Reviews with content warning for War - Afterparties

Reviews tagging 'War'

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

20 reviews

emmehooks's review

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-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? N/A

4.5

This is the kind of short story collection I would have loved to read with a book club. Every story creates a universe full of nuance and life and left me with more questions and thoughts at the close than the start.

beautiful prose sharing glimpses into American Khmer existences, generational trauma, and queerness .

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geraldinerowe's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I didn't really get hooked until the second half. Without giving too much away that's where both the really endearing and utterly gut wrenching stories lie. After I'd finished the book and was skimming through the acknowledgements my emotions caught up with me and I started to cry, something very few books have made me do. Well worth a read alone for learning about the Cambodian atrocities. I was young when they were on the news so was aware of the situation but not of the detail. They don't feature heavily as a plot line, but influence every aspect of these stories.

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zzzzh233's review

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Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

trigger warning - frequent mentions of war & genocide, some descriptions of traumatized ppl having flashbacks n acting out

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maregred's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

3.0

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mandkips's review

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

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thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

afterparties is an interesting book that refreshingly features cambodians and cambodian americans - a rarely spotlighted group - and the byproduct is a semi-interconnecting set of original, unpredictable, sometimes startlingly provocative yet darkly humorous short stories, though i feel like some of them could've been more impactful.

every ethnic group always has a set of commonalities that binds them, yet as so adeptly illustrates here, they are multifaceted and far from being a monolith. i learn a lot abt cambodian culture and the u.s. cambodian community - despite them being a lil similar to my own - but i also enjoy this for its purely fictional aspect, w/ a particular favorite being "human development."

the different immigrant struggles, family conflicts, legacy of intergenerational trauma are examined through various characters and storylines. although they're effective in varying degrees, i often find myself smirking and snorting bc of the dark humor that only the marginalized and survivors know to espouse, while also startled by the off-handed mentions of trauma and violence, a firm reminder that the genocide that sent this group of ppl to where they reside happened not long ago, yet it's also not talked abt enough in the mainstream.

from this volume, it's clear that so was a literary force to be reckoned w/, someone whose future work i would've looked forward to. ig we'll all have to make do w/ afterparties, a nonetheless notable work.

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theskyboi's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.0

Posthumously published, Afterparties is a collection of nine short stories by Anthony Veasna So. Mixing the personal perspective with more omniscient and third-person points of view, these stories weave through the lives of So's Khmer relatives and friends with a certain irreverent yet poignant voice. Being that this was my first audiobook, I will note that the conversational delivery of the dialogue and prose alike framed this story collection in a way that I liken to a limited yet passionate oral history of the Cambodian diaspora.

By far, the best stories were "Superking Son Scores Again," "The Shop," and "Somaly Serey, Serey Somaly." In these narratives, So inhabits the lives of others, giving us a glimpse into how he interpreted the quotidian lives of his community and family members. In the shoes of different narrators, So left me enraptured by a candid yet blend of ethnic history and town gossip.

However, this edition's pitfalls lie in both the spoken delivery overall and the original written text of some of the weakest stories of the bunch. For all the insight and wit that So was able to weave into his image of others, the stories focused on the experience of being young, gay, and Cambodian felt lackluster in their heavy reliance on tropes. Additionally, the audiobook's quality improved at 1.5x speed, making up for the somewhat stilted reading that was recorded.

Perhaps saddest of all is that Anthony Veasna So can never surpass this initially published work with subsequent entries into his literary catalog. Haunted by the author's passing through some fault of my own, Afterparties was a memorable yet somewhat unpolished debut that frustratingly could have been so much more on its own or as a jumping-off point for even deeper works. It's hard to say whether I fully recommend this book; it comes down to preference at the end of the day. For me, a repeat read is only in order for a select few stories.

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