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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 -
Are You Happy Now by Hanna Jameson
“That this was the trade-off. The price of happiness. In order to feel happy he had to feel everything.” A quietly crushing yet devastatingly tender work scintillating with insight and emotional intelligence. With acuity and empathy Hanna Jameson presents her readers with a captivating narrative chronicling four people’s attempts at happiness despite a looming health…
3rd pov, 4.5 STARS, Adult, adulthood, age gap, ALIENATION, ambivalent mood, America, anxiety, Are You Happy Now, atmospheric, bad love, beautiful prose, belonging, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, British author, contemporary malaise, dancers, DEATH, DEPRESSION, desire, divorce/separations, ennui, female authors, first love, gay, Hanna Jameson, heartbreak/breakups, i don’t think happiness is for me, identity, illness, introspective, it’s about the *yearning*, jealousy, journalism, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, m/m, male friendships, melancholy, mental health, musicians, near future/alternate reality, NEW YORK, pandemic, psychological, published in 2023, queer, read in 2022, restrained prose, right person wrong time, ROMANCE, self-destructive, SEXUALITY, SPECULATIVE FICTION, strong sense of place, suicide, trauma, unrequited love, wedding drama, work culture -
Circa by Devi S. Laskar
Circa had the potential of being an immersive and compelling read. Sadly, the structure and length of the narrative do the story no favors, as the final product ultimately struck me as formulaic in a-MFA-program type of way. Sure, Devi S. Laskar quite effectively utilizes a 2nd pov, which is no easy feat. Beyond this…
1980s, 1990s, 20th century, 2nd pov, 3 STARS, Adult, America, cheating, Circa, cultural dissonance, DEATH, Devi S. Laskar, drama, family, female authors, first love, FRIENDS TO LOVERS, friendships, GRIEF, growing up, identity, indian american author, intergenerational, LITERARY FICTION, MARRIAGE, missing girls, missing persons, North Carolina, published in 2022, read in 2022, snapshots, style over character, stylised prose, will they won't they, youth -
The Dove in the Belly by Jim Grimsley
in The Dove in the Belly, it’s all about the 𝔂𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰 “A moment of happiness could feel almost like a wound.” The Dove in the Belly is a work of startling beauty that presents its readers with a piercing exploration of male intimacy and a mesmerizing study of queer desire that beautifully elaborates the many…
1970s, 20th century, 3rd pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, academia, Adult, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, ANGST, atmospheric, beautiful prose, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, books about books, break-ups, campus, DEATH, desire, drama, family, first love, FRIENDS TO LOVERS, friendships, gay, GRIEF, heartbreak/breakups, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, illness, introspective, it’s about the *yearning*, jealousy, Jim Grimsley, journalism, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, love can be ugly, m/m, masculinity, melancholy, mothers & sons, My reviews, NEW ADULT, North Carolina, obsession, published in 2022, queer, re-reads, read in 2022, read in 2023, reading, ROMANCE, sex, SEXUALITY, Southern America, strong sense of place, The Dove in the Belly, toxic relationships, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, youth -
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
It would be safe to say that I do have a bit of an uneasy relationship with Murakami’s work. I read and was not blown away by it. Over the last couple of months, I have picked up several of his short story collections but never felt compelled to finish them. The main reason why…
1990s, 1st pov, Adult, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Dreams, existentialism, f/f, feverish, first love, Greece, hallucinations, Haruki Murakami, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, male authors, men who do not seem to know how to write women, missing persons, missing women, My reviews, obsession, philosophical, published in 1999, read in 2022, reading, ROMANCE, sapphic, sex, SEXUALITY, Sputnik Sweetheart, story within a story, surreal, teachers, TRANSLATED FICTION, travel, unrequited love -
Either/Or by Elif Batuman
This sequel needs a sequel. “Was this the decisive moment of my life? It felt as if the gap that had dogged me all my days was knitting together before my eyes—so that, from this point on, my life would be as coherent and meaningful as my favorite books. At the same time, I had…
1990s, 1st pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, academia, Adult, adulthood, America, American, arc, ART/CREATIVITY, autumn, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about books, books about writers, cambridge (us), campus, coming of age, Contemporary, contemporary malaise, cultural dissonance, Either/Or, Elif Batuman, existentialism, favourite authors, female authors, first love, friendships, Harvard, identity, introspective, language, LGBTQ+ Author, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, Massachusetts, mumblecore, My reviews, netgalley, nostalgic reads, philosophical, psychological, published in 2022, re-reads, read in 2022, reading, RUSSIA, sex, SEXUALITY, SLICE OF LIFE, spring, strong sense of place, Summer, the female malaise, The Idiot, toxic relationships, travel, Turkey, turkish american author, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, unrequited love, WINTER, womanhood/femininity -
Skim by Mariko Tamaki
Who knew that I would come across something that would make me feel nostalgia for the mid-2000s? Skim is a compelling coming-of-age story that is bound to make you feel nostalgic for the mid-2000s (even if you, like me, didn’t strictly ‘come of age’ in that time). Skim captures the angst, confusion, heartache, and loneliness…
1990s, 4 STARS, age gap, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, canada, coming of age, DEPRESSION, f/f, female artist, female authors, female friendships, first love, friendships, Graphic Novels, HIGH SCHOOL, identity, japanese canadian author, Jillian Tamaki, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, loneliness, Mariko Tamaki, mental health, My reviews, nostalgic reads, occult, queer, re-reads, read in 2022, reading, sapphic, seances, Sequential Art, SEXUALITY, Skim, suicide, tarots, Toronto, unrequited love, YOUNG ADULT -
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 -
The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir
“She had appeared so glorious to me that I had assumed she had everything she wanted. I wanted to cry for her, and for myself.” Superbly written The Inseparables is a novella that pairs an enthralling depiction of female friendship with a razor-sharp commentary on gender and religion This is the kind of work of…
1920s, 1st pov, 4 STARS, academia, Adult, all girls school, ambiguous protagonist, beautiful prose, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, catholicism, CHILDHOOD, Christianity, CLASSICS, coming of age, existentialism, female authors, female friendships, feminism, first love, FRANCE, FRENCH, French author, friendships, GENDER, growing up, introspective, jealousy, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, LITERARY FICTION, modern classics, My reviews, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, obsession, published in 2020, queer, queer undercurrents, read in 2021, reading, Religion, SEXUALITY, Simone de Beauvoir, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, suicide, The Inseparables, TRANSLATED FICTION, unreliable narrators, unrequited love -
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
“Sometimes you are erased before you are given the choice of stating who you are.” Ocean Vuong’s strikingly lyrical debut novel is a work of transient beauty. Within On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous there are many arresting passages that are, quite frankly, beautiful. At times this beauty derives from Vuong’s subject matter, at times it…
1st pov, 2000s, 3.25 stars, abuse, Adult, ALIENATION, America, American, autofiction, beauty, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, boyhood, coming of age, Connecticut, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, existentialism, family, first love, gay, growing up, intergenerational, language, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, lyrical prose, m/m, male authors, migration/immigration, mothers & sons, My reviews, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, POETRY, published in 2019, queer, read in 2021, reading, sex, style over character, trauma, Vietnam, Vietnamese American Author
luce [is reading] 