c3rem0nials's reviews
32 reviews

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

who fucking cares at the end of the day. bad writing!

Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge

girlboss 

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett

they dont write gay romance like this anymore!!!!! 

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

i wish my debut novel was also an excuse to write smut. balli won the publishing lottery. confused by the sudden murder mystery thing that was introduced quite late?? but all the same these are brown families so i kind of believe it as well. a bit slow paced, wish it focused more on its initial theme of sexuality and empowerment, though i do kind of cackle a little because i didnt realise smut was that effective in real peoples sex lives??

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

this book was hyped so much as like the pinnacle of lgbt fiction. and listen, the writing was fast paced enough and exciting for me to keep reading. like a vacation book, no thoughts, just my innately human desire to watch relationships in front of me fail. but my god... the "queer" aspect was probably one of the worst things in this book. u cant convince me a lesbian woman in the 60s would actually be mad at someone trying to keep them safe. the biphobia was PAINFUL, and lesbian being used only in negative contexts was genuinely so irritating regardless of the contextual use?? this feels like a cishet woman saw queer characters and thought - " i could do that." just overall tacky representation that i cant even accept as messy representation. race was also handled so poorly. i refuse to believe for a second that evelyn could easily have just dyed her hair and was suddenly white passing?? her cuban heritage means absolutely nothing to her which begs the question of why write a cuban woman when it could have just been a marilyn monroe or elizabeth taylor situation. i could not bring myself to care about celia st james. monique is supposed to be our narrator, but does not function like a character of any sorts because of the fact that evelyn's voice is the thing that dominates this book. just so much irritating tokenism, and blah blah. not worth the hype. 

Sugarbread by Balli Kaur Jaswal

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

thank u balli for further reinforcing my hatred for organised religion. i knew this would hurt me but this seared so deeply. i really appreciate that nana-ji wasn't given the beatrice horseman treatment - even with the blatant display of cultural misogyny and religion it was refreshing to me that nana-ji was just... an abuser. jini, a first gen immigrant who really and truly tried to break the cycle. god this book hurt so much. 

Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

this book was a mixed bag for me. the weight of our sky really set a high bar for me, and i hoped that it would be similar feeling going into hanna's more recent work. but queen of the tiles was enjoyable, in a large picture. i liked that najwa is deeply flawed and grieving, i liked the way teenagers were being teenagers - releasing their frustrations with competitive scrabble, and the collective "grief" that hangs over everyone post trina low's death. also, a canon nonbinary character whose pronouns are respected throughout the book (even if they're just a side character..) was really nice to see, especially within the YA and southeast asian publishing industry (let alone malaysia, which i highly commend alkaff for - thank you for affirming that you are for the gays!!) 

however i'm not sure if i would call this a murder mystery. i really wanted it to be, but the pace of the book was not racey enough for me to invest in the idea of a murder. i had a hard time empathising with trina low as a posthumous character, and the twist ending felt very disneyesque. i think i just really wanted the excitement and anxiety of the potential murder to be amplified- especially since najwa didnt actually ask to investigate this whole thing. what set out to be an attempt to find closure and rekindle a passion went a completely different way and i wish i felt that raceyness more. i would put down this book and honestly not feel that compelled to keep reading, but i guess in a way it did work because ultimately i was still curious enough to find out how trina died. 

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

i don't usually venture into YA, because they're never really up my alley, even when i was a teen. but i was really blown away reading this book. the backdrop of racial riots sets a tone that is so deeply urgent, and so in the present--in spite of it being inherently historic. melati is everything in a 16 year old southeast asian character you could hope for--she is, in her essence, just a teen trying to navigate moral dilemmas in a rocky period of malaysian society. i did side eye the idea of a "djinn" being the reason why she possibly has ocd/generalised anxiety disorder, but i guess it also makes sense contextually. but i read this book from its authors note, and i wish the author anchored down a decision properly in reference to the mental illness. it does something new by taking symptoms of ocd seriously, you feel it so presently, but somehow it sets itself back when u remember it in a religious context. however, hanna also takes her reader seriously. i am way past the age recommendation but the writing is so easily enjoyed, with beautiful prose and a gripping storyline (but with a rather flat ending, which i am still trying to justify) that it really transcends the idea of "YA". a very solid debut from a talented author! 

Altered Straits by Kevin Martens Wong
Did not finish book.

i really wanted to keep reading - the characters were promising, i liked that even formal displays of power like forms told their own stories. but i think where this book falters is that it just sinks itself into something that i couldn't comprehend. i think the premise was also just not built for a novel - as i read in the acknowledgements, this is a short story turned into a novel, and i suppose a lot of details were expanded too much and it just got very painful to read. i couldn't immerse myself in this, as much as i wanted to - kevin has a clear voice for the speculative that i enjoy, his works in lontar are really good so i was just disappointed i couldn't get into this as much as i'd liked. 

Death of a Perm Sec by Wong Souk Yee

challenging

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

interesting enough for me to keep reading but ultimately i was left with a very "so what is it all for?" feeling at the end of the book.