I have read 1,201 books, and I have written 1,001 reviews in some form, and I have written 827 full reviews, and today I'm going to do something I've I have read 1,201 books, and I have written 1,001 reviews in some form, and I have written 827 full reviews, and today I'm going to do something I've never done before:
I'm going to reuse one.
Take this review (which I wrote an hour ago) and count it toward this one, too.
Except I liked this one a touch and a tad more. So use that as a lens when you read it.
Bottom line: I am in shambles!
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if i finish this book today, i'll have read a book for every day of the month.
let's DO THIS.
update: I FEEL LIKE THE NERD CHAMPION.
review to come / 3.5 stars
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
Hello. Give me one moment...looking for my soapbox so I can take a big ol step onto that bad boy.
Got it. Okay.
Ahem.
Stories like Nicole Chung's are soHello. Give me one moment...looking for my soapbox so I can take a big ol step onto that bad boy.
Got it. Okay.
Ahem.
Stories like Nicole Chung's are so goddamn important.
I grew up in a majority-white community where many of the Asian people I knew were adopted by white families. As we got older, I witnessed friends of mine struggle and reckon with growing up severed from their birth culture, mostly by well-intentioned and loving families who either didn't try to help their children connect with that aspect of themselves or did so only cartoonishly with very little research.
The point is we have so many stories of ADOPTERS, as selfless, adoring, generous saints - when actually they just are people who want a kid for whatever reason. That kid shouldn't be made to feel grateful for that action. They're just kids who deserve as much as any other kid, including the right to criticize their parents.
Greetings, parallel dimension. Hello, population of an almost identical but ever so slightly eerie and incorrect existence. To the uncanny valley: salGreetings, parallel dimension. Hello, population of an almost identical but ever so slightly eerie and incorrect existence. To the uncanny valley: salutations.
This book is so persistently and unrelentingly off, so inexplicable in its emotional choices or lack thereof, that I have no choice but to believe I have been struck by lightning / tripped by a cosmic entity / caught up in some light rom-com style time travel and no longer exist in the dimension I formerly knew and tolerated.
This is so goddamn weird.
Let’s get into it.
THING I DISLIKED NUMBER ONE: Lame romantic plotlines.
Why is this a love triangle, first of all? Why bother going to the trouble of making our dear protagonist have a crush on the guy that her parents chose for her, only to say oh wait actually never mind? Why make that guy like her back for 0.2 seconds, only to get over the heartbreak and have a brand spankin’ new GF faster than you can say “wait what’s happening does anyone actually feel anything I’m so confused help.”
But more importantly, why make her ditch that objectively more interesting guy for a BORING SNOOZEFEST QUARTERBACK? Especially one who had interacted with her about as frequently and with as much enthusiasm before the start of this book as I interact with my neighbors? (Very little and only when absolutely forced.)
But not to worry: He inexplicably has a huge crush on her almost as soon as this starts, even though he has very recently broken up with his girlfriend of a million years and any non-robotic entity would probably need to take, oh, I don’t know, 1-2 business hours to get over that before purchasing a one-way ticket to poundtown with the next crush via highly flirtatious swim lessons.
But again: this is the emotionless dimension.
Anyway. Why do we have to care about this bozo? Everyone has a crush on the popular boy in high school and then he never talks to them but if he did it’d be revealed what a dumb crush choice he was. Do better.
THING I DISLIKED NUMBER TWO: Coverage of...domestic terrorism?
For most of this book (if not all of it - I honestly don’t remember), the perspective between our normal, fun-loving, boy-enjoying high school girl alternates with the perspective of...an Unknown Terrorist.
At first, you are meant to believe that this is the kind of terrorist that all American news media assumes terrorists are - i.e., from the Middle East, radicalized, Muslim, and so on - rather than the kind of terrorist it usually is - a white dude with a gun who hates Black people / brown people / gay people / women / etc.
It turns out to be the second kind, but either way, including the point of view of this flat and stereotypical terrorist character is so pointless.
Islamophobia coverage is so important but this felt relegated to the side.
THING I DISLIKED NUMBER THREE: Boys, college decisions, and being the victim of a hate crime, in order of importance.
Enough said, baby! There’s more weight placed on a crush and on college decisions than there is on racism and Islamophobia and it just feels strange!!! Very much “it’s okay that I was physically assaulted and the victim of multiple hate crimes but what about NYU???”
This is not to say that Muslim teens can’t also have normal teen problems, but to not flesh out the full emotions of something so horrible seems to defeat the purpose of even including it.
THING I DISLIKED NUMBER FOUR: Please take me back to my home dimension, where things make sense and people feel things.
The lack of emotional depth in the relationships (see Thing 1 - not to be confused with the creepy Dr. Seuss gremlin) is mirrored in our view of our protagonist (who constantly says she doesn’t understand what’s happening, what she’s doing, or what she’s feeling).
It makes everything feel cheap and silly, and I will be blaming this lack of connection for the fact that I cannot remember anyone’s name. And not my own dumbness.
Thank you and goodnight.
IN CONCLUSION This book was well-intentioned, and it’s important that we have stories like it, so I’m two starring it and not one starring it even though it filled me with rage and confusion (my two least favorite emotions).
But including such important topics and relegating them to emotional footnotes is...damaging. You feel me?
Bottom line: Thank you, universe, for returning me to my home dimension with normal emotional impacts, presumably in exchange for this review.
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i take that back. i found this neither lighthearted nor heartbreaking.
review to come / 2ish stars
------------ tbr review
obsessed with picking up books i think are lighthearted only to find that they are completely heartbreaking
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
In an ideal world, I would not be writing this review without fulfilling the pho craving that I have had ever since I picked this book up, but consideIn an ideal world, I would not be writing this review without fulfilling the pho craving that I have had ever since I picked this book up, but considering I'm coming to you live from 12:40 pm in the suburbs, that is a feat I cannot pull off.
Never forget the sacrifices I make to bring you mediocre book reviews.
Speaking of: This book was fine.
I never know how to write middle of the line book reviews. Everyone has been cursed with the knowledge of how prepared I am to write rants (hello, character-limit-hitting one star reviews, how are you doing), and I at least get to enjoy the fun of sharing good books when I write four star reviews (or five star ones, when there's a full moon and an eclipse and a meteor shower and humidity is at exactly 54% and so on), but three stars?
Who knows.
This was just okay, for me. The characters were all right. Their arcs were acceptable. The food descriptions were excellent, obviously, but otherwise I have been reading so many YA contemporaries lately with the exact same I Need To Figure Out What I Want To Do With My Life But I Know For Sure It Isn't That Thing My Parents Insist I Do plotline lately, and this one...well, it's not a standout.
Again, excluding those food descriptions.
Bottom line: I am so hungry. This can apply both to my still as yet unfulfilled pho situation, or the number of dissatisfying contemporaries I have read in this, the season of contemporaries. Pick your poison.
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well. can't say i didn't warn myself.
review to come / 3 stars
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honestly so brave of me to read this book knowing it will cause a weeks-long debilitating pho craving.
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
My metaphorical gag reflex is very sensitive. (No comment on my literal gag reflex, you pervs.) (Okay I am sorThe truth is that I am easily disturbed.
My metaphorical gag reflex is very sensitive. (No comment on my literal gag reflex, you pervs.) (Okay I am sorry about the sex joke in the second line of a review but also at the same time if you can't handle me at my PG-13 you cannot handle this book for even a singular second, so. Consider yourself warned.)
I get grossed out by almost anything. Ottessa Moshfegh books (even though I read her whole backlist). People fake puking on TV. Bad smells.
This book thereby threatened to be my cause of death.
It has basically the same themes as Convenience Store Woman: An oddball woman is shirked by society for her refusal to blend in to the "factory" by achieving gainful employment, getting married, and poppin' out babies. Great theme. Convenience Store Woman was an awesome read for me, both in accomplishing this and in how it did it.
This book has exactly the same theme (already kind of lame) and achieves it through nightmarish circumstances.
This needs trigger warnings for incest, sexual assault, pedophilia, graphic violence, bullying, child abuse (both emotional and physical), cannibalism, and probably more things I am forgetting because I have spent the two weeks since I read this trying to repress it.
All of this would feel gratuitous and unnecessary even if I didn't know the author could carry across the same themes as effectively (or even more so) without including any of it.
But I do know that. So.
Bottom line: I'm sorry but ICK!!!
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i feel like i just fought this book and the book won.
review to come / 2 stars?????
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this book's cover: i am adorable!! i am sweet and nice!!! little toy hedgehog!
this book's contents: i am darkness. i am the void. i am your worst nightmares put together alongside things you could never even imagine....more
I don't know about you, but I read middle grade in order to be jealous of children.
I wish my library had books like this one growing up, instead of 80I don't know about you, but I read middle grade in order to be jealous of children.
I wish my library had books like this one growing up, instead of 800 musty books from the 1980s nobody's ever heard of with the plasticky jackets all scratched up and falling off.
That's like. A slight exaggeration. But still.
I am no longer the target audience of books like this one (obviously), but I still like reading them and yearning for what could have been.
I mean, I do not want to actually be 10 years old right now. In this climate. But I do love to complain.
This was kind of meh at some points for me, but that is obvious, is what I'm saying. I'm 23 years old. But telling stories like this one is rad as hell.
Sorry I swore in a review of a kids' book. But that's the bottom line.
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pretty sure if i don't like this book i'll be excommunicated.
fortunately i like it fine.
review to come / 3 stars
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
They always feel like a total of 46 words long, and my reviews always feel like approximately 10,000, so wriI never know how to review graphic novels.
They always feel like a total of 46 words long, and my reviews always feel like approximately 10,000, so writing much of anything seems silly and self-indulgent.
So I'm just going to say I liked this very much and move along.
Bottom line: I should do this every time!!
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now i extra can't believe i hadn't read a graphic novel yet.
this took me like half an hour to read AND it was excellent.
review to come / 4 stars
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i've read literary fiction, historical fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, contemporaries, romances, essays, chick lit, classics, and children's books this month.
which is a long-winded way of saying i can't believe i haven't read a graphic novel yet.
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
Do you ever start a book a lot of people hated and you're like I don't get it! This is good! And then slowly, increasingly, over the course of hundredDo you ever start a book a lot of people hated and you're like I don't get it! This is good! And then slowly, increasingly, over the course of hundreds of pages, it's like..."oh. I understand."
Is that relatable?
That's me and this book.
Just hundreds of pages of this:
[image]
This started out, well, fine. Normal contemporary. Maybe nothing to write home about but a-okay. But then...
CASUAL RACISM FROM OUR PROTAGONIST THAT IS NEVER REALLY ADDRESSED.
CASUAL RACISM FROM THE PEOPLE AROUND HER THAT DEFINITELY IS NOT.
CHEATING. FROM ALL SIDES. FROM MULTIPLE PEOPLE. OVER AND OVER.
Plus, like. Insta-friendships and insta-love and insta-resolutions.
And no fun whatsoever.
Bottom line: I am a dog inside an on-fire apartment. But also, I have a cool little hat.
1.5ish
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if i go longer than a few days without reading a young adult contemporary in the summertime, i cease to exist.
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
There are people who look like us, sound like us, walk like us, presumably appreciate the cinematic stylings of AmerThere are aliens walking among us.
There are people who look like us, sound like us, walk like us, presumably appreciate the cinematic stylings of America's Sweetheart Jennifer Garner like us...
But their brains are nothing like ours.
Their minds work entirely differently, synthesizing the same data and experiences us lowly humans have into completely creative and unique worldviews that lead to masterpiece-level works of art. Like, I am hearing that that perpetually present 24/7 crowd in front of the Mona Lisa has dispersed.
Because these aliens, in this totally valid and not at all insane-sounding hypothesis, create books like this one.
Everyone on earth, from my favorite bookstore to people in my comments to real-life acquaintances to the literal city in which I reside, recommended this book. And they were right.
This is one of a kind crazy brilliant and you should just read it so I can shut up.
Bottom line: Read this book. In exchange I promise I won't write reviews when I'm fresh out of therapy anymore.
I just...don't know how you take a book with a plotline as interesting and creepy and unique as this one and turn it into an unrelenting snoozefest, pI just...don't know how you take a book with a plotline as interesting and creepy and unique as this one and turn it into an unrelenting snoozefest, party of one.
When I hear "the best novel of the decade," I expect brilliance.
When I hear "now a major motion picture starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, and Keira Knightley," I expect excitement.
When I hear "millions of copies sold, presumably, based on the number of Goodreads ratings there are," I expect memorable characters or writing or storytelling or SOMETHING.
But I got nothing.
I've put off writing this review for a month, which is kind of but not super unusual for me admittedly, because I do not remember a thing about it.
And not really because I have forgotten the whole thing, but more because...well, what's to remember?
Bottom line: If anyone is looking for a nice little one way getaway to snoozeville, I have the book for you!
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yes, the ending of this made me sad, but at the same time and in a much more pressing way this is maybe one of the most boring books i've ever read.
review to come / 2ish stars
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i will read: 1) every book that is called the best of the decade 2) every book that was then adapted into a movie starring carey mulligan OR keira knightley OR andrew garfield that i can watch.
so basically i'm reading this 4 times over....more
The fact that I enjoyed this is going to make me a demonstrably worse person.
I have been trying to get better lately about reading books I think I'll The fact that I enjoyed this is going to make me a demonstrably worse person.
I have been trying to get better lately about reading books I think I'll like. This may seem like, you know, the most obvious reminder on the planet to most people, but to me it is a constant battle between reading what's popular/been sent to me by the publisher/readable in 45 minutes versus stuff that is actually up my alley.
The first one is constantly winning.
So lately, when I don't like a book by an author, I try to prevent myself from the inclination to read, you know...other books by that author.
Again, this might seem like basic common sense to the lot of you, but you're talking to (reading of) the girl who read every book by John Green out of pure stubbornness. So.
Anyway. For a long time I staved off my very mild desire to read this book, because I did not like The Kiss Quotient and I'm not stupid. Or rather I am stupid but I'm forcing myself through idiot rehab.
But then I was reading all books by Asian authors in May...and I wanted to read a romcom...and my library had this available...and I gave in.
And I - liked it?
Don't get me wrong: It was not, like, very good for me. It was more of a sex-based romance than I like, and all of the conflicts between the love interests were solved by outsiders which was weird, and I feel like I didn't catch when the Falling In Love bits actually happened.
But it was fun. I enjoyed myself.
Bottom line: I'm officially incorrigible!!!
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okay. this was not NOT fun.
review to come / 3 stars
------------ currently reading updates
i did not like the kiss quotient, but if i am two things, those things are brave and stupid.
so i will be reading this.
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
Not sure how much thoughtful analysis and critique you really want from a 23 year old on this award-winning This is very cute. And fun. And also nice.
Not sure how much thoughtful analysis and critique you really want from a 23 year old on this award-winning and beloved children's book, which was in no way made for me.
I am very jealous of the middle grade readers of today, because instead of my reading at the age of nine consisting of desperately trying to sneak into the young adult section of the library (which was on another floor and involved covertly passing not one but TWO information desks) without being kindly and firmly redirected by the children's librarian (Ms. Lori, I see now that you were on the right side, but then I viewed you as a military spy views the opposition), it could have been filled with stories like these, with solid but not overly didactic morals and diverse casts and stories I wouldn't have heard otherwise.
Instead, this white kid in the suburbs read a lot about other white kids in the suburbs.
We all live with regrets.
Bottom line: Good stuff! I should not be reviewing this.
3.5 stars
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i am exclusively reading this because the cover is so cute i could explode.
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
I am obsessed with feeling intelligent. That's why every year before this one I forced myself to read at least onePretentiousness is my resting state.
I am obsessed with feeling intelligent. That's why every year before this one I forced myself to read at least one classic a month (including years where basically every other book I read was a young adult contemporary romance, and therefore the copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream I read in the waiting room of the dentist's office before getting my wisdom teeth removed looked very out of place). It's why this year, my most read genre is literary fiction by a factor of, like, 12. It's why now that I read very little YA, I feel I have a reputation to uphold and I'm never going back.
And it's why I almost always like books like this one.
Who am I to go against the National Book Award? Little old me against the canon itself? I don't think so. I'm not that powerful even when my god complex is rearing its magnificent head.
So normally, when there's a book that won a prestigious award, I am GOING to like that book. Caving to peer pressure erryday.
But this one...no.
It was deeply unpleasant to read, making me feel anxious and overwhelmed at every other page. I was fully absorbed into this world of fourteen year olds, and then when decades suddenly passed and the fourteen year olds were older but equally exhausting, no background character development having occurred, I was no longer absorbed but just annoyed.
This was very difficult and it was difficult for nothing. Nothing changes in this whole book, and not in a way that intends to show us something, I think. The lack of difference and the sudden shifts and the confusing quote-unquote twist that was supposed to be present but I couldn't even locate on the page...maybe if I were feeling generous, I'd say it was all intended to show that the types of power dynamics and sexual and romantic trysts that occur in this book never change no matter how old we get, or how powerful, or where we go or don't.
But I'm not feeling generous. I'm feeling annoyed.
So I'm going to say this was a whole wad of pointlessness and move on.
Bottom line: Reading this book felt like being under a down comforter in the middle of summer! Overbearing and uncomfortable and just unnecessary.
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i get it now.
review & rating to come
------------------- tbr review
not sure how a book can both win the National Book Award and have a 3.14 average rating but i'm excited to find out.
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
I am anti-smile, anti-joy, anti-positivity. The end part of the nightly news where they try to tell a nice sA fun fact about me is that I'm the worst.
I am anti-smile, anti-joy, anti-positivity. The end part of the nightly news where they try to tell a nice story rarely gets more than a "wow late-stage capitalism is depressing" from me. I never watch animal videos on the internet and in fact hate movies about animals whether they talk or not. I cannot watch children's content because it's too sweet.
And stories like this one don't really work for me.
I go back and forth on Fredrik Backman's work for the same reason. Kindness? Happiness? Stories where the result is that everyone's great and life is great and we should all be nicer to each other?
They're not for me.
I like stories with endings like that, but only sometimes. I'm too much of a pessimist to be predisposed to believe it. I need to be convinced.
This did not really convince me.
Bottom line: If you're not a gremlin, read this! Fellow grinches, stay away.
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i would recommend this book to fans of Fredrik Backman.
i do not know how i feel about Fredrik Backman.
review to come / 2.5 stars
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who doesn't like an unlikely friendship?! dogs and cats. baby animals and other baby animals. the man who works at a pancake shop and the old lady who makes sweet bean paste in this book. they're all winners.
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
This is a book that is so good that I can pinpoint the one specific flaw.
There is one thing that prevents this from Sheer Perfection Status and it is This is a book that is so good that I can pinpoint the one specific flaw.
There is one thing that prevents this from Sheer Perfection Status and it is two sentences long.
It's just a weird bit where this (male) author has his (female) protagonist think about how gross women are. Which rings a bit Misogynistic, considering the circumstances.
But otherwise this is a gorgeous masterpiece from top to bottom. Poetic writing, lovely observations, a very real main character despite being very short.
I love books like this one!
Bottom line: More like this please.
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speechless.
review to come / 4.5 stars maybe 5
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call a book a groundbreaking literary classic and i'm going to read it...more
seems like we as a society should probably talk more about the fact that we imprisoned everyone of a certain race not even a century ago.
this book migseems like we as a society should probably talk more about the fact that we imprisoned everyone of a certain race not even a century ago.
this book might be a good place to start.
i have a hard time enjoying books like this, where there are about 92 main characters, because i can only generously like 1 character per book (and that's on a good day) plus i get confused, but...
i see the purpose of doing that here. because jesus christ we took away the innocence of thousands of children and the livelihoods of thousands of adults and somehow both for thousands of adolescents. so how could you spend a book just telling one story like that, when there are so many?
bottom line: important reading. i wish i had this at 15.
3.5
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
It's true that I am CAPABLE of loving things. Sometimes I enjoy stuff. My average rating for this year mIt's possible that I am fundamentally a hater.
It's true that I am CAPABLE of loving things. Sometimes I enjoy stuff. My average rating for this year might turn out to be a touch over 3, which would at least kind of imply that I'm more inclined to like books than hate them.
But maybe my natural inclination is to detest.
Regardless, I did not like this book.
It has three totally separate plotlines (as in, one after the other like acts of a play), and not even one of them worked for me. While that may seem like a point toward me being a hater, I must inform you that not one but TWO of them include some form of instalove, so this entire book manages to be instalove-infused, like it's a themed party or a flavored frosting.
This unfortunate three-act system also contributes to the fact that this book rivals the Bible for sheer length and repetition. The lack of tissue paper pages is the only saving grace. (Does that count as a pun?)
And in the final link in the if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie-style series of connected reasons I did not like this, the voice is so goddamn exhausting.
In conclusion: three unlikable plotlines leads to a really long book which leads to burnout from how annoying the voice is over so much time.
The end.
Bottom line: Not for me! But what is.
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i'm a sucker for a title with a pun. who isn't? monsters, probably.
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
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