jayisreading's reviews
512 reviews

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 7%.
I may or may not revisit this one. I just have no memory of the plot from the previous two novels that I'm struggling to get into this one.
dd's Umbrella by Hwang Jungeun, 황정은

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

This was a bit of an unusual book to read, the main reason for its unusualness being that it’s two novellas that are loosely connected primarily by modern South Korean history and politics (especially with how it takes place around the time the Sewol ferry disaster happened in 2014), but also by grief, both personal and national. In addition to the unusual setup, I found that this was a rather dense book to get through due to its politically charged nature, which I admittedly didn’t anticipate. Much of it is commentary on modern-day South Korea, so much so that it would be helpful for the reader to have some prior knowledge of what happened in the 2010s to really understand the gravity of the situation. It was also interesting to center queerness in this book, as it added a distinct perspective to how these characters were making sense of what was happening around them.

Between the two novellas, I found the second one far more compelling, perhaps because I thought it was clearer and more grounded. The first novella (‘d’) was interesting enough, and I especially appreciated how Hwang explored themes of loss and grief (particularly the personal), but there was something about the way it was written that I struggled a bit. As for the second novella (‘There Is Nothing That Needs to Be Said’), I was intrigued by how Hwang approached themes around resistance and grief (particularly the collective). I liked how she wove in news articles and quotes from various works of literature to craft Soyoung’s distinct way of seeing the world and how they tie to the political unrest happening right outside their door. More than anything, though, I thought the ending was haunting, especially considering what followed after the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye (i.e., the 2022 presidential elections).

I think this is a book I’d like to revisit in the future, because I feel that I didn’t fully appreciate it to the extent that I could have on my first readthrough. There was a lot of information to chew on, especially given the political content. 

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Guillotine: Poems by Eduardo C. Corral

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

This collection is brimming with emotion as it crosses borders (figuratively and literally) to consider the experiences of (im)migration, though other themes are touched on as well, ranging from politics to sexuality. I really enjoyed how Corral fluidly moved between Spanish and English throughout this collection, never once breaking the flow from one line to the next. Something else that struck me about this collection was how Corral played a fair bit with form, which I enjoyed, but it also made his poems a bit more abstract. Lastly, while I realize his long poem, “Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel,” is meant to be the centerpiece of the collection, I actually found myself enjoying his other poems more.

Overall, a meditative collection that has me interested in reading his debut collection, as well as future works. I wouldn’t say that I was floored by these poems, but I did appreciate the language and insights that Corral brought to this world.

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Root Fractures: Poems by Diana Khoi Nguyen

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

A powerful poetry collection, Diana Khoi Nguyen dives into her roots and the fractures that exist in one’s memory and sense of self. Nguyen focuses on the reverberations of trauma, her brother’s suicide, war, and colonization, a lot of it a reflection on how they impacted her and her family, but she also explores the ways in which these themes also affected the Vietnamese diaspora. I think what was particularly powerful about this collection was the interspersed visual media, some of which are entirely in verse. It was especially impactful to see the words fill the cutout spaces in photos, often that empty space being where her brother should be.

As I’m not Vietnamese, there were some aspects of the poems that I did not fully understand, notably whenever Nguyen wrote explicitly in her language (e.g., the first poem of the collection is entirely in Vietnamese). I did ask a Vietnamese friend for some help with getting through this collection, and their insights were incredibly helpful in contextualizing where Nguyen was coming from.

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Pass with Care by Cooper Lee Bombardier

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.
Not sure why, but I'm really struggling with the author's writing style right now. I may revisit this one later.
Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

In this powerful graphic memoir with a unique art style, Tessa Hulls takes a deep dive into the complexities of history, immigration, generational trauma, and healing in her family. I admit that I didn’t expect such a deeply nuanced look into these themes in a graphic memoir, especially with how Hulls weaves together all these complex ideas to show the ramifications of significant turmoil in twentieth-century China on the generations after those who went through said turmoil. I also really appreciated how Hulls takes a close look into how mental illness was approached in her family, as well as its deep ties to trauma and memory. There was a refreshing frankness to this approach that I feel isn’t as widely discussed among the Asian diaspora (though this is definitely changing).

This book also had me thinking a lot about what was passed down to me—one of the first in my family to be born in the United States—and how I had/have to contend with similar disconnects and traumas that Hulls (as well as her mother) went through. Most (if not all) go unspoken, and there’s often a kind of loneliness in having to deal with them on your own. However, finding community makes a world of a difference, as Hulls aptly pointed out when she found her safe space. With all that said, I found myself having to read this book very slowly because there was just a lot of information and thoughts to sit with; I did appreciate every detailed page though. (I will admit that one small criticism I have is that some pages just had too much information, so much that it occasionally made it difficult to make sense of the bigger picture.)

All-in-all, this is a graphic memoir well worth picking up for how informative and reflective it is, and it will especially hit close to home if you also have a similar background as Hulls.

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Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

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dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

I am so grateful that Akbar published such a heartfelt and beautiful book to explore the importance of being earnest (not to steal Oscar Wilde’s title here), in spite of everything that has happened, in spite of the world being the way it is. I am thankful that Akbar created a protagonist like Cyrus, who wears his heart on his sleeve and relentlessly feels the blistering pain of hope. Martyr! is, in many ways, a messy novel. It’s messy in how Cyrus navigates the world and feels everything, the way it oscillates between the past and present, how it plays with different perspectives, and more. I know this novel won’t be for everyone because of its structure and lyrical prose (after all, Akbar is a poet), but I personally thought it all came together really well to show how earnestness means dealing with life’s wonderful and horrible messiness.

I do think it’s worth picking this novel up—regardless of what your reading preference is—to contend with what life and death might mean to you, and what it means to sincerely look for meaning in your aliveness. With that said, I do recommend checking the content warnings, as Akbar dives deep into these themes to get his points across.

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Aster of Ceremonies: poems by Jjjjjerome Ellis

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hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

How does one describe this poetry collection, in which words don’t take their usual form? Jjjjjerome Ellis crafts their poems in a manner that asks the reader to feel the way they navigate the world as a Black stutterer. Ellis tenderly approaches music and language through homages, benedictions, and more. I was particularly taken to “Benediction, Movement 2 (Octave),” which I think exemplifies how Ellis gently yet firmly pushes the reader to dwell in the same time and space as them, showing how they are not in-sync with normative expectations.

I know this won’t work for every reader, but I really appreciated how Ellis cited a number of people throughout this book to acknowledge the influence they had on the poems. It reminds me a fair bit of the importance of citational practices and the importance of honoring shared knowledge, especially among Black thinkers.

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Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang

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dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

This was a great debut novel from Jenny Tinghui Zhang, who takes the reader to the time when the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in the late 1800s and draws attention to a Chinese girl’s arduous journey from being kidnapped in China then smuggled into the United States (first landing in San Francisco then ending up in Idaho). A lot of careful research clearly went into this novel, and I found that it was as informative as it was imaginative; I thought that Zhang found a great balance between providing historical facts while also taking creative liberties to tell a compelling story (particularly in her handling of incorporating Chinese folklore). Furthermore, this novel was by no means an easy read, and the protagonist, Daiyu, suffers quite a bit. I’d highly recommend checking the content warnings for this novel before picking it up, especially considering that Zhang doesn’t shy away from sharing the grim realities of Chinese people during this time period (especially towards the end).

I enjoyed the author’s writing style, which was lyrical but also not to the point that she was dipping into purple prose. (In some ways, the writing style read as more “grounded,” for lack of a better word, than C Pam Zhang’s How Much of These Hills Is Gold, which had a similar setting and was apparently an influence for Jenny Tinghui Zhang.) I did feel that the limited narrative (told from Daiyu’s perspective) made some parts of the novel feel repetitive (especially as Daiyu’s thoughts circle around the same topic), but at the same time, there was something authentic about her perspective as she tried to make sense of the world around her and survive as best as she can.

I don’t think this novel will be for everyone, and I would stay away if you’re not interested in anything heavy and traumatic, but I think it’s worth picking up if you want a close-up of a subject that isn’t as talked about when United States history is brought up.

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The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

Based on the real story of the Dozier School for Boys in Florida during the Jim Crow era, The Nickel Boys was heartbreaking to read, considering the horrors that Black boys faced. Something I really appreciate about Whitehead’s writings is how he shows the lasting reverberations of anti-Blackness in the United States by focusing closely on a specific aspect of the country’s history. Despite the horrors that exist in these pages (and in United States history), I was surprised by the amount of love and resilience that came through. It really made the ending all the more gut-wrenching, especially as you grow a particular fondness for Elwood.

Not that there’s ever a really good headspace to be in when reading such a devastating novel, but I think I could have appreciated this novel more if I had less on my plate while reading it. I felt that I read this in a rush and didn’t get the chance to fully appreciate Whitehead’s efforts. Considering this, I really would like to revisit this novel when I can really put more care into what’s happening.

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