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amethysthunter's reviews
381 reviews
Real Americans by Rachel Khong
4.0
There were so many things I enjoyed about this story. The writing is beautiful and its depiction of eros love was written so convincingly it felt like the characters were people I knew and their heartbreak was my own. The story is biting (as most intergenerational cross-cultural tales of trauma tend to be, think Pachinko). It left me feeling deep anguish and bitterness at the characters and the ways that they dealt with the traumas they endured but I think that is the beauty of the novel and it's ability to allow us to feel such empathy around morally gray characters.
I can definitively say I enjoyed the story (albeit reading its entirety in one sitting in the middle of the night due to insomnia), yet there were definitely ways I found myself yearning for more. I think it may have benefitted from being 600-700 pages (as ~400 pages to cover 3 generations felt a bit rushed). One aspect that had initially drawn me to the book was the fact that I, like Lily, was raised by two Chinese immigrant scientists. I ended up finding the book to be less relatable than I expected (perhaps this just speaks to the diversity of the Chinese Am child of scientists experience) but I found myself itching for Lily (and Nick to some degree) to explore more of their Asian Americanness but this moment of catharsis was never reached. In many ways Lily felt underdeveloped, never inching past the stage of racial identity development where one assimilates or shrinks themselves to fit into white society.
The book also touches but doesn't flesh out numerous other topics on race and class such as the WMAF relationship dynamic that Lily (and all of her Asian female friends) is in. This is a topic I find myself thinking about a lot but I think in Lily and Matthew's relationship class seemed to be the main element that was explored (which was often "overshadowed" by their love). I found the theme of epigenetics and eugenics to be an interesting aspect of the story, but more as an element of the story used to exemplify the social construct of race and how people present (rather than anything perhaps super meaningful about class and gene editing for rich tech bros).
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
I can definitively say I enjoyed the story (albeit reading its entirety in one sitting in the middle of the night due to insomnia), yet there were definitely ways I found myself yearning for more. I think it may have benefitted from being 600-700 pages (as ~400 pages to cover 3 generations felt a bit rushed). One aspect that had initially drawn me to the book was the fact that I, like Lily, was raised by two Chinese immigrant scientists. I ended up finding the book to be less relatable than I expected (perhaps this just speaks to the diversity of the Chinese Am child of scientists experience) but I found myself itching for Lily (and Nick to some degree) to explore more of their Asian Americanness but this moment of catharsis was never reached. In many ways Lily felt underdeveloped, never inching past the stage of racial identity development where one assimilates or shrinks themselves to fit into white society.
The book also touches but doesn't flesh out numerous other topics on race and class such as the WMAF relationship dynamic that Lily (and all of her Asian female friends) is in. This is a topic I find myself thinking about a lot but I think in Lily and Matthew's relationship class seemed to be the main element that was explored (which was often "overshadowed" by their love). I found the theme of epigenetics and eugenics to be an interesting aspect of the story, but more as an element of the story used to exemplify the social construct of race and how people present (rather than anything perhaps super meaningful about class and gene editing for rich tech bros).
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
5.0
This memoir confirmed that Hanif Abdurraqib could write about literally anything and I'd devour it. Abdurraqib's writing, as always, is rich and inviting, lush with metaphors and imagery that leave you lingering slowly over the lines and tracing your eyes back and forth until the words can properly sink in. There's Always This Year is at once an ode to basketball and Black culture and at the same time a general reflection on longing, love, and the human experience.
The memoir is also a love letter to the city that he calls home, Columbus, Ohio and to the places that we often overlook and deem as spaces we want to leave or escape from and why someone might want to stay. It left me with more questions than answers (as great books often do) about topics such as friendship, relationships, loss, and community.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
The memoir is also a love letter to the city that he calls home, Columbus, Ohio and to the places that we often overlook and deem as spaces we want to leave or escape from and why someone might want to stay. It left me with more questions than answers (as great books often do) about topics such as friendship, relationships, loss, and community.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for a review.