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Daughters of the New Year by E.M. Tran
Xuan and her children never talked about this dance. They did it over and over again, playing their parts faithfully and acting as though the other had not transgressed. While I appreciate the conceit of Daughters of the New Year, its execution did not win me over. The summary may be somewhat at fault, as…
1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2.5 STARS, 20th century, Adult, asian american, asian diaspora, astrology, beauty contest, belonging, bullying, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, Daughters of the New Year, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), drama, E.M. Tran, f/f side, family, female authors, generational trauma, HISTORICAL FICTION, history, intergenerational, interwoven narratives, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+ side, MEMORY, migration/immigration, Mississippi, motherhood, mothers & daughters, New Orleans, OCD, polyphonic, published in 2022, queer side characters, read in 2022, reality shows, SISTERS, snapshots, Southern America, trauma, Vietnam, Vietnamese American Author, womanhood/femininity -
Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto
Tokyo Express presents its readers with an intriguing set-up that is somewhat let-down by the story giving away too much too soon. The premise made me think that this would be a whodunnit with some noir undertones, but it soon became apparent that the mystery driving the narrative was more of the whydunnit variety. There…
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Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan
Midnight at Malabar House presents its readers with a fairly promising start to a new sleuthing series. As you may or may not know I am a big fan of whodunnits and golden detective fiction and ever since finishing Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries I have been on the lookout for a historical mystery with a…
1940s, 1950s, 20th century, 3.25 stars, 3rd pov, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, British author, colonialism, CRIME, DETECTIVE, HISTORICAL FICTION, India, male authors, Midnight at Malabar House, MURDER, My reviews, MYSTERY, police investigation, published in 2020, read in 2022, reading, Vaseem Khan, whodunnit -
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
“‘How do you feel?’ ‘All right.’ But I didn’t. I felt terrible.” I feel incredibly conflicted over Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. On the one hand, I found it to be an ingenious and striking read, one that immortalizes in exacting detail a young woman’s slow descent into psychosis and offers a piercing commentary on…
1950s, 1st pov, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, ASYLUM, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about writers, BOSTON, CLASSICS, DEPRESSION, doctors, ennui, female authors, feminism, feverish, HISTORICAL FICTION, HOSPITAL, introspective, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Massachusetts, MEMORY, mental health, modern classics, NEW YORK, paranoia, problematic, PSYCHIATRISTS & THERAPISTS, psychological, published in 1963, read in 2021, reading, self-destructive, self-harming, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, suicide, sylvia plath, terrific prose, The Bell Jar, unreliable narrators -
Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy
Sweet Days of Discipline is a slim dagger of a novel. Written in a prose so sharp it will cut you, Sweet Days of Discipline is a work of startling and enigmatic beauty, a study in contradictions: order and chaos, sublimity and abjection, clarity and obfuscation, illusion and reality. Fleur Jaeggy is in absolute command…
1950s, 1st pov, 20th century, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, academia, Adult, all girls school, ambiguous protagonist, atmospheric, beauty, bildungsroman, boarding/private school, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, CLASSICS, cold tone, dark academia, Dreams, existentialism, favourite authors, female authors, first love, Fleur Jaeggy, girlhood, HISTORICAL FICTION, Italian classics, Italy, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, melancholy, modern classics, My reviews, nostalgic reads, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, obsession, psychological, published in 1989, queer, re-reads, read in 2018, read in 2021, reading, sapphic, SEXUALITY, Sweet Days of Discipline, swiss italian author, Switzerland, terrific prose, unnamed narrator, unreliable narrators, unrequited love -
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
If I was feeling in a generous mood I could say that A Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro’s debut novel, proves just how much Ishiguro has matured as an author. If I had to be completely honest, however, I would say that I am fairly mystified by A Pale View of Hills. How can…
1950s, 1980s, 1st pov, 2 STARS, 20th century, Adult, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, British Japanese author, cold tone, england, favourite authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, intergenerational, japan, Kazuo Ishiguro, LITERARY FICTION, male authors, MEMORY, mothers & daughters, My reviews, published in 1982, read in 2021, reading, suicide, weak prose -
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima
This is the second work that I’ve read by Yukio Mishima and I’m afraid to say that, unlike Star, I found an unappealing read. I was expecting the story to focus on Noboru Kuroda and the gang of boys he hangs out with but most of the narrative is dedicated to the romantic & sexual…
1950s, 1960s, 2 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, ALIENATION, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, CLASSICS, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, japanese classics, LGBTQ+ Author, male authors, My reviews, published in 1963, read in 2021, reading, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, TRANSLATED FICTION, violence, Yukio Mishima -
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
In the last few weeks I’ve read two works by Oyeyemi (Peaces and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours) and what I liked most about them was how funny, inventive, and unapologetically queer they were. So, naturally, I was somewhat surprised and saddened to discover that Boy, Snow, Bird lacks any of those qualities.…
1950s, 1960s, 1st pov, 2 STARS, 20th century, abuse, Adult, America, American, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, doubles, evil stepmother, FAIRY TALES, FANTASY, female authors, female doubles, Helen Oyeyemi, HISTORICAL FICTION, jealousy, lgbtq+ side, Massachusetts, mothers & daughters, My reviews, NEW YORK, nigerian british author, problematic, published in 2013, RACE, read in 2021, reading, RETELLINGS, SISTERS, surreal, trans side characters -
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
Compared to Ishiguro’s other works An Artist of the Floating World is somewhat slight, both in terms of characterisation and plot. As with other novels by Ishiguro we have a narrator reminiscing about their past, attention is paid to the act of recollecting, and the unreliability of one’s memory. Set in post-World War II Japan…
1940s, 1950s, 1st pov, 20th century, 3 STARS, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, British Japanese author, favourite authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, japan, Kazuo Ishiguro, LITERARY FICTION, male authors, MEMORY, morality, My reviews, published in 1986, read in 2021, reading, unreliable narrators, WWII -
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
That I choose to re-read this confirms that I do indeed have masochistic tendencies. “I did not want him to know me. I did not want anyone to know me.” In a striking prose, James Baldwin unfurls a disquieting tale of cowardice and self-deception. In many ways, Giovanni’s Room reads as a confession of sorts,…
1950s, 4 STARS, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, american classics, beautiful prose, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, CLASSICS, existentialism, favourite authors, forgiveness, FRANCE, gay, Giovanni's Room, GUILT, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, introspective, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, m/m, male authors, masculinity, modern classics, My reviews, Paris, psychological, published in 1956, queer, re-reads, read in 2016, read in 2021, reading, ROMANCE, SEXUALITY, terrific prose, tragedy
luce [is reading] 