Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

5 reviews

jess_18's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

was so weird but i thought it was great. the mother daughter relationships shown got to me. definitely not for everyone 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Excrement, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Gore, and Medical content

chichio's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

Before all else, K-Ming Chang is a poet and that fact is made obvious throughout this entire novel. I can’t even put into words how amazing the prose is; without being convoluted and impossible to follow, K-Ming Chang writes a vulgar, mythical story about generational trauma, the ugliness and the unreliability of the human body and mind, family dynamics, the violent hunger of love, and the plight of moving away from one’s home (country or building) to try and survive in another. 

You can just tell that K-Ming Chang writes poetry and short stories because on a line-by-line level, this book is unbelievable. I genuinely believe that not one line, not one word, is wasted. Given that this is a work of magical realism, the whole narrative is an extended metaphor but every single paragraph holds its very own unique, contained metaphor and I found myself highlighting damn-near every single page. This is one of those books that you have to stick with. Even while I’m writing this review, I acknowledge that this book really isn’t for everyone. There isn’t a traditional plot. Instead, K-Ming Chang presents a non-linear narrative following three main speakers–Daughter, Mother, and Grandmother–and conveys the complexities of their relationships through traditional Taiwanese myths. Although the female relationships take centre stage in this story, I really enjoyed how she spoke of the men, of how they were physically present but absent in all the ways that mattered, in ways that aggravated the female relationships, souring them in some instances, strengthening them in others. All this comes together to create a crass, strange story that speaks on a very relatable and real truth: it’s not easy to escape your lineage. 

Some of my favourite quotes: 

  

You don’t know about gold, about grieving what you could have owned. Your grandmother’s grief has grown its own body. She raises it like another child, one she loves better than me and my sister, one that can never leave her.

I’ll home him better than any country.

My husband is gone in the head and your father is gone everywhere else. She said men were synonymous with missing.

I remembered watching families in restaurants fighting to pay a bill, and maybe that was what Meng and Jiang were fighting over: a bill they were too proud to let the other take. To say a daughter is a debt they could afford to pay.

once when you were little I said you could love your father or your mother but you had to pick one the one you love is your leash the other is a house you burn down

 

I understand animals that eat their runts. Better to swallow them back into your body than let them be taken, buried outside of you. 

  

You define a daughter as something done to you at night without your permission 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, War, Emotional abuse, and Grief

maksipad's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-paced

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

3.75

I like weird books and this fits in that category for sure. The prose was absolutely beautiful and I really loved the story. However, it was also fairly slow and I could only read small chunks of the book before I had to put it back down for awhile. Also, as others have mentioned, there are manyyy bodily function references.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Abandonment, War, Xenophobia, Violence, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Dementia, and Gun violence

Moderate: Gore, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

svmreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, and War

stevie's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, War, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexism, Racism, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, and Misogyny