theliteraryteapot's reviews
291 reviews

I didn't like it but I don't hate it either. The idea sounds interesting though: a young woman who copes with her depression by sleeping it away, for a whole year. I thought the book gave a quite accurate depiction of what a depressive disorder can look like; It's not cute, not an aesthetic, not a personnality trait. It can be messy and ugly. It ruins lives.
I had depression for several years and on some days I could take several naps a day and sleep for about 12 to 15 hours in total in a day. This was due to chronic fatigue as well as the need to escape the thoughts I was dealing with.

Now the thing is, it's so hard to care about the main character. A very privileged rich, white, straight, young woman... Add to that she is rude, especially mean to her only friend, and racist. Am I supposed to care? I really don't. Perhaps the writing can compensate a little, but the story quickly gets boring, annoying and repetitive. 300 pages for this story is a bit long. I also wish I could delete from my brain those flashback sex scenes with her asshole of an ex boyfriend wtf. And I thought the ending was underwhelming.

Audre Lorde is one of my favourite poets. I came across her work through university, through an introduction to academic research class during my Bachelor's degree, as I was studying Black feminism. I later decided to write my first master thesis on sapphic poetry studying again Audre Lorde. I am full of admiration of who this person was. She had such a way with words and was such a strong and inspiring woman. She had a lot to say, she needed to let her anger out while still being hopeful.

I believe her essays are definitely important pieces in feminist theories and movements. With Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde became one of the precursors for the concept of intersectionality. She talks about facing racism within feminist groups, misogyny within Black groups, homophobia within both. For instance, how white women will only focus on their oppression as women while not taking into account social class, age, race and sexual orientation differences.
 Some of her sentences made me reflect on certain things: on the existence of sorority, on how oppressed groups always have to educate the oppressors, on the use of poetry, on the non-constructive discussions within oppressed groups in which "who is poorer than who, who is more Black than who" (kind of like when people on twitter talked about the dangers of those Olympic games of oppressed groups).

Audre Lorde and her work deserve and need to be studied, not only in the USA but in other countries as well. Here are my favourite essays: "Poetry Is Not a Luxury", "Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface", "Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference" and "Learning from the 60's".

I liked it but not as much as I thought I would. It's important to tell these stories and if it helps even just one person then the job is done, as the author said in the epilogue. Also it's young adult and the writing is very accessible. Be aware that there are many trigger warnings as the book tells about the traumas the author went through; trauma after trauma after trauma. So I can't say it's a pleasant read, it's sad and depressing. But this story matters and deserves to be heard.

I'll only add that I read a French translation and the French publishing house really need to do a better job because this translation lacked professionalism: missing words, weird sentences that seemed to be translated from google translate or deepl, lack of proof-reading and corrections from the editor... So annoying and preventing from enjoying reading the book. Also, not sure who the translator is but since there are frequent use of slurs, maybe go for an ownvoice translation? (something that I talked about with a publisher last year and how it was important, so that means /some/ publishers in French-speaking countries can and make the effort).

Oh I loved this one.

A Phở Love Story was such a sweet and light-hearted rom-com and it was exactly what I needed these days. I appreciated Loan Le's simplicity in her writing. Not too descriptive, not too much dialogue. It felt honest. The author also succeeded in combining a cute romance between two teenagers while also focusing on the heavy trauma weighting on the shoulders of two families.

I always love characters who find a passion in an art form. Linh reminded me of Jude from I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson. It feels like you, as the reader, is also immersed in the character's passion. To be honest, I've missed caring and loving a fictional character, it hasn't happened in a while. On the other hand, the two narrative voices kind of felt the same, apart from the main characters different interests. I sometimes forgot which point of vue I was reading.

This book feels like Loan Le wrote an open love letter to Vietnamese culture, to her family, to her community and yes to the food.