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Liar, Dreamer, Thief by Maria Dong
“Once upon a time, there was a girl with a vivid imagination, one who was not entirely sane. She was afraid of many things that weren’t real, but she didn’t tell anyone. They would’ve sent her far, far away, and she wasn’t ready to go.” Liar, Dreamer, Thief had all of the ingredients to be…
1st pov, 3 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, amateur detective, America, anxiety, cat and mouse, Contemporary, DEATH, female authors, feverish, gay side characters, hallucinations, korean american author, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, Liar Dreamer Thief, loneliness, Maria Dong, mental health, MYSTERY, NEW YORK, obsession, OCD, psychological, published in 2023, read in 2023, she is not feeling good at all, stalking, suicide, SUSPENSE, the female malaise, unreliable narrators, work culture -
Idol, Burning by Rin Usami
“Everything about him was precious. When it came to my oshi, I wanted to offer him everything I had.” Rin Usami’s Idol, Burning gives readers insight into fandom culture and celebrity worship through the lens of Akari, a high-school student whose thoughts are always on Masaki Ueno, her oshi, a former child actor who is…
1st pov, 2.5 STARS, adolescence, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, ANGST, anxiety, boybands, bullying, cold tone, coming of age, Contemporary, DEPRESSION, desire, ennui, entertainment industry, fandom culture, female authors, feverish, HIGH SCHOOL, Idol Burning, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, LITERARY FICTION, musicians, navel gazing, published in 2020, read in 2023, Rin Usami, social media, subject over characters/story, the body, the female malaise, TRANSLATED FICTION -
A Carnivore’s Inquiry by Sabina Murray
“This is what exploration had opened up the door to. Not only widespread slaughter, but the necessary accompaniment of gorging.” Unapologetically solipsistic and deeply manipulative, Katherine, the central character of A Carnivore’s Inquiry, makes for an awful human being and a deeply entertaining narrator. A predecessor to Ottessa Moshfegh and Mona Awad’s protagonists, and many…
1st pov, 2000s, 4 STARS, A Carnivore's Inquiry, A Carnivore's Inquiry by Sabina Murray, Adult, affairs, age gap, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, ambivalent mood, America, ART/CREATIVITY, books about writers, cannibalism, cheating, class, cold tone, colonialism, Contemporary, dark, dark humor, desire, ennui, female authors, feverish, filipino american author, GOTHIC, history, HORROR, introspective, Italy, LITERARY FICTION, literary references, madness, maine, Mexico, modern gothic, MURDER, MYSTERY, navel gazing, NEW YORK, no plot just vibes, otherness, PRIVILEGE, psychological, Psychological thriller, psychopaths, published in 2004, read in 2023, rich people, road trip, Sabina Murray, satire, self-destructive, serial killers, she is dangerous, she is not feeling good at all, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, SUSPENSE, terrific prose, the female malaise, travel, unreliable narrators, violence, womanhood/femininity -
The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy
“I think a lot of people would elect to be dead if they didnt have to die.” By turns, blunt and meandering The Passenger presents its readers with an unsparing tale permeated by existential angst. Cormac McCarthy’s prose is uncompromising: much of the narrative consists of dialogues: rambling conversations, mystifying backwards and forwards, sharp repartees,…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 3rd pov, 4 STARS, addiction, ageing, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, ambivalent mood, America, atmospheric, bad love, bars & restaurants, Cormac McCarthy, dead girls, DEATH, desire, dialogue heavy, endless monologues, existentialism, experimental, feverish, FLORIDA, GRIEF, grit lit, GUILT, hallucinations, hauntings, history, i don’t think happiness is for me, Ibiza, Idaho, incest, introspective, ISLAND, Kafkaesque, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, literary references, Longing, Louisiana, madness, MEMORY, mental health, Mississippi, morality, MYSTERY, nature, New Orleans, no plot just vibes, no quotations marks, obsession, paranoia, philosophical, PSYCHIATRISTS & THERAPISTS, psychological, psychology, published in 2022, read in 2022, road trip, schizophrenia, science, scientists & co, sea, siblings, Southern America, spain, suicide, survival, terrific prose, The Passenger, tragedy, trans side characters, war, western -
Self-Portrait with Ghost: Short Stories by Meng Jin
Sly and surreal Self-Portrait with Ghost makes for a playfully weird and refreshingly inventive collection of short stories. Like most collections, not all of its stories are created equal, as there are a couple, especially the shorter ones last, that are rather forgettable. The most effective stories were the ones that, although characterized by a…
3.25 stars, Adult, ambivalent mood, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, asian american, asian diaspora, belonging, CHILDHOOD, chinese american author, collection of short stories, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, dark humor, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), dreamlike quality, female authors, feverish, first love, ghosts/spirits, girlhood, HIGH SCHOOL, jealousy, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, MAGICAL REALISM, MARRIAGE, Meng Jin, migration/immigration, mothers & daughters, navel gazing, opera/choruses/classical music, playful style, published in 2022, queer, read in 2022, SEXUALITY, short stories, surreal, toxic relationships, unrequited love, weird, womanhood/femininity -
Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada
Having read Hiroko Oyamada’s The Hole and The Factory, I was intrigued by the premise of Weasels in the Attic, which has recently been translated into English. This book is divided into three self-contained episodes centred on the same character. Our narrator’s wife really wants to have children but he seems far less enthused by…
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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 -
Greenland: A Novel by David Santos Donaldson
Greenland is characterized by a mordant, erudite satire that I have come to associate with authors such as Zadie Smith, Deborah Levy, and Edward St. Aubyn. David Santos Donaldson’s insight into academia & creative burnout brought to mind the work of Weike Wang, Elaine Hsieh Chou, David Hoon Kim, and Jo Hamya. Similarly to these…
1910s, 1st pov, 20th century, academia, Adult, ALIENATION, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, belonging, Black & Black heritage authors, bombastic style, books about books, books about writers, Contemporary, contemporary malaise, David Santos Donaldson, egypt, existentialism, experimental, feverish, gay, greenland, Greenland: A Novel, hallucinations, history, identity, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, loneliness, male authors, masculinity, men who do not seem to know how to write women, navel gazing, NEW YORK, obsession, paranoia, philosophical, psychological, published in 2022, queer, RACE, read in 2022, satire, sex, SEXUALITY, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, story within a story, stylised prose, travel, unreliable narrators, weird -
The Arena of the Unwell by Liam Konemann
“At any given moment, I have no idea what’s true about any of us.” The Arena of the Unwell is a gritty and exhilarating exploration of loneliness and longing, obsession and jealousy, queerness and male intimacy. tw: self-harm & suicidal ideation Our narrator is Noah, a 22-year-old gay man who lives in London. He works…
1st pov, 4.25 stars, addiction, Adult, ALIENATION, atmospheric, AUSTRALIAN AUTHOR, bad love, bi side characters, cheating, Contemporary, contemporary malaise, DEPRESSION, england, feverish, gay, gritty realism, grunge vibes, introspective, jealousy, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, Liam Konemann, LONDON, loneliness, Longing, m/m, masculinity, mental health, music, nostalgic reads, obsession, psychological, published in 2022, queer, read in 2022, self-destructive, self-harming, sex, SEXUALITY, strong sense of place, suicide, The Arena of the Unwell, the male malaise, toxic relationships, unreliable narrators -
We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets
We Had to Remove This Post is one of those books that leaves me thinking…well, not much beyond: this is a thing that exists It doesn’t happen all that much but now and again I read books that spectacularly fail to elicit any discernible feeling or emotion in me (beyond ‘meh’). This is ironic given…
1st pov, 2 STARS, Adult, cold tone, Contemporary, dutch author, f/f, female authors, feverish, Hanna Bervoets, HORROR, jealousy, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, morality, Netherlands, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, obsession, office, paranoia, psychological, published in 2021, queer, read in 2022, sapphic, social issues, social media, subject over characters/story, technology, TRANSLATED FICTION, unreliable narrators, violence, We Had to Remove This Post, work culture
luce [is reading] 