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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
medium-paced
understated and simple, dusapin manages to create a palpable tension between the two main characters in a very short book
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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
"Our beaches are still waiting for the end of a war that’s been going on for so long people have stopped believing it’s real. They build hotels, put up neon signs, but it’s all fake, we’re on a knife-edge, it could all give way any moment. We’re living in limbo. In a winter that never ends."
this book is so deeply cold and haunting. dusapin's grasp on atmospheric setting and juxtaposition of parallel narratives kept me on edge—constantly waiting for something to happen in a place where nothing ever happens. the narrator is dying for validation, to be seen in a real way, and for her circumstances to change all while surrounded by as cast of characters that feel ultimately insincere, plasticine, and desperate for their own sort of validation that the narrator can't give them. and beyond all that is a thrumming awareness of how static life is on a knife's edge waiting for the war-not-war to end. dusapin through the narrator's eyes juggles the seoul experience of ever moving city life against that of the narrator who is actively living through a war "people stopped believing is real." incredibly compelling little book where nothing happening is entirely the point.
this book is so deeply cold and haunting. dusapin's grasp on atmospheric setting and juxtaposition of parallel narratives kept me on edge—constantly waiting for something to happen in a place where nothing ever happens. the narrator is dying for validation, to be seen in a real way, and for her circumstances to change all while surrounded by as cast of characters that feel ultimately insincere, plasticine, and desperate for their own sort of validation that the narrator can't give them. and beyond all that is a thrumming awareness of how static life is on a knife's edge waiting for the war-not-war to end. dusapin through the narrator's eyes juggles the seoul experience of ever moving city life against that of the narrator who is actively living through a war "people stopped believing is real." incredibly compelling little book where nothing happening is entirely the point.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Eating disorder
Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Gore, Sexual content, Vomit
Minor: Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Sexual harassment, War
the animals are all fish but they are killed violently to be prepped for consumption
fast-paced
reflective
fast-paced
I read this as though it was a black and white movie with neon lights for dashes of colour.
I’ve never read a voice quite like this.
I’ve never read a voice quite like this.
emotional
reflective
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
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:
Complicated
this book was okay.
the whole setting and the way in which it was described was really easy to picture, but i think that's the only thing that was done above average.
i hate books that don't end 'properly' and this book definitely leaves you speculating what happened next.
there were definitely things that were mentioned consistently that i thought had no further elaboration, and were just put in to spice up the story that would have otherwise been pretty boring. these definitely served no ultimate purpose to me.
there is also the implication of the protagonist having an eating disorder, which i wasn't expecting from this book.
definitely mid to me.
the whole setting and the way in which it was described was really easy to picture, but i think that's the only thing that was done above average.
i hate books that don't end 'properly' and this book definitely leaves you speculating what happened next.
there were definitely things that were mentioned consistently that i thought had no further elaboration, and were just put in to spice up the story that would have otherwise been pretty boring. these definitely served no ultimate purpose to me.
there is also the implication of the protagonist having an eating disorder, which i wasn't expecting from this book.
definitely mid to me.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I feel frustrated with myself that I kept wanting something to happen, to get answers. Books like these are tone poems more than anything else. This one felt like a single cluster chord played with the pedal held down until the sound faded. Empty, like a gutted fish. I kept thinking the ink, the scar, the specter of sex, her fraught relationship to food and her family, the squish and slime of the octopus - something would start meaning something. Something would happen. The fugu at the end! And yet. I don’t know what I expected to receive, but I didn’t get it.
,,Our beaches are still waiting for the end of a war that's been going on for so long people have stopped believing it's real. They build hotels, put up neon signs, but it's all fake, we're on a knife-edge, it could all give way any moment. We're living in limbo. In the winter that never ends."