Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho

28 reviews

devynhinds's review

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dark emotional tense slow-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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toofondofbooks_'s review

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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

"π’˜π’† π’˜π’†π’“π’† 𝒔𝒐 π’Šπ’π’π’π’„π’†π’π’• - π’Šπ’•π’” π’π’˜π’ π’Œπ’Šπ’π’… 𝒐𝒇 π’‘π’π’˜π’†π’“ - 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 π’šπ’π’– π’ˆπ’π’• 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 π’•π’‰π’Šπ’π’ˆπ’”, 𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒅 π’Šπ’• π’ˆπ’“π’π’˜π’Šπ’π’ˆ 𝒖𝒑. π’˜π’† π’•π’‰π’π’–π’ˆπ’‰π’• π’˜π’† π’Œπ’π’†π’˜ π’Šπ’• 𝒂𝒍𝒍, π’…π’Šπ’…π’'𝒕 π’˜π’†?"

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!
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maregred's review

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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

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sydneybedell's review

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emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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evagomoore's review against another edition

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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

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krys_kilz's review

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emotional reflective 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 loved reading a book dedicated to platonic love and friendship. As one reviewer put it, it felt "subtly subversive" within a dominant culture steeped in romantic love. The ebbs and flows of Fiona and Jane's friendship as they moved apart, grew increasingly distant and changed resonated deeply with my own experiences with long-term friendships. The unspeakable grief of losing the closeness and proximity you had as children and teenagers and the unbearable loneliness of being left behind. The raw emotion captured between these pages broke my heart and healed it simultaneously.

I also thought the story lines unpacking Jane and Fiona's relationships with their parents were really strong. Fiona as her mother's "own heart, walking outside her body" and Jane trying to save Julian in an attempt to save her father - the complexity and messiness were translated beautifully.

My favorite stories in the collection were: Cold Turkey, Clairvoyance, and the title story Fiona and Jane.
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bandysbooks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a reflection of two girls, their friendships, relationships, and struggles. 
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joana's review

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emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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kathleencoughlin's review

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fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.25

For a book called Fiona and Jane, these characters almost never interacted. I thought certain elements of the book had a lot of potential, but the author really narrowed in on parts that seemed more mundane. For example, I'd have like to know more about how Fiona and Jane reunited in LA or more about Jane's relationship with her mom or how Fiona turned her romantic life around to go from divorcΓ©e to wife and mother. Instead, we hopped around their a stories in a way that felt rather disjointed. Maybe it was because several sections were previously published as short stories, but it just felt like half a story, like there was a chunk missing out of the middle. I also felt like Fiona and Jane's characterization was a bit inconsistant. Jane seemed more reserved but was also apparently the bad influence who convinced Fiona to steal several thousand dollars from a church? I guess, I was just disappointed
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whatannikareads's review

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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 you’re looking for something along those lines, I can understand why you’d 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 like…..ok this is over I guess.

I’ve 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 it’s the most represented I’ve ever felt in a book; that literally could’ve been me in the story, so I appreciate that!
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