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readinglitwithbritt's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Outing, Racism, and Sexism
Moderate: Cancer, Gaslighting, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Abortion, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and War
toofondofbooks_'s review
emotional
funny
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
3.5
"ππ ππππ ππ ππππππππ - πππ πππ ππππ
ππ πππππ - ππππππ πππ πππ ππ ππ ππ ππππππ
ππ ππππππ, πππππππ
ππ πππππππ ππ. ππ πππππππ ππ ππππ ππ πππ, π
ππ
π'π ππ?"
This book of short stories chronicles the lives and friendship of Fiona and Jane, two Tawainese women who grew up together and are now trying to find themselves out in the world. They navigate their friendship, relationships, sexuality and family dynamics along the way.
I don't usually have a great relationship with books of short stories, but I liked this one. I think that the stories actually being related and tying into one another really helped. The first story, right off the bat, broke my heart, and I was both scared and excited to read the rest. The stories were all very engaging, but my favorite was "Cold Turkey," which occurs around the halfway mark. I also liked that the side characters who fleshed out the worlds of Fiona & Jane felt complete and real, for better and for worse.
The only reason why this didn't end up getting rated higher for me was - for it being a book about friendship, I didn't see a whole lot of....well, friendship. Fiona & Jane are supposed to be best friends, but in some stories, they don't interact at all or seldom mention each other. When they do. have scenes together, you can tell that there is love there, but it doesn't feel like they should even still be friends - the chemistry wasn't really there for me. However, overall, I did enjoy this read!
This book of short stories chronicles the lives and friendship of Fiona and Jane, two Tawainese women who grew up together and are now trying to find themselves out in the world. They navigate their friendship, relationships, sexuality and family dynamics along the way.
I don't usually have a great relationship with books of short stories, but I liked this one. I think that the stories actually being related and tying into one another really helped. The first story, right off the bat, broke my heart, and I was both scared and excited to read the rest. The stories were all very engaging, but my favorite was "Cold Turkey," which occurs around the halfway mark. I also liked that the side characters who fleshed out the worlds of Fiona & Jane felt complete and real, for better and for worse.
The only reason why this didn't end up getting rated higher for me was - for it being a book about friendship, I didn't see a whole lot of....well, friendship. Fiona & Jane are supposed to be best friends, but in some stories, they don't interact at all or seldom mention each other. When they do. have scenes together, you can tell that there is love there, but it doesn't feel like they should even still be friends - the chemistry wasn't really there for me. However, overall, I did enjoy this read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Abandonment, Outing, Infidelity, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Fatphobia, Grief, Death, Child death, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Cancer, Alcohol, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Dementia, Trafficking, and Abortion
maregred's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol and Outing
Moderate: Death of parent, Cancer, Abandonment, Physical abuse, and Racism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, War, Vomit, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Drug use, Cursing, Abortion, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual assault
stevie's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Toxic relationship, Biphobia, Infidelity, Outing, Suicide, Cancer, Death of parent, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Suicidal thoughts
evagomoore's review against another edition
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Outing, Abandonment, and Suicide
afi_whatafireads's review
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: 3.85π
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Racial slurs
hayleyvharrington's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cancer, Grief, Drug use, Infidelity, Outing, Xenophobia, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Classism, Death of parent, Mental illness, and Racism
whatannikareads's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.0
I thought it was ok! I think the book is less friendship-oriented than advertised; rather we follow fiona and Jane as individual people whose relationship sometimes intersects with the situation of each chapter of their lives. So if youβre looking for something along those lines, I can understand why youβd be disappointed. I think the writing itself is very nice and provides distinct imagery, and I enjoyed the dialogue and diversity of characters. The ending is a little corny tbh and kinda just left me feeling likeβ¦..ok this is over I guess.
Iβve bumped it up to four stars bc I enjoy how diverse the Asian characters are, who are obviously written from experience. These are definitely the types of people I grew up with, and paints Asian American characters in particular as complex people. And I also enjoyed this bc the author really represented SoCal/our hometown (go Cerritos lmao) and itβs the most represented Iβve ever felt in a book; that literally couldβve been me in the story, so I appreciate that!
Iβve bumped it up to four stars bc I enjoy how diverse the Asian characters are, who are obviously written from experience. These are definitely the types of people I grew up with, and paints Asian American characters in particular as complex people. And I also enjoyed this bc the author really represented SoCal/our hometown (go Cerritos lmao) and itβs the most represented Iβve ever felt in a book; that literally couldβve been me in the story, so I appreciate that!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity, Suicide, Alcohol, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Death of parent, and Sexual content
leighannebfd3b's review
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide
readingwithmelise's review
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I enjoyed this book. I liked that we got insight into both girlsβ lives as the they dealt with family and personal struggles. Friendships are just as hard, if not harder (imo), to maintain than normal relationships.
I felt that Fiona and Jane could have had their own, separate books. It would have been interesting to learn more about Janeβs relationship with her father and mother. Although Jane can be impulsive, she felt more calculated, overall.
Fionaβs story was really intriguing to me because she was a little more chaotic in her choices. I empathized with her to some degree in how she acted out when met with challenges.
Overall, Iβm really glad I selected this as my January BOTM. I look forward to more of Chen Hoβs writing.
I felt that Fiona and Jane could have had their own, separate books. It would have been interesting to learn more about Janeβs relationship with her father and mother. Although Jane can be impulsive, she felt more calculated, overall.
Fionaβs story was really intriguing to me because she was a little more chaotic in her choices. I empathized with her to some degree in how she acted out when met with challenges.
Overall, Iβm really glad I selected this as my January BOTM. I look forward to more of Chen Hoβs writing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
Moderate: Abandonment, Abortion, and Death of parent