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melodyseestrees's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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
4.5
If you know the movie Groundhog Day (1993) you will be familiar with the order of some events within this book. It is particularly easy to lose your place during the audiobook and then be confused until the events start to wrap up. There are some really poignant moments between characters, especially towards the end of the book. It may be easy to predict how certain characters are connected together throughout the events of the story, and the 'villain' is also very apparent well before the big reveal.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Racism, Medical content, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Bo has a scene where there is a stick stuck in his hand and his wrist is also broken. Brandon and his boss have a toxic faux friendship where drug use is common. Blue and his family have a history of verbal aggression, if not abuse, and he struggles to maintain/fix his connection to his family- there is a tense Christmas Dinner scene. Blue is nonverbal but this is "fixed" with some sort of implant in his neck.evelphysicist's review
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Drug use
pond_newt's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I really loved this book. It took me a while to get into it and I was quite confused for the first quarter of the book but it brought it all together very well by the end. There were some really emotional scenes throughout the book, especially from the POV of Bo, which hit very hard. Although it's sold to be about time travel the main focuses are grief and family, with the sci fi elements largely taking a back seat. Massively recommend, particularly if you enjoyed the show Severance as they share similar tones and themes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Dementia, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Medical content
Minor: Racism, Violence, and Pregnancy
imds's review
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Minor: Biphobia, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Kidnapping
kurumipanda's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-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
A unique and disorienting story, with three narratives that switch without warning, with nested stories within them. Despite the odd events and storytelling method, it feels grounded and the themes feel clear and consistent. Focuses on Asian American identity, family grief/relationships, capitalism/corporate corruption, and separating art from the artist. Criticisms of society and culture are spot on and quite funny, and the story is moving and fascinating to unravel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Medical content, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, and Gaslighting
violeteel's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug use
anxiousnachos's review
4.5
4.5 stars. I do so love books that play with structure. This was very very cool!! This is a topsy-turvy scifi time-travel literary thriller (though heavier on the more experimental, literary side of things). It follows the story of three people: a child whose mother just died, a man who was just made redundant, and a man giving a tell-all TV interview about a tech company; interspersed with a snippets of an 80s noir TV show. It’s queer and explores Asian American identity and has such a brilliant depiction of the way grief and trauma haunt your entire life that made my currently very tender heart absolutely crumple. It’s a very difficult book to summarise and it’s absolutely one of those books you should go in knowing as little about the plot as possible, so if a queer, Asian, sci-fi literary thriller sounds like your thing, definitely check this out!!
Content warnings: death of a parent, grief, mild blood/injury detail, dementia, sexual content, drug and alcohol use
Content warnings: death of a parent, grief, mild blood/injury detail, dementia, sexual content, drug and alcohol use
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Dementia
Minor: Drug use, Sexual content, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
tigger89's review
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was one of those books that I read, and then had to spend a few days deciding if I'd liked or not. There's a lot going on here, and despite the brisk pace of the narrative I think most readers will require a bit of processing time to work through the various connections. Something important to note is that the book summary is marketing lies, specifically the part where it teases a cover up for violent crimes. It's technically true, in that violent crimes did take place and I suppose there must have been a cover up, but it was all off-screen and it wasn't what the characters were primarily concerned with. Rather, this novel is about identity, and spends a great deal of time investigating the fallout resulting from trauma. I sympathize with the author(who doesn't really get a say in the cover copy) on this, and try not to hold it against the story.
But describing it that way makes it sound like a sad book, which it wasn't. It read like the kind of thriller where you've got all the puzzle pieces almost from the start, and the tricky bit is putting them together in a way that makes sense to get from A to Z. I wasn't particularly surprised by any of the reveals, but I also didn't mind; I was invested in uncovering the how and the why, rather than the who and the what, if that makes sense.
One thing I really appreciated about this book was the depiction of Brandon as not only bisexual, but as an unapologetically messy bisexual. He doesn't have his anything together, and as the narrative unfolds it begins to make sense as to why. If you're looking for a competent, well-put-together protagonist, this isn't the book for you. But his bad decisions are the journey, and I couldn't help but feel a certain fondness for this disaster of a man, even if I didn't agree with many of the actions he chose to take. I also had a lot of thoughts about whether or not he did the right thing, in the end. I'm still not sure I've reached a decision on that.
Something I didn't mind but that will be a dealbreaker for some is the technology. It's definitely closer to the "reverse the polarity!" end of the sci-fi spectrum, which is to say it's barely explained and doesn't even pretend to be plausible. I though it suited the novel that way, but if you're someone who likes fictional technology — or magic pretending to be technology — to be explained to you, be warned this is not that kind of story. You kind of have to just accept it for what it is.
I enjoyed this debut, and would be interested to see what the author might come out with next. And hopefully the marketers leave his summaries alone in the future, because no reader likes getting to the end of a book only to realize they've been mislead!
But describing it that way makes it sound like a sad book, which it wasn't. It read like the kind of thriller where you've got all the puzzle pieces almost from the start, and the tricky bit is putting them together in a way that makes sense to get from A to Z. I wasn't particularly surprised by any of the reveals, but I also didn't mind; I was invested in uncovering the how and the why, rather than the who and the what, if that makes sense.
One thing I really appreciated about this book was the depiction of Brandon as not only bisexual, but as an unapologetically messy bisexual. He doesn't have his anything together, and as the narrative unfolds it begins to make sense as to why. If you're looking for a competent, well-put-together protagonist, this isn't the book for you. But his bad decisions are the journey, and I couldn't help but feel a certain fondness for this disaster of a man, even if I didn't agree with many of the actions he chose to take. I also had a lot of thoughts about whether or not he did the right thing, in the end. I'm still not sure I've reached a decision on that.
Something I didn't mind but that will be a dealbreaker for some is the technology. It's definitely closer to the "reverse the polarity!" end of the sci-fi spectrum, which is to say it's barely explained and doesn't even pretend to be plausible. I though it suited the novel that way, but if you're someone who likes fictional technology — or magic pretending to be technology — to be explained to you, be warned this is not that kind of story. You kind of have to just accept it for what it is.
I enjoyed this debut, and would be interested to see what the author might come out with next. And hopefully the marketers leave his summaries alone in the future, because no reader likes getting to the end of a book only to realize they've been mislead!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Dementia, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Drug use, Infidelity, Racism, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism