kaileehaong's reviews
423 reviews

The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories by Yukiko Motoya

lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

A very fun, very strange collection of short stories. Heavy on the magical realism, but with enough grounding you in reality to keep it interesting. Well-written, full characters who you grow to love despite their flaws. It’s a fast-paced read, and definitely one of the better magical-realism story collections I’ve read. 

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

Parable is one of the first sci-fi books I reassured, and I’m glad I started here. It’s a very easy to get into book, and pretty easy to follow, and goes at a pace that is manageable—not too fast or slow. The premise reminded me a bit of The Road, a sort of perilous journey through extremely dangerous situations while picking up stragglers along the way. The Earthseed aspect (creating a “religion”) seems a way to escape the reality and to dream of a future that could be benevolent. Very interesting conceptually, and the characters were well written and deep.

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu

fast-paced

4.25

This collection of short stories was very cool. It’s speculative, but strewn with enough realism or a sense of believability that these things could happen that it keeps you gripped and entertained the entire time. I loved Fu’s inventiveness and creativity with each of the stories. I found myself excited when starting each one to find out the rules of society and how everything worked in each of these little worlds she has created. The stories were dark, at times humorous, and certainly engaging. This was a really solid collection. 

Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

reflective fast-paced

5.0

Stand-out poetry collection exploring grief & how to survive it. I love Ocean’s work and devoured this book in one sitting. Many of the poems will stick with me for a long time. 

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. It was very fast paced, and I devoured it in about two days. There is a sadness strewn deeply within the novel that slowly unravels until the climactic moment, which is jarring and surprising enough to give you pause, but realistic enough to allow you to keep going. We follow Niru, on his journey through self-discovery, and through the eyes of one of his closest friends, Meredith. I wasn’t ready for what happened to these characters, but I’m glad I read it.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-paced

3.75

When I was a bookseller, I sold tons of copies of this book to various high schoolers/students who were assigned the book. Out of curiosity I finally picked it up. Definitely a novel ripe for English class picking—themes, motifs, character arcs—it really ticks all the boxes of the classic book-to-dissect-in-class. At the end of the day, it is a hopeful story about pursuing your destiny, and it’s not often I read books with “happy” endings, so it was a nice change of pace. A super quick read, finished in one day.

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

3.75

I love Jesmyn Ward. I read two of her novels prior to this memoir, and this one was just as much of a knockout as her fiction is. The writing is so raw and honest—heartbreaking and true. She connects the deaths of five men in her life, weaving personal history, narrative, storytelling, etc together to form this masterpiece of a memoir. She writes of being Black and poor in America and the intersecting points at which these people in her life, not characters, experience challenges, nuances, and even death because of their identities. It was a slow book to get into, but once I really sat down with it, wow. 

Swimming Back to Trout River by Linda Rui Feng

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've read many immigration stories/novels but this one did such an excellent job of weaving together the stories of several people in a way that feels fresh and captivating. There are so many moments of sadness and despair, but we're also provided with moments of reprieve and of hope, especially through children (and mostly through Junie). We mostly follow Momo and (later) Cassia fleeing China's cultural revolution to chase their dreams in the US, leaving Junie behind with grandparents. But each parent has a past (and present) that's dragging them further away from each other and further into solidifying their places in the US. Meanwhile, Junie is growing up to love life in the countryside and with her grandparents that she doesn't even wish to reunite with her parents. The characters are all so beautifully written and complex. I really enjoyed this book.

Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

As many of the blurbs indicated on the back of the book, it as a bit like The Road, but I found it to be such a quick page-turner where as The Road dragged on for me. There's just enough detail about what this post-apocalyptic world is like to keep you going and keep you reading, but not so much that it veers into the realm of fantasy. It's sad but also somewhat hopeful with an ending that leaves you feeling a little better for the protagonist (as opposed to leaving her in some sort of fateful tragedy). 

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Did not finish book. Stopped at 49%.

I read this to try and get out of my typical reading zone, and to try and dive into sci-fi a little bit, but discovered that it, or at least this book, was not for me. The pace was really slow. The tone of the writing at times felt very pretentious. It very much so feels like a book that's a part of a series (as I'm well aware it is). It's like you have to read all three books in order for any sort of completion or satisfaction to be felt.