(Sorcerer Royal #2)
by Zen Cho
★★★
Tag archives: fiction
The Street
by Ann Petry
I resented having to read through the chapters that presumably were to humanise the superintendent. We learn that he’s never had the capacity to socialise with other men, has lived in cellars too long, but at the same time he has absorbed the misogyny of our culture just … Read more
Sorcerer to the Crown
(Sorcerer Royal #1)
by Zen Cho
While I’m into Manglish, it’s a dragging chore to wade through stilted, pompous fantasy-speak. On top of that, referring to the female of the species so insistently is eminently irritating. It’s hard to stomach fantasy when one creates a world of dragons and fairies and … Read more
The Women of Brewster Place
by Gloria Naylor
Believably melodramatic until the absolute betrayal in “The Two”.
She Would Be King
by Wayétu Moore
★★★★
Juliet Takes a Breath
by Gabby Rivera
★★★
Sour Heart
by Jenny Zhang
★★★
Death’s End
(Remembrance of Earth’s Past #3)
by Liu Cixin
In between significant and smaller blind spots—including, like Goethe, promoting a stalker’s idea of love—is a work of phenomenal imagination. It’s the most absorbing book of the three, and excitingly explores ideas of humans in time and space.
Trail of Lightning
(The Sixth World #1)
by Rebecca Roanhorse
★★★★
The Marrow Thieves
Cherie Dimaline
Like Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower this is an intensely believable dystopia with anxiety-inducing on-the-run survivalism.
There were a few off points. I wish Dimaline didn’t include the rivalry between the protagonist and a later character or at least had Frenchie apologise and own up to lashing out … Read more
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self
by Danielle Evans
★★★★
Love: Beyond Body, Space & Time
by Hope Nicholson (Editor)
★★★★
Sultana’s Dream: A Feminist Utopia and Selections from The Secluded Ones
by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
★★★
In the Country
by Mia Alvar
★★★½
The Dark Forest
(Remembrance of Earth’s Past #2)
by Liu Cixin
Reading about an ant painstakingly tracing each character on a gravestone signals the early slog. The flatness of the first two parts cannot be pinned entirely on the alternate translator either. The details are dull and offensive. Women squeal and fuss, and when … Read more
Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
The first third was easily engrossing. It was refreshing to learn about the history of Ikuno and about the Korean diaspora in Japan. The formula of family sagas is difficult to escape though. The older generations stoically live through readable hardship, while the younger generation is spoiled … Read more
Spirits Abroad
by Zen Cho
Zen Cho is my new favourite short story writer. Generally I find magical realism exhausting and irrelevant (García Márquez). Spirits Abroad is the first work I’ve read whose magical elements complement the stories—which pulse with inventiveness and humour.
Wildcard
(Warcross #2)
by Marie Lu
★★★
Warcross
(Warcross #1)
by Marie Lu
I didn’t know I needed this book in my life till I started it. It’s populated with my personal wish fulfilment characters in a rainbow of representation.
Picture Us in the Light
by Kelly Loy Gilbert
** spoiler alert **