sisa_moyo's reviews
195 reviews

Your Utopia: Stories by Bora Chung

Chung’s short stories start of calmly and slowly but heighten in tempo and intrigue the further you go into the story and then in the final moment, hit with a line or little twist so intimately powerful it feels like a tiny thread snapping in the abyss. 
I loved each story in this collection, and like the plots the order of the stories themselves ramp up in intensity. The first story which is a sort of comedic piece on immortality feels light years away from the final story which leaves you heartbroken as it ushers you into a moving yet gut-wrenching author’s note. 
With themes of immortality, old age, technological advancement, man vs nature to sad robots in space - Bora Chung’s masterpieces are wonderfully translated by Anton Hur.

The Owl Cries by 편혜영, Pyun Hye-young

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

A young lawyer arrives in a small town in search of his dead beat brother who has been missing for months - an eerie, dark small town in the shadow of a large and looking forest, shrouded in secrecy, alcoholism, failed lives and families and the loud, thundering cries of an owl. 
This plays out very much like a thriller, and the whole time the questions is not a whodunnit but a what-was-done. Through this we get an exploration of the lives of the people who one way or another are forever trapped in this town with no way out, gripped by the forest, debt, alcholism and deadly secrets. 
Highly enjoyed this one, it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. 

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

dark hopeful sad fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

Short, sad and heartbreaking, yet tender and warm. About memories and how we keep and hold onto them and deal with losing them and family that remembers every detail of you.

Spy x Family, Vol. 1 by Tatsuya Endo

The spy family comes together for Misssion Strix and try to get accepcted into Eden Academy.

So utterly funny and gripping. Love this family so much.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 1 by Koyoharu Gotouge

Tanjiro returns to find his entire family murders by demons, saves his sister from getting killed by Giyu, is trained by Urokodami and the 2 dead orphans and goes to the final selection to become a demonslayer

My lord am I hooked. Great action and high stakes 

Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto

“Newlywed” about a man who misses his stop on the train and has a thought provoking meeting with a maybe magical being.

"Lizard" centers a man who falls utterly in love with Lizard who has powers and they navigate their traumatic childhoods

"Helix" about a man who’s girlfriend plans to go on a retreat to have unnecessarily memories erased from her mind.

"Dreaming of Kimchee" a woman moves away from her sister as she marries the man she was in an affair with and they dream about Kimchi.

"Blood and Water" a girl raised in a secluded Buddhist village runs away to Tokyo where she meets her lover who makes amulets.

"A Strange Tale from Down by the River" a former a former sex addict and her fiancés apartment by the ominous river, as she is visited by her past. 

Absolutely love every single story in this collection, Yoshimoto’s writing is so simple, understandable and so hypnotisingly lyrical. The themes of fate, time, healing, memory and a love that complements the self throughout the stories are so beautifully threaded. 

My first of Yoshimoto’s work and excited to read more. 

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I was so excited to read this one given that I’ve made it a goal to read all of Mishima’s works that have been translated to English. This is the second of his works I’ve read, Star having been mind numbingly disappointing.

It took me so long and so much mental strength to finally finish this book. I don’t regret having picked it up but there were some parts, like internal monologues and such that I think were so unnecessary for the overall effect of the book and the story. However, it was a great and unique lens into the dark mind of this young Buddhist acolyte and his thoughts, a vivid yet fever dreamlike exploration into beauty, what is it and means, and into obsession. 
I think so much time was devoted to building up to the final act, that the climax of the book came much too late with the tension of it all having been lost much earlier. 
It also read very much like a classic, and a translated one at that and so it’s a bit hard to get into in the first few pages, but after a while Mishima’s lyrical writing begins to shine through. 

yet, given that the synopsis centres the story around the burning of the temple, that doesn’t happen or go into motion until the absolute last step of the book, which was thoroughly disappointing for me

Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Almond by Won-pyung Sohn

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

I tried twice before to read this books and dnfed it both times because life got to busy or urge for this wasn't there.
But I finally finished this and it was so beautiful and well written and gave an understanding into his mind and how he thinks and his particular worldview and its was spectacular.
It centers familial love and understanding human feelings, emotions and friendships and what human connection is, means & entails and from the perspective of a person who sees and experiences the world so differently.

100°C: South Korea's 1987 Democracy Movement by Choi Gyu-Seok

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

A graphic novel with various art styles about the pro-democracy movements in South Korea in the 1980s. About how political ideologies can be weaponised and villainised for personal gain and power and how change, revolution, entire regimes are toppled by ordinary people, students, mothers, sisters coming together. 
Short yet concise and highly informative.