Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

13 reviews

k_aro's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

A really, really good book that I also am kind of uncomfortable in reading. The book is, I guess inevitably, about Chinese history, tracing all kinds of past atrocities and conflicts, all of which is marred by the decay of history, the anti-Communist and Sinophobic world we currently live in, as well as complications around how we should talk about all of these things. These stories have also all been written at various points in Liu's life, which may or may not change how we can read them/where his feelings have changed.

A lot of really imaginative sci-fi concepts; I especially love the first short story, which follows in the Invisible Cities tradition of a society/universe? sketched out by its constituents, by its minor details. It's really magical and a great introduction to the series. I'm not really sure what to make of "The Regular"; it does feel a little like the conclusion is that cops should shoot people faster when they feel justified, but a lot more of the story is bound up in both the stresses that policing introduces on police as well as the biases that exist even in an "objective" world. I also felt a little weird about "Simulacrum", mostly because of my own contested feelings around fatherhood.

There were a lot of stories that I think are stereotypically "diasporic"; I also cried 3-4 times while reading this book, which has to count for something.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Child abuse, Medical content, Rape, Blood, Confinement, Death, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Racism, Xenophobia, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Sexual assault, Torture, Trafficking, War, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Infidelity, Gun violence, Sexual content, Colonisation, Animal death, and Kidnapping

Minor: Dementia and Addiction

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Body horror, Racism, Xenophobia, War, Gun violence, Gore, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Grief

Moderate: Genocide, Animal death, Slavery, Bullying, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Child death

Minor: Infidelity, Excrement, Sexual content, Alcohol, Cancer, and Suicide

Surveillance ("The Perfect Match"). Eye trauma/gore, violence against sex workers ("The Regular").

safiewafie's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Rape, Body horror, Child death, Racism, Sexual violence, Abortion, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Animal death, and War

Moderate: Trafficking and Suicide

matcha_pages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

Ken Liu is an incredible story teller, he has a way with words, wit, and feelings. He's able to build these creative worlds with developed characters and flourishes of emotion and hope in short stories.  (Which speaks strongly to his skills as an author, especially considering some popular books of 600+ pages that are mostly filler.) 
This collection covers various topics and spans different genres. There's a good mix of space, sci-fi, fantasy, magical realism, and speculative fiction. The Paper Menagerie was my favorite and struck me to the core. As a first generation kid growing up in a community where barely anyone looked like me I related to the kid so much. But now as an adult, I can see how the sons actions of self preservation impacted his mother and his future self. I had to put the book down and call my mom!
I also enjoyed Mono no Aware, Simulacrum, and Good Hunting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent and Rape

fluffballpanda's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Finally finished it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Slavery, Genocide, Rape, War, and Violence

Moderate: Xenophobia, Suicide, Torture, Genocide, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Minor: Kidnapping and Death of parent

10stormlight's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

Some really conceptually interesting and thought provoking stuff. A collection of very emotional (and sometimes heartrending) stories. Primarily sci fi and magical realism with a heavy historical influence. 

As a warning, there is a ton of *extremely* graphic content in here. In fact, I think this may be the most explicitly graphic book I have ever read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Torture, Violence, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Body horror, Death, Grief, Medical content, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Racism, Child death, Sexual content, War, Death of parent, Confinement, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Terminal illness, Bullying, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, and Racial slurs

kthudson15's review against another edition

This book was very good, would recommend. The only reason I DNFed is because I’m in a fragile mental state & some of the stories were sad (in a good way; I just can’t handle them currently). The last story has some content that was not helping my mental health so I decided it was better to just stop than push through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Grief

Moderate: War, Child death, Death of parent, Racism, Genocide, and Violence

Minor: Racial slurs and Murder

samdalefox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I had first read 'The paper menagerie' as a stand alone story and loved it, so bought Liu's full short story collection. As you can see from the individual ratings below, I also loved the rest of the stories. The only one to drop below 4/5 was 'All the flavours', mostly because I don't think the structure and length entirely paid off. Outstanding pieces include 'State change', Simulacrum', 'The paper menagerie', and 'The man who ended history: a documentary'. Although the collection averaged 4.5, I'm bumping it up to 4.75 because the work is greater than the sum of its parts. 
 
It's hard to describe Ken Liu's writing style and subject matter. It's an easy to read, sci-fi, magical realism, literary, historical fiction, kind of genre. There were several times I looked up specific events referenced and learnt about Chinese and pan-Asian history. I found this incredibly enjoyable, the way history and culture are presented is informative, but in an appeasing way because it's told almost like a fairy tale. I also greatly appeciated the author's notes at the end of the stories with historical features explaining the references and pointing to further reading. 

The stories cover difficult themes such as imperialism, industrialisation, migration and immigrant experience, ethical use/misuse and philosophical development of technology, revolution and nationalism, militarianism, philosophy of communication and memory, and censorship, all with respect to Chinese people.

"Every act of communication is a miracle of translation"

The book making habits of select species 4.25⭐
State change 4.75⭐ 
The perfect match 4.25⭐
Good hunting 4⭐
The literomancer 4.5⭐
Simulacrum 5⭐
The regular 4⭐
The paper menagerie 5⭐
An advanced reader's picture book of comparative cognition 4.25⭐
The waves 4.5⭐
Mono no aware 4.5⭐
All the flavours 3.5⭐
A brief history of the trans Pacific tunnel 4.25⭐
The litigation master and the monkey king 4.75⭐
The man who ended history: a documentary 5⭐

Average = 4.43 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation and Classism

Minor: Murder, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Genocide, Confinement, Hate crime, Bullying, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Rape

The stories cover difficult themes such as imperialism, industrialisation, migration and immigrant experience, ethical use/misuse and philosophical development of technology, revolution and nationalism, militarianism, philosophy of communication and memory, and censorship all with respect to Chinese people.

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Colonisation, Genocide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Death of parent, Racism, Suicide, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Rape, Racial slurs, Infidelity, Police brutality, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Minor: Dementia and Sexual content

walkie_check's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer and Death of parent