A review by freddie
Tale of the Dreamer's Son by Preeta Samarasan

3.0

The author has a highly distinct voice and I admire that. The stream-of-consciousness-esque first person narration lends a nice Manglish-inspired voice, but is somewhat overwritten with its overuse of hyphenated adjectives and "lists without commas" (I'm not sure what is the name of this device). Nonetheless, I really respect how blunt this novel is in its critique of racial and religious relations in Malaysia. The story is able to weave the complicated reality of the Malaysian society with the messy personal lives of its cast of toxic, petty characters.