A review by danielles_reads
Walking Practice by Dolki Min

dark funny fast-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

I wondered how it was even possible to divide something with so many visible variants into just two groups [men and women]. But humans keep bringing up their criteria and judge me by it. In the subway, in the street, in restaurants, in shopping malls, in parks . . . their expressions and words that question my humanity irrespective of where I am made me tear myself apart and rebuild myself piece by piece. I’ve invested close to ten years of my time figuring out what exactly their criteria are. My conclusion is that there are no such criteria.

This book is sooo weird lol. I knew it would be weird going in, but somehow it ended up being even weirder than I thought. There is a huge focus on sex, with explicit sexual content combined with blood and gore in a way that I’m sure will turn off a lot of readers. There are also a few fatphobic descriptions that felt entirely unnecessary to the story.

I’m always a fan of stories about aliens observing humanity from the point of view of an outsider, so I liked this book from that standpoint. It had a lot to say about humanity’s rules and expectations for how people should act, especially in terms of gender roles, and how isolating that can be. 

This book doesn’t have much of a plot, and is mostly just the day-to-day life of the main character. It did start feeling a little repetitive in the second half (so many complaints about stairs lol), but then the book ended. The ending was pretty sudden and kind of bittersweet, but I think it worked well for the story.
Mumu (cute!) is finally taken down by someone of their own kind.
 

The real highlight of the book is the character’s extremely sardonic way of speaking directly to the reader. This really differentiates the book from other alien characters, and is strengthened even more by the audiobook narrator, who did a fantastic job bringing this strange character to life. There were also some cool sound effects that enabled the listener to feel as disoriented as the MC does. The ebook also made tons of interesting stylistic choices to convey the alien’s shifting mindset, so I was glad I had a copy of it along with the audio.

There is not much world building in this book, which I think was fine for the story the author wanted to tell. We got a tiny bit of the alien’s backstory, but the story mostly leaned into the weird aspects of the alien’s physical body and lifestyle on Earth. Really this book feels more like horror than science fiction.

Overall, I think Dolki Min wrote a very unique story, and Victoria Caudle’s translation was very effective. I’d definitely be interested in reading more from them.

To tell the truth, having someone not reply and treat me as a nonentity is a teeth-chatteringly frightening experience. There are so many people who ignore someone as naturally as eating. […] Answering human leeches like her is almost like a reflex for me, probably because the violence of going unanswered has cut me to my core.
Honestly, relatable
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