Scan barcode
lonelylooper's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Blood, Death, Grief, Self harm, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Torture, Dysphoria, Classism, and Child death
kaywhiteley's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
This is definitely one of my new favorite books and S. Qiōuyì Lù is one of my new favorite authors. This is genuinely the most unique way of storytelling I have ever experienced and I am rather obsessed with how it is written. Each story was distinctive and both disturbed me and filled me with wonder.
I also think the author handles difficult topics perfectly for my taste. Ae does not shy away from anything, but also describes challenging ideas, like suicide, with nuance and creativity. The different messages are clear without being too overt or preachy.
Everything about this fantasy world felt familiar and yet so, so strange. I want more, yet I am also satisfied with the level of world-building and the paths, stories, and histories left unexplored and mysterious.
I also think the author handles difficult topics perfectly for my taste. Ae does not shy away from anything, but also describes challenging ideas, like suicide, with nuance and creativity. The different messages are clear without being too overt or preachy.
Everything about this fantasy world felt familiar and yet so, so strange. I want more, yet I am also satisfied with the level of world-building and the paths, stories, and histories left unexplored and mysterious.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Colonisation, Self harm, and Grief
misty_kb's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, and Death
Moderate: Gore, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
mondays's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Murder, Gore, Grief, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Violence
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Gore, and Grief
Moderate: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Abandonment, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Confinement
Minor: Sexism, Dysphoria, and Fire/Fire injury
Self-injury for magical purposes. Foot binding. Suicide by drowning. Mutilation/cutting, including in a consensual sexual context.ashley_elizabeth's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
3.0
I think there are some very interesting ideas being explored here, and I like the biocyberpunk setting, but neither the characters nor the story felt fleshed out enough to really connect with. I don't really fault the length for that, as I've read other novellas (looking at you, Murderbot Diaries) that were able to convey more in a small package. I think the problem was too many ideas trying to compete for attention. Overall an intriguing setup that maybe needed more ground to fully thrive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Suicide
riffmonkey's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I am a bit unsure about this. I liked the main story but could see where it was going to go from the very beginning. Not that that is a bad thing per se but it didn't help me keep reading this already very short novel. The side stories were all quite nice, especially the one with the mermaids was amazing and some were also a bit disappointing. Like any short story collection really.
The bits where Anima is telling a story bothered me slightly. The bit where æ tells Vessel about ær life was nice but the composition on paper didn't really add anything significant and then later the poem about the sunrise just felt very unnecessary. The contents as well as the composition on the page. And in both parts, the punctuation was all over the place. Now if this was at all relevant to the text itself it might be nice like in House of Leaves, but it really wasn't so I didn't quite get the point. Was still very much worth the read though.
The bits where Anima is telling a story bothered me slightly. The bit where æ tells Vessel about ær life was nice but the composition on paper didn't really add anything significant and then later the poem about the sunrise just felt very unnecessary. The contents as well as the composition on the page. And in both parts, the punctuation was all over the place. Now if this was at all relevant to the text itself it might be nice like in House of Leaves, but it really wasn't so I didn't quite get the point. Was still very much worth the read though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Suicide
entomonkey's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Torture, Murder, Kidnapping, Gore, Death, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement
maeverose's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
3.75
This book is unlike anything I’ve read before, and has many elements that I love. Biocyberpunk describes this perfectly. I would say it’s a mix of fantasy and sci-fi. It’s formatted in a unique way, with one main story and four connected short stories throughout. Most of it is in traditional prose, with some parts written almost like poetry and one of the stories is epistolary. The writing is descriptive without being flowery.
I’d strongly suggest checking content warnings for this before reading. There is an authors note at the beginning that covers the big ones: an on page completed suicide, and self harm. But I’d also add gore, body horror, and injury descriptions as significant ones. (I go into more detail in the content warnings section)
what I liked:
what I liked:
-the idea of a gallery of mementos that each hold a memory is such a fun concept. I would love if S. Qiouyi Lu wrote a companion anthology of more stories from this world
-the world building was really creative, and I liked the way Ora was described (especially in the night market scene)
-the casual use of neopronouns, and all the non binary/trans characters.
-the exploration of oppressive and unfair systems
-I really liked the parts about identity (specifically these quotes: “-æ has gone by “Anima” for longer than æ ever used ær birth name. Does ær terminal name apply only to the Anima that exists after becoming a node, or does the name encompass even the world before that transition?”
“We will never know who someone else truly is. We are still bounded by the limits of the material world. We still cannot enter someone’s soul to navigate the interior sea of the mind. But we can take a moment, a story, that illuminates their spirit, if only one facet. Yet that is what makes life the brilliant gem that it is: the collection of all those facets into a prism. A lens.”)
-also I’m obsessed with this cover.
-the exploration of oppressive and unfair systems
-I really liked the parts about identity (specifically these quotes: “-æ has gone by “Anima” for longer than æ ever used ær birth name. Does ær terminal name apply only to the Anima that exists after becoming a node, or does the name encompass even the world before that transition?”
“We will never know who someone else truly is. We are still bounded by the limits of the material world. We still cannot enter someone’s soul to navigate the interior sea of the mind. But we can take a moment, a story, that illuminates their spirit, if only one facet. Yet that is what makes life the brilliant gem that it is: the collection of all those facets into a prism. A lens.”)
-also I’m obsessed with this cover.
some (very subjective) dislikes:
— some of this definitely went over my head. The world building is really cool but admittedly confusing for me at times.
— I don’t care about sports at all so I skimmed most of ‘This Form I Hold Now’, but I liked the rest of that story (and how it connected to the third story)
— I don’t care about sports at all so I skimmed most of ‘This Form I Hold Now’, but I liked the rest of that story (and how it connected to the third story)
— I didn’t care for the knife play stuff in the last story. It felt out of place imo. It also bothered me that Ellen just completely forgot about the mermaid in her bathroom… like did that really not cross her mind the whole way there?
— this barely counts as an actual dislike: Of course with a novella you can only fit so much, and I feel that this book achieved its goal in telling the story perfectly fine. But with novellas in general I’m always left wanting more. This world is so cool and vast that I want to see more of it, learn more of its history. I want to see where Anima’s story goes from here, I’d like to learn about Vessel’s life, how se collected all the mementos. As I mentioned, I’d like more stories. I would love if this became a series of companion novellas or something.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide
Moderate: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Blood, Gore, Sexual content, Medical content, and Animal death
Minor: Cursing, Excrement, and Murder
Needles, drowning. Self harm: a scene of someone cutting their palm, graphic depictions of foot binding, and a knife play scene. In the latter the person being cut has very explicit thoughts about the desire to be cut. Gore: there are two scenes with gore in them that I can think of. The first is in ‘A Death Made Manifold’, that one is relatively minor imo. The second is in ‘As Dark As Hunger’, which is bordering on graphic. It more so describes graphic injuries than actual guts (though there is brief mention of that too, both fish and… human-esque), but it’s still uncomfortable to read.gallinaguerra's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm and Body horror
Minor: Dysphoria