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monsty's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Domestic abuse, and Excrement
harrimyers's review
so explicitly disgusting and brutal in its language. loved the idea but the actual writing was so grotesque i couldn’t do it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Gore, Excrement, Vomit, and Blood
yinflower's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, War, Miscarriage, Violence, Body horror, and Sexual violence
Minor: Racial slurs and Animal death
chichio's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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
5.0
Before all else, K-Ming Chang is a poet and that fact is made obvious throughout this entire novel. I can’t even put into words how amazing the prose is; without being convoluted and impossible to follow, K-Ming Chang writes a vulgar, mythical story about generational trauma, the ugliness and the unreliability of the human body and mind, family dynamics, the violent hunger of love, and the plight of moving away from one’s home (country or building) to try and survive in another.
You can just tell that K-Ming Chang writes poetry and short stories because on a line-by-line level, this book is unbelievable. I genuinely believe that not one line, not one word, is wasted. Given that this is a work of magical realism, the whole narrative is an extended metaphor but every single paragraph holds its very own unique, contained metaphor and I found myself highlighting damn-near every single page. This is one of those books that you have to stick with. Even while I’m writing this review, I acknowledge that this book really isn’t for everyone. There isn’t a traditional plot. Instead, K-Ming Chang presents a non-linear narrative following three main speakers–Daughter, Mother, and Grandmother–and conveys the complexities of their relationships through traditional Taiwanese myths. Although the female relationships take centre stage in this story, I really enjoyed how she spoke of the men, of how they were physically present but absent in all the ways that mattered, in ways that aggravated the female relationships, souring them in some instances, strengthening them in others. All this comes together to create a crass, strange story that speaks on a very relatable and real truth: it’s not easy to escape your lineage.
Some of my favourite quotes:
You don’t know about gold, about grieving what you could have owned. Your grandmother’s grief has grown its own body. She raises it like another child, one she loves better than me and my sister, one that can never leave her.
I’ll home him better than any country.
My husband is gone in the head and your father is gone everywhere else. She said men were synonymous with missing.
I remembered watching families in restaurants fighting to pay a bill, and maybe that was what Meng and Jiang were fighting over: a bill they were too proud to let the other take. To say a daughter is a debt they could afford to pay.
once when you were little I said you could love your father or your mother but you had to pick one the one you love is your leash the other is a house you burn down
I understand animals that eat their runts. Better to swallow them back into your body than let them be taken, buried outside of you.
You define a daughter as something done to you at night without your permission
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, War, Emotional abuse, and Grief
brianareads's review
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Blood, Violence, Animal cruelty, Gore, Excrement, and Body horror
readingpicnic's review
5.0
I’ve never read a book with so much pissing in it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Animal death, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Excrement, Sexual assault, War, Domestic abuse, Gore, Blood, and Violence
maksipad's review
challenging
emotional
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
3.75
I like weird books and this fits in that category for sure. The prose was absolutely beautiful and I really loved the story. However, it was also fairly slow and I could only read small chunks of the book before I had to put it back down for awhile. Also, as others have mentioned, there are manyyy bodily function references.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Excrement, Abandonment, War, Xenophobia, Violence, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Dementia, and Gun violence
Moderate: Gore, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
nixusiai's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
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
3.75
a beautifully written book on intergenerational trauma, and the way it cycles until someone makes an effort to break it! it also features a lot on what it's like to leave your home for the colonised countries, the beastification of people of colour, and how this effects all of the family well down the line.
i absolutely adored the way k-ming chang wrote and formatted this. the juxtaposition of the almost flower prose versus the language used is just stunning!! loved the relationship between daughter and ben, too.
the final two chapters made it fall from a high 4☆ but i have a feeling that's mostly because it began to lean into the poetic & magical side and i didn't fully understand.
really recommend though! beautiful, especially for a debut!
i absolutely adored the way k-ming chang wrote and formatted this. the juxtaposition of the almost flower prose versus the language used is just stunning!! loved the relationship between daughter and ben, too.
the final two chapters made it fall from a high 4☆ but i have a feeling that's mostly because it began to lean into the poetic & magical side and i didn't fully understand.
really recommend though! beautiful, especially for a debut!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Child abuse
Minor: Animal death, Blood, and Colonisation
caleykapowski's review against another edition
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Excrement, and Violence
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