Reviews

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

jouljet's review

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challenging dark funny reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jack_wattiaux's review against another edition

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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? Yes

4.0

annieeeveee11's review

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emotional funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

I enjoyed this book. I learned A LOT about the Khmer community. 

There were moments where I was a bit confused. 

Overall, each chapter had its own narrative & outside of it being about the Khmer community & some similar themes re: generational trauma & learnings & community & longing to live a future for oneself, I was curious to know how the many characters came together (but that may just be a me thing). 

I would give it a 5, but I feel like I finished it to finish it not because I wanted to flip every single page//couldn’t put it down which is a feeling I have when I read any book I rate a 5.

calebgetto's review

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

paintedverse's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

micaelabrody's review

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emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

 4.5 - i loved this. i am always here for a book of short stories that are loosely interconnected - in this, very loosely interconnected, but still it adds a great depth to an already thoughtful and honest collection. it took a few stories for this to click for me, but once it did it really clicked - and when i went back to flip through later i found they worked for me in the end.

some things in this book are universal - as a child of suburban ennui myself, the restlessness and dissatisfaction that permeates so’s stories really hit home. (and provided an easy soundtrack for me to use in california pop-punk, by the way.) other elements were relatable to me if not my exact experience - the really nuanced and often funny exploration of intergenerational trauma, including its humor, was fantastic. obviously i don’t even need to say that i am many more generations removed, my family escaped pogroms not the shoah, i don’t have the unique experiences of a first-generation immigrant, etc etc. but, the passage right at the beginning about parents' opaque cultural touchstones ("she'd do something as simple as drink a glass of ice water and her father, from across the room, would bellow, 'there were no ice cubes in the genocide!'") made me laugh out loud at how it sounded so much like my family saying i was "so american" for using a topsheet.

but the parts that are specific to the first-generation cambodian culture that so is portraying were wonderfully done as well, shining the most. his attention to detail, both personal and environmental, is fantastic, and his compassion for his characters is matched by his willingness to poke fun at them - from every angle this delighted and impressed.

i’m glad these were in a collection when i read them. putting them all together added a lot to the reading experience and i think they would have felt flatter without each other. again, i’m a sucker for this in general and especially for the weaving of a community through connected stories, which this did well, but i think that's why i felt a little more meh about the first few until i found his rhythm and context. (hypocritically, one of my critiques of this is that he hits some of the same themes hard in multiple stories - at times this worked really well to emphasize that same intergenerational trauma i mentioned but at times it was a little repetitive.)

i learned midway through reading this that anthony so passed away - a tragedy at any age of course, but what an incredible talent to lose especially so young. i’m so sorry i won’t have a chance to read any more of his work. 

standouts:
maly maly maly
the shop
the monks**
somaly serey, serey somaly
generational differences 

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sirohub's review

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emotional funny reflective

4.5

matt717's review against another edition

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

4.0

jadey24's review

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dark emotional funny reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

clairewilsonleeds's review against another edition

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4.0

I enjoyed this - I feel like it would have been better to read rather than listen to, as I think some of the formatting/nuance was lost.

I liked the way the stories were sequence - it was a really interesting look at intergenerational trauma.