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

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.

Content Warnings

mateoj's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

oh this was so good. this was so good! just the right side of scary without being over-the-top, the storylines integrated (near) seamlessly... I'm kind of in awe. not that it was perfect, because it wasn't, but that's a damn good book.
(and once again we have a book that taps into one of my very specific fears/fascinations: two-headed snakes!)

Content Warnings

foreverinastory's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

whatellisreadnext's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵.

In 1986, a teenage girl gets lost in an abandoned rubber plantation, and is forever changed. 25 years later, an unhappy Vietnamese-American woman vanishes without a trace.

This book was fantastic. I read it a few months back, and have just been sitting with my feelings on it. Not quite being sure how to articulate them, but it's well deserved Women's Prize nomination felt like the perfect time to try. Build Your House Around My Body does so much. It is vast and winding and absolutely brilliant.

Part of the fun is going on this journey not knowing how it's all connected, just going with the flow of it, and getting that giddy feeling when a character from a past chapter pops into one of the other story lines. I loved how these characters were hidden throughout the narrative, how in one they'd be named and others just referred to as 'the medium' or 'the policeman', it made putting two and two together even more rewarding.

The only reason this wasn't a 4 star read, is because it took me a lot of time and brain power. Don't get me wrong I loved this, but it didn't have that effortless reading sparkle that makes me give a book 5 stars, but it came pretty damn close. It was empowering, and dark and chock-full of dry humour. Plus the ending, and how it all came together was brilliant. If you've been thinking about reading this, here's your push to do it, I very much doubt you'll regret it.

Content Warnings

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.

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