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graceheartsbooks's review
I wasn’t terribly interested/found the main character off putting
shortasianman's review against another edition
5.0
Words to describe this book: mind-bending, identity-crisis inducing (but, like, in a fun way), pun-filled.
Reading it made me feel present in the storytelling. Even without the meta-references to the protagonist’s world that seems eerily similar to the one we’re living in now, I caught myself questioning WWOMD? in my own life situations.
Reading it made me feel present in the storytelling. Even without the meta-references to the protagonist’s world that seems eerily similar to the one we’re living in now, I caught myself questioning WWOMD? in my own life situations.
sakeriver's review against another edition
This book and its narrator were so strange, I felt a bit unmoored while reading it—I had no idea what was going to happen from moment to moment. Yet throughout, I was drawn in, and I found myself connecting with things about this narrator even as I was confused, even repulsed by him. The feeling throughout of being aware of racism that other people can’t see was so familiar. In some ways, reading this book was similar to a feeling I have after reading a poem, where I can’t explain the poem or tell you what it meant, but it nevertheless leaves me feeling a lot of profound emotions, emotions that I can’t fully articulate.
breakerofspines's review against another edition
DNF at 53% and this is literally going no where and Matt is so unlikeable in a very BORING way. I just cant continue
pensivepelican's review against another edition
3.0
Matt Kim is a man who feels himself slowly disappear. People bump into him in the street as if they can’t see him and his actions appear to have no impact on his environment. He is estranged from his family. As a Korean man raised by Irish Catholic adoptive parents in Boston, he feels unmoored -- neither Asian enough nor American enough. He melts into the space between the walls. He soon finds that he has a doppelganger -- a double who seems to be a better version of himself. His girlfriend Yumi (You-me… get it?) is going through a similar experience.
The delivery is surreal and feels like someone trying to describe a dream before it slips away. Dreams occur in a part of the brain that doesn’t process lasting memories. If you want to remember the shards of a dream you had before it slips away, you have to articulate it by writing it down, telling it to someone or at least going over it in your mind before you fully awake. The first quarter of the book feels like that’s what Matt Kim is doing -- articulating the misty remnants of his life to try to hold onto it.
As the story moves on it becomes more grounded, coinciding with his trying to rekindle his relationship with his pre-teen daughter. Still, he feels invisible, in part because he’s an Asian man in Boston, which in the book is rife with dudebros, the KKK and white supremacists in red caps.
The story can be hard to follow at times because of the surreal quality, but it’s a good read if you take your time.
I received this Advance Reader Copy of Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
#DisappearDoppelgängerDisappear #NetGalley
The delivery is surreal and feels like someone trying to describe a dream before it slips away. Dreams occur in a part of the brain that doesn’t process lasting memories. If you want to remember the shards of a dream you had before it slips away, you have to articulate it by writing it down, telling it to someone or at least going over it in your mind before you fully awake. The first quarter of the book feels like that’s what Matt Kim is doing -- articulating the misty remnants of his life to try to hold onto it.
As the story moves on it becomes more grounded, coinciding with his trying to rekindle his relationship with his pre-teen daughter. Still, he feels invisible, in part because he’s an Asian man in Boston, which in the book is rife with dudebros, the KKK and white supremacists in red caps.
The story can be hard to follow at times because of the surreal quality, but it’s a good read if you take your time.
I received this Advance Reader Copy of Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
#DisappearDoppelgängerDisappear #NetGalley
kirinmccrory's review against another edition
5.0
How to even describe the reading of this book? Salesses simultaneously made me quake with the beauty of language and thought and peer deeper into its meaninglessness, its less meaning-ness, more meanness. If you read this book, you'll find yourself staring at you, or your dopplegänger, in the mirror, and bandying words about in your, or your dopplegänger's, review. What a book, what an act, what a writer.
sasha_in_a_box's review against another edition
3.0
I don't know what was happening in this book 80% of the time. It's like a Stefan sketch. This book has everything: jelly between walls, dopplegangers (one of them is x.x), self-insertion, all-purple preteens, defenestration, exasperated exes, post-it notes above the bed, fraternal-twin apartments, fear of ceiling fans, detectable chins, and Schrodinger's toy boxes metaphorical to parental love (?). I kind of maybe sometimes enjoyed it, but I have to admit the Asian American stereotype eluded me most of the time. Maybe I'm not smart enough for this book, or maybe the "it" of the novel is just not meant to be captured. Either way, I read this book. It was a weird one. Matthew Salesses is a strange person.
whatchareadingheather's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this book because normally anything regarding doppelgängers is right up my alley, and I am also trying to be proactive with reading more books written by and about Asian Americans as I myself am Asian American. Unfortunately, I feel like there were 3 tones to this book. From the description, I thought I would be jumping into a mystery turned self-acceptance story (regarding the character of Matt). Instead, I got 1 part being non-white in Trump's America (even though it's not blatantly stated that Trump is the "KKK endorsed presidential candidate"), 1 part being Asian American in the modern world (filled with the very real stereotypes that Asian Americans need to work to unlearn), and 1 part doppelgänger discovery story (where the thriller/mystery type stuff lands). If the 3 aspects of the story were 3 separate books focused on those particular themes I think I would have enjoyed them a lot more.
sumayyah_t's review against another edition
4.0
Disappear
This book is WEIRD! Part existential crisis, part murder mystery, part treatise on racism in America. Matt Kim feels like he is disappearing. He has lost his family, parts of his apartment, and his sense of self. He discovers that there is another world, another him, and possibly, another chance to learn to be human. (Also, does it count as a self-insert if you change your race and appearance? Asking for a friend.)
This book is WEIRD! Part existential crisis, part murder mystery, part treatise on racism in America. Matt Kim feels like he is disappearing. He has lost his family, parts of his apartment, and his sense of self. He discovers that there is another world, another him, and possibly, another chance to learn to be human. (Also, does it count as a self-insert if you change your race and appearance? Asking for a friend.)