A review by rara2018
Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

4.0

<I>Bestiary</I> is a prime example of why I don’t DNF books. It genuinely took me an entire month to get past the first forty-ish pages because I just could not get into it at all. The book was disturbing and honestly a little disgusting at times, and at first that just made it really hard for me to connect to anything that was happening (seriously, though, I genuinely think if I had a nickel every time characters peed their pants or just generally peed not in the toilet, I’d have at least a whole dollar). Luckily, I persevered out of stubbornness and was treated with a moving and genuinely compelling story of generational trauma, colonization, and motherhood. I found I enjoyed (?) Mother’s chapters and Ama’s interlude the most out of anything in the book, especially with how the latter included footnotes. Ben was also such an amazing character who really grounded the story in her bluntness. The middle chunk I found to be the best part of the story with the combination of folklore and the family’s story, since I truly did not like the beginning and didn’t quite get the ending, but I don’t think everything in this book was meant for me. I’m definitely going to read more by Chang since I really enjoy her writing (most of the time) despite me being deeply uncomfortable for a decent chunk of this.