Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality: Stories by Lindsay Wong

3 reviews

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

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").

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