xx_ruby_xx's Reviews (49)

Four Weekends and a Funeral

2.75

funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

I picked up this book from a little free library in my neighborhood, so it came to me unexpectedly. Admittedly, I started this book thinking it was going to be another shallow romance novel. Beneath the surface of the romance, this book details Alison navigating life as a BRCA1 mutation carrier. She's completely lost after her preventative double mastectomy, and it seems Adam is the only one to snap her out of it. There's something beautiful about someone telling you that you're enough just the way you are.

Some parts of this novel made my eyes roll however. Sometimes you can just tell when a millennial has written the book in your hands.

Thirst for Salt

Madelaine Lucas

3.75

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

we are taught that love is not so different from hatred, that instead of opposites, the two extremes of the human heart might in fact be twins. but it's grief, really, that is love's twin, that knows no bounds of time and space. wave after wave is keeps coming, whereas hatred cools, fades.

when i think of my past lovers, i'm often overwhelmed with grief. prior memories cloud what the future might have been. our narrators relationship with jude perfectly encapsulates the way i feel when i reminisce. their relationship is nothing short of complicated. an 18 year age gap made more difficult by a lack of understanding and communication. they would have never worked, yet she can't help but wonder what could have been. what could have been is a dangerous rabbit hole to fall into, yet i find myself falling into it again and again.

i loved the prose of this novel. incredibly captivating and intimate, especially for a debut.

Breasts and Eggs

Mieko Kawakami

4.75

challenging hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book found me at the right time in my life. Recently, I've encountered true death for the first time in my life. The passing of my grandfather weighs heavy on my heart, and it's something I'm unsure on how to navigate. How do I deal with the fact that he's simply not here anymore? In less than a month, I will visit the house he lived in for decades. How will I feel then? How do I grapple with the fact that he died of old age- which, by default, means I'm getting older too?

Midoriko's journal entries at the beginning provide insight into the mind of an almost pubescent girl. These journal entries hit me exceptionally hard. The idea of getting her first period is something that fascinates, yet terrifies her. Her prose describing this feeling is panicked and unsured. I've never felt this feeling I felt years ago described better.

Natsuko's relationship with sex is something that is all too real for me too. It encapsulates the feeling of loving someone so much, craving physical contact with them constantly, yet still despising sex. I hated having sex with my previous boyfriend. Looking back, I don't exactly know why. Perhaps it was inexperience on both of our parts.

Natsuko does plenty of research as to whether or not she can/should have a child. This section of the novel was the most interesting to me. As I enter this new stage in my life, my future children are always on the back of my mind. Is bringing them into a crumbling world an act of violence? Am I selfish for wanting children of my own? Will I be able to provide as stable and happy as a life that my parents provided me? Will I eventually grow to hate my husband who shares half of his DNA with these children?

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

Eric LaRocca

2.0

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Yellowface

R.F. Kuang

3.5

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It's safe to say I really enjoyed this book given how I devoured it in two days. So unbelievably witty, and I'm an absolute sucker for unreliable (and crazy) narrators. Often when authors write about the internet it comes off as someone who has never had Twitter account. This book does the opposite, as it fully encapsulates the horrors of the internet. I've seen countless influencers get cancelled, hell, I've even participated in internet cancel culture before, and this book absolutely nails it. Another aspect I loved about this book was how nuanced it presented the issues at hand. Yes, there are glaring issues with a white author supposedly writing about Chinese Labor Camps, but is dictating what authors can and cannot write about a form of censorship? Yes, stealing another authors work is objectively bad, but what constitutes as stealing and what constitutes as inspiration? Yes, authors are often inspired by the world around them, but can you plagiarize a conversation with a friend?

The one glaring issue I had with the novel is how it wraps up. Simply put, I found the plot-twist with Candice too ambitious and utterly unrealistic. I feel I would have liked the book more if it ended with Juniper writing her new project, still trying to justify all her wrongdoings.

Content Warnings

Their Divine Fires

Wendy Chen

3.25

dark emotional reflective sad

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I wasn't completely sold on this novel until Part Three, where we got introduced to Emily in Massachusetts. Here, everything from previous chapters crash and collide into a beautiful familial mess. There is something so beautiful about Yonghong working in a pharmacy in the early 2000's as her great-grandfather was a renowned doctor, healing people of their ailments with ointments and herbs, 100 years prior. Later, we learn that Yonghong wished for Emily to become a doctor, a calling she refuses as she later trains as a wildlife biologist. Emily seems to be the first generation in her family to break away from the familial ties that held everyone so close. Is this her fault? No. Her family has hid so much from her throughout her life, secrets she only begins to unveil when we're introduced to her. How can you be close to ancestors you only know the name of?

Another aspect of this novel I appreciated was the slight comparison to Donald Trump and teh rule that was present in Communist China. This was something that I had already started to draw comparisons of on my own, but I feared I was making comparisons out of ignorance.