mari
much more interesting plot and much more motivating characters, but still... ah.
lots more gripes with the writing and usage of korean language this time around. struggle struggle struggle
but again, touched on an important topic with regards to toxicity within the k-pop industry, and while it was resolved in a highly idealistic (and thus unrealistic) way, at least it was talked about.
(also: if your first strat is your “baby”, why are you letting someone play it? why are you still using it? display cases, bro, i recommend them)
while this book had its faults, it featured three things that matter so much to me: 1) queer coming of age 2) discussions centering immigrants/asian-americans vs. the american government 3) san francisco, my lovely little hometown
i was hooked by the setting alone, partially because i'm homesick but also partially because how can you not be romantic about roaming the streets of san francisco (even on a windy day)? but the story pulled me in, with all of its rich layers and the main character, lily, not only having to grapple with being chinese-american during the 1950s, but also being queer and a girl who thinks in equations and the laws of physics. lily's entire existence is “non-traditional” and seeing her confront this throughout the book hit close to home but also felt like a warm hug. 70 years later, it's still kind of scary to be a queer asian girl in america for many reasons, but to see lily (& kath!) persevere was wonderful
i got so properly spooked by this book that my partner had to check the house for me to sleep properly lol
tiffany d. jackson is, in my opinion, the queen of the unsettling. it's a lot less blatant than in some of my other favorite unsettling books (never let me go, etc.) and thus much more scary when the twist is revealed. i am STILL thinking about monday's not coming and allegedly. still! it's been two years!
however, white smoke, which is an outright thriller novel, fell a little short for me in terms of my unfortunately high standards with regards to tiffany d. jackson novels. the eeriness was not as subtle this time around, and the signs of gentrification were a little obvious for my liking but at the same time not nearly explored as much as i would've liked?
i feel really conflicted with the ending and how the book wrapped up, but i still enjoyed the spook nonetheless
couldn't sleep so i finished this lol
yeah i see why people don't like it. lots of holes and stuff that needed explanation but were tossed aside at the mercy of this weird murder mystery. thankfully i was really enjoying myself from the characters and quick pacing alone, so the confusion didn't really hit until the end (or maybe it's the fact that i finished this at 2am hah)
anyway emilia has my whole heart my messy lil pigheaded girly u stay golden emilia
well, i have to say that went better than anticipated.
** MILD SPOILERS AHEAD! please be wary! **
it felt silly at first, especially now being so far removed from my k-pop days (k-pop peaked in 2013-2016 and that's all i'll say) but over the course of the book it became an interesting take on the netizen culture of k-pop and south korea (from an outsider's perspective). sure, it was a tad ridiculous at times, but it does touch on the root of the problem, which is the weird and sometimes harmful parasocial bully culture that transcends from fans to idols when fans aren't being pandered to.
interestingly, they touched on the fact that such scandals hurt women, regardless of status (e.g. idol vs. regular person), much more than men, but the conversation was never extended to female idols, who infamously receive the worst of internet vitriol (rip sulli and goo hara, i miss you both every day). again, not necessarily detrimental, but it stuck out to me.
did not care for the romance at all, and i'm still trying to figure out how i feel about a drummer singing. in the spheres i've been in, drummers are specifically not allowed mics for a reason. no, this is not something that should bother me as much as it is, but it does lmao
might dock this rating more in a minute
i had a lot of issues with the writing, the pacing, characterization, and much more. this book had so much potential to do good YA dark academia but failed to really wow me in any manner.
the representation in this book... doesn't really matter? ok nani is native hawaiian but you mention plumerias and her tūtū calls her mo'o and that's it? same thing with the queer rep, although relationships, sexuality and feelings are addressed which was kind of nice. super pointless tho
the mystery picks up after the halfway mark, and i can't honestly tell you what the point was of a lot of the first half of the book besides establishing that these girls are a grieving their friend's death.
the murder mystery plot was also poor. didn't really make a ton of sense even after the big reveal and villain monologue, and i get that this is the first book in a series setting a precedent for the rest of the books but damn was that lackluster.
overall very disappointing especially given the potential of a dark academia/fairy tales urban fantasy
CRYING SCREAMING THROWING UP
when i tell y'all this is THE book!!! it had me hooked from the start with the well-paced and thought out storyline and the more i began to root for xingyin the more wound up i got with the story. the plot got lost on me at times but i absolutely did not care because i was enjoying myself that much.
there's nothing i didn't love about this book, except maybe that it sets the filial piety bar a little too high, but that's just my trauma talking lol
2 stars is incredibly generous on my part
this book fails to meet the hype of the blurb, is some weird blending of YA age characters with adult fantasy themes, and generally falls flat in all areas outside of characterization (although character building that only really happens in the last 10% of the book is not really character building imo)
i'm so sad because from the premise i wanted to like this so much. but the writing was flat and unsatisfactory in so many ways. i don't know that there's much good i can say about this book outside of its unique concept and a few good lines.
ugh.
i was gonna give this 2 stars, but jihoon.
i think the k-drama comparisons are accurate but that wasn't a good thing for me, seeing as i can barely get through most k-dramas without wanting to tear my hair out. similarly, this book had me wondering, “is there a point to any of this?” for a grand chunk of the book, with little bits of enjoyable moments of jihoon being a goof who flirts with old ladies.
everyone outside of jihoon and yena felt 2-dimensional, which was frustrating with regards to some key side characters. tons of dialogue, but little description of things like reactions or anything else that would've given side characters some life. even during the most climactic scenes, it felt boring.
additionally, not a fan of the whole miscommunication/lack of communication trend in this book. it was incredibly frustrating and it just felt like after by anna todd (wherein hardin and tessa get in a menial argument, walk away angrily, then return two seconds later and schmang). miscommunication/lack of communication would be revealed, one person would scream at another, but none of that mattered because things would resolve unreasonably in less than two pages. y'all???
this book had so much potential and i was let down by the execution. i think some of the plots points and twists were good but, again, were not executed well and the rest of the book really dragged all the good parts down.
no, i hadn't expected to enjoy this as much as i did and yes, i will be continuing with the series
i played the games a little, and watched the tv show in full, so the books are sort of the last leg that i've gotten to in the witcher universe, but by far is it my most favorite. i think it makes up for what the show lacks in terms of dialogue, story, and world-building, and makes up for what the games lack in an even balance of story and action (well, for my taste — i don't like too much action/battle scenes).
i also like the plot of the books much better than the tv show. the major differences between the two made the book more enjoyable, especially with regards to ciri (who i find a bit insufferable in the tv show). i get that the writing style might not suit some tastes, but having the imagery of the witcher tv show it wasn't hard to give settings to places when a majority of the chapter was dialogue.
overall, i quite enjoyed this and i hope i can get my hands on the next book soon!
there's something about this story, its characters, adib khorram's writing and the way it all comes together that just moves me
of course, with any story where a character has depression, i'm always wary of the depiction. but i think darius the great sets the bar/standard for depression depiction, at least for my personal taste, because it so closely reflects what i experience as a queer POC in america who lives with depression. i cried constantly throughout this book not because its content was sad (well, there were a lot of sad things) but because of darius' words and actions, because so often they resonated with me so deeply.
i love darius so so much, and i'm sad that there isn't currently a darius 3 in the works, but you can bet that i'll be on the look out for any announcements for it till the end of tune
this was a cute, fun, silly, goofy time. thankfully i wasn't in the mood to be critical and had the heads-up that it's lighthearted, not serious and very unrealistic so that helped my overall enjoyment
p.s. is it just a universal southeast asian thing? people naming their kids after western celebrities? because i know many a pinoy who suffered the same fate as tom cruise sutopo
STFU I AM FLOORED
was a little skeptical going into this after hearing some reviews but i really love k. ancrum's take on the peter pan “i never want to grow up” story. i felt unnerved from the beginning and when everything unfolded (in a way i could have never predicted) it only got creepier.
quick read but a good pace and incredible plot twist to a classic children's story
well, i was prepared to give this a 1/2 star rating until the very end, when i finally started caring about characters/plot/etc. and now will likely read the sequel... if, like the first book, i find a reasonably priced secondhand paperback copy at a local bookstore
my gripes with the writing remain. the constant stop and start of sentences, sentence fragments, and lack of detail in places i'd like there to be/too much detail in places i didn't want there to be made a great chunk of this book painful to read. additionally, i just could not bring myself to care about most of the characters for most of the book, which, on top of the lack of atmosphere/world-building, made it extra painful.
and yet? here we are with a three star rating because my chismosa ass ate up the last 100 pages. why couldn't the entire book have been like the last 100 pages? all that suffering for 300 pages and for why?