Georgette
This is such a wonderful collection of stories and poetry on what's a dangerously tired subject - retelling of fairy tales. Many stories here seem to take place where the normal world casually overlaps the magical fairy tale world; characters travel between them, if not live in spaces where the workings of both worlds co-exist.
While the fairy tale inspirations are fairly obvious. Theodora Goss often approach it from a different perspective, and very often, it is about girls and women taking charge of their own story instead of waiting for rescue. Some of my favourites include Snow White Learns Witchcraft, Blanchefleur, Seven Shoes, The Other Thea, A Country Called Winter, and Conversations with the Sea Witch.
Not sure what's up with all the women marrying bears though.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley.
I suspect that the most remarkable thing about this collection is the theme and the illustrations. It would make a tidy little volume to gift to someone who doesn't typically read poetry or doesn't have any preferences because it reprints or reproduces work already published elsewhere. If you're a seasoned poetry reader, there's nothing new to find except the beautiful colour block illustrations.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley.
The last time I read this kind of book in a Malaysian context was [b:The Malaysian Book of the Undead 6080375 The Malaysian Book of the Undead Danny Lim https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327196347s/6080375.jpg 6373057]. Both books are encyclopedias of fantastic creatures endemic of our country, so many were immediately familiar to most and possibly even sighted by others.As a book, ‘Creatures of Near Kingdoms' presents itself as one-page entries by Zedeck Siew, accompanied by a woodcut illustration by Sharon Chin. All 75 of them.I read somewhere else that this book spent a long time in the making, and I think it was worth it. The fauna and flora were described in lush prose that leaves you wondering about Haunted Frangipanis and Obligation Worms and Allergy Bunnies. The illustrations lent an old-time-y sense of being back in the old days where collectors and scientists machete their way through the tropics to discover specimens.Most of them start with “Look”, which is a nice hook that connects all the entries together, but also grated on my eye-ear after a while. Not a one-sitting read for this spotter. I eventually left the book in the toilet so I can get a few more pages in, and be away long enough to wonder what else is coming. Feel free to adapt this strategy.Do I recommend this? Heck yeah. It's the kind of book I'd come back to over and over, just to dip in at a random page and see what I find. Hopefully I won't find some other nefarious creature hidden inside the four pages that are mysteriously thicker than others.
Um, no.
Great cover, but the art inside isn't the same. I don't like this particular style of artwork and I won't have requested it if I knew. The dragons seem more European but the setting is Asian. The story had potential but I'm somewhat confused by the lengthy story of what turned out to be a secondary character, or at least, the main character of this first issue. The dialogue and writing needed more work. Not sure if this is a translation issue.
This ARC is courtesy of NetGalley.
I fail to see how this book WON'T appeal to your average bookworm. Debbie Tung is spot-on with every observation about being a book lover ... from the hilarious things we use as a bookmark, to finding out what a book's title was as such. Her line cartoons are accented with monochrome washes, and I'm pretty sure I've seen them floating around before, so grabbing the review ARC was a no-brainer.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley.
Aldo is a 200 year old immortal who has done absolutely nothing with his life, and found the need to attempt a confession to a psychiatrist. As the story languidly unfurls, Aldo spots a man on TV that he knew from the 18th Century and sets off to find him.
This is a case of a graphic novel setting out to be different, and succeeds. The writing was wonderful. The artwork is a huge part of the storytelling and the story came with a twist in the last pages. I'm shook, y'all. This is the best thing I've read this week.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley.
While I make it a point to support local publications, I have low expectations. The running joke is that I have a gift of going to the book shop and finding obscure self-published tomes that haven't been through an editor, buying them anyway and then raging at my friends about how this book could be SO MUCH BETTER if it was given a casual look-see by another person who knew English.Emerging Malaysian Writers 2018 had an army of editors who are accomplished and published writers and poets (well, only one identified as a poet) in their own right. The anthology featured 14 pieces, out of which half are poetry contributed by 5 poets, and the remaining 7 are short stories of various genres (one in Malay).And like most anthologies, there's something for every reader. Here are a few of my somethings:‘Break' by Chloe Lim featured an unusual narrator observing a class of students. The POV made a more interesting story out of what would be a tired plot from the perspective of a cookie cutter narrator. Sukanya Dhanarajan's piece is less of a short story and more of a memoir about ‘A Long Time Ago in Japan'. Nonetheless it was very easy to get into her tale of what it was like moving to a strange country before the Internet made it easier to do things. ‘The Missing Tomb' by Peter Soh slipped between the present and past of a family, with one heck of a climax.Sanjugtha Vineswaran's ‘Sellamah's Home' is probably my favourite of the 14 pieces - a ghost story with a twist at the end.And while I'm not going to review everything (there's one piece that's so short, this paragraph is longer), I was pleasantly surprised by how this is a decent collection put together with care. As expected, I don't love ALL the pieces, but I liked enough of them to recommend this book if you're looking for new Malaysian voices. I did not buy this at a book shop. I was part of the group that crowdfunded this anthology. If you want a copy, you can order one here.
The value of this book to a Malaysian or Asian writer is that Gina Yap Lai Yoong isn't some white author in a faraway white land doing this glamorous writing thing that seems abstract and unrelateable to us.
Gina loves writing, and despite being introverted and having to work harder at public appearances, she is also very determined and resourceful about both getting words down and getting them published.
Fortunately for you and me, she is generous with her knowledge and has put together this book to talk about practical things that you probably haven't thought about (ie your autograph signature should not be the same one you use in your official documents), and some very obvious things that serves as a kick in the pants (ie this book isn't gonna write itself).
A Writer's Journey is an easy-to-read and friendly little tome that will sit in the same category on my shelf as Stephen King's On Writing, because we all love a peek into the writing process and personal life of more accomplished authors.
Disclaimer: Gina is a friend, but she neither asked nor bribed me to write this review.
I wanted to say I found this hard to follow, but that's not necessarily true since I did finish the book. I've not read much fiction or even non-fiction out of this region, so the Inuit names and culture were unusual and eye-opening to me.
I don't know if it's the translation or the style or just the general layout of the ebook, but it feels like reading a half-worked manuscript. This won't be the first time I read a translation of a novel that was wildly popular in its original language, but didn't come off half as well in English.
The story itself was probably what kept me going, but it could have been executed better.
As someone who batch-requests ARCs, I rarely remember what the book is about should it arrive on my Netgalley shelf. So I got sucker-punched once I got past the pretty, dreamy imagery of the first few pages and into the reality of a woman trying to conceive numerous times, and maybe this was the start of a new journey for her and her wife.
Despite not relating on a personal level, Waves was unexpectedly emotional. We learn that the dreamy seascape was an escape from reality, we are taken on a ride as the young couple goes through stages of coping with another loss.
I love the artwork and the use of colour to express the character's stages of grief. I love that someone tackled this difficult topic based on their own experience, and that this centres around a lesbian couple.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley.
Pilu of the Woods is simply adorable. Even if it's aimed at kids, can appreciate how this story was crafted to explore complex feelings of loss and loneliness, and how wanting to help someone in the same position can force us to confront our own “monsters”.
Willow has a fight with her older sister and runs off into the woods with her dog, where they discovers a tree spirit named Pilu crying under a tree for surprisingly similar reasons. As Willow convinced Pilu that she needs to go home, we gradually learn Willow's own sad history and origin of her monsters.
I also loved the nerdy forest facts Willow learned from her father, dispensed like a kid who finds willing ears for the first time but even then there was a limit to how much an audience could take. It came to a nice resolution for the overall theme.
Great artwork and colour palette!
ARC courtesy of NetGalley. #PiluOfTheWoods #NetGalley
I'm low-key mad at this book.
On the one hand, what a great premise! Iskandar Al-Bakri had an interesting take on the Puteri Gunung Ledang legend, and married it to historical figures known in the era and another well known mythology that you won't even associate with old Malaya. I'm so onboard for stuff like this, especially with it's local.
On the other hand, it reads like a simplified history textbook... or as another reviewer mentioned, an info dump. I wasn't sure if I was reading a novel or a fancily-dramatized secondary school history lesson. The so-called main characters didn't even engage until nearly the end of the book. There was far too much “Character used fancy silat move which is called [this] because of [reasons].” Educational, but lost the momentum there.
I think this novel would have benefited from a sharp editor with an ear for historical fantasy. Having said that, I don't hate the book. It's a good example of how you can take something well known and run off in another direction with it.
DNF. Library book and someone else has it on hold. However, being fairly well-versed on the subject of introversion, I???m not learning anything new here. I???ve dealt with most of my introvert problems before I even put a name to it. So while most of what I read reinforced my worldview, I???m letting this go to someone who needs it more.
Penumbra is a nice introduction to the upcoming Darkling Mage series, the troubled Dustin Graves, and the characters who are likely to feature in his new life as a magic-type person.
Dust is a jack-of-all-trades who can't just stick to one thing, so after his murder and “resurrection”, he finds himself shoved into a world that existed alongside the one he was existing in, with powers and a possibility of making something of himself for once in his life. But first, he has to figure his new powers out and learn to work together with some other magic users from a hidden organisation.
This is a one-sitting read that will give you a feel for the writing and story, and also leaves you wondering about -enough- things that we will probably learn more about in upcoming books.
Disclaimer: I am friends with the author and he didn't bribe or threaten me to write this.
To be honest, I've read local poetry anthologies that are so bad, I don't even want to log it on GR.
While ‘Poetrygami' is not terrific, it's not all that terrible either. It's a brief, fluffy, one-sitting read with styles that are popular with insta-poetry fans. There's a few poems that I really liked, and a whole lot more that would have been better if the author had an English language editor go in there and tidy up some of the grammar and typos. Not even an English poetry editor, mind you, just someone with a better grasp of English. There's some potential here to be better, and I'm low-key mad that this looks like a bunch of drafts.
I took a quick look at Nick Adly's blog and his Malay poetry is decent (based on my limited exposure to modern Malay poetry). I suspect Poetrygami might have also suffered from a ‘think in one language, translate to another' issue, where nuances got lost in transit. It's worth a “try again”.
I recovered this book under a pile of junk on my desk and made a push to finish the last two essays. Like most multi-author compilations, there are stories I can relate to and others that I don???t get at all. The last one struck me the most in this post-BN administration. Marvin Wong???s Occupying Spaces is a snapshot of an era we hope to see the last of.
Surprising. A range of voices from women who refused the tudung, embraced it, fought for the right to refuse or embrace it, and a couple of third parties looking in from the side. Like most anthologies, there are hits and misses. As a non-Muslim, the views from both sides were enlightening. A few pretty interesting fictional takes as well!
I gave up.
I tried to read it but about 3 pages in, I realised that I didn't understand any of it. Thinking that maybe I wasn't really focusing, I tried again from the beginning. Still nothing. I'm not a fan of overly flowery metaphor or abstract concepts, so this sits on the other spectrum of nope from the likes of Lang Leav. I've read some of the other reviews and can conclude that I'm just too “dumb” for this kind of poetry. I didn't finish it, mostly because I was putting it off until I feel a little smarter but the copy expired. :P
(ARC courtesy of NetGalley)
I did not know what to expect, having not read a long-form poetry narrative before. But from the start, I was caught in the downward spiral and dragged along for the ride.
Some other reviewers said that Lily Myers captured the mentality of those who develop eating disorders. I don't have personal experience to compare it to, but it seems very realistic - the chain-of-events that led to a need to control one little part of your life is a familiar one.
As a novel told in poetry, there are some beautiful lines in there, some that made me have to stop because the sadness was a little much. At the same time, I also felt that it was simplistic. If this was novel told in prose, there could be more opportunities for character development across the board. However, for a quick read, this works too. Sometimes poetry is a what happens when you distill many words into a few that works just as well.
(ARC courtesy of NetGalley)
It's always fun to read Miao comics online and now in its book forms with additional content that may not necessarily fit the standalone-ish nature of web comics. Much like the first book, Miao aka Jian Goh uses a few pages to allude to some personal stories about growing up that is both a little uncomfortable yet relateable.
But most of the book involve the types of hijinks that cats, eeer, kids get into when they are growing up. While this might be the recollection of Miao and his group of friends, but it's a also childhood shared by many kids growing up in Kuching.
Random trivia: Miao is a cat but reflection on mirrors is a human.
With a cast of characters aka friends all of us hopefully had growing up, part of the fun is the colloquial Kuching lingo. Ling Ling screaming “MAIKU!” at Star Cineplex is one of my favourite scenes in the book. Any time Ling Ling is freaking out at the boys is my favourite scene actually.
PS - Still curious about Weefu's invisible friend.