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jessicarosee's reviews
241 reviews
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
5.0
ngl the subway scenes around halfway through the book and the very specific notebook august keeps about jane literally killed me, then displaced me 45 years in the future, then brought me back to life
i love these characters. i love this found family. i love casey mcquiston. i love sapphics. definitely in my like top5 fav books ever…. and on the higher end of that 5
i love these characters. i love this found family. i love casey mcquiston. i love sapphics. definitely in my like top5 fav books ever…. and on the higher end of that 5
Know My Name: The Survivor of the Stanford Sexual Assault Case Tells Her Story by Chanel Miller
5.0
what a beautiful writer divulging her darkest moments in a surprisingly hope-filled way. i needed this.
challenge 4 of the asian readathon.
challenge 4 of the asian readathon.
Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel
5.0
“There is a word to describe someone who loses their spouse, and a word for children who are left without parents. There is no word, however, for a parent who loses their child. […] It is something so feared, so unacceptable, that we have chosen not to name it.”
Around two years after my mum had her first child, my older brother, she fell pregnant a second time. Yet, she was told this baby would face unconquerable problems once born in terms of its overall health, mental capabilities, and motor skills (if it even survived) forcing my mum to choose to give up this baby. I was born only 10 months later.
I feel horrible asking my mother about this time in her life, scared to bring up memories she perhaps never wants to live through again, yet time and time again she bravely chooses to slowly open up to me about what she faced.
Still Born is a masterfully ambivalent exploration of maternity and what it means to be both a woman and a mother. Our narrator, Laura, despises the idea of motherhood, choosing to, at a young age, become sterilised. Her close friend Laura, however, once too shared this apprehension towards children, yet now yearns for a child of her own, only to finally be granted her wish, until she discovers her unborn child has a fatal genetic disorder.
Guadalupe Nettel dissects the intricacies of the decision whether or not to have children and how exuberant, terrifying, saccharine, difficult, defining, and/or destructive, motherhood can be. Stories like Alina and Laura’s are rarely treated with such careful yet detached prose that allows a reader to feel the full breadth of emotions children can conjure. Nettel’s work is a nuanced and disciplined piece that facilitated my own understanding and empathy towards my mother’s decisions and experience surrounding her late child, as well as how I perceive my own role as a daughter, future mother/grandmother, and woman in general.
Set against a backdrop of feminist protests towards exponential violence against women in Mexico, Still Born is hard reading, contentious at times, and utterly confronting—but it is also beautifully understated and empathetic, marked by both tenderness and restraint. It is the best book I’ve read thus far in 2023, a new favourite.
Thank you to my boyfriend for gifting this to me!!!!
To my older sibling I will never meet, I think of you everyday. I’m not spiritual, nor religious, but I will forever feel the need to thank you for giving me the chance to live.
Around two years after my mum had her first child, my older brother, she fell pregnant a second time. Yet, she was told this baby would face unconquerable problems once born in terms of its overall health, mental capabilities, and motor skills (if it even survived) forcing my mum to choose to give up this baby. I was born only 10 months later.
I feel horrible asking my mother about this time in her life, scared to bring up memories she perhaps never wants to live through again, yet time and time again she bravely chooses to slowly open up to me about what she faced.
Still Born is a masterfully ambivalent exploration of maternity and what it means to be both a woman and a mother. Our narrator, Laura, despises the idea of motherhood, choosing to, at a young age, become sterilised. Her close friend Laura, however, once too shared this apprehension towards children, yet now yearns for a child of her own, only to finally be granted her wish, until she discovers her unborn child has a fatal genetic disorder.
Guadalupe Nettel dissects the intricacies of the decision whether or not to have children and how exuberant, terrifying, saccharine, difficult, defining, and/or destructive, motherhood can be. Stories like Alina and Laura’s are rarely treated with such careful yet detached prose that allows a reader to feel the full breadth of emotions children can conjure. Nettel’s work is a nuanced and disciplined piece that facilitated my own understanding and empathy towards my mother’s decisions and experience surrounding her late child, as well as how I perceive my own role as a daughter, future mother/grandmother, and woman in general.
Set against a backdrop of feminist protests towards exponential violence against women in Mexico, Still Born is hard reading, contentious at times, and utterly confronting—but it is also beautifully understated and empathetic, marked by both tenderness and restraint. It is the best book I’ve read thus far in 2023, a new favourite.
Thank you to my boyfriend for gifting this to me!!!!
To my older sibling I will never meet, I think of you everyday. I’m not spiritual, nor religious, but I will forever feel the need to thank you for giving me the chance to live.
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
5.0
weaving in and out and around ideas and discussions around climate change, aestheticism, maternity, the current political climate in general, criticism of contemporary literary fiction and their authors, and so much more, this novel is ultimately about how even in a world seemingly falling apart, we will always worry about romance and friendship and family and sex and life so much more, and maybe thats okay.
sally rooney = genius :-)
sally rooney = genius :-)
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh
5.0
im not rating this yet bc im currently in shock mode and i need to think. however, i think i enjoyed it more than myorar… and i rated that 5 stars…
Babel by R.F. Kuang
5.0
5 stars easily, but it also has not become a new favourite. Babel is successful on all its fronts but I felt almost indifferent towards the fate of certain characters… Such an undeniably wonderful book though
White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link
5.0
i hadn’t heard of kelly link’s white cat, black dog prior to spotting its absolutely gorgeous cover in-store and rushing to buy it. the staff review attached promised bizarre and unsettling short stories and that is exactly what i’m most drawn to!
each story is so whimsical and creepy and lovely and just enough detail is hidden within them all to make them feel new again and again as you analyse and re-analyse certain lines. these stories have lingered with me for days now and i doubt they will leave me anytime soon. the collection is filled with magic and atmosphere that is just as creepy as it is familiar, mirrored in shaun tan’s illustrations that accompany each story ( adding to the nostalgic feel of link’s words as tan’s work were some of the most formative texts in my australian childhood ).
my favourites were the white cat’s divorce, prince hat underground, the lady and the fox, and skinder’s veil.
the white cat’s divorce is the perfect way to open the collection, silly enough to welcome me in with twists that made my angela carter-camilla grudova-loving heart sing. talking cats running a cannabis farm, three brothers running around to find their rich bachelor father dogs and suits and brides — they form into a charming introduction to the book.
prince hat underground is so wolfstar coded (remus as narrator, sirius as prince hat) and no one can tell me otherwise!! don’t you just love books set in hell? because i do! i especially love when hell is depicted as just a little suburban town with some odd goings-on and hot royalty.
the lady and the fox is gorgeously simple. its a story of star-crossed lovers that has the most wholesome ending. perhaps the most whimsical of the collection.
skinder’s veil had me entranced the whole way through. i love a creepy, mist-covered house and its the perfect backdrop for this story of talking bears, sex with strangers, and lots of psychedelic mushrooms (and water?).
honourable mention to the ending of the game of smash and recovery which i did not particularly understand but the last two or so pages reminded me so intensely of margaret atwood’s work that i was glued to the page.
each story is so whimsical and creepy and lovely and just enough detail is hidden within them all to make them feel new again and again as you analyse and re-analyse certain lines. these stories have lingered with me for days now and i doubt they will leave me anytime soon. the collection is filled with magic and atmosphere that is just as creepy as it is familiar, mirrored in shaun tan’s illustrations that accompany each story ( adding to the nostalgic feel of link’s words as tan’s work were some of the most formative texts in my australian childhood ).
my favourites were the white cat’s divorce, prince hat underground, the lady and the fox, and skinder’s veil.
the white cat’s divorce is the perfect way to open the collection, silly enough to welcome me in with twists that made my angela carter-camilla grudova-loving heart sing. talking cats running a cannabis farm, three brothers running around to find their rich bachelor father dogs and suits and brides — they form into a charming introduction to the book.
prince hat underground is so wolfstar coded (remus as narrator, sirius as prince hat) and no one can tell me otherwise!! don’t you just love books set in hell? because i do! i especially love when hell is depicted as just a little suburban town with some odd goings-on and hot royalty.
the lady and the fox is gorgeously simple. its a story of star-crossed lovers that has the most wholesome ending. perhaps the most whimsical of the collection.
skinder’s veil had me entranced the whole way through. i love a creepy, mist-covered house and its the perfect backdrop for this story of talking bears, sex with strangers, and lots of psychedelic mushrooms (and water?).
honourable mention to the ending of the game of smash and recovery which i did not particularly understand but the last two or so pages reminded me so intensely of margaret atwood’s work that i was glued to the page.