Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality: Stories by Lindsay Wong

9 reviews

sarah984's review against another edition

dark funny

3.0

A darkly funny horror collection, the stories mostly feature Chinese immigrants in North America (though there are a couple of stories about men and/or set in China). I loved the concept of most of the stories but a few of them felt like they didn't really go anywhere and by the end of the collection the tone felt a little repetitive.

Favourites: Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality, Furniture, Sinking Houses

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Fatphobia, Death, Ableism, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Incest, Rape, War, Pregnancy, Torture, Racism, Terminal illness, and Transphobia

anaiira's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

0.5

Ugh ok, so this is the second Lindsay Wong book I've read now and I think I can say it - the prose style is not for me; I don't enjoy reading her work. This one is less well written than her memoir. I don't like gross fiction but by the end of the anthology, it's so quotidian that I'm not even feeling revulsion anymore.

I don't love this genre of edgelord female Asian authors masquerading as feminist but then writing work that reads like a 15 year old internet troll that is practicing their SAT vocabulary. Truly, I know there can be more to be read into the work, especially the complex nuance of expectations of women, of East Asian women, and the relationship to cleanliness and purity and subverting expectations but at some point, I also get to choose whether or not this resonates with me and it does not.

Here are some assorted thoughts:
- I hate how she describes everything in such a disgusting way. Everything is the rotting grey liver of a cancerous fish or something equally repulsive. It's like endless stream of fetid putrifaction and ugh.

- I'm falling into the trap of trying to catch her in falsehoods again. This, I am realizing, is a defense mechanism in me. When I don't like something, or am unhappy with something, factual errors are intolerable, especially if I feel like they are being made on purpose.

- Wreck Beach was not named because they thought they would wreck the beach. It was so named after an alleged shipwreck.

- where do these kids go to school that they end up hanging out at wreck beach?!

- science world and wreck beach are so far apart  what high school could be near both

- every story has rape. Every story has trauma. Every story has murder. It's fucking awful. And I get the point thst ir's awful but I don't think she straddles the line between edgy/sharp and needlessly traumatizing well at all.

- It's like someone relishing in an open, festering sore, that rape or mass murder could just be a cool element to a story. There is this diminishing of trauma, and a casualness to it that I find callous and hard to understand.

- I hate when people use pinyin inconsistently. Either use the proper pinyin, or the pinyin without accents, or romanization. It's ridiculous when it's all of them together.

- you don't have 10/20 vision when you are blind in one eye, ffs have you been to an optometrist?

- no one in this book has talked about immortality and I feel fundamentally lied to.

I personally think that if you're writing stories this horrendous, you need to get the details right. And hire some Asian editors.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Infidelity, Genocide, Child abuse, Body horror, Grief, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Incest, Death, Body shaming, Rape, Murder, Suicide, Excrement, Classism, Self harm, Blood, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Bullying, War, Terminal illness, Gore, and Child death

willow1113's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Rape, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Pedophilia, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Classism, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Excrement, Alcohol, Death of parent, Incest, Pregnancy, and Drug use

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Gore, Murder, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, Incest, Death, Body horror, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Animal death, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Confinement, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, War, and Racism

Minor: Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Deadnaming, Suicide, Vomit, Cancer, Sexual content, Excrement, and Transphobia

Natural disaster, apocalypse ("Sinking Houses").

obviousthings's review against another edition

It's really gory and gross, with a flippant tone. Not my thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Fatphobia, Gore, Body horror, Torture, Violence, Death, Cannibalism, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Moderate: War, Animal cruelty, Excrement, and Confinement

Minor: Terminal illness, Cancer, and Infidelity

wenwanzhao's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Horror is not generally my thing, so I had to avoid reading this at night, but despite my scaredy cat nature, I loved this anthology. Lindsay Wong’s writing is so honest and specific. The narrators in this anthology are often beaten and fucked up, hurt by their truly shitty circumstances. Wong isn’t afraid to make her characters come off as absolute assholes. But even though it seems like everyone sucks, their humanity still manages to shine through. As a reader, I could find myself being sympathetic to even the worst narrators. That’s a testament to the quality and sharpness of Wong’s writing. She’s smart and she’s good at making you feel a certain kind of way. Really enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Incest, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: War, Trafficking, Body horror, Child death, Transphobia, and Violence

savvylit's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

5.0

Every single story in this collection was a creepy delight. Lindsay Wong is an undeniably brilliant short story crafter. The stories in Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality are both well-paced and complete; a feat that many short stories often fail to achieve.

Throughout this collection, Wong's authorial voice is sharp and often hilarious. There's one story in particular, "Sorry, Sister Eunice," about a judgemental college sorority populated by nine-tail fox demons in human disguise that made me laugh out loud multiple times. Other stories are more poignant, such as "Furniture," in which a young woman's parents transform into literal furniture when they feel deeply depressed and ashamed.

I could honestly go on and on about Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality and why I loved it so much. Instead, I'll just say that I think you should read this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Racism, Racial slurs, Child death, Grief, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

sydnec's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Amazing story collection! So funny. Full of family drama, body horror, scary folklore, and dark humor. LISTEN to the audio if you can. The narrators are superb.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, and Murder

jeezjane's review

dark lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.0

this book was not for me. i found the stories gratuitously violent and/or gross, which is not bad per se, but they were also sloppily written and made me question how much effort the author put into this collection. i felt there was no point to any of the stories, and i don't mean a crux or climax, i mean like things happened (usually gross), people suffered, and that's it. no payoff, emotional or otherwise. it just presented vignettes of nasty situations, and i suppose the allure is that these nasty situations are described in a cavalier and almost flippant tone, to shock you into amusement AND also make it more palatable to read, but it just didn't work out for me. the flippancy to me read like lack of care, which also made me not care. i didn't like any of the characters, nor did i hate any of the characters in a fun way. i did not feel like i got a good portrayal of chinese culture in the stories that touched upon that subject - actually, due to the nonchalant tone of the writing and the grotesque, over the top scenarios, the cultural information presented made me feel like it was just a person picking a Something Cool About Chinese culture and then writing a whole pointless story based on a caricature of it. the worlds were not thought out or fleshed out, and also not "suspend your disbelief" in a fun way. it was just surreal and... hurts me to say this, but surreal and kinda stupid? also baffling was that sometimes she used diacritics and sometimes not. if there was a method to this (like maybe some terms are well known enough that they don't warrant them?) i did not understand it. i don't care either way but  consistency would be nice. 

short stories are really hard and i get that but these were really disappointing. some were a better read than others but none were really good reads. 

killer title. i gave points for creativity and smtms a line or two would be well-written enough for me to appreciate it? idk 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Physical abuse, Body horror, Torture, Body shaming, Blood, Gore, Death, Violence, Murder, and Cannibalism

some things are explicit but nothing is dwelled upon for long lengths of time.