Starting off February with a 5 star read and new favorite!! 

Each essay looks at a different part of de Rozario’s life and experiences. The essays mostly look at complicated mother-daughter relationships, fatphobia, homophobia, racism/colorism and life in general in Singapore.

Beautiful poetic writing! I highlighted many quotes within the first 50 pages. Sometimes she uses horror movies or dystopian shows as connections to her own views of Singapore or her childhood which I found unique and interesting for a memoir! 

She also looked at how horror movies reflect society (for example strained mother daughter relationships in Carrie, lack of bodily autonomy in The Exorcist, familial tragedy/trauma in The Shining vs Doctor Sleep). It was also interesting to learn about ghost stories in different Asian countries and history or significance of certain cultural traditions in Singapore. I especially enjoyed the look at Japanese/Thai/Korean horror films and how the stories could connect to folklore or have new meanings inside the cultural context of the countries!

As much as I learned about the author’s upbringing and being queer in Singapore, I also a lot about the country in general! I didn’t know much about this country before but reading the author’s experiences and sharing some of its history, I feel much more knowledgeable about the island.

Overall a poetic and informative memoir split into essays. I highly recommend if you enjoy horror movies, reflective writing that makes you think, want to learn more about Singapore, or just looking for a queer memoir to pick up! But be warned there’s a lot of trigger warnings for this one, mostly moderate in depiction 

Rep: Brown/mixed race lesbian author (Indian, Sri Lankan, Japanese, Portuguese, Irish, English)