Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Y/N by Esther Yi

11 reviews

rachbreads's review

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challenging dark reflective
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
It’s not him that I love. I love the story of him. That’s why I don’t know how to write well. What’s the point of writing well when the story is already perfect? I channel his story. I add nothing to it.

Impossible to give a star rating to this. I can't really say that I liked it but I did get what she was doing. For someone who is, like our narrator, an academic who found a love for K-pop at the age of 29....it was....spooky?!? It's an interesting look into the dark side of fandom where people become so wrapped up in these idols they don't even know that they completely lose a sense of reality and self. I think it would be a good read for people who are interested in digging into parasocial relationships and the dark side of celebrity and mass media. Maybe not for the hobbyist K-pop fan like me, 'twas a bit disturbing...🫨
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bekkah_co's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-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

1.5

I listened to this with my partner as we were on a road trip, and all I have to say is what the hell. The author does have a knack for writing artistically (if you're in a college creative writing course). If you are someone who is looking for a book that is well written but has the weirdest content, pick this one up. Genuinely, the amount of times I had to pause this audiobook to process the words was too many times to count. 

Now, this book did try really hard to give an introspective look on fandom spaces, but as someone who actively studies and researches fandom spaces, I'm disappointed. And disturbed. I know some KPOP stans can be a little wonky. I like KPOP. I have friends who are like mega-stans. I know there are weirdos that say unhinged shit. However, putting the worst a community has to offer into a book and then publishing it and forcing someone to narrate is just criminal. I hope she got paid well for reading "I went to a KPOP concert after being a hater and now I imagine my boyfriend having a three-way with a KPOP boy who I compare to a neck with a penis."

With all this being said, I am so sorry to my future students who I will make read/listen to this.
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disguisedposer's review

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challenging dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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thebookpaiges's review

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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bookishsapphicshay's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

2.5

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sissizc's review

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dark emotional tense medium-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

1.0

First 1 star review 

Premise is interesting, failed on execution. 
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rokinjaguar's review against another edition

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

4.0

I’m an idiot who literally never thinks that
a book could have an unreliable narrator unless it’s extremely obvious
so the ending really threw me for a loop at first. Immediately after finishing the book, I was confused and thought it was pointless, but after thinking more about what the ending implied for the rest of the story, it changed my perspective. Now I have a decent amount of appreciation for what the story was trying to say, and I think it executed it pretty well. I still feel it was a bit too artsy for its britches and I’m still kind of “…so what about that?” about it, but I gained something from the read and enjoyed myself and it was very memorable, so overall I liked it. 
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scifi_rat's review

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saltycoffee's review

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dark reflective sad slow-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

2.0

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thecriticalreader's review against another edition

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challenging slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

Blurb: 
Y/N by Esther Yi is a novel that follows a nameless woman who becomes obsessed with a K-Pop band member named Moon. She makes it her life’s mission to meet Moon, stopping at nothing to meet her idol.
 
Review:
Okay, the premise drew me in. Even as I wrote the blurb for this review, I had to admit the book sounds interesting. I went in expecting a commentary on fan culture, parasocial relationships, and modern loneliness. That is not at all what I got. If you haven’t read the book, I promise you that whatever you think it’s going to be based on the description, you’re wrong. Y/N is one of the most bizarre, inscrutable pieces of pretentious, surrealist nonsense that I have ever read. The dialogue and the main character’s inner-monologue is chalk full of enigmatic, paradoxical, pretentious BS that holds no actual meaning. A year ago, I would have chalked it up to my own stupidity and inability to understand it, but I’m confident enough in my own intelligence at this point to know it’s not a ‘me’ problem. I struggled through this book, kicking and screaming.
 
The most frustrating part about this reading experience is that I could see the tiniest slivers of insight or profound turns of phrase, so I could not completely brush of the book as the work of an incompetent egoist. Beneath all of the utter nonsense are vague traces of an interesting idea or an important point to be made about parasocial relationships and modern loneliness. It is in recognition of this that I give Y/N a 0.5 rating instead of a zero. However, nothing can redeem the pretentious and nonsensical delivery that obscure these ideas that are not even that original in the first place.
 
The Run-Down: 
You will probably like Y/N if . . . 
·      You adore surrealist stories 
 
You might not like Y/N if . . . 
·      You want an interesting reflection into the dynamics of fan culture and parasocial relationships
·      You like books that make sense
·      You have a low tolerance for ostentatious, philosophical, nonsensical prose
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