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The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura
The Woman in the Purple Skirt is a thing that exists.Did it elicit any particular reactions, feelings, emotions—be positive or negative—from me? Besides a big fat ‘meh’, not really. This short novel never truly delivers on its premise. After reading the summary, I was expecting this to be a psychological tale about voyeurism and obsession,…
1st pov, 2.5 STARS, Adult, ambiguous protagonist, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Contemporary, doubles, female authors, female doubles, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, jealousy, My reviews, MYSTERY, Natsuko Imamura, obsession, Psychological thriller, published in 2019, read in 2021, reading, slow pacing, stalking, SUSPENSE, The Woman in the Purple Skirt, THRILLER, TRANSLATED FICTION, unnamed characters, unreliable narrators, work culture -
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 -
Sula by Toni Morrison
They were solitary little girls whose loneliness was so profound it intoxicated them and sent them stumbling into Technicolored visions that always included a presence, a someone, who, quite like the dreamer, shared the delight of the dream. Toni Morrison’s Sula revolves around the eponymous and fraught character of Sula Peace. Within the novel, Morrison…
1910s, 1920s, 1930S, 1940s, 1960s, 20th century, 4 STARS, addiction, affairs, ALIENATION, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, cheating, CLASSICS, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), distressing reads, family, female authors, female doubles, female friendships, feminism, forgiveness, friendships, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, illness, LITERARY FICTION, madness, modern classics, motherhood, mothers & daughters, My reviews, ohio, published in 1973, RACE, re-reads, read in 2018, read in 2021, reading, self-destructive, SEXUALITY, SMALL TOWN, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, suicide, Sula, terrific prose, TONI MORRISON, tragedy, trauma -
Symptomatic by Danzy Senna
“Every day in this new city I was trying to live in the purity of the present, free from context. Contexts, I knew, were dangerous: Once you put them into the picture, they took over.” As with her latest novel New People, Symptomatic presents its readers with a claustrophobic and disquieting narrative that becomes increasingly…
1990s, 1st pov, 20th century, 4 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, cold tone, colorism, Contemporary, Danzy Senna, dark, domestic thriller, doubles, existentialism, favourite authors, female authors, female doubles, feverish, grotesque, hallucinations, illness, introspective, jealousy, journalism, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, madness, mental health, MYSTERY, NEW YORK, obsession, office, passing, psychological, published in 2004, RACE, re-reads, read in 2021, read in 2022, stalking, surreal, Symptomatic, terrific prose, the body, the female malaise, toxic relationships, unnamed narrator, work culture -
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye is an unflinching and deeply harrowing examination of race, colorism, gender, and trauma. Throughout the course of her narrative Toni Morrison captures with painful lucidity the damage inflicted on a black child by a society that equates whiteness with beauty and goodness, and blackness with ugliness and evil.In her introduction to her…
1940s, 20th century, 4 STARS, abuse, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, Adult, ALIENATION, all of the trigger warnings, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Black & Black heritage authors, child abuse, CHILDHOOD, CLASSICS, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, female authors, female doubles, HISTORICAL FICTION, illness, incest, LITERARY FICTION, MARRIAGE, mental health, modern classics, ohio, Pedophelia, Poverty, psychological, published in 1970, RACE, read in 2020, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SMALL TOWN, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, social issues, terrific prose, The Bluest Eye, TONI MORRISON, tragedy, trauma -
The Door by Magda Szabó — book review
“[I]t was as if Emerence turned on her ghostly heel and put two fingers up at our guilty consciences, and our attempts to approach her. Each time it was as if yet another undisclosed facet of her million secrets glittered before us” One of the most obscurely bizarre books I’ve ever read. Moving between the…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1st pov, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, books about writers, class, female doubles, female friendships, feverish, HISTORICAL FICTION, hungarian author, hungary, identity, introspective, LITERARY FICTION, madness, Magda Szabó, MEMORY, obsession, psychological, published in 1987, READ IN 2019, Religion, secretiveness, SUSPENSE, The Door, toxic relationships, tragedy, TRANSLATED FICTION, unnamed narrator -
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson — book review
“They can’t turn me out or shut me out or laugh at me or hide from me; I won’t go, and Hill House belongs to me.” The first time I read The Haunting of Hill House I felt confused and vaguely underwhelmed. Having loved We Have Always Lived in the Castle, I was expecting a…
1950s, 20th century, 3rd pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, ALIENATION, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, anxiety, atmospheric, Booklr, CLASSICS, creepy setting, distressing reads, favourite authors, female authors, female doubles, feverish, ghosts/spirits, GOTHIC, hallucinations, haunted house, hauntings, Hill House, HORROR, House As Character, loneliness, madness, manor/big house, modern classics, mothers & daughters, obsession, paranoia, psychological, published in 1959, queer undercurrents, re-reads, READ IN 2019, read in 2021, SHIRLEY JACKSON, suicide, SUPERNATURAL, SUSPENSE, terrific prose, the haunting of hill house, tragedy -
Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson — book review
“Dearest dearest darling most important dearest darling Natalie—this is me talking, your own priceless own Natalie.” Alice in Wonderland meets The Bell Jar in Shirley Jackson’s much overlooked Hangsaman.The first time I read this exceedingly perplexing novel I felt confused. Although Hangsaman shares many similarities with Jackson’s more well known novels (yet again we have…
1950s, 20th century, 3rd pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, academia, Adult, ALIENATION, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, atmospheric, campus, cheating, coming of age, dark academia, dark humor, DEPRESSION, female authors, female doubles, feverish, hallucinations, Hangsaman, HISTORICAL FICTION, MAGIC, MARRIAGE, mental health, Natalie Waite, psychological, published in 1951, re-reads, READ IN 2019, read in 2020, read in 2021, SHIRLEY JACKSON, SUSPENSE, tarots, terrific prose, toxic relationships, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, unreliable narrative, witchcraft -
SOLSTICE : BOOK REVIEW
Solstice by Joyce Carol Oates ★★★✰✰ 3.5 stars “I never change, I simply become more myself.” At its core this is a dizzying tale of the fraught and destructive relationship between two solipsistic women. A labyrinthine narrative follows characters that are mired in their own ambivalence. Until her divorce Monica Jensen was quite comfortable in…
1980s, 20th century, 3.5 STARS, ALIENATION, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, bad love, beautiful prose, Contemporary, DEPRESSION, female authors, female doubles, female friendships, friendships, Joyce Carol Oates, LITERARY FICTION, Novel, obsession, psychological, PUBLISHED IN 1985, READ IN 2019, REVIEW, Solstice, SUSPENSE, toxic relationships -
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Even after a third reading I am still surprised by how much this novel resonates with me. A lot readers will start Villette expecting a rehash of Jane Eyre—a novel which I enjoyed but wasn’t particularly taken by—which is a pity given that the narrative of Villette takes its reader through a much more labyrinthine path that the straightforward Bildungsroman…
1840s, 1850s, 19TH CENTURY, 1st pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, boarding/private school, British author, british classics, CHARLOTTE BRONTË, CLASSICS, cold tone, england, existentialism, female authors, female doubles, FRANCE, GENDER, GOTHIC, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, introspective, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Lucy Snowe, MEMORY, philosophical, published in 1853, re-reads, Religion, ROMANCE, travel, unreliable narrators, unrequited love, VICTORIAN, VILLETTE
luce [is reading] 