Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Home Remedies by Xuan Juliana Wang

1 review

replaceblue's review

mysterious reflective medium-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

2.5

I mean, it was fine. The collection takes a bit to find its footing - the first story feels like a lot of things happening and ending in loose threads (or maybe I just didn't get it), the second one is pretty good, the third one is all right, the fourth one is a disappointing dose of ableism towards people with Downs

(a rich woman arranges for a guy to marry her adult daughter with down's and the dude treats it essentially like a necessary evil to get rich)

, and so forth. I liked the themes, but the way they were handled didn't make me feel much.

There are some parts that made me think - one line in the first story about Chinese love being about sacrifice instead of making each other happy sticks with me even now - but overall it just didn't do much for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

elaboration on the content warnings - ableism is in "for our children and for ourselves", specifically towards people with down's, r word used - adult/minor is in "the art of straying off course",

the narrator reminiscences on what's implied to be her childhood (doing math homework while "the adults" talk) and an architect with a moustache comes to talk to her, and it's revealed that the architect liked her even then + wanted to kiss her, the two of them eventually sleep together when the narrator turns 18 and marry. the architect is said to be 20 yrs older than her

-the dad in "algorithmic problem-solving [...]" is just like a dick be careful if you're sensitive to parents who aren't great