to reconnect with them on a different plane.
The backdrop of this story is 1989/90 Tokyo, where the cost of living is exponentially increasing and, due to unforeseen circumstances, our main couple has to move out of their rental. We watch as they try their best to find somewhere near this cat that isn't theirs to take, but prices have raised so much that it's impossible to live much of anywhere - let alone nearby. We watch as two stories, one of a cat and her neighbors and the other of the natural areas of the world come to a close as houses are torn down to make room for expensive condominiums.
This is a simple yet poignant book about what it means to love and to lose. It is bittersweet and beautiful....more
Some days I’m just tired. I don’t want to analyze anything; I just want to read something sweet and fluffy and feel joy for a bit. The problem is thatSome days I’m just tired. I don’t want to analyze anything; I just want to read something sweet and fluffy and feel joy for a bit. The problem is that my brain doesn’t have an “off” button. I always have some analysis to give, some comment on a deeper meaning that the creator is trying to say. It makes me incredibly fun and not completely unbearable at parties (or just watching things in a group setting). When I say this book let me turn off my brain and just have fun, that is an incredibly high compliment. Grey does an incredible job at really making this a fluffy romance that I didn’t nitpick or overanalyze. I just sat down and had fun. This was so cute and lovely and I was just smiling the whole time. I really loved every aspect of this book and found it to be such a fun time. I love love and love seeing such a happy and positive relationship at the center of a book.
‘Lots of things made me happy: art, perfectly seasoned rice, bike rides downtown, and now, apparently, making Sage smile because of something silly.’
When Noah and Sage, college rivals and competing artists on Inkmic, are put on the same team as co-head authors for the revival of the Queen Leisah comics, there is bound to be tension, competition, and heads butting. What neither of them expected was to enjoy working with each other and actually want to collaborate with each other after years of both of them not taking help or collaborations from anyone. It’s been lonely on the way to the top and they’re starting to realize that maybe that’s not so sustainable.
The rivals to lovers portion of this moved fast and I think this is a lot fluffier than one may expect with it being labeled as rivals to lovers (which has become a very common problem in publishing). I personally loved that it was fluffier because I loved both Sage and Noah and wanted them to be happy together as soon as possible. The way Sage and Noah treat each other is so beautiful and they are probably one of my favorite couples I’ve ever read? We love couples in their mid-twenties actually having good communication skills and respecting each other.
This is a really cute book and it was aided by my love for both Noah and Sage. Both of them are SIX FOOT TALL (swoon) artists in their late 20’s (and they’re actually mature). Noah is a sweet and positive ray of sunshine who loves romance and is WRITING A COMIC ABOUT LESBIAN MERMAIDS??? I’ve never wanted an fictional story to be real so I could read it as badly as I wish that comic was real. Sage is a bit harder on the exterior, having trouble letting anyone in . She’s all about the black clothes and bike riding and has a bit of trouble understanding social cues. I love her equally as much as Noah and was glad to see that both girls really do have distinct personalities as this was a dual POV book. There are a few sex scenes too (really just one that spans multiple chapters) and, while I’m not the biggest fan of sex scenes and don’t want to discuss it that much, I do want to say that I really loved how Grey layered in consent, asking your partner what they liked, and just listening and communicating in those scenes without it feeling awkward or clunky. When there is such a stigma against doing stuff like that because it’s “not sexy”, it’s really cool to see in romance books.
Sage and Noah really were just the queens of good communication when they started pursuing each other and it was so nice to see. I really loved how a lot of the issues in this book weren’t central to the romance. Instead of having conflict between Sage and Noah, they were two strong and supportive partners who openly communicated and understood each other. They were there for each other and portrayed a really nice and healthy relationship. Their relationship stood strong as other problems swarmed around them.
‘Made it. Simple words, simple concept, except I didn’t understand it, not since walking across the stage during graduation and realizing that in the world of art, I had to give everything to make a simple ripple. The idea of “making it” got more abstract each day.’
With them working together everyday and a new opportunity in the form of an Inkmic there is a lot of room for jealousy and resentment as both of them are trying to reach the top spot. The stress of creating in a way that generates a sustainable income is a source of stress for Noah and Sage. Noah, with her carpal tunnel, continually pushes herself past her physical limits in order to be the very best and “catch up” to Sage. Noah is driven by the thoughts that she just might not be good enough. While Sage got the same job right out of college, Noah had only been doing art on the side until she finally got this job. While Noah was not as relatable to me, I found her to be an incredibly empathetic character. It was painful to watch her continually destroy her body just to gain more notoriety, but I could see why she was doing it and it was heartbreaking.
Sage is hyper independent and cannot ask for help. She’s been stuck in the same place since she graduated and is convinced that she just needs to push herself harder and isolate herself in order to be the best she could, but she’s destroying herself mentally in the process. Sage is the control freak in group projects, the one who has to be in control of everything because she’s so used to other people failing her. I related a lot to Sage, especially watching her push her very cool and supportive coworkers away because she didn’t feel like she deserved to be happy until her work was perfect and she was satisfied (an incredibly depressing way to live).
I really liked seeing how Sage and Noah balance each other out and helped take away some of the stress and pain for each other.
‘our parents were adults in age only.’
Both Sage and Noah have some deep-rooted issues with their families that really shows why they are the way that they are. It’s really interesting to see how their families have shaped them and how with that, and working in a field that is hard to break into, leads both of them into thinking that they don’t really deserve to be happy, they just need to people please and work their asses off without asking for help. A lot of this book really is about two girls allowing themselves to be happy for the first time in their lives and them supporting and helping each other along the way. Sage’s family stuck with me a bit more than Noah’s, likely because the issues with her family were more pressing, but both family storylines were incredibly heart wrenching and realistic.
This is a really cute read that is just such a nice break with a wonderful cast of main and side characters. Check this one out when you’re in a fluffy feel good mood!...more
Well this was more than a little disappointing for me.
I love a good short story collection (arguably more than I love full length novels), but for soWell this was more than a little disappointing for me.
I love a good short story collection (arguably more than I love full length novels), but for some reason this just fell flat. While the writing was fine and the stories had interesting concepts, the themes felt a bit basic and like things I’ve heard a million times before.
"Besides, sometimes it's inevitable for the past to be forgotten, especially if the present is no less horrific."
Minor Detail is a small book broke "Besides, sometimes it's inevitable for the past to be forgotten, especially if the present is no less horrific."
Minor Detail is a small book broken up in two parts. In part I, we see the (true) story of a young Bedouin girl in 1950s Palestine being taken and raped, then murdered by Israeli soldiers. In part II, we follow a Palestinian journalist from Ramallah as she tries to learn more about this woman’s story.
Part I The first part of this book is written in a detached third person voice. It seems like it from the journal entries of the Israeli soldier who found and abused the Bedouin girl. The horrific story of this girl isn't even on this guy's priority list and the disconnected tone makes it all the more haunting as you see how this terrible act is nothing but a minor detail in the lives of these soldiers. I found this first part a little disjointed and very hard to get through, but that was the point. This part is sickening and it’s even more sickening that it was real.
Part II The second part of the book is written in the more personal first person, as we follow a young journalist who grows obsessed with this Bedouin girl's story solely because it happened 25 years before the day she was born. This story hits just as hard as we follow her in present day Palestine and observe all of the obstacles and dangers she faces when she is just trying to get a bit more information on something. We follow our main character as she goes from Ramallah to Tel Aviv and the many struggles she faces before she herself becomes a minor detail.
This book does exactly what it sets out to do perfectly. It is an exemplary example of how reading and writing is resistance. This book can also be read in about a day and I would implore everyone to give it a go. It's a hard read, but it is so important. Despite it's size, this is a book that will stick with me for a long time.
I would highly recommend to anyone based on the contents alone, but the fact that the author has been censured and unable to receive her reward at the Frankfurt Book Fair because of what is going on in Palestine makes it an incredibly important read right now....more
Great for: people wanting to learn in depth about the Nakba of 1948-49, where Israel k*lled/displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. This provGreat for: people wanting to learn in depth about the Nakba of 1948-49, where Israel k*lled/displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. This provides context via before and after the Nakba, but does not go into detail about any other major events.
Israeli historian, Ilan Pappé, tells the story of the Palestinian people who have not had a voice in Western media for so long. It’s not an easy read. He tells the story of terrible terrible atrocities - some of which are still happening - done to Palestinians in order for the country of Israel to exist. While I thought I knew a decent amount, this book - referencing Ben-Gurion’s diaries, military correspondences and reports, and first hand accounts - goes into such detail about the Nakba that it makes you truly angry about how well hidden this event has been. The parallels of what happened then and what is happening now are so important and are really shown here.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine primarily focuses on the Nakba of 1948-1949 where many thousands of Palestinians were massacred and hundreds of thousands were displaced from their homes, which they have never been able to go back to. In addition to the Nakba, Pappé explains how this was allowed to happen and gives a short overview of a few things that happened from 1949-2006 and their implications. While this isn’t an all-inclusive history, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to learn more about what is going on in Palestine, especially the first Nakba.
This starts my reading of books about Palestine and/or by Palestinian authors. I definitely expected my reading for this month to go a little differently, but I cannot focus on anything else and feel the need to educate myself as much as possible....more
“We had become temporary residents of Greater Israel, living on Israel’s sufferance, subject to the most abusive treatment at the hands of its young “We had become temporary residents of Greater Israel, living on Israel’s sufferance, subject to the most abusive treatment at the hands of its young male and female soldiers, controlling the checkpoints, who decided on a whim whether to keep us waiting or to allow us passage. But worse than than all of this was that nagging feeling that our days in Palestine were numbered and one day we were going to be victims of another mass explosion.”
read if: you are interested in stories where nature is at the forefront and if you want to hear about a Palestinian’s firsthand experience in the West Bank between 1978 and 2006.
This book, spanning decades, is beautiful heartbreaking. Told through walks our narrator goes on through the years, we watch as the land of Palestine gets smaller, the natural world gets more developed, and even a simple walk could be a death sentence for a Palestinian living in Ramallah. Seeing how something as mundane as the direction of walks and ability for Raja to traverse through Palestine is heartbreaking as he is able to go less and less far from Ramallah each walk because of soldiers and checkpoints. ...more
3.5/5 This book was actually really cute I just wasn’t the target audience. In that I mean that Hibbert captured a high school romance perfectly and I3.5/5 This book was actually really cute I just wasn’t the target audience. In that I mean that Hibbert captured a high school romance perfectly and I felt like an old lady looking into something I no longer fully understood. Our main characters Brad and Celine were adorable but a little immature (obviously it’s because they’re 17 and Hibbert is capturing being a teenager perfectly, but it was still annoying to read from them at times). Childhood best friends to rivals to friends to lovers??? I love it!! Hibbert’s banter is unmatched as usual and I found myself giggling a lot. The cast of side characters also had me smiling 24/7. Celine is a super relatable emotionally avoidant conspiracy theorist on tiktok and Brad is the popular sports playing bi guy with OCD and some self esteem issues and the conversations that were had were really deep and important especially for high schoolers. I really wish we got more of the camp and felt like everything was a bit rushed. I’d recommend reading her other books over this one. While I loved the romance and the banter, I felt Hibbert’s writing was a little weaker in this compared to her adult books. I am blaming this on it being a YA romance and would still recommend it to people interested! Especially teens....more
Two incredibly important incredibly written essays by Baldwin that explore race relations one hundred years after emancipation. A must read, especiallTwo incredibly important incredibly written essays by Baldwin that explore race relations one hundred years after emancipation. A must read, especially as it is still very relevant to our current political climate 50 years later.
This was inspired by Trevor/Sypha/Alucard in Castlevania and I’m not even a little bit mad because that would be a power throuple (which is what this This was inspired by Trevor/Sypha/Alucard in Castlevania and I’m not even a little bit mad because that would be a power throuple (which is what this throuple is)
In this book, we follow vampire hunter, Remy, who cares a lot about a bunch of stupid people who hate him; Xiaodin, a beautiful deadly vampire with a very unique gift; and Zidan, a handsome noble vampire who always seems to be picking a fight as they work together to try and figure out what is causing a mutation within that vampires.
This book was just FUN. It starts out feeling almost like a regency romance but with vampires and evolves into soo much more. The characters have so many dimensions and the relationships are so beautiful. I especially loved Remy’s quips and Zidan/Remy‘s relationship. The side characters are well fleshed out and there were some twists I didn’t expect. This is exactly what I imagine when I say I want a vampire romance - it really did not disappoint. The only issue I had was that it started to lose my attention during the last 10% (besides all the reveals). It got me back at the end though and I’m so excited for the next book!! If you’re looking for vampires READ THIS!! ...more
delusional k-pop stan travels to korea in attempt to find the retiring k-pop star she is obsessed with so that her dreams about their life together cadelusional k-pop stan travels to korea in attempt to find the retiring k-pop star she is obsessed with so that her dreams about their life together can come true. An interesting weird girl book that has some very valid points....more
“I have lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more it surprises me, and saddens me, how wise the young must become to live in this world.” I “I have lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more it surprises me, and saddens me, how wise the young must become to live in this world.” In a theatre between worlds, you are shown the tale of the destruction of the Moon Throne - a powerful family dynasty who caused extreme pain to pretty much everyone. You follow Jun, beloved son of the First Terror, the heir to the Moon Throne, and Keema, a one armed man who has spent many days working at a gate outside of the city as they work to fulfill the Moon Goddesses last request - that they help her destroy her sons (The Three Terrors) and then lay her to rest in the East so that a new Moon may rise. We see this journey unfold in 3 points of view. First person - during the play, actors stop and tell the thoughts of the civilians, many of whom are suffering the most during this brutal rule. Second person - You are the one who has come to the theatre with the family spear, and you are here to watch the performance with the other shades. During this time you also have flashbacks with your family in your present day, allowing readers to gain knowledge on who you are and how this myth has survived for thousands of years. Third person - this is how we see the story of Keema and Jun unfold. I was pleasantly surprised to see sections with second person pov as it is by far my favorite perspective, even though I very rarely come across it. The way this story weaves in the povs is so unique and wonderfully done, the writing is really such a big part of the plot in this way. “This is a love story to its blade-dented bone.” The relationship between Jun and Keema is such a beautiful and human thing to witness. We see as this mistrustful pair eventually ends up having a true love story, even if it is in the background of the myth. “Why is this my story?” This book is an experience more than anything else as we’re dropped into a story stumbled upon in a theatre in a dream of a man who was told stories by his lola years ago. It’s magical in an all consuming way, reminiscent of a story that belongs to a ghibli movie. It feels like you are reading a myth. I won't say more than that because this is a book you truly have to experience (which is why I’m being so vague with everything in general). It is one of the most immersive books I have ever read and was by far the most beautiful fantasy book I have ever read. This book is truly a masterpiece of this generation and I am so glad I took my sweet time reading it. 4.5/5...more
When the skincare obsessed Mirabelle's mother dies in a tragic accident, she heads from Montreal to California to settle her affairs. What she finds tWhen the skincare obsessed Mirabelle's mother dies in a tragic accident, she heads from Montreal to California to settle her affairs. What she finds there is some magic shoes and a mysterious woman pushing her to follow the path her mother followed before her death. Mirabelle finds her way to the incredibly creepy culty spa that her mother was apart of and is welcomed with open arms. We follow Belle as she moves deeper in this cult, accepting more treatments and becoming more and more flawless as time goes on, but by the end of it she has to ask herself - is beauty worth the cost?
"I'm wearing a dread of liquid gold that burns like the sun. I'm wearing shoes of reddest blood. The mirrors are cracking all around me. The waves are saying, entree, entree."
Rouge tackles the toxicity of the beauty/skincare industry while leaving one just a little bit more confused about Tom Cruise than they were before this book.
Awad tackles the toxicity of a western beauty standard perfectly especially with Belle, who is half Egyptian (like Awad herself). Belle is a self insert for Awad and it works perfectly. You feel the jealousy she feels towards her "perfect" white mother (who also has severe self image issues that she passed down), her struggling with her identity as a mixed girl with a white mother especially in regards to western beauty standards, her neglectful mother who seems to be more obsessed with making it big in Hollywood and her own reflection, and her feelings of animosity towards her father, who she never met yet who still seemingly runs part of her life.
I found this to be significantly less weird than Bunny and All's Well. Where the other books felt like a fever dream, all the odd things in this one felt more purposeful.
"I'm trying to save you, Sunshine. I'm trying in my broken way. I'm holding out my arms. I'm taking the apple you're handing me. I'm looking into your eyes and saying it's the most perfect thing. Even though you're not hearing me."
If you have mommy issues, prepare to be thoroughly destroyed by this book.
While a lot of this book centers around the toxicity of the beauty industry, it also looks into the of a mother-daughter bond. Awad does an incredible job of portraying a tumultuous mother daughter relationship where, although both parties may not understand each other well, they would each do anything for the other. This book shows exactly how precious a mother's love is and how grief manifests when that force disappears.
While this feels like the most personal of Awad's books and the ending left me significantly more emotional than the others, the middle parts got a bit repetitive and fell flat for me. If I could rate the last 100 pages by themselves, this would be a favorite book of all time. Maybe after it sits with me for a little it will become a favorite regardless. ...more
Alice Sun pushes herself harder than humanly possible to exceed in her elite (very expensive) school in Beijing. She is consistently at the top of herAlice Sun pushes herself harder than humanly possible to exceed in her elite (very expensive) school in Beijing. She is consistently at the top of her class and her teachers love her, but her world is about to come crashing down as her parents reveal that they can no longer afford the tuition, even with her scholarship. Dealing with the pressure to be great and the knowledge that she has no control over her life because she is not a billionaire, Alice starts turning invisible at random times. With no one else to turn to, she seeks guidance from her academic rival, Henry Li, and they end up creating an app where students anonymously pay Alice more money than her parents make in a year to blackmail, steal, and destroy information. The stakes get higher and higher as the deadline to pay for next semester gets closer and closer and Alice gets more and more desperate to make the remaining money as fast as possible.
I really enjoyed Alice as a character. She’s an incredibly over-achieving girl and you can really tell her anxieties are in part fueled by the fear that she will fail after everything her parents have sacrificed for her. It’s heartbreaking to see but she really is such a realistic character. You can see how high strung she is especially with how she interacts with her classmates, who she is terrified will find out that she is not as well off as them. I really loved this raw depiction of her relationship with her parents as well.
"I've hated him ever since he sauntered in four years ago, brand-new and practically glowing. By the end of his first day, he'd beat me in our history unit test by a whole two-point-five-marks, and everyone knew his name."
Henry and Alice are a cute show of academic rivals to lovers, where one of them hates the other and the other has been in love with them since they first met. I will still stand by the relationship being very Gold Rush coded (with Henry being the gold rush character and Alice hating him because of how perfect he is), but it goes a lot deeper when you dissect how class and privilege is why only Alice considers them to be rivals – her entire life depends on being the best – while Henry just sees Alice as a smart classmate he has a crush on – his life will not be affected by this change. Henry is also this perfect character in part because of the privileges he has. I really liked Henry as a character, I thought he was sweet and funny. As the book went along, I didn’t really feel any romantic chemistry between them though (which is probably just a me thing). I felt like a lot of their later development was done off page and I really wish we got to see more of it. I will also say that the romance was much more in the background than I expected, so don’t go in expected this to be a straight romance book. The focus of this book is very much on Alice and her struggles, Henry is just a bonus.
The focus of this book really is on disparities in wealth, specifically how people who have a lower income are pushed into doing things they wouldn’t normally consider doing in order to have the same things as rich people. We see as Alice has to grapple with the knowledge that the future she worked towards will be thrown away because her family can no longer afford it unless she uses her powers to do some questionable tasks for her rich classmates. It’s heart wrenching to see especially as she is so smart and hardworking and still can’t move forward because her family isn’t rich. With that being said, there never really was a discussion with Henry and her roommate, Chanel, about their privilege and the weight it carries which I felt was a bit of a missed opportunity. We see Alice struggle so much and seemingly never be able to “win” or be enough, but there is not a deeper discussion of why that is. Nonetheless, I thought the topic was really well done and it was great to see so fleshed out in a young adult book in a boarding school setting.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable read and I’ll definitely be picking up more Ann Liang when I’m in the mood for something a bit lighter in the future.
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