Reviews with content warning for Rape - Build Your House Around My Body

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.

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baekchen's review against another edition

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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.

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regal_leaves's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith is a a creepy, fever dream of a novel about two young women who go missing decades apart, both are fearless and lost. And they will both have their revenge.

Right off the bat – this book is like nothing I’ve read before and in all honestly I don’t know how to describe the experience of reading it. There’s magical realism, ghosts, two headed serpents and so much more that will have you on the edge of your seat while reading.

For the most part we’re trying to piece together Winnie’s story as we learn of her disappearance in the first chapter. There are a handful of intertwined timelines that all drop breadcrumbs of information, building to build a complex puzzle of anguish and horror set over several decades.

- READ FULL REVIEW AT https://wp.me/pbWTXv-74 -

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biblio_jordyn's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

What could have been better?
The pacing could sometimes feel slow.

What I enjoyed?

Whoa! This book was complex in the best kind of way. You get multiple time periods and points of view to get a story that eventually ties together to make your eyes go wide. I think this novel shows the author’s phenomenal storytelling abilities as she intertwines the time periods and characters lives seamlessly together by the end in some ways I saw coming and other ways I didn’t.

This story is dark! Has a lot of paranormal elements! Has a revenge plot and some thriller elements tied in too, while also introducing us to some elements of Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American experience and cultural dynamics (this author is an #ownvoices author).

This is a book I feel like I would have loved to have a college literature class about! There’s a lot to unpack and it has a lot going on, but I personally think it’s in the best way possible. I literally was writing down my guesses and all the connections of the characters as I read (there’s also a cheat cheat of characters at the beginning of the book if needed).

I recommend this book to people who don’t mind a slower pace story, with time shifts and multiple povs, and are looking for a complex read that’s different than anything they’ve ever read before!

Thank you to random house for the free copy in exchange for an honest review

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