the latter part of the year has kinda sucked for me reading-wise. I’ve been flitting from book to book and nothing has been sticking, and this was just another brick in the wall. I finished this, so I guess that counts for something, but i didn’t feel that much of a sense of satisfaction or anything at the end. I think it was a bit too light for me, and I say that in the least pretentious way possible. Funnily enough, I fleetingly described the book as chick-lit, then i begun to wonder whether that was a derogatory or antifeminist term and that sent me down a whole research rabbit hole, so at least some brain activity came out of reading this.

Now on to the actual review: it was okay, maybe even bordering on good. I enjoyed the window into Punjabi culture it provided. I was also interested in the gradual unravelling of Maya’s story and the whole murder mystery aspect. On the other hand, I feel like the characters weren’t particularly developed or anything; I didn’t feel drawn to them much. I wasn’t that interested in the whole Jason arc either, it was fluffy at best and predictable at worst. I think that was my gripe with the whole book actually. It brought up a lot of interesting stuff (honour killings, the brotherhood enforcing honour, arranged marriages, the illiterate widows, modernity vs tradition) but they just didn’t seem to be given a satisfying conclusion. I think i would have liked something a bit deeper, maybe something that didn’t wrap up so neatly (though that’s arguable I suppose, it was a tad open-ended).

more random thoughts: i think the handling of nikki’s feminism was questionable. at the beginning, it portrays her zeal for her various causes in an almost mocking way, and at the end, when the mother says that britain gave her the freedom of choice that india couldn’t made me think about the kind of white-saviour-esque feminism that’s like “we have to save these poor brown women from their oppressive cultures”. it also got me thinking about how she helped the women explore their sexuality, but failed to teach them how to read, which is arguably a more pressing feminist issue. Not too sure where i’m going with this but there’s something in the making there.

anyways, like rwrb, it was a fun enough fluffy read that falls apart under scrutiny.

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu

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medium-paced

4.25

i wasn't as wowed reading this as I was the paper menagerie but this was by no means a bad anthology—i’d even go so far as to say that it was good! I think my impression of it might have been slightly skewed because of the break i took in the middle of it (yay finals!) so it lowkey feels like two different books.

ghost days was pretty interesting, though somehow, I felt more captivated by the individual parts rather than the whole. Maxwell's demon tackles a piece of history I've been dying to do more research about—ww2 japan—so that was cool too. the reborn is excellent food for thought, definitely worth rereading. thoughts and prayers is so good and so sad. I've definitely read that one in another anthology before, and I love how it tackled memory and the potential pitfalls of perfect preservation. byzantine empathy was a very timely story current-events-wise, taking on charity and mutual aid and American imperialism and empathy all together. this is definitely one of the top stories here. the gods will not be chained was such an innovative idea, but I feel that it was somehow diluted with the spinoff stories. the initial wonder just wasn’t there anymore, though I was interested in seeing where it was going. I found memories of my mother, dispatches from the cradle, and grey rabbit to be amongst the weakest in the book (the lattermost slightly redeemed itself though). I didn't even bother reading the excerpt from book 3 of a series I hadn't read.

now on to the home stretch: despite the discussion question, I'm still yet to figure out why liu named the collection after the hidden girl. it stood out as being amongst the least sciencey of the science fiction stories present, so perhaps it was unique in that regard. the message was one of my favourites in the book, and cutting’s unique format was cool too.

somehow, I feel less underwhelmed about the book after writing this review. another certified banger from liu, keep it up!

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jada's reviews 274 reviews

jada's reviews
274 reviews