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sarahec's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use
Minor: Incest and Rape
ericageorge91's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book was a slow burn love. I was invested from the beginning because I needed to know what happened to the missing girls/women but it also felt like a puzzle?? There are multiple POV and time jumps but each character’s perspective would reference previous characters provide further insight to their background. I found myself looking forward to discovering these little nuggets and callbacks.
The horror in this story would slowly creep in the best way possible. Several scenes had me shivering. Please read this book!! 🤗
The horror in this story would slowly creep in the best way possible. Several scenes had me shivering. Please read this book!! 🤗
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, and Body horror
Moderate: Sexism, Animal death, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault, War, Incest, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Vomit
dianahincureads's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Set entirely in Vietnam, Build Your House Around My Body is a slow burn. It takes its time introducing the different timelines and developing the characters. It paints a vivid portrait of Vietnam, both rural and urban. Aside from the mysterious atmosphere of the novel, this was definitely my favourite aspect. Vietnamese cuisine and culture are described in detail, with entire pages dedicated to traditional food and customs.
The unifying threads of the novel are supernatural. Ghosts are real. They walk among us. Vietnamese folklore comes to life and trauma manifests itself in concrete, terrifying ways. However, as the author mentions in an interview, the real spook in the novel is colonialism. Bouncing back and forth from 1945 to 2011, Build Your House Around My Body covers many turning points in Vietnam’s history and the impact the war had on the people.
The plot revolves around 2 women. Both of them disappear in mysterious circumstances, years apart. Winnie, an American Vietnamese, arrives in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City since 1976) in 2010 to distance herself from her family and start over. However, she is not mentally stable and starts doing everything in her power to erase herself. Winnie is gliding through life like a ghost. She strives to become invisible. At work, on the street, and even in small groups of people. Violet Kupersmith does a fantastic job exploring mental health, identity, and belonging through Winnie’s slow descent into madness.
Binh, on the other hand, is full of life, determined to have her way regardless of the consequences. She grows up in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, unable (and unwilling) to leave her hometown as all the other young adults move to big cities to try their luck.
Winnie and Binh are opposites in character. They belong to different worlds and yet their destinies are linked.
Build Your House Around My Body is a haunting journey throughout time across Vietnam.
I recommend this, especially if you enjoy slow burns and fantasy/supernatural elements.
The unifying threads of the novel are supernatural. Ghosts are real. They walk among us. Vietnamese folklore comes to life and trauma manifests itself in concrete, terrifying ways. However, as the author mentions in an interview, the real spook in the novel is colonialism. Bouncing back and forth from 1945 to 2011, Build Your House Around My Body covers many turning points in Vietnam’s history and the impact the war had on the people.
The plot revolves around 2 women. Both of them disappear in mysterious circumstances, years apart. Winnie, an American Vietnamese, arrives in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City since 1976) in 2010 to distance herself from her family and start over. However, she is not mentally stable and starts doing everything in her power to erase herself. Winnie is gliding through life like a ghost. She strives to become invisible. At work, on the street, and even in small groups of people. Violet Kupersmith does a fantastic job exploring mental health, identity, and belonging through Winnie’s slow descent into madness.
Binh, on the other hand, is full of life, determined to have her way regardless of the consequences. She grows up in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, unable (and unwilling) to leave her hometown as all the other young adults move to big cities to try their luck.
Winnie and Binh are opposites in character. They belong to different worlds and yet their destinies are linked.
Build Your House Around My Body is a haunting journey throughout time across Vietnam.
I recommend this, especially if you enjoy slow burns and fantasy/supernatural elements.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Drug use, Addiction, and Death
Minor: Rape, Incest, Vomit, and Eating disorder
writingcaia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
What a trip this book was!
Using family trees and native Vietnamese myths and folklore, the author tells the story of several characters to encompass such a large part of Vietnam’s most recent history (going back more than 50 years), and it all starts with the disappearance of a Vietnamese American young woman with severe mental issues by the time it occurs, some of them are real some are hauntings.
Going back from there we will find the nature of the man she lives with, his brother, and most importantly the girl who was their everything when they were young. A wild girl who hunts snakes, and she’s the connection to a ghost hunter and exorcist, a man the forest chose to save from the war, to a mother without a daughter, to French occupation, to rape and serfdom.
It’s not the easiest read due to its complicated timeline, that keeps shifting, going back and forward with no great logic, but you get used to it after a while and when the dots all start connecting, when you understand that what matters are the different stories and the history, not the timeline or that one story it becomes addictive.
Not knowing Vietnam or its people I believe this is the closest I will ever get, as the book brilliantly woven a tale that encompasses so much of the culture, history, and people, also the present and how it is affected by its folklore and past.
Definitely a read I recommend, especially if you’re looking for a great read for API month.
Using family trees and native Vietnamese myths and folklore, the author tells the story of several characters to encompass such a large part of Vietnam’s most recent history (going back more than 50 years), and it all starts with the disappearance of a Vietnamese American young woman with severe mental issues by the time it occurs, some of them are real some are hauntings.
Going back from there we will find the nature of the man she lives with, his brother, and most importantly the girl who was their everything when they were young. A wild girl who hunts snakes, and she’s the connection to a ghost hunter and exorcist, a man the forest chose to save from the war, to a mother without a daughter, to French occupation, to rape and serfdom.
It’s not the easiest read due to its complicated timeline, that keeps shifting, going back and forward with no great logic, but you get used to it after a while and when the dots all start connecting, when you understand that what matters are the different stories and the history, not the timeline or that one story it becomes addictive.
Not knowing Vietnam or its people I believe this is the closest I will ever get, as the book brilliantly woven a tale that encompasses so much of the culture, history, and people, also the present and how it is affected by its folklore and past.
Definitely a read I recommend, especially if you’re looking for a great read for API month.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Colonisation, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Sexual harassment, War, Incest, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Pedophilia, and Rape
hannakutlu's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: War, Sexual assault, Grief, Animal cruelty, Death, Eating disorder, Incest, and Murder
feebles640's review
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Body horror, Vomit, and Murder
Moderate: Racism and Rape
Minor: Incest and Eating disorder
foreverinastory's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
This was something else. If you really do not like snakes, don't read this one. There's lots of snakes especially cobras and other venomous ones. And a snake nose man--inserts a snake in his nose. It was very gross.
Rep: Biracial Vietnamese-American cishet female MC, cishet Vietnamese cast.
CWs: Blood, body horror (including swapping bodies and possession), drug use/abuse, death, murder, animal cruelty (capturing snakes to take venom, attempted dog kidnapping to take to a restaurant), gore, injury/injury detail, sexual assault, sexual content, sexual violence, snakes, suicide, toxic friendship, violence, xenophobia. Moderate: Misogyny, incest, rape, attempted necrophilia, colonisation, sexism. Minor: eating disorder, cursing, racism, war.
Rep: Biracial Vietnamese-American cishet female MC, cishet Vietnamese cast.
CWs: Blood, body horror (including swapping bodies and possession), drug use/abuse, death, murder, animal cruelty (capturing snakes to take venom, attempted dog kidnapping to take to a restaurant), gore, injury/injury detail, sexual assault, sexual content, sexual violence, snakes, suicide, toxic friendship, violence, xenophobia. Moderate: Misogyny, incest, rape, attempted necrophilia, colonisation, sexism. Minor: eating disorder, cursing, racism, war.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Gore, Drug use, Alcohol, Blood, Xenophobia, Body horror, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Violence
Moderate: Incest, Sexism, Misogyny, Rape, and Colonisation
Minor: Cursing, Eating disorder, Racism, and War
baekchen's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I honestly don't know where to begin with all the praise I have for this absolutely stunning debut.
Everything in Build Your House Around My Body is deeply lush and alive, but most of all haunted; the land, the animals, the people, their homes. Violet Kupersmith brings the Vietnam of past and present to life with such vivid and magical imagery, it felt like I was right in the middle of it all—right there with Winnie and Binh, through everything they experienced to the final resolutions of their stories. I loved them both so incredibly much, they're so deeply flawed and felt so tangible, Binh so fiery and Winnie so ghostly. Really, I loved all the women in this book with all my heart, and I hated most, if not all, male characters with such a passion.. I wanted them all to perish! They filled me with so much rage!
All the different timelines and povs fit right where they were and made sense in the flow of the story. They're interwoven so skilfully and seamlessly, and it was so incredibly satisfying and rewarding seeing it all click into place while reading.side note: I love how there is so much braiding in the book when the book itself is one big plait with all of the strands of the story coming together. That just feels so right. It is a slow burn and pretty dark, but it is also gripping and entertaining, and that ending was so cathartic and lovely.
In other words, I loved this so so so much! It's only January, but I can still confidently say this will be one of my favourites of the year (and of all time), and I want and need everyone to read it!!
I think this is the perfect book for you if you like stories about women freeing themselves and each other told with beautiful, descriptive prose, a big serving of ghosts, revenge, folklore, snakes, and a side of history and nature.
Everything in Build Your House Around My Body is deeply lush and alive, but most of all haunted; the land, the animals, the people, their homes. Violet Kupersmith brings the Vietnam of past and present to life with such vivid and magical imagery, it felt like I was right in the middle of it all—right there with Winnie and Binh, through everything they experienced to the final resolutions of their stories. I loved them both so incredibly much, they're so deeply flawed and felt so tangible, Binh so fiery and Winnie so ghostly. Really, I loved all the women in this book with all my heart, and I hated most, if not all, male characters with such a passion.. I wanted them all to perish! They filled me with so much rage!
All the different timelines and povs fit right where they were and made sense in the flow of the story. They're interwoven so skilfully and seamlessly, and it was so incredibly satisfying and rewarding seeing it all click into place while reading.
In other words, I loved this so so so much! It's only January, but I can still confidently say this will be one of my favourites of the year (and of all time), and I want and need everyone to read it!!
I think this is the perfect book for you if you like stories about women freeing themselves and each other told with beautiful, descriptive prose, a big serving of ghosts, revenge, folklore, snakes, and a side of history and nature.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Drug abuse
Moderate: Incest, Sexual assault, Misogyny, and Rape
Minor: Eating disorder
dauphine's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-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: Body horror
Moderate: Sexual assault and Incest
Minor: Eating disorder
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