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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 -
Escape Routes by Naomi Ishiguro — book review
Like many collections of short stories Naomi Ishiguro’s Escape Routes is a bit of a mixed bag. The stories collected in Escape Routes are centred around individuals who feel ‘trapped’. Throughout the course of these narratives Ishiguro’s characters seem to undergo some sort of existentialist crisis. Most are mystified by their present and deeply uncertain…
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The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton — book review
“A person’s fortune always changes in the telling of it.” Turns out that reading The Luminaries was a phenomenal waste of my time. Eleanor Catton writes well, and the concept behind her novel had the potential of being interesting, but on the whole The Luminaries seems to be little more than a dull rehash of…
1860s, 19TH CENTURY, 3 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, astrology, big books, bombastic style, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, BOOKWORM, CRIME, drama, Eleanor Catton, female authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, Hokitika, ISLAND, LITERARY FICTION, man booker winner, murder mystery, MYSTERY, mystery puzzle, new zealand, New Zealand author, prostitution, published in 2013, READ IN 2019, REVIEW, sensation fiction, ship, The Luminaries