redvelveting's reviews
42 reviews

China Dolls by Lisa See

3.75

This book was a wonderful glimpse into Chinese American life during World War II and even more interestingly, the history of Asian American performers and clubs. Such a fascinating part of American history that I would never have known about. It’s clear that a lot of research went into creating this book and capturing the Chinese American experience at the time.   

The book is told from three different perspectives and the author did a fantastic job of distinguishing them. I think the climax was dissatisfying (resolved quite quickly), but overall, I enjoyed the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, War, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Moderate: Murder, Misogyny, Death of parent, Classism, Bullying, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Infidelity, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Child death, and Homophobia

Minor: Slavery, Terminal illness, Confinement, and Abortion

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

adventurous funny medium-paced

4.0

Again lots of different Greek myth references with just the right amount of tweaking. Titan’s Curse is definitely not my favourite of the PJO series but serves as crucial setup for the final two in the series.

Bumped up to 4 stars because bb Nico is introduced 🥺

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

This book is written so beautifully. While the plot may not be the most thrilling at times, I loved Klara’s characterization. I thought the author did a wonderful job portraying how someone like her would see the world. Typically, the vagueness would annoy me but somehow it worked really well in this book; it didn’t need all the nitty gritty details to make the characters compelling. The language and style were just so dainty and pretty. 

Additionally, the human characters just felt so real. They all had their highs and lows and were full of so many different emotions and behaviours; there were even some that were more destructive or problematic and even illogical but still realistic and understandable. The author gave the characters a lot of dimension in this way. 

I also loved the idea of

a solar-powered artificial intelligence basically worshipping the sun. Not only did it make a great allegory for religious devotion and faith, but it just made sense.

Honestly when I was approaching the end I was originally going to rate this lower but the ending really sold me.

Klara is content in the life she was able to live but it made me so sad to see her just thrown away like that after everything she did; a hard truth in real life I suppose.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Child death, Classism, and Chronic illness

The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh

funny lighthearted medium-paced

2.5

The aunties of this book are reminiscent of my own and even my mother lol. Not a read to take seriously, complete with cheesy and sometimes trashy comedy; not everything needs to be sophisticated anyhow :) My biggest issues with this book were with the number of characters (we constantly switch between subplots, making it hard to keep up sometimes) and the frequency of sentences along the lines of “and you’ll never guess what happened next!!!!” It’s fine occasionally but damn sometimes I just want to find out myself without needing it to be announced beforehand. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, and Infidelity

Minor: Emotional abuse, Colonisation, War, Classism, Drug use, Incest, and Child death

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein — The Nine Eyes of Lucien by Madeleine Roux

adventurous dark slow-paced

2.75

I imagine I would’ve enjoyed this more had I been more familiar with the original campaign and material, but I suppose that’s the risk of IP writing.

For me, this book started off very slow. There were definitely intriguing points, but for the most part, the first half wasn’t much of a page turner. Things started to pick up in the second half, but by then I wasn’t too invested in the story. 

Additionally, Roux’s prose is artistic but I found it made it harder to follow the story (combined with or perhaps contributing to my stunted interest).

I liked the use of fonts and different sizes to represent different voices and conversations

, but the actual wording itself I found to be too long-winded. I think it would’ve been a lot more enjoyable for me had I listened to the story its in original form as a campaign or even if I had listened to the audio book—I could imagine that her writing style would be lovely to listen to

(especially because the narrator is Robbie Daymond)

. 

All in all, while I found certain plot points interesting and can appreciate the writing style, I definitely can’t say I enjoyed it as much as a real Critical Role fan or anyone else familiar with the IP would’ve.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Blood, Violence, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcohol

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

Yellowface is a thought-provoking social commentary while being wildly entertaining. The perspective is absurd but does well to make Kuang’s points on racism, privilege, tokenization, and social media. And honestly speaking, it’s been a while since I’ve read a book this fast. The sheer audacity in this book is nuts but honestly it unfortunately isn’t that far-fetched and I think that’s part of what makes this such a well-written satire.

And to be clear, both June and Athena are terrible people in their own ways, which I believe ti be intentional :)))

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Cultural appropriation, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Rape, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Violence, and Sexual violence

Minor: Toxic relationship, Vomit, War, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, and Suicide attempt

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Light, fun little read (especially given that it is a murder mystery) with references to Filipino culture (specifically that of a Filipino American) that I could relate to. I do have to mention, however, that the writing felt juvenile and fanfic-like. It’s a little corny, but overall was entertaining enough that I’d read the next book (not top of the to-read list, but still on there).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Grief, Violence, and Lesbophobia

Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult by Faith Jones

dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

I happened to pick this book up for free and it definitely exceeded my expectations. Faith’s detailed and well-articulated recounting of her life with the Family is uncomfortable and very difficult to swallow but also inspiring to see how she gradually comes to terms with the truth and finds her voice. There were definitely moments where I needed to put the book down to process what had just happened. It is not an easy read at all, even less so depending on your own life experiences. But while there were many moments of discomfort, I was desperate to hear that things worked out for her, and hence found myself wanting to read more every night. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Rape, Violence, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexism

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while and I’m happy I finally got the chance to. It’s upsetting to read what Jeanette had to go through in her life (and child stars often in general), especially as someone who watched her growing up, but her sense of humour helps make her reflections enjoyable. The fast pace of this particular memoir helped make it a book I didn’t want to put down, as I always wanted to see what happened next. It’s nice to see she’s in a happier place now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, and Terminal illness

Minor: Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, and Drug use

How to (Almost) Make Friends on the Internet by Michael Cunningham

lighthearted fast-paced

1.0

It was really just a compilation of screenshots. Some were funny enough to get me to do that thing where you breathe out your nose.