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rara2018's reviews
559 reviews
Bestiary by K-Ming Chang
4.0
<I>Bestiary</I> is a prime example of why I don’t DNF books. It genuinely took me an entire month to get past the first forty-ish pages because I just could not get into it at all. The book was disturbing and honestly a little disgusting at times, and at first that just made it really hard for me to connect to anything that was happening (seriously, though, I genuinely think if I had a nickel every time characters peed their pants or just generally peed not in the toilet, I’d have at least a whole dollar). Luckily, I persevered out of stubbornness and was treated with a moving and genuinely compelling story of generational trauma, colonization, and motherhood. I found I enjoyed (?) Mother’s chapters and Ama’s interlude the most out of anything in the book, especially with how the latter included footnotes. Ben was also such an amazing character who really grounded the story in her bluntness. The middle chunk I found to be the best part of the story with the combination of folklore and the family’s story, since I truly did not like the beginning and didn’t quite get the ending, but I don’t think everything in this book was meant for me. I’m definitely going to read more by Chang since I really enjoy her writing (most of the time) despite me being deeply uncomfortable for a decent chunk of this.
The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle by T.L. Huchu
3.0
This is a series that I’m always going to pick up, regardless of my generally mediocre feelings toward the entire thing. Ropa is such a unique protagonist that I just can’t help but love reading through her perspective. The narrative style does always take me a while to get used to, both with the Scottish-ness of it all and just generally how Ropa thinks, but it’s honestly kind of fun. This book in particular felt much less grounded in the relationships between the characters than previous installments did, which was kind of nice since I did find the political drama here pretty entertaining but also disappointing since her friends and mentorship with Callander is some of what makes the series feel so earnest with everything Ropa says. The twist at the end was exciting, though I think my subconscious saw it coming, but the very last few pages kind of annoyed me. I’m hoping there’s another book since so much is still up in the air, but who knows.