Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho

3 reviews

mhelmick28's review

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challenging reflective fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

characters unlikeable in a way that put me off at times, wanted this to be so much more than it was

Read the content warnings - some things weren’t necessary graphic but they were sudden/dropped in what felt like a careless way at times and the characters’ apathy towards these things really threw me off 

Jane’s dad’s death really felt like it came out of nowhere and then the emotionally impacts of that weren’t fully addressed until the last few pages of the book. I really wanted Jane’s journey with her sexuality to feel more interconnected with her dad’s but it felt seemingly random to me that they were both queer

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jaynovara's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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afi_whatafireads's review

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I don't know. I guess, I was waiting for you to come back.


This book left me feeling all sorts of things, and despite the VERY polarizing reviews, I don't hate it. Honestly, I can say that I enjoyed the book. The writing was easy to read, the story is mundane but filled with layers of topics on socialism, racism and also mental health. I would say, the author did a good take on exploring the realistic stories on friendship, family, individualism and mostly just living everyday.

Personal Ratings: 3.85🌟

Short Summary
Fiona and Jane is a debut novel told in two different perspectives, in which we will follow Jane and the other in the perspective of Fiona. I would say that the plot of the book is nothing much but a simple prose of living and their daily lives. The alternate chapters serves like short stories, with each chapter to be in different timelines, like showing snippets of their lives like flipping through a photo album. A story of love, family and mostly a friendship that transcends all kinds of love.

Personal Thoughts
If you're going into this book looking for a book about "Besties-Forever-I-Would-Always-Be-With-You" kinda book, I would say to just chuck out every expectations you have going into the book.The story is pretty simple to be honest, and it does not have a grand plot or progression of characters. The author wrote for what I would say, a realistic take on life. Jane and Fiona are two characters that left me a bit unhinged at some parts, but somehow they're realistic in a way there are parts of them that I can relate.

The Writing Style and the Narration of the story is a bit unique. Its told in alternate voices of the characters, but somehow Jane's POV is written in First-POV whilst Fiona's POV is written in third-POV. I honestly don't understand the significance of the writing style but it somehow worked in a way? But with these kind of stories, I felt like we can see Jane's character progression more rather than Fiona as we're delving into her thoughts and her mistakes as a person. I would say, I understood the polarizing reviews on how the timeline is messed up, but I took it as like reading Short Stories of different snippets of their lives. Yes, its not told in chronological order, but in some ways, I liked that their stories are written like that. In a way, we get to see the mistakes they did when they were younger and even when they grew older.

The prose of the story seemed simple but in a way, the author did explored various topics that are heavy and can be quite triggering for some. Issues of Racism, socialism, exploring your gender, mental health are a few topics that she had managed to talk about in the book. The fact that both of Fiona and Jane are Asian American, made them somehow closer to one another. In a sense, I kind of understood certain parts of the story on where there are things that are quite offensive but its so normalize that we just accept it as another norm in our life. It was eye opening and also relatable in a sense.

The Characters in the book are unhinged but you can't help but love them. You will judge their choices and will get angry at some parts but in some ways, Fiona and Jane are like two individuals that exists in your life, in which you'll relate more to this story. The people that these two had met and the pain they had to go thru and at the end of the day, they will come to be with each other. I read a lot of reviews on how this book did not highlight more on their friendship, and while I do agree that a bit more development would have been good, their friendship was also realistic. In some ways, even you have a best friend that you love with your whole heart, there will be moments of falling out and most friends that are for life are not the ones that you will be together 24/7, but those that were there for you during the happy and sad times, the ones that will do things that seemed ridiculous to protect you and ones that will be angry and at you . The portrayal of their friendship is like a tree, whilst its constantly there, there will be times the leaves will fall but it will grow again anew.

Overall I would say that this book is not for everyone, but its a read that you can read in one seating. Its light but with a lot of topics that were talked about. Its also best that you go into the book with no expectations. Take it like reading a collection of short stories and unlocking different memories in each chapter. You will hate certain chapters but at the end, such is life and that's somehow the message that the author is trying to convey, I feel and I would say it was conveyed well.

Thank you to Times Reads for generously providing me this gorgeous copy of the book.

Disclaimers: All my reviews are my thoughts of the book and according to my personal preferences. Even though I had received a review copy, it does not affect my review and honest thoughts for the book.


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