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Ghost Music by An Yu
“Solitude is tolerable, even enjoyable at times. But when you realise that you’ve given your life to someone, yet you know nothing but his name? That kind of solitude is loneliness. That’s what kills you.” Not having had the best experience with An Yu’s Braised Pork I was intrigued but wary of this second novel…
3.25 stars, Adult, ambiguous protagonist, ambivalent mood, An Yu, atmospheric, Beijing, China, chinese author, cold tone, Contemporary, divorce/separations, dreamlike quality, Dreams, female authors, feverish, Ghost Music, ghosts/spirits, hauntings, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, MAGICAL REALISM, MARRIAGE, melancholy, MEMORY, music, musicians, navel gazing, no plot just vibes, psychological, published in 2023, read in 2022, restrained prose, surreal, weird -
Rouge Street: Three Novellas by Shuang Xuetao
Rouge Street presents its readers with three novellas by Shuang Xuetao which have been translated by Jeremy Tiang who once again has done a stellar job. The prose of these novellas is smooth and engaging, contrasting with the sometimes stark realities experienced by the characters populating these stories. The backdrop to most of these stories…
3 STARS, Adult, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, China, chinese author, collection of short stories, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, intergenerational, MAGICAL REALISM, male authors, My reviews, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, politics, Poverty, published in 2022, read in 2022, reading, Rouge Street, Rouge Street: Three Novellas, short stories, Shuang Xuetao, social issues, surreal, TRANSLATED FICTION -
Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge
Strange Beasts of China certainly delivers on the ‘strange’ suggested by its very title and premise. This novel consists of 9 interconnected chapters, each one presenting us with a self-contained story about a certain type of ‘beast’. Strange Beasts of China reads like a contemporary and unique bestiary in which, through the eyes of our…
1st pov, 3 STARS, Adult, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about writers, China, chinese author, DEATH, FANTASY, female authors, interconnected stories, LITERARY FICTION, MAGICAL REALISM, monsters, My reviews, philosophical, published in 2006, read in 2021, reading, science, SPECULATIVE FICTION, Strange Beasts of China, suicide, TRANSLATED FICTION, unnamed narrator, Yan Ge -
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
“But I have no faith in love. Love cannot save me.I choose vengeance.” Xiran Jay Zhao has written an ambitious debut novel that should definitely appeal to fans of Pacific Rim & The Hunger Games. Iron Widow is likely one of the most creative books that I’ve read this year (which is saying something given…
1st pov, 2 STARS, action, alternate history, arc, battles, bi side characters, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, China, chinese author, chinese inspired setting, DEATH, dystopia, FANTASY, Iron Widow, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ side, m/f/m romance, My reviews, netgalley, Not Like Other Girls, polyamory, reading, RETELLINGS, revenge, SCI-FI, trying and failing @ feminism, violence, weak prose, weak worldbuilding, Xiran Jay Zhao, YOUNG ADULT -
Braised Pork by An Yu
Sparsely written and permeated by a sense of surreality Braised Pork had the potential of being a wonderfully weird tale. Alas, Braised Pork falls short of its premise. I found the story to be painfully slow-going, the main character failed to drew me in, and, ultimately, the novel left me feeling rather unimpressed (in ‘was…
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A Lover’s Discourse by Xiaolu Guo
On paper A Lover’s Discourse is the type of book that I generally like: we have an unmanned who recounts her relationship to her unmanned ‘lover’—a man she addresses as ‘you’. Our narrator met ‘you’ after moving from China to Britain in 2016. Recently orphaned and feeling somewhat alienated by her new environment the protagonist…
1st pov, 2 STARS, A Lover's Discourse, Adult, ALIENATION, AUSTRALIA, Brexit, China, chinese author, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, dialogue heavy, england, existentialism, female authors, Germany, LITERARY FICTION, LONDON, migration/immigration, navel gazing, published in 2020, read in 2020, ROMANCE, unnamed narrator, Xiaolu Guo
luce [is reading] 