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abij's reviews
62 reviews
The Fetishist by Katherine Min
Pleased to say that I enjoyed this offbeat novel and found it compulsively readable.
Min has written a confronting and unique story about a young woman trying to get revenge on the man that she believes drove her mother to commit suicide. The writing delves into the lives of several characters, and explores themes of fetishism (obviously) and chronic illness.
I appreciated the way the author kept the momentum of the story line by jumping between different characters and places in time, but would have appreciated more time spent with some of the characters that were explored less than others.
Initially I was confused by the route that the story took, and then was pleasantly surprised when I remembered the Author's Note that is included at the beginning. Min’s introduction (alongside those last two excellent chapters of the novel) changes the entire narrative and meaning of the events, as she warns that the story is a fairytale of sorts, and that every story has a happy ending depending on where you put the ending. I won't say anything else - in order to avoid the risk of spoilers - but the author's sometimes scathing wit, as well as her excellent framing of the narrative, really made for a unique novel that kept me thinking about it long after reading it.
Min has written a confronting and unique story about a young woman trying to get revenge on the man that she believes drove her mother to commit suicide. The writing delves into the lives of several characters, and explores themes of fetishism (obviously) and chronic illness.
I appreciated the way the author kept the momentum of the story line by jumping between different characters and places in time, but would have appreciated more time spent with some of the characters that were explored less than others.
Initially I was confused by the route that the story took, and then was pleasantly surprised when I remembered the Author's Note that is included at the beginning. Min’s introduction (alongside those last two excellent chapters of the novel) changes the entire narrative and meaning of the events, as she warns that the story is a fairytale of sorts, and that every story has a happy ending depending on where you put the ending. I won't say anything else - in order to avoid the risk of spoilers - but the author's sometimes scathing wit, as well as her excellent framing of the narrative, really made for a unique novel that kept me thinking about it long after reading it.
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Highlights were The Resident and Especially Heinous
Bad Habit by Alana S. Portero
This was soooo wonderful.
Bad Habit follows a young trans woman growing up in a working class Madrid neighbourhood. She watches young people around her die from drug overdoses and older people work themselves into illness, and she finds community with other outsiders/queer people that she meets.
The novel is full of pain and violence but uplifted by the main characters attachment to the people around her. The author's writing about women, whether cis or trans, is some of the best and most loving I've read. The main character pays the most attention to the women that society treats badly (e.g. the old woman accused of being a witch, the elderly trans woman who cares for her mother, the group of sex workers she becomes friends with), and some of the best parts in the novel are when these women are being described.
Overall I'd recommend that readers be careful because there is a lot of violence/homophobia/transphobia depictions in this book that might be upsetting, but it's well worth the read. Portero beautifully depicts a perspective that I think is missing from a lot of queer discourse, as personally I'm used to seeing a lot of middle-class problems be pushed to the forefront. It was refreshing to read a book that concerned itself with discussion of class as well as queerness, and how the two intersect.
Bad Habit follows a young trans woman growing up in a working class Madrid neighbourhood. She watches young people around her die from drug overdoses and older people work themselves into illness, and she finds community with other outsiders/queer people that she meets.
The novel is full of pain and violence but uplifted by the main characters attachment to the people around her. The author's writing about women, whether cis or trans, is some of the best and most loving I've read. The main character pays the most attention to the women that society treats badly (e.g. the old woman accused of being a witch, the elderly trans woman who cares for her mother, the group of sex workers she becomes friends with), and some of the best parts in the novel are when these women are being described.
Overall I'd recommend that readers be careful because there is a lot of violence/homophobia/transphobia depictions in this book that might be upsetting, but it's well worth the read. Portero beautifully depicts a perspective that I think is missing from a lot of queer discourse, as personally I'm used to seeing a lot of middle-class problems be pushed to the forefront. It was refreshing to read a book that concerned itself with discussion of class as well as queerness, and how the two intersect.
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
Not perfect but I loved it and honestly didn't want to put it down.
Two men in BC Syracuse direct plays by Euripides using Athenian prisoners of war as actors initially by bribing them with food??
The whole thing is massively uncomfortable obviously with the power imbalance between prisoners and the main characters - but in this way it somehow still feels authentic. The questionable and contradictory morality of the main characters and their methods while interacting with prisoners in order to stage plays is so strange and sometimes made me wish the author had explored certain things more deeply - however the more I think on it, the more I can see the subtlety in the story and I'm quite happy that the author didn't bash me over the head with obvious messages in order to provide a morality tale.
It was funny and frustrating (you will not like the main characters but you will love them and root for them), and the whole thing was made perfect by the use of the modern Irish vernacular in an ancient Sicilian setting.
Will definitely be a memorable read and a favourite of the year...
"Gelon's mad for Euripides. It's the main reason he comes. I think he would've been almost happy for the Athenians to have won if it meant Euripides would've popped over and put on some plays. He once spent a month's wages to pay an old actor to come to our factory and recite scenes while we shaped pots. The foreman said it was reducing productivity, and he threw the actor out. Gelon didn't give up, though. He had the actor shout the lines from across the street. You'd hear snatches of poetry through the blaze of the kiln, and though I think we made fewer pots that week, they were stranger, more beauti ful. This was all before the war, and the actor's dead now, the factory gone. I look over at Gelon. His blue eyes wide and nervous. A block of cheese held over his head. Shouting about olives. Gelon's just mad. Never mind Euripides." p.8
Two men in BC Syracuse direct plays by Euripides using Athenian prisoners of war as actors initially by bribing them with food??
The whole thing is massively uncomfortable obviously with the power imbalance between prisoners and the main characters - but in this way it somehow still feels authentic. The questionable and contradictory morality of the main characters and their methods while interacting with prisoners in order to stage plays is so strange and sometimes made me wish the author had explored certain things more deeply - however the more I think on it, the more I can see the subtlety in the story and I'm quite happy that the author didn't bash me over the head with obvious messages in order to provide a morality tale.
It was funny and frustrating (you will not like the main characters but you will love them and root for them), and the whole thing was made perfect by the use of the modern Irish vernacular in an ancient Sicilian setting.
Will definitely be a memorable read and a favourite of the year...
"Gelon's mad for Euripides. It's the main reason he comes. I think he would've been almost happy for the Athenians to have won if it meant Euripides would've popped over and put on some plays. He once spent a month's wages to pay an old actor to come to our factory and recite scenes while we shaped pots. The foreman said it was reducing productivity, and he threw the actor out. Gelon didn't give up, though. He had the actor shout the lines from across the street. You'd hear snatches of poetry through the blaze of the kiln, and though I think we made fewer pots that week, they were stranger, more beauti ful. This was all before the war, and the actor's dead now, the factory gone. I look over at Gelon. His blue eyes wide and nervous. A block of cheese held over his head. Shouting about olives. Gelon's just mad. Never mind Euripides." p.8
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
Really fun
"I was planning to make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner," Sabine said. "But I'm over it." p.30
"I was planning to make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner," Sabine said. "But I'm over it." p.30
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
'She gave one final smile as the wheels touched down on the tarmac in Singapore, still just the first stage, remarking that the original science-fiction story - the impossible adventure full of wonder and awe - was merely the existence of the species, all the moments she and her sister and their family and every other living person had shared.' p. 455
'A family is a group of strangers with a destructive desire for common nostalgia. We had privileged access to so much of each other's life, our early life in particular, but I'm not sure we ever really knew what to do with that.' p. 464
'A family is a group of strangers with a destructive desire for common nostalgia. We had privileged access to so much of each other's life, our early life in particular, but I'm not sure we ever really knew what to do with that.' p. 464
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
Fun book to start the year.
It probably isn't of as much interest to people who know more about the time period/British history but personally I had a good time.
Definitely reads like a thriller but I appreciate that Grann kept up an interesting historical narrative while linking it all back to imperialism as a cause.
He's a great accessible historian if you're looking for a read that isn't too heavy but does analyse colonialism, class, and racism while also being super gripping.
It probably isn't of as much interest to people who know more about the time period/British history but personally I had a good time.
Definitely reads like a thriller but I appreciate that Grann kept up an interesting historical narrative while linking it all back to imperialism as a cause.
He's a great accessible historian if you're looking for a read that isn't too heavy but does analyse colonialism, class, and racism while also being super gripping.