jayisreading's reviews
507 reviews

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Go to review page

challenging reflective medium-paced

3.75

This collection was definitely a mixed bag, with either me enjoying the short story or caring very little about it (if at all). Without a doubt, though, Chiang really knows how to craft a world and situation; even for the short stories I struggled with due to disinterest, I was still impressed with the way he wove everything together. Furthermore, each story posed such interesting questions and challenges to reflect on, whether it be the unreliability of mathematics as we know it, reckoning with the undeniable presence of God and His angels, or reconfiguring one’s reality through language. Perhaps not surprisingly, the gem of this collection is “Story of Your Life,” which may have been one of the best short stories I have read in a long while. (It has certainly incentivized me to finally get around to watching Arrival.) I now understand why it has received as much praise as it has.

To me, the short stories that are worth reading are: “Story of Your Life” (this one is a must, I’d say), “Tower of Babylon,” “Understand,” and possibly “Hell Is the Absence of God.”
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Monsters I Have Been by Kenji C. Liu

Go to review page

challenging reflective medium-paced

4.0

These poems are really going to make you think, especially with how challenging they were. For one, Liu plays a lot with form in different ways. He effortlessly switches between English and Japanese (and not romanized, I should add), Frankensteining existing texts to create new meaning, incorporates half-finished musical notation, and more. In other words, Liu becomes Dr. Frankenstein himself in crafting monstrous poems that come alive with care and ferocity.

Another challenge is understanding Liu’s intentions in these poems. I’m aware of his particular interest in masculinity/ies, the monstrosity of it all, and the ties to other monstrosities such as racism and capitalism (among others). Frankly, I never would have pieced these together from the poems alone, and it was his notes at the end of the collection (titled “The Monstrosity: Notes Towards a Frankenpo”) that made things a lot clearer. (I’d even go so far as to suggest reading these first before the poems themselves.) Even with these notes, though, I found myself struggling a bit to fully grasp how these poems connected to these ideas. With that said, I know one of the reasons for this struggle was due to a lack of familiarity with a few of the referenced texts in this collection.

I’m going to have to revisit this collection again in the future. I’m intrigued by what Liu laid out in so many ways, but I definitely had a tough time making sense of a lot of it.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

Admittedly, the main reason I decided to pick this novel up was because I was so drawn into the cover, which might be one of my favorites this year. However, the reason I really stuck around was because I appreciated that Hur gave attention to a rather dark period of Korean history that isn’t considered as often as, say, the twentieth century. Perhaps because it is a YA novel, Hur doesn’t get into the specific details of the atrocities committed by King Yeonsan, though she doesn’t shy away from frequently mentioning that they happened. It would be difficult not to mention them, considering that it’s his tyrannical reign that served as one of the reasons as to why the plot progressed the way it did—

Regarding plot, the novel was part-political intrigue, part-murder mystery, and part-romance. This is all to say that Hur had all the ingredients to craft the novel version of a historical K-drama, aha. Even some of the dialogue between characters read a bit too much like lines from a K-drama, but I still found myself engrossed. While I did feel that the mystery portion of the novel wasn’t the strongest, I think it synthesized well enough with everything else that it didn’t leave me frustrated. One other small critique I have is that I found the rapid development of the romance a bit unrealistic, but that’s also the cynic in me speaking. Who knows, maybe there are people who fall in love in a similar fashion as Iseul and Prince Daehyun. And, regarding characters, Iseul isn’t a particularly likable protagonist, especially at the start (in a way, she’s something of an anti-heroine), but I thought it worked well for the novel Hur wanted to craft. I could see how Iseul would drive some readers away though.

Overall, I thought the novel was a solid mix of being plot- and character-driven. Hur writes in an engaging way that will keep you reading, especially when the stakes are raised, and you see how the relationship between the two protagonists develop. I’ll have to check her other works out, especially knowing that she has written other works focusing on Korean history.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

2.75

I wouldn’t call myself an aficionado of the science fiction genre, but I have enough of a grasp that I have some expectations. Ashing-Giwa’s The Splinter in the Sky is a welcome standalone novel, in the sense that the genre is always in need of more marginalized voices, especially ones drawing attention to topics such as the consequences of colonialism (a prevalent theme in the genre yet rarely critiqued). That being said, I found that this commentary was far too heavy-handed, to the point that by the time I was a quarter into the novel (not even halfway), I found myself thinking, I get it, can we please get to something new now?

On another note, I always felt that standalone sci-fi novels are especially tricky to write, particularly because of the incredible care that must go into good worldbuilding. This is the author’s one chance to craft a convincing world that won’t be expanded any further, so the stakes are a bit high on this front. Unfortunately, I felt that there was a lot left to be desired in this novel. There were a number of ideas and elements introduced throughout that I found fascinating, but many of them came and went in a blink of an eye, leaving the reader very little time to actually appreciate the universe Ashing-Giwa created.

Relatedly, one would think this must mean the plot was especially interesting to make up for the worldbuilding. While there was political intrigue (and a bit complex, too), I didn’t think it came together as well as it could have, which was in part because of the worldbuilding that was somewhat hastily put together, it seems. The plot was fairly predictable, the characters and their relationships lacked complexity (and, in the protagonist’s case, flaws), and I felt there were one too many deus ex machina moments.

One positive thing I will say about The Splinter in the Sky is that it is a very approachable and straightforward science fiction novel. I know the genre can be daunting for some readers, but Ashing-Giwa’s writing style is an accessible one—even with its flaws—and it could make for a good jumping point into denser novels.

Ultimately, I think this novel could have afforded to have been longer (or even turned into a duology or something) to really flesh out the universe and characters. The pieces were there, but they didn’t come together as well as the author may have thought.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
They Fell Like Stars from the Sky and Other Stories by Sheikha Helawy

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

3.75

This feminist collection features eighteen very short stories that explore how Palestinian Bedouin girls and women navigate societal expectations, especially when facing misogyny. Each story is a brief but powerful glimpse into their lives, with characters standing up for themselves through small acts of rebellion. In addition, many of these characters express a sense of desire and longing for freedom: something more for themselves and for the place they call home. Helawy quietly touches on the Israeli occupation of her homeland, which is inherently part of the experience of contemporary Palestinian Bedouin society, even if it’s not at the foreground. However, at the heart of this collection is to shine a light on the girls and women who share her identity, to uplift their stories, as so few have written about their experiences (including hers).

Regarding personal enjoyment, I admit I wasn’t especially attached to a lot of the stories in this collection, mainly due to how short they were, but there were absolutely a few that had me thinking. I’d be curious to read more of Helawy’s writings, though, should more be translated into English in the future.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
woke up no light: poems by Leila Mottley

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

A bold poetry collection that focuses on being Black in the United States (particularly as a Black woman), Mottley weaves together a story of sorts through her poems that cover a wide range of themes including but not limited to misogynoir, sexuality, police brutality, as well as community. Divided into four sections (“girlhood,” “neighborhood,” “falsehood,” and “womanhood”), Mottley’s experiences as a young Black woman in Oakland, California (and, more broadly, the United States) shine in many of these poems with how earnest she is in each.

Something that struck me about these poems was the near-absence of abstract language in favor of delivering complex ideas concretely and without frills. This isn’t to say that the poems are simplistic, so much as it is to say that Mottley clearly illustrates these complex emotions and lived experiences in a way that I think can be appreciated by a wide audience in every sense of the word, as well as lead to meaningful conversations.

Note: Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a finished copy.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Good Monster by Diannely Antigua

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.25

There’s a particular candor in Antigua’s poems that make it feel as though you’re in an intimate conversation with her and not just reading what she has to say. Antigua lays bare the emotional and mental pain she suffered in this collection, ranging from sexual abuse as a child to religious trauma, while also sharing her disabled experiences with chronic pain and mental illness. There’s no question that this collection is heavy, but it’s a powerful one that reflects a resilience to continue to find love and life in spite of all the negatives.

I was especially taken to the “Diary Entry” poems, which were made up of collaged words from her actual diary entries over the decades. I also appreciated that there was a Spotify playlist for this collection. These particularly personal touches made these poems especially beautiful, even if many were heartbreaking.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Bad Seed: Stories by Gabriel Carle

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

In Carle’s short story collection, they give the reader a glimpse into queer life in Puerto Rico, exploring themes such as growing up and loneliness. I admit that I found some of these stories bleaker than expected (e.g., one story dove deep into the fear of testing positive for HIV), but other stories reflected the care and resilience that existed in queer communities (online and offline). These stories focused on queer young adults making sense of their lives, albeit in a relatively reckless fashion. Sex and drugs were prevalent across these stories, the undercurrents of their frequent appearances reflecting a desire and longing for something more.

For me, this collection was a bit of a mixed bag. There were a few memorable ones, but the others I didn’t care as much for. One thing is for certain, though, that these stories were unflinching, raw, and intimate.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa

Go to review page

emotional hopeful fast-paced

4.0

Most Ardently is an interesting queer take on Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. I admit that I picked this one up without reading the synopsis, so I was only aware that it was Novoa’s own spin on a classic that happened to be queer. It was certainly a surprise to discover that Elizabeth Bennet in this retelling is actually Oliver Bennet, a trans teenage boy. This decision to have a trans protagonist made it that Novoa added another complex layer to the existing discussions about gender dynamics in the original novel. It was interesting to see how Novoa’s queering of Pride & Prejudice impacted the direction of the story, which was simultaneously familiar yet not, as a result of having to attend to what it meant to be queer during the Victorian era. I thought Novoa handled this pretty well without getting too caught up in the details to lose the plot. I did feel that Oliver’s thoughts were a bit repetitive once you’re further in the novel, but this might not bother everyone.

Also, a warning to trans readers: Considering the time period and the protagonist being trans, it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise that transphobia is rampant in this novel. There’s very frequent deadnaming and misgendering, which is critical in the development of the story.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk

Go to review page

challenging informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

4.25

Pamuk takes the reader back to sixteenth-century Istanbul to focus on miniaturists, particularly on the murder of one named Elegant Effendi. While, in essence, the novel is concerned with uncovering who the murderer is, there are a lot of other threads—most, if not all, related to the murder at hand—in this novel that made it far more complex than I expected. There are numerous characters narrating this expansive and complex story, and the reader must piece together these characters’ limited perspectives to figure out who the murderer might be. In addition to this whodunit story, Pamuk writes a sweeping love story between two characters, Black and Shekure. He also draws significant attention to art of this region and time period and its reception. The anxiety around art and religion (and, relatedly, East and West) was particularly interesting to read, especially with how it related to the murder.

I will say that considering the sheer number of moving parts in this novel, it’s very likely that a lot of readers—including myself—will miss a fair amount of details, especially if they’re unfamiliar with the culture and history of this region and time period. I think what made this novel particularly challenging was the literary and philosophical components that were woven in that I was not at all familiar with. Upon further research, though, I discovered how central they were to Pamuk’s crafting of this novel. In addition to multiple moving parts, Pamuk took a very unique approach to structuring his novel, ranging from the many characters narrating the story, stylistic choices in how the story is told, to breaking the fourth wall on a number of occasions to incorporate the reader into the novel. This is all to say that each chapter gives a lot for the reader to puzzle over.

Even if I didn’t fully grasp everything that was happening, I can at least appreciate the incredible time and thought that clearly went into this novel. I was also really taken to Göknar’s beautiful translation, and I can only imagine how much more enchanting it is in the original Turkish. I think this book will work for some readers, even if they don’t have a full grasp of everything, but I can also see how many others will find the prose and structure unwieldy.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings