sundaysunshine's reviews
128 reviews

super long chapters and a lot of it was in verse which i unfortunately did not vibe with, definitely on my radar for a second shot in the future perhaps

realising how very religous and sorta kinda ableist it is rereading as an adult, but still a wholesome classic written with such deep love for the alps and nature. it will always be a classic for me 💛

truly did not expect to be as bored and cofused by this book as i was. it's a cool concept and i appreciated Jo Walton's witty ironic writing style but i could not get through this at ALL.

Very interesting topic delivered succintly and in a very witty manner I really enjoyed. Patricia Fara did a great job laying out and explaining the theoretical concepts and historical contexts.

excellent stuff, im going to need seconds and a to go bag please and thank you

RIP (not a spoiler) Lazi, you would have loved the lesbian masterdoc, Your Name Engraved Herein and Casual by Chappell Roan.
In all seriousness, I would need at least three rereads to gather and get down all my thoughts and impressions of this book so I'll narrow it down to three:

1) The emotional mess these characters experience and cause,, omg. I naively thought this would be even a little wholesome but no they were going through it and making their lives so difficult. Tbf I've never been a college student, queer in 1980s Taipei or in love and this did seem a realistic depiction of the moral and emotional conflicts of those experiences but it was definitely personally overwhelming how much abject misery these people were in throughout the book.

2) On the other hand the characters and their relationships definitely felt very honest and real. Their interconnected evolving/devolving approaches to self actualisation, friendships and love definitely resonated. Especially in the second half of the book.

3) The combination of it being translated from such a different language (in terms of sentence structure, literary devices and storytelling styles) along with the absurdist postmodern style of Qiu Miaojin , can be hard to get through if your not prepared for it which I was not.

Overall, a very emotionally confusing intelligent book I'm not sure whether or not I would recommend.
❤️🧡🤍🩷💜

I love how beautifully this book honors the writer's own experience alongside transgender revolutionaries, alive and gone (Rest in Power Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Lorena Borjas and Christine Goodwin) and the transgender culture and community in its entirety.

🏳️‍⚧️💕

Good premise, very interesting story with a cast of characters that were all very individual and interesting. A beautiful ode to Black radicals, artists and radical artists and as an extension to Black queer people as well.
Unfortunately, Bitter's character flaw was one that happened to completely annoy me and I was frustrated with her role and choices made in the story.
Still very intrigued by this world, I haven't read Pet so I guess I'll have to see if I like Jam better.

Overall, the quality of the book is very good but the entire conflict of the last part of the book just felt flimsy which annoyed me (Personally) and pulled the rating down.

🤎🌈