i love a good joke as much as the next person. it's just that 300 pages is a really long amount of timeyou never know when you might need that advice.
i love a good joke as much as the next person. it's just that 300 pages is a really long amount of time to spend telling one.
that's my issue with satire a lot of the time — i've encountered very few that wouldn't be better as a short story, or an essay, or at least a novella. it takes a disproportionate amount of depth and deeply considered relatively minor choices to pull off.
this did have a lot of funny moments, and a lot of deeply considered moments, but not enough to pull us through a fairly weak plot, or occasional mixed-media chapters, or unmemorable characters.
bottom line: a cannonball walks into a bar...[insert 299 more pages]
no one can say i haven't tried to like historical fiction.
but it turns out that's not the same as actually liking it.
this is just not my type of book,no one can say i haven't tried to like historical fiction.
but it turns out that's not the same as actually liking it.
this is just not my type of book, sorry. (i guess unsurprising, since i didn't pick it — it was for a substack post in which i let you guys choose my reads.)
sweeping dramas tend to frustrate me. i don't even understand why the crush two teenagers had on each other had the staying power it takes to last 70 years, let alone why these two had to dedicate their lives to making not only themselves but everyone around them miserable over it.
sorry but...we have agency. pick up a pen. send a text.
i know i'm being cavalier, but i struggled with the way emotions are conveyed in this book, and that is a core issue. two unrelated characters have the exact same reaction to parallel situations, for example. we are told, "he was sad," for another, more often than we are shown sadness.
there are things i liked about this — the things i learned about this history, and about, randomly, perfume (even if both were through info-dumps) — but they weren't what i would have needed to fall in love with it.
and the ending killed any chance of that anyway.
bottom line: i could not have tried harder to like this book i would have never read by my own choosing....more
someone in the comments told me that this book is best read in a day or two. unfortunately i was reading 6 other books at the time, as is my wont as an unhinged person, but.
they were right, and i did read it in three.
these characters, hard to like and complex, interested me right away, as did this breathlessly close writing and suffocating plot. but it wasn't until i got two-thirds of the way through (and on the third day) that i found myself unable to put this book down.
this manages to be that rare thing of an excellent, tight story and thematic riches.
that does mean its first half drags, lulling its reader, but it's a trade i'll take.
(update: it's clear to me now from 12% in that this is eve babitz and joan didion fis this a sequel to the eve babitz book?
(this is such a dumb joke.)
(update: it's clear to me now from 12% in that this is eve babitz and joan didion fanfiction, so i'd like to edit my claim. this is a smart joke.)
(update to the update: ultimately that would be its downfall.)
this is roughly as soapy and overwritten and obsessive as the self-insert justin bieber love stories i used to read on wattpad when i was 13, not to mention about as morally sound.
in fact, it's a less forgivable didion and babitz, yes-anding the very worst tabloid rumors that haunted each of these women without even the great research to distract from it.
it's just fictional enough to be boring while being so close to the source material it can't be ignored. the characters are based on stereotypical views of their real life counterparts just enough that the eventual denouements make no sense. the story is well-tread to the extent of being predictable without feeling real. in every way a lose/lose.
not to mention it does that bizarre thing Heavily Inspired books sometimes do, when they realize halfway through that they're too similar to what they're drawing from and throw a name in to try to throw you off the scent. it didn't work for me when rainbow rowell mentioned the original in between chapters of her version of harry potter and it won't work when this author compares her fictional jim morrison to the real deal.
i came across this book 3 times, and each time i told myself it does not sound like my cup of tea. and then the 4th time i picked it up anyway.
i probai came across this book 3 times, and each time i told myself it does not sound like my cup of tea. and then the 4th time i picked it up anyway.
i probably shouldn't have.
the History aspect of this was cool, but i think this would have been better as a young adult book.
if that were the case, i wouldn't have had to read these tough sex scenes, and the romance would have been glossed over, and the focus could have been more on the empowering nature of a female journalist in the 19th century, and i may have been able to ignore the lack of full characterization here.
in other words it would've solved all my problems.
i liked this at first, but after a while emilia's belief that she's always right got on my nerves. i felt bad for her mom, who has been through a lot more than emilia has and yet still has to deal with her condescendingly forgiving the villains of her life on her behalf. i hated reading about her stupid biological dad, when her stepdad is perfect. and i was most irritated of all by the unnecessary, sudden romance thrown in.
it is hard to reckon with the fact that the country i live in has committed such horrible acts against so many innocent people, and this book didn't mit is hard to reckon with the fact that the country i live in has committed such horrible acts against so many innocent people, and this book didn't make it any easier.
we follow a truly bad person, a neglectful father/son/husband, a cheater, a greedy jerk who commits whatever act he thinks will get him ahead and feels regret only when mistakes cost his ambition (without care for lives). he never changes — not really growing any worse, but certainly not getting better. things just happen to him and he's himself.
in other words it's exactly who you think would be behind civilian-harming drone strikes.
it's a good sign when my only complaint about a short book is wishing it was longer.
this is a spare novel in both writing and page count, and it left it's a good sign when my only complaint about a short book is wishing it was longer.
this is a spare novel in both writing and page count, and it left me wanting MORE. i came to love these characters, or at least care about them, even as they were hurting each other and making life-changing mistakes and giving up and seeming unfeeling while feeling so much.
the two stories it tells, separated by 40 years, carry that as their through-line.
that, and a sobering reminder that things, especially cruelties, that feel very far from us, in time and in distance and in thought, can be troublingly close.
bottom line: timely and substantive and NOT ENOUGH!
it is truly unfortunate that everyone on earth is mad at me for the half-hearted joke i made about the cover of this book, because i liked it so much.it is truly unfortunate that everyone on earth is mad at me for the half-hearted joke i made about the cover of this book, because i liked it so much.
while i love generational family sagas, i usually prefer that they follow time linearly — there's something about alternating perspectives that just grinds my gears.
but this worked perfectly. i loved reading about ebby and her parents, and their ancestors, and everyone in between, and their feelings were real and disparate enough that i never struggled to place myself.
the only thing i would have changed is the nancy drew-esque descriptions. those of you familiar with the girl detective will know that every single book includes the same descriptions of our protagonist's platinum hair, and her friend's round cheeks, and her boyfriend's physique, and so on. you will find that same style here.
but that is just nothing compared to what a sweeping, enlightening tale of familial highs and lows this was. i should know that these are fictional characters, but i'm wanting the best for ebby and soh and ed anyway.
bottom line: can't we all just get along and agree that this book is good?
--------------------- tbr review
i should've gone to school for Blobs Of Color Cover Design
(this is just a joke. a lot of books look like this at the moment. i don't mind and i'm excited to be reading this. we're all going to be okay)
those are the kinds of books i find unputdownable — long, slow family dramas unfolding over decades, heaven is probably a long, character-driven book.
those are the kinds of books i find unputdownable — long, slow family dramas unfolding over decades, with characters that grow more layered with every page.
this story begins with suchi in 1940s and her first love, haiwen, in 2000s california, then traces suchi forwards and haiwen back until they've found each other, across the world and across lives, over and over again.
i don't always love historical fiction, which i often find has a stiff and formal style, but i love generational family sagas. suchi's stubbornness and haiwen's amenability, their dreams, and their love for each other was such a lovely and simple way to place ourselves as readers through continents and historical events.
this audiobook is 17 hours long, but i inhaled it over two busy days. i don’t think the dual pov / opposite timeline structure was always the most logical choice for the story, but each character seemed real enough to jump off the page anyway.
every year nghi vo writes 2 wacky short gay fantasy books for me specifically.
but i guess not this one.
this claims to be a standalone companion to theevery year nghi vo writes 2 wacky short gay fantasy books for me specifically.
but i guess not this one.
this claims to be a standalone companion to the author's retelling of the great gatsby. it is not standalone. to call it a companion would be more accurate than calling it a book, which it isn't. there is no plot or characterization to speak of — it's like a bloated bonus chapter for a story nobody but me even enjoyed in the first place.
i'm sad to say even i didn't enjoy this one.
it's rare to love a retelling of a book you adore, but i thought the last one embodied gatsby while making it its own. this one isn't gatsby, or 20s, or excess, or even any of the things the last one was.
it's not only why i read this book — it's also why i finished it.
i think space is scary and gross, and "by taylor jenkins reid" is all i need to know.
it's not only why i read this book — it's also why i finished it.
i think space is scary and gross, and science was my least favorite subject in school, so this synopsis never jumped out to me. even when i was reading it, i never particularly wanted to get back to it. but i did enjoy it when i did.
by the end, i cared about the relationships here — joan and vanessa, joan and frances — even when didn't care about the characters. or space.
i've said it before and i'll say it again: there is nothing scarier than the woods.
this was a very interesting book — a group of privileged cousins ini've said it before and i'll say it again: there is nothing scarier than the woods.
this was a very interesting book — a group of privileged cousins in the 1980s chase one of their number into the woods, encountering grisly scenes and dark mysterious kinda-magic and reflections on class along the way — that was also very frustrating, because it danced around the truly interesting things.
it's only 200 pages long, and it's intended to be a little vague and make you do the work, but it did feel to me like it overcorrected. i had fun reading this, and found it had many striking intelligent lines, but i also wanted more from it: fuller characters, fewer "what the hell does that mean" moments, a clearer intent.
still, it was cool.
bottom line: i understand why this has a 3.31 but also i don't.
(3.5 / thanks to the publisher for the arc)...more
The hard part about old Hollywood is that it's so interesting in reality that it's hard to improve it in fiction.
Even with magic and monsters.
This doThe hard part about old Hollywood is that it's so interesting in reality that it's hard to improve it in fiction.
Even with magic and monsters.
This does a pretty damn good job, though.
The hard part about Nghi Vo books is that each one should be one of a kind because they are insane-sounding (either mythical made-up fantasy stories that make you cry and are like 13 pages long or old timey retelling type deals that are also sapphic and magic), but they exist in the same universe.
And in this case, if we're talking historical fiction meets queer retelling meets asian american race exploration meets magical realism, The Chosen and The Beautiful is better.
Where that one became more and more compelling, almost eerily, as it went on, and I fell under the enchantment of the characters, with this one I felt a bit of an enduring confusion that never let up, no matter how closely I read or long I waited.
And that was a bummer.
But mysteriousness is not too much of a bad thing, and if that's the trade for magic and Hollywood and girls and monsters, I will take it!
Bottom line: Nghi Vo forever.
------------ currently-reading updates
nghi vo is the real siren queen (could convince me to read anything)
