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2.98 AVERAGE
2.98 AVERAGE
No stars/ Fiction. DNF!
Audio Book from library
Not sure this deserves any stars. The most boring, slow paced book ever. Never felt it had a direction. It reminded me why it is important to glance at reviews. Think I might need to avoid Zando publishing for a bit.
If you are inclined towards this book bypass the audio version. The narrator does it no favours!
Audio Book from library
Not sure this deserves any stars. The most boring, slow paced book ever. Never felt it had a direction. It reminded me why it is important to glance at reviews. Think I might need to avoid Zando publishing for a bit.
If you are inclined towards this book bypass the audio version. The narrator does it no favours!
dark
sad
slow-paced
Quitters paradise: audio book. I was super bored at first but got more into it. Some of the language is a bit too fluffy at times. I don’t care about the bare trees and the hedges. The main character is honestly very annoying. I feel most bad for her husband. Just something about this felt over the top perhaps?
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book does so many things well.
It’s tender, pensive, and deeply human. Elysha Chang has such a beautiful writing style. I was completely enamored with the first quarter of this book. I wrote down many quotes from the book that I think deftly expressed the incapacitating, existential confusion of grief.
I was pleasantly surprised when the book began to delve into perspectives of other family members and explored the winding, tangled paths that led the family to where they are in the present.
However, the pacing began to drag about halfway through, and the varying perspectives of other family members began to feel flat and stagnant. While that certainly is an element of grief and generational trauma the author may have hoped to mirror in her portrayal, I had hoped for more meaning-making for the character, a clear character arc.
That being said, I would absolutely read Elysha Chang’s next book should she choose to write another.
It’s tender, pensive, and deeply human. Elysha Chang has such a beautiful writing style. I was completely enamored with the first quarter of this book. I wrote down many quotes from the book that I think deftly expressed the incapacitating, existential confusion of grief.
I was pleasantly surprised when the book began to delve into perspectives of other family members and explored the winding, tangled paths that led the family to where they are in the present.
However, the pacing began to drag about halfway through, and the varying perspectives of other family members began to feel flat and stagnant. While that certainly is an element of grief and generational trauma the author may have hoped to mirror in her portrayal, I had hoped for more meaning-making for the character, a clear character arc.
That being said, I would absolutely read Elysha Chang’s next book should she choose to write another.
Content Warnings
Minor: Miscarriage, Abortion
Eleanor Liu secretly married her boyfriend of eight months, quit her PhD program, and is now performing unauthorized research on extra lab mice. Her mother is also dead. But Eleanor knows she's fine. As she navigates her new identities—grieving daughter, wife, PhD dropout—Eleanor contemplates the meaning of family.
QUITTER is a quiet and contemplative read following the POV of three Liu women, Elanor, her mother, and her older sister. The book is reminiscent of CHEMISTRY (Weike Wang), GOODBYE, VITAMIN (Rachel Khong), DAYS OF DISTRACTION (Alexandra Chang), TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM (Yaa Gyasi), and SEA CHANGE (Gina Ghung). This type of plot-light and character-driven story with a quirky FMC that sometimes makes questionable life decisions has slowly become a genre of itself, and I'm all for this messiness
QUITTER is a quiet and contemplative read following the POV of three Liu women, Elanor, her mother, and her older sister. The book is reminiscent of CHEMISTRY (Weike Wang), GOODBYE, VITAMIN (Rachel Khong), DAYS OF DISTRACTION (Alexandra Chang), TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM (Yaa Gyasi), and SEA CHANGE (Gina Ghung). This type of plot-light and character-driven story with a quirky FMC that sometimes makes questionable life decisions has slowly become a genre of itself, and I'm all for this messiness
I read the first 6 chapters at the library and it intrigued me enough to check it out. Idk what happened really after chapter 6, but the characters were very flat and it felt like an unfinished story
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I struggled with A Quitter's Paradise, the story of Eleanor who quits her PhD programme in the 4th year following the death of her mother and goes on to make a series of actions and inactions which seemed designed to sabotage her own life. As well as Eleanor's story in the present we also get plenty of backstory detailing her family history including her parents' migration from Taipei, the life they built in America, and the decision of Eleanor's older sister to run away. Messy 20s characters are not for me and that was very much the case here. I liked the backstory much more than the present day story. I enjoyed Chang's writing particularly her switch between the use of first person for the main storyline and third person for the backstory. I appreciated her points about avoidance, parental pressure and expectations as well as intergenerational trauma. And yet, despite the author's efforts I just couldn't understand Eleanor, and without that the book just didn't work for me, something that says as much about my failings as a reader than it does about the book itself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death