koolkas

The prose is very to-each-their-own thing because the skill is there but the book was so experimental that some readers might not like it. At some point the narrator even got tired of telling the story and stopped so that's hilarious. The author even managed to predict the vine boom sound (explosion) decades before Vine because that's just how boundary-breaking she is.The plot is very much a poverty critique, which I can understand why this book is so popular - economically middle class readers like the abject horror of a situation they escaped through privilege. As an Indonesian I would liken this to Kumpulan Cerpen Kompas - half of the stories that pass through the curators have a poverty theme. It's a sensitive topic I think and sometimes stories with this theme fail to humanise the characters undergoing it. Same here with Lispector's Hour of the Star, the description of Macabea seems fetishised and her ending was cruel and pointless, it feels like it's written with the intention of perverting poverty into abject entertainment. Macabea is the story's clown, a thin and naive heroine chic type of woman (without the heroine), subject to a strange cruelty devised by the author. But Poverty's cruel! But then what message is brought up here other than cruelty? Is that not exploiting?

But guess what! Clarice is aware of this. On an interview with her son, she mentions being unable to do anything about poverty except write it, because she is a writer. Well, at least she's aware.

“She said, We're like a couple of dogs, you and me. And we'll have to sniff around each other until we're sure of each other. But I love you. And that's a good start. And I'm very glad you're here.”


Ohhhh this book. I'm torn apart and put together again. This book is the epitome of what life is all about. Finished in two days because that's just how good it is.

Perfectly YA - indulgent and tropey. It is not an adult book aside from the a brief explicit scene.

Became muddy and incoherent in the last 4 chapters.

Some parts of this book are worth reading, but some just aren't. The book is too generalizing and very gendered. Men are like this, women are like this. Despite bell hooks openly denouncing “Men are from Mars, Women are in Venus” in the book, this book falls into the same pitfalls of gender essentialism, except that it's “feminist”. The spiritual parts also do not resonate if you are not practicing Abrahamic religions since the last chapter explicitly mentions angels and their connection with love. I also find the first few chapters of the book to be too superficial to me; the messages it exalts are messages I feel too repetitive and obvious. It only became somewhat novel in the last few chapters of the book, but that is my personal opinion. I think there are books about love that could do it better than this, one that contains more practical applications and data (for people like me who loves data) rather than 300 pages of sermon.

Cringe at parts but it's all right. Ending feels unsatisfying and their modern era relationship was less romantic compared to previous reincarnations

One of those books in which I am not the target audience - I was raised in superstitious Southeast Asia and Merricat's little magicks seemed normal enough, and her little antics bothered me little up until she started smashing glass and burning things... and rather than horror I felt nothing much but annoyance.

Menurut saya bukunya ditulis dengan tujuan yang mulia: untuk memberikan ruang untuk queer di Islam. Saya sangat setuju dengan salah satu poin di buku, bahwa bila Islam tidak memberikan ruang, maka satu-satunya pilihan adalah apostasi. Namun, saya tidak yakin tentang target audience penulisan buku ini. Apabila ditulis untuk queer, bukunya kurang membantu memberikan ketenangan karena bukunya terus mengulang poin penting yaitu “Islam harus mengedepankan kebaikan dan kesetaraan”, yang harusnya diterima oleh kelompok Queer, bukan untuk mereka lakukan. Tapi, apabila buku ini ditulis untuk orang-orang yang belum menerima orang Queer di Islam, bukunya tidak menyentuh Queer theory sama sekali sehingga kepada pembaca awan akan merasa buku ini terlalu “memaksa”. Buku ini ditulis untuk ally atau orang orang yang sudah menerima queer di awal, bukan untuk orang yang tidak, atau untuk Queer sendiri. Apalagi mendengar apa yang telah terjadi kepada penulis (ia di bully habis-habisan di internet karena merilis buku ini), orang Queer tidak begitu mudahnya kembali ke Islam setelah membaca buku ini.

Saya sangat menghormati usaha Gus Amar. Namun, masyarakat awam tidak mengetahui (dan tidak ingin mengetahui) bahwa orang Queer memang memiliki perbedaan fisiologis dengan orang cishet. Masih jauh perjalanan penerimaan ketika ego penganut agama dari kebanggaan kepada takwa palsu mereka mengakar begitu dalam. Menurut saya ini usaha yang tidak efektif, walaupun mulia. Pada akhirnya, banyak Queer akan tetap lebih memilih apostasi, dimana mereka tidak perlu mengkaji teori untuk penerimaan dan akan merasakan ketenangan tanpa kesulitan. Agama itu hanya sebaik penganutnya.

It's YA and it's fun... I enjoyed it like I enjoyed a Marvel movie.

Evocative and well written.

Terrifying, do not read - unless you want to.

It's a really well thought out political drama set in a scifi setting and very little romance. I love the political drama aspect of it, but the entire marketing misleading people thinking it would be romance is a shame. Good thing I read the reviews and found out I actually wanted that angle better than a romance angle.

Severance by Ling Ma is one of those books that would either be great for you or terrible for you. The book portrays a non-violent apocalypse in which those affect with fever have their mental faculties collapse and get themselves stuck in the same routine until they succumb to hunger or exhaustion. The narrator, Candace, is a Chinese American immigrant from Fuzhou who is disaffected by everything. She has a feeling of otherness from being separated from her Chinese relatives in Fuzhou and unable to form meaningful friendships, and even her relationship with her boyfriend gets strained from their differing ideals. The book portrays the banality of her life, ordering bibles overseas and doing the bare minimum of socialising.

I find the book resonating - holding a job and being a cog in the system is difficult and draining. She offhandedly mentions the morality of cutting costs by ordering in Chinese factories, and the plague feels like a metaphor for the life-draining situation of continuously working with nothing to particularly look forward to.

Overall the book was enjoyable mostly because of its relatability for the working class - others might find the book too long and boring because of the very low tension plot. There is dread for the characters to develop the plague but otherwise nothing really happens.

The second story was poorly written, the last one was good. It's okay

It's a very “vibes” book. No plot.

It's a very well researched and detailed book. I just don't have any idea what Maria McCann was gunning for. Jacob never pays for his sins and all we see is Jacob's character descending to madness, but to what purpose? It felt like the book was dark for darkness' own sake. It was static in which Jacob's descent was inevitable and Ferris was a male ingenue and Caro was a perfect victim. Reading this book was flagellating, as if the writer derives some inane pleasure from suffering.  

It felt like so many plot lines are left unresolved and the ending felt unfinished. The tonal shifts were also jarring. The civil war seemed like it was setting up a huge plotline in the first half of the story but at the second half they just shrug it off as “time in the army”. The part when they started living in the Commons was so boring because they stuffed it with so many descriptions about farming. It's just not a very exciting section, since their romance was established at that point and there were less at stake as well. So little was happening other than eating rabbits until the threat came up, and even then they proceeded to farm like usual and just waited for help.

I have multiple gripes about the ending. Despite being marketed as a dark romance focusing on Jacob and Ferris, (SPOILER) we have no idea what happened to Ferris in the ending. Jacob never pays for his sins either and travels to New England where he can murder and rape even more. The ring was clever, though. But nothing much else (SPOILER ENDS)

As a book it is not entertaining. One could argue its realism; but I would argue that this book only “dooms” the reader with no worthwhile message to deliver.

A lot of the stories were very Los-Angeles-middle-class-white-suburban. Some are good, some are boring. It's very niche.

Charming and funny. I liked the joke about vegetables.

Awalnya saya kira cerita cinta segitiga, tapi ternyata lebih rumit dari itu. Kisahnya mungkin tidak akan sepahit ini apabila mereka tidak terikat budaya, agama dan rasa bersalah yang kuat. Saya memiliki banyak perasaan saat membaca; sebal dan risih kepada Saul mendominasi. Maklum tokoh utamanya masih menduduki SMA. Banyak pilihan-pilihan meragukan tokoh-tokoh buku ini bisa dimaklumi karena mereka anak-anak SMA. Tetap saja saya sebagai pembaca sebal; betapa teganya Saul mempermainkan hati orang!

Ada beberapa hal yang mengganggu saya, seperti tanda baca yang hilang di beberapa halaman terakhir, tapi saya tidak akan menyalahkan penulis atas keteledoran penyunting. Beberapa orang telah mengutarakan ketidaksukaan mereka tentang bagaimana buku ini memperlakukan Mey; pertama, ia menjadi kedok cinta pasangan lain, lalu ia dihamili, hanya untuk meninggal di akhir cerita. Saya tidak berpendapat yang sama. Di cerita, Mey selalu tegar dan berpendapat kuat. Budaya patriarkis itulah yang merugikan Mey dan yang mungkin ingin dikritik oleh penulis. Tapi walaupun ada beberapa hal di dalam bukunya terasa “mengganggu”, ceritanya cukup oke.

I admit I know next to nothing about Latin American history, so I dived into this book not knowing the multiple references to real historical events. It's very layered and interesting if you look at the studies on the this book after you finish reading, because it gives everything in the book more meaning.

It's a very good book, but for casual readers it might be boring because it's an embellished history lesson. I find history interesting, so this book was alright to me.

This book blew my mind. Sharp dialogue, fast pacing, gratuitous violence. The relationship between Ollie and Bri is a fascinating dynamic, both depressed and mentally ill office workers who feed off each others pain. Opportunity presents and their morbid discussions turn to reality. But this book isn't a gore fantasy; it's about two ill people seeking for quick release, and realising the consequences of succumbing to their thoughts.

This book has all the characteristics of a Tor.com story, turned into a paperback; long, detailed prose, strange worlds inhabited by post-human people, and an overarching plot.

Pretty good book overall.

I like this book but sometimes it gets too british for something set in Russia. Who says “don't be so bloody wet?”

Gross, but kept me reading out of morbid curiosity. By the second chapter I was numbed.

If you are like me and found this book through goodreads, this book is not on Amazon or Kobo or any bookstores. This book is a webnovel and you can get copies of this book here: https://obstinaterixatrix.itch.io/nfsftlots

On to the review: This book is a three star for me. I get the idea and the premise sold me, but the book would really benefit with a good editor. But maybe I'm too harsh for a self published book.

I just felt like the book had enough material to be a longer book (as many have complained that the book is too short) but the issue is that the prose is stunted and hurried. Characters were introduced by name with not much of a description. The palace is big and luxurious, but not much else. The twist in the climax was interesting but the fight scenes were a little stale.

There were scenes where the character just said “...”. No descriptions on their expression or body language. Many of the scenes become guesswork at this point.

I feel like the groundwork needed to make this book genuinely memorable aren't just there. Like it's not a bad book, per se, but its painstakingly normal.