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The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
“It seemed to me that in this confluence of cultures, we had acquired one another’s superstitions without necessarily any of their comforts.” A few years back I read and was positutely grossed out by Yangsze Choo’s The Night Tiger as I found its male love interest to be both a perv & bully. Thankfully, Yangsze…
1890s, 19TH CENTURY, 1st pov, Adult, adventure, afterlife, chinese myths, class, colonialism, dead boys, DEMONS, DRAGONS, drama, FANTASY, female authors, FOLKLORE, ghosts/spirits, girls hating girls, HISTORICAL FICTION, love triangle, Malaysia, Malaysian author, myths, PARANORMAL, published in 2013, read in 2022, ROMANCE, spirit realm, SUPERNATURAL, The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo -
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined. If you’ve read my review for A Little Life you know how much that novel means to me. Just looking at my hardback copy makes me feel all sorts of intense feelings. So, naturally, my expectations were high for To Paradise. At first, the Cloud Atlas-esque…
1890s, 1990s, 19TH CENTURY, 3 STARS, Adult, age gap, alternate history, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, arc, beautiful prose, big books, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, cheating, chronic pain, class, cultural dissonance, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), dystopia, f/f side, family, fathers & sons, favourite authors, female authors, gay, hawaii, illness, interconnected stories, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, Longing, m/m, MARRIAGE, mental health, My reviews, netgalley, pandemic, PRIVILEGE, published in 2022, queer, read in 2021, reading, social issues, SPECULATIVE FICTION, style over character, to paradise -
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“But in the places where it isn’t faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design.” First published in 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper is a disquieting short story that has become a seminal piece of…
1880s, 1890s, 19TH CENTURY, 4 STARS, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, CLASSICS, doctors, epistolary, female authors, feverish, GOTHIC, hallucinations, HISTORICAL FICTION, illness, madness, mental health, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, published in 1892, read in 2020, short stories, The Yellow Wallpaper, VICTORIAN, victorian madness -
Olivia by Dorothy Strachey — book review
“And so that was what love led to. To wound and be wounded. ” Set in a French finishing school Dorothy Strachey’s Olivia tells the story of a schoolgirl’s infatuation with her headmistress. Narrated by its titular character, Olivia perfectly evokes adolescent love. Olivia becomes enamoured with Mlle. Julie, and experiences an awakening of sorts.…
1890s, 19TH CENTURY, 1st pov, academia, age gap, all girls school, beautiful prose, beauty, boarding/private school, British author, british classics, CLASSICS, Dorothy Strachey, england, f/f, female authors, first love, FRANCE, HISTORICAL FICTION, introspective, it’s about the *yearning*, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, light reads, Longing, modern classics, Olivia, published in 1949, queer, re-reads, read in 2020, read in 2021, ROMANCE, sapphic, SEXUALITY, teachers, unrequited love -
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee — book review
“Their words comforted me on many a lonely night and made me feel like part of a family. ” The Downstairs Girl is a compelling and poignant novel that follows seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan, a Chinese American living in 1890s Atlanta. The story explores the way in which Jo, alongside other Chinese Americans, are virtually unseen…
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The Oracle of Cumae by Melissa Hardy — book review
“I listened as Sibylla told me for the third or fourth or fifth time, about something that happened to her a thousand years ago and that might have been funny then, but, clearly, you had to have been there.” The Oracle of Cumae is a humorous tale that might appeal to readers who enjoyed Neil…
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The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz — book review
For the most part The House of Silk was an entertaining read. Horowitz captures the essence of the dynamic between Sherlock Holmes and Watson so that readers will find his portrayal of these two famous characters to be all too familiar. As per usual Horowitz also cleverly combines more than one mystery together, throwing in…
1890s, 19TH CENTURY, 1st pov, 3.25 stars, abuse, Adult, Anthony Horowitz, BOOK REVIEW, British author, CRIME, DETECTIVE, england, HISTORICAL FICTION, HOLMES AND WATSON, LONDON, male authors, murder mystery, mystery puzzle, private investigator, published in 2011, READ IN 2019, RETELLINGS, sherlock holmes, sherlockiana, the house of silk, VICTORIAN, whodunnit
luce [is reading] 