snowwhitehatesapples's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.
Brimming with imagery and symbolism, vulgarity and rawness, Bestiary by K-Ming Chang is a familiar story of alienation, resilience and survival told in (while being made unfamiliar by) bizarre prose saturated with magical realism. There are layers upon layers in this story, made complex by two main factors.
The first of which is that there is no traditional plot structure as the story unravels without linearity. It jumps from one point of view to another, switching between Daughter, Mother and Grandmother without much care for order. But, despite this, it is clear that Bestiary is a story of identity, though there’s a notable lack of names.
The other is the significance of vulgarity in this book. Now, I’m not someone who shies away from vulgarity in literature, but there is just way too much of it here. The first half of the book is especially bursting with mentions of body parts and bodily functions. A small part of me hesitantly believes that the closeness of filth and the Asian characters here are meant to be ironic because Asians have been stereotyped as dirty. But, a greater part of me is unsure of their significance within the story and outside of it—the potential contexts elude me despite the familiarity.
Everything considered, this book was difficult for me to read and took a lot out of me while I attempted to understand it. It is powerful, yes, and the parts I did understand broke my heart. Even so, I remain undecided if Bestiary is brilliantly creative or has a tad too much surrealism.
Nevertheless, I recommend this book for anyone who loves Asian literature and magical realism, and who has the brain power to process its rich imagery and symbolism. If you get squeamish easily but really want to read this book, be prepared to take lots of breaks in between pages.
Brimming with imagery and symbolism, vulgarity and rawness, Bestiary by K-Ming Chang is a familiar story of alienation, resilience and survival told in (while being made unfamiliar by) bizarre prose saturated with magical realism. There are layers upon layers in this story, made complex by two main factors.
The first of which is that there is no traditional plot structure as the story unravels without linearity. It jumps from one point of view to another, switching between Daughter, Mother and Grandmother without much care for order. But, despite this, it is clear that Bestiary is a story of identity, though there’s a notable lack of names.
The other is the significance of vulgarity in this book. Now, I’m not someone who shies away from vulgarity in literature, but there is just way too much of it here. The first half of the book is especially bursting with mentions of body parts and bodily functions. A small part of me hesitantly believes that the closeness of filth and the Asian characters here are meant to be ironic because Asians have been stereotyped as dirty. But, a greater part of me is unsure of their significance within the story and outside of it—the potential contexts elude me despite the familiarity.
Everything considered, this book was difficult for me to read and took a lot out of me while I attempted to understand it. It is powerful, yes, and the parts I did understand broke my heart. Even so, I remain undecided if Bestiary is brilliantly creative or has a tad too much surrealism.
Nevertheless, I recommend this book for anyone who loves Asian literature and magical realism, and who has the brain power to process its rich imagery and symbolism. If you get squeamish easily but really want to read this book, be prepared to take lots of breaks in between pages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Dysphoria, and Excrement
Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, and Gore
Minor: Racism and Suicide attempt
tintededges's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
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
4.0
Check out my full review here: Bestiary | Tinted Edges
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Racism
porge_grewe's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
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
4.5
This is a difficult one to review. How do you rate such a well-crafted, interesting, good book which requires such a strong stomach to get through? Much of this book is unpleasant – deliberately and skilfully unpleasant – and that will put a lot of readers off. If you click with the style, however, or if you dial in to the point where it is no longer overwhelming, you will be rewarded with a thoughtful, funny, sad, and true book.
Bestiary is about a lot of things. The points of view K-Ming Chang uses, following three generations of a family emigrating from Taiwan to the United States, provide a focus on family, bodies, love, and myth-making, and, through these, more varied discussion of warfare, domestic violence, abject poverty, queer love and experience, growing up, legacy, land and belonging, and all sort of other topics. Chang, or rather her characters, consider all these using a style which moves between a straightforward, child-like simplicity and poetic surrealism, often melding the two to provide a bizarre, child’s-eye-view of a mundane world, or perhaps a sober, adult view of a magical one. In many ways, this feels most like a book about magic. Not pretty magic, and not necessarily magic in which any of the protagonists actually want to engage, but magic nonetheless. It would put me in mind of a mix of Helen Oyeyemi’s What is Not Yours is Not Yours and Stephen Graham Jones’ Mongrels if Bestiary did not feel so much its own creation.
A large part of this individual identity for Bestiary come from its view of the world. Chang renders the world as elements and animals and bodies – Different members of the family are salt or rivers or earth or birds or fish or tigers at various points and the physicality of bodies, their orifices, and the many and various fluids which those orifices dribble, leak, and squirt are fundamentally interwoven into their experience of the world, their histories, and each other. Again, this will be too much for some, perhaps many, readers, but it creates a truly human, animal way of being in the world in which the books more mythological and folkloric elements take shape and marinate. In that way, I have seen few more resonant depictions of childhood.
Massive kudos also to Jinhwa Jang for making one of the most striking and fitting covers I have seen in a while.
This is a grimy, beautiful, abrasive, feral, wise book and if you feel you have the constitution for it then I strongly recommend trying it out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Excrement
Moderate: War and Racism
stevie's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, War, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexism, Racism, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, and Misogyny
juliej0715's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This book was so interesting and different for me. Everything is fantastical.
The beginning really hooks you in. Then the writing style takes some getting used to. Probably the middle 30-45% was kinda tough to follow, because you can't tell if what she is describing is actually happening or not? But then you get in a groove with the style and you understand what's happening. Once you get into the main plot, it's so consuming. The stories really feed your imagination with bold imagery and it becomes really poetic and beautiful.
Not to be too punny with the front cover, but this book is w i l d. It was crazy and fun and enjoyable and you can't put it down. It's different and I would recommend it!
And the day after I finished it, I was thinking about it so much that I read the ending again. I considered reading the whole thing again to see if there were things I missed, but the library book was due.
The story is pretty complicated to explain to anyone, so I convinced a friend to read it so I can actually discuss it with someone!
The beginning really hooks you in. Then the writing style takes some getting used to. Probably the middle 30-45% was kinda tough to follow, because you can't tell if what she is describing is actually happening or not? But then you get in a groove with the style and you understand what's happening. Once you get into the main plot, it's so consuming. The stories really feed your imagination with bold imagery and it becomes really poetic and beautiful.
Not to be too punny with the front cover, but this book is w i l d. It was crazy and fun and enjoyable and you can't put it down. It's different and I would recommend it!
And the day after I finished it, I was thinking about it so much that I read the ending again. I considered reading the whole thing again to see if there were things I missed, but the library book was due.
The story is pretty complicated to explain to anyone, so I convinced a friend to read it so I can actually discuss it with someone!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Excrement, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Gore, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, and Suicide attempt
meganzc's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit
sucreslibrary's review
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit
imiji's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
my GOD the way this book picked tf UP in the last half. k-ming chang is brilliant and as ever an absolute treat to read. this is one i want to carry with me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, and Blood
Minor: Racism, Xenophobia, and Cannibalism
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