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thetainaship's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Outing
Moderate: Cancer, Racism, and Abandonment
Minor: Car accident
mccall17's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
Graphic: Rape, Blood, Death, Violence, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault
lilly_anne's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Homophobia
Moderate: Physical abuse, Cancer, Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Death, and Murder
Minor: Rape and Racism
charnyreads's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Sexual assault, Grief, Blood, Cancer, Death, Rape, Racism, Pregnancy, Murder, Outing, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
mooandshoe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I do want to explain one content warning (not a spoiler, not really) - I tagged it as graphic for sexual assault because there is an attempted rape scene. Nothing actually happens, but the scene is graphic enough particularly in descriptions of thoughts and emotions that it may be upsetting if this is a topic that is triggering to you.
Graphic: Sexual assault, Body horror, Violence, and Stalking
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Gaslighting
Minor: Car accident and Cancer
gracelynsreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Car accident and Lesbophobia
Minor: Cancer
melcanread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I liked that it was normalising LGBT+ relationships while also highlighting the struggles of being in one, while also not making it the main focus and the entire character's personality. There were layers to each of the characters that made them real. Believable. We all know people like this. People who are heavily superstitious, religious to a fault, people who don't rock the boat for fear of ruining current relationships.
I liked that there was no specific bad guy per se, no Disney villain to be defeated, because there was humanity in pretty much every single character. You could understand where most of these characters were coming from, why they made the decisions they made. Even if those decisions were somewhat unrealistic for every day life. Although, this does come from a white woman who did not grow up in Malaysia, so maybe some of their actions are normal and I don't know enough about the culture.
I think my main gripe that I had with this book, and the reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because at times the writing was unclear. Because this story relied on multiple backstories, it was easy to get lost in who's backstory was whose. And there was no clear divide as to what was happening in the main story vs what was extra information or hallucinations caused by... well, whatever it was caused by (trying not to give spoilers).
Another issue that I had was that, yes, while the characters were wonderfully written and somewhat realistic, it felt like some of the characters were forced to do what they did, if that makes sense. It didn't feel like an obvious choice to be made, or even a natural one. It felt like Zen Cho had taken these characters flaws, put them on steroids and charged forward which did kind of flatten them a bit and take me out of the moment.
However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was a beautiful story, and very gripping. I absolutely recommend it to anyone who is interested in traditional Asian cultures and paranormal stuffs intertwined with religions.
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Blood, and Homophobia
natashaleighton_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Kidnapping, Homophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
ruthjenkins's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Sexual violence and Violence
Moderate: Blood and Rape
Minor: Homophobia
_forestofpages's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I absolutely loved her family. Some of them weren't so great (though I related to that too), but her parents are amazing. It's refreshing seeing a teenager in a book with decent parents for once. Her Ah Ma reminded me so much of my own grandmother, and she was truly a complex character.
There is a crime and mystery element to this along with the supernatural/mythology aspects all through the lens of interesting and vivid Malaysian culture. The blend of the modern and ancient was something I haven't read in some time and this book reminded me how much I missed it. This was also a great representation of a closeted character with a traditional family dating long-distance an "out" person. The relationship, though not a main focus, was still handled very well and realistically. I appreciated that it wasn't all the character thought about, but was still a big part of her life.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys magical realism, mythology and well done LGBT rep, with a side of dysfunctional but well intentioned family drama.
Graphic: Blood and Death
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Cursing, Drug use, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Racism, Classism, Gun violence, and Domestic abuse