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heathcliff's reviews
136 reviews
Dirty Old Media Men by Millie Lee
lighthearted
fast-paced
1.5
A book that truly only appeals to the niche subset of Singaporean journalists and media personnel — and only because of (natural) curiosity over the real author and who the characters in the book are based on.
There are parts of the story that are relatable. The author captures the mundanities of the job well, and is also broadly good at sketching out the cast of characters in the Singapore media industry. But while the book advertises itself to be about sexual harassment in newsrooms, I find it to be the weakest part of the book.
For one, it doesn’t seem like this was written by a woman. And it doesn’t seem to be written by anyone who has worked in a Singapore newsroom (at least as a reporter) in the last 5 years. (That the reporter could saunter up to a school principal and interview him is seriously laughable, especially given the actual news event that the author references in the book).
Secondly, it hardly passes the Bechdel test. Millie is hardly believable as a Gen Z twenty-something young aspiring journalist. She doesn’t have any peers. Her only friend is a much older senior reporter, and all they talk about is how they’re both sleeping with their bosses. I cannot imagine that if this was sincerely written by a current or former female journalist that this is a) the type of female friendships she has in the newsroom and b) that’s all they can talk about. It’s giving very r/MenWritingWomen.
The book is more and — I would argue most — successful at critiquing how stuffy and backward newsrooms are, and the struggle newsrooms have today in trying to court new blood and improve readership. It winks at funding and financial issues (the multiple retrenchment exercises) and poor newfangled attempts at courting new audiences (podcasts).
But ultimately, anyone who has worked in a newsroom will tell you there are juicier stories than the one being told here — despite the proactive hook and premise. So it kind of fails in its two promises of being scintillating and incisive.
Another thing I didn’t like about the book is its insistence on presenting newsrooms as staid, quiet places. There are a lot of references on how the office is empty due to work from home. But actually, anyone in the industry would tell you the drama continues to happen over slack messages and private chats. It gave the hint that the author was low key lamenting of an old forgotten time, and again to me hinted the age of the author. The general lack of colour on who else worked in these newsrooms made the setting feel very dead. Where are the journalists huddling and gossiping about the protagonist? The newsroom is a character in itself and it’s surprising that a current or ex-reporter failed to capture that.
There are parts of the story that are relatable. The author captures the mundanities of the job well, and is also broadly good at sketching out the cast of characters in the Singapore media industry. But while the book advertises itself to be about sexual harassment in newsrooms, I find it to be the weakest part of the book.
Secondly, it hardly passes the Bechdel test. Millie is hardly believable as a Gen Z twenty-something young aspiring journalist. She doesn’t have any peers. Her only friend is a much older senior reporter, and all they talk about is how they’re both sleeping with their bosses. I cannot imagine that if this was sincerely written by a current or former female journalist that this is a) the type of female friendships she has in the newsroom and b) that’s all they can talk about. It’s giving very r/MenWritingWomen.
The book is more and — I would argue most — successful at critiquing how stuffy and backward newsrooms are, and the struggle newsrooms have today in trying to court new blood and improve readership. It winks at funding and financial issues (the multiple retrenchment exercises) and poor newfangled attempts at courting new audiences (podcasts).
But ultimately, anyone who has worked in a newsroom will tell you there are juicier stories than the one being told here — despite the proactive hook and premise. So it kind of fails in its two promises of being scintillating and incisive.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
dark
funny
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Painfully relatable, extremely funny and irreverent. I, too, want to sleep away this painful existence. Sad hot girl takes drugs to numb existential pain. We love to see it.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
A beautiful meditation on what it means to be human. A story about perspectives and the contrast between the grandiosity of human life versus the smallness of the human experience. When we are stripped of all the noise that clouds our day-to-day, what are the things that matter and what do we hold true? When we are freed from the minutiae of life's daily dramas, what do we keep close and what can we easily cast aside?
The stories of the six astronauts and cosmonauts moved me the most and I found myself most engaged when the story was focused on them and how they felt about being in orbit, away from friends and family, trapped in a metal container with a bunch of (essentially) strangers.
Harvey's prose is beautiful. So many poignant lines meditating on our role on earth that I highlighted and savoured. In contrast, what I felt dragged the book down were the parts which commented more explicitly on politics. It felt a bit preachy and polemic in a way that breaks from the style of the rest of the book.
The stories of the six astronauts and cosmonauts moved me the most and I found myself most engaged when the story was focused on them and how they felt about being in orbit, away from friends and family, trapped in a metal container with a bunch of (essentially) strangers.
Harvey's prose is beautiful. So many poignant lines meditating on our role on earth that I highlighted and savoured. In contrast, what I felt dragged the book down were the parts which commented more explicitly on politics. It felt a bit preachy and polemic in a way that breaks from the style of the rest of the book.
The Running Man by Stephen King, Richard Bachman
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
The Running Man is a precursor to so much of the dystopian fiction that we see today. The one which, to me, had the most similarities would be The Hunger Games triology.
So much of the ideas from the trilogy can be seen in this book that I wouldn’t be surprised if Suzanne Collins had taken it for inspiration (can’t find any actual reference to this when I did a cursory search, though).
But what King’s novella lacks is the detailed world building that would have made the themes and social commentary stronger. Who is the games council, and how did this world come to be? Who is exempt and who holds the true power? The set up for some of these story beats seemed vague and rushed and I wish more time was spent establishing the world order and how it came to be to make Richard’s’ experience more impactful.
So much of the ideas from the trilogy can be seen in this book that I wouldn’t be surprised if Suzanne Collins had taken it for inspiration (can’t find any actual reference to this when I did a cursory search, though).
But what King’s novella lacks is the detailed world building that would have made the themes and social commentary stronger. Who is the games council, and how did this world come to be? Who is exempt and who holds the true power? The set up for some of these story beats seemed vague and rushed and I wish more time was spent establishing the world order and how it came to be to make Richard’s’ experience more impactful.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
The premise of Yellowface is certainly provocative, and Kuang raises some interesting questions about authorship, cultural appropriation and the business of publishing. But for me, it just does not stick the landing and the ending is quite unsatisfactory.
The good things first: it was definitely a page-turner. Kuang is a technically skilled writer; sharp, witty, and manipulates the thriller genre well to tell what is ultimately mostly just online call-outs and internet drama? But I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting.
But what the book ultimately has to say about the questions it raises is unclear. It raises, for instance, interesting questions about who can write about or represent The Culture. When the protagonist, Juniper or June, questions what more right Athena - a diasporic Asian person - has over a white American in telling the story of Chinese labourers when neither a) speak Mandarin; b) have lived in China; c) have relatives or people known to them who have first hand accounts of the trauma/history - I thought this was such an interesting turn in the story, that ultimately doesn’t really go anywhere? I guess the answer is just, no, June you’re not valid; you’re racist. But that’s not very explicitly fleshed out either necessarily (no one seriously engaged with June on these ideas since it’s mostly in her head. And the people criticising her are so far removed and themselves, in some way, also villainised for taking part in online “cancel” and trashing culture). As such, I don’t think Kuang really lands on an answer.
The question of authorship is also not really fleshed out enough in an interesting way. Eventually it is revealed that Athena’s “brilliance” comes from mining stories from other people. She’s almost a journalist more than a fiction writer in that she uses material from interviews and experiences verbatim in her work - and that is what is compelling. Does this count as plagiarism? What are the ethics in using personal anecdotes that do not belong to you in fiction writing?
My issue with this is that a) many authors do this, so to make it seem like Athena is the only person mining personal stories for inspiration seems silly and, so, relatedly, b) June is clearly such an unreliable narrator that can we even trust her retelling of the situation?
On that note, the unreliable nature of the author doesn’t do anything very interesting besides making the point that June is a prejudiced person with a lot of jealousy. Kuang doesn’t do interesting things with the format and it gets tiresome eventually to be stuck with someone so lacking in charisma and entirely unlikeable.
The book then takes a turn towards the final act, in a plot twist that is neither satisfying or interesting. It felt almost like Kuang didn't know where to end the novel and generated a dramatic ending that will give the impression of a punchy book end. But I don't think it works. Also, why is June going on a tangent about narrative control and how anyone can tell their own story? It didn't feel like what the rest of the novel was about.
Yellowface had an interesting hook and touches on a lot of present-day discourse on topical issues but ultimately doesn’t share a clear perspective that drives the discourse forward. I ended up closing the final chapter feeling let down by the promise of what the novel seemed to be offering.
The good things first: it was definitely a page-turner. Kuang is a technically skilled writer; sharp, witty, and manipulates the thriller genre well to tell what is ultimately mostly just online call-outs and internet drama? But I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting.
But what the book ultimately has to say about the questions it raises is unclear. It raises, for instance, interesting questions about who can write about or represent The Culture. When the protagonist, Juniper or June, questions what more right Athena - a diasporic Asian person - has over a white American in telling the story of Chinese labourers when neither a) speak Mandarin; b) have lived in China; c) have relatives or people known to them who have first hand accounts of the trauma/history - I thought this was such an interesting turn in the story, that ultimately doesn’t really go anywhere? I guess the answer is just, no, June you’re not valid; you’re racist. But that’s not very explicitly fleshed out either necessarily (no one seriously engaged with June on these ideas since it’s mostly in her head. And the people criticising her are so far removed and themselves, in some way, also villainised for taking part in online “cancel” and trashing culture). As such, I don’t think Kuang really lands on an answer.
The question of authorship is also not really fleshed out enough in an interesting way. Eventually it is revealed that Athena’s “brilliance” comes from mining stories from other people. She’s almost a journalist more than a fiction writer in that she uses material from interviews and experiences verbatim in her work - and that is what is compelling. Does this count as plagiarism? What are the ethics in using personal anecdotes that do not belong to you in fiction writing?
My issue with this is that a) many authors do this, so to make it seem like Athena is the only person mining personal stories for inspiration seems silly and, so, relatedly, b) June is clearly such an unreliable narrator that can we even trust her retelling of the situation?
On that note, the unreliable nature of the author doesn’t do anything very interesting besides making the point that June is a prejudiced person with a lot of jealousy. Kuang doesn’t do interesting things with the format and it gets tiresome eventually to be stuck with someone so lacking in charisma and entirely unlikeable.
The book then takes a turn towards the final act, in a plot twist that is neither satisfying or interesting. It felt almost like Kuang didn't know where to end the novel and generated a dramatic ending that will give the impression of a punchy book end. But I don't think it works. Also, why is June going on a tangent about narrative control and how anyone can tell their own story? It didn't feel like what the rest of the novel was about.
Yellowface had an interesting hook and touches on a lot of present-day discourse on topical issues but ultimately doesn’t share a clear perspective that drives the discourse forward. I ended up closing the final chapter feeling let down by the promise of what the novel seemed to be offering.
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25