A review by beeminor
Salt Fish Girl by Larissa Lai

adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Is this book perfect? No. 

Are there parts I wish were drawn out and more in depth? Yes. 

Were there moments when all the built up tension was broken? Yes. 

Am I obsessed with this book? Absolutely! 

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book quite like this one and for that I’m willing to overlook what I would typically consider flaws. 

I found this book to be incredibly readable. I found myself immersed in it. It also has some beautiful usage of language too. It’s one of those ones you either love or hate. 

But I think one of my favorite things about this book was the unpredictability of it. I love that Lai didn’t give us everything and didn’t spell it all out. It just left me thinking and pondering and wondering “hmm.” And I think that’s what some readers don’t like about it. In a lot of ways Lai has expertly set this story up so that the reader’s imagine can flourish and fill in the blanks.  

Highly recommend if you’re into queer dystopian magical-realism creation mythology lol. It felt like having an epic dream that turns nightmarish at points. It also reminds me of a Studio Ghibli film. Like Spirited Away meets Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake.