Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Stay True by Hua Hsu

15 reviews

natalienicholas's review

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Murder, and Violence

troe's review

dark funny reflective sad

4.0

Very evocative memoir of a time/place (late 90s,Berkeley california) and life stage (undergrad) in the first half. Second half a reflection on friendship, grief, youth and growing older. Really moving and struck a chord re the experience of sudden, violent loss of a loved one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Grief

cgpine's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Death

maricela's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Gun violence, and Violence

chupacabra2000's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Violence, and Gun violence

Minor: Drug use

allegraallegra's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Violence and Gun violence

avasbookmark's review

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Xenophobia

chrisljm's review against another edition

informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

A wonderful memoir that gracefully interweaves culture, friendship, and youth.

I loved Hsu's lyrical writing and how nostalgic his prose was. The memoir was sprinkled with setting specific details that left me wistful of a time period where I didn't even exist yet. He recollects growing up as a second generation Asian American Californian youth in the 90s, interlacing the ways that shaped his identity, along with the clothes, music, and the cultural and political events especially during his college years. He also details the unlikely friendship he develops with Ken, and the grief and guilt he feels after Ken's murder. The memoir is vivid, atmospheric, and so insightful. You're transported to moments in Hsu's life where he is very emotionally honest in the way he shows us the person he was during his teens and early 20s.

Reading this leaves me reflecting on my own friendships and the inkling of fear I have of death, not for my own but for the people around me, and if I'll ever be able to remember them with the clarity Hsu seems to of Ken. I think the worst part of mortality, besides loss, is how fleeting memory is and the way details will be forgotten and how all we can ask is Can you stay with me a little longer?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Gun violence, Cursing, Hate crime, Violence, Racism, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Antisemitism, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Suicide, Sexual assault, and War

samchase112's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

This powerful memoir was about so much more than grief and friendship. As Hua Hsu immersed me in 1990s California I became swept along the waves of his coming of age, from faxed letters exchanged with his father to misguided, firmly held convictions to diary entries tinged with feeling, from rooftop balconies to dorm room hangouts to dusty record shops… then along the path of shock and grief, coping and not coping. Interspersed with questions of identity and belonging, history and memory… How can I express my thoughts except to say, life is so sad sometimes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Death, Drug use, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Police brutality and Alcohol

Minor: Racism

cady_sass's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

It feels wrong to be critical about a non fiction personal story, and I don’t necessarily have anything negative to say, but this feels overall like there isn’t any definitive point. It’s very stream of consciousness, which can be fine, but there’s no core statement being made here. I find individual points very poignant and resonant, especially where the author describes his experience as an Asian American immigrant adolescent and college student, and the story of his friends death is senseless and horrible, but it’s just a very long op ed as opposed to a short memoir. Read in just a few hours and perfectly fine read, but ultimately a smidge forgettable. Take my review with a grain of salt, perhaps I’m just not the right audience for this and/or it’s not a style that I love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Racial slurs, Violence, Racism, Bullying, Death, Drug use, and Kidnapping