Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories by Regina Kanyu Wang, Yu Chen

4 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Bullying, Dementia, Sexism, Death, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Genocide, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

maeverose's review

I read about half of the stories/essays, and just wasn’t really feeling them. I also didn’t understand a lot of them, but that could be a me problem. Here are the ones that I liked the most:

The Restaurant At The End of the Universe: Tai-Chi Mashed Taro by Anna Wu translated by Carmen Yiling

4⭐️ I liked the vibes. Curious about the hitchhiker’s guide references in the beginning.

Minor cw for suicide

The Alchemist of Lantian by BaiFanRuShuang translated by Ru-Ping Chen 3.5⭐️
Cw: illness

Essay: Translation As Retelling: An Approach To Translating Gu Shi’s “To Procure Jade” and Ling Chen’s “The Name of the Dragon” by Yilin Wang

3.5⭐️ cool to see the process behind translating a story.

The Name of the Dragon by Ling Chen translated by Yilin Wang

3.5⭐️

Cw: death, violence, blood, injury

To Procure Jade by Gu Shi translated by Yilin Wang

3.5⭐️

Cw: blood

New Year Painting, Ink and Color on Rice Paper, Zhaoqiao Village by Chen Qian translated by Emily Xueni Jin

3.5⭐️
Cw: missing child, bullying, fire, death

I will say I was kind of expecting more actual non binary representation, I didn’t really see much of that. Also curious how many of the contributors are non binary because all but two use exclusively she/her, and of course pronouns ≠ gender (I’m a genderless she/her after all), but it still doesn’t seem very diverse within the non binary category (And for the two who used she/they, in their bios they only used she/her.. 🤔 to be fair idk if an editor wrote the bios or if everyone wrote their own, I assumed an editor).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

Minor: Suicide and Fatphobia

Manipulation, missing child

szuum's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Medical trauma, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Misogyny, Child death, Death, and Terminal illness

Minor: Animal death

laurareads87's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022 and the collection did not disappoint.  While inevitably with any short story collection, particularly an anthology, any reader will enjoy some stories more than others, this is a fantastically curated collection -- wide-ranging, diverse, and I believe at least a few stories that'll appeal to any reader of sci-fi and/or fantasy.  In addition, there are several short essays interspersed throughout the collection which deal with topics related to gender representation in Chinese literature and publishing, Chinese to English / English to Chinese translation, and gendered language.  I found all of these essays interesting & they, like several of the stories, left me with lots to think about.  Finally, the hardcover edition of this book is beautiful; I read most of my fiction digitally but I'm pleased to have this edition on my shelf.  I'm looking forward to seeking out work by several of the authors featured in this collection.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Medical content

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Violence, and Terminal illness