Tag: literary fiction

Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

Remarkably Bright Creatures [review]

Sarah

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Published by Ecco on May 3, 2022
my rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads avg: 4.47 (as of Jan 19, 2023)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

My neurons number half a billion, and they are distributed among my eight arms. On occasion, I have wondered whether I might have more intelligence in a single tentacle than a human does in its entire skull.

Remarkably Bright Creatures follows three perspectives: an older woman named Tova, a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus, and a young man named Cameron. These perspectives are all incredibly different. Tova lives alone, her husband recently deceased, and cleans the aquarium in the evenings, thinking about her long-ago missing son. Cameron struggles to hold a job and wants to find the father he’s never known. Marcellus observes, and eventually intervenes in Tova’s life. I found this to be an incredibly beautiful book; it was slow to hook me but once it did I was all in. While I found Marcellus’ chapters to be cheesy and inconsistent at times (he knows what a barrette is, but not what a pacifier is. He knows what a driver’s license is, but not what a football is), it took little away from my enjoyment. This is a slow-moving examination of our character and their lives that ends in an emotional climax; I found myself sobbing over the last couple chapters. I highly recommend this to lovers of literary fiction and am so glad that my great-aunt gifted it to me, knowing my love of octopuses!

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Piranesi [review]

Sarah

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing on September 15, 2020
my rating: 4 stars
Goodreads avg: 4.26 (as of 2022-09-15)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

There is a thing that I know but always forget: Winter is hard.

What a bizarre little book. This is difficult to review without giving anything away, but I’ll give it a shot. I went into this pretty cold, knowing only that it was somewhat related to mythology and fairly fantastic. I honestly think that was best, it took me a bit to settle into the narrative style but witnessing the story unravel while trying to figure out what was going on was very satisfying. Piranesi is an oddly satisfying character to follow, I appreciated his emphasis on logic and his understanding of the world around him. Although his naivety could have been frustrating, I found it more sad than anything else and I found him very sympathetic. Clarke did an excellent job with this and I’m glad it was the Women’s Prize winner of 2021.

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The Perfect Nanny [review]

Sarah

The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani transl. by Sam Taylor
Published by Penguin Books on January 9, 2018 (originally 2016)
my rating: 4 stars
Goodreads avg: 3.39 (as of 2022-09-08)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

Already the rumor is spreading. Something terrible has happened to the children.

I picked this up after listening to a re-run of an interview with the author on the podcast Literary Friction. I was a little anxious seeing the average rating (apparently the last month or so has been me accidentally reading plenty of lowly-rated books), but decided to give it a go anyway. I’m glad I did. This is a book following Louise, a French nanny who seems perfect in every way. But the book begins with the death of the two children Louise has been nannying. This is a retrospective, more literary than thriller, giving us the greater context for this tragedy.

I could have easily read this in one sitting. I found the story and its characters utterly compelling, even if none of them were particularly likeable. Louise is outwardly perfect in every way, going above and beyond, but privately she is drowning in the debts of her late husband and is completely estranged from her daughter. I liked how we were exposed to voices from Louise’s past as we follow her in the very recent past throughout her career with these two children. The tone of this book was immaculate, with creeping dread building steadily as the family and the nanny become increasingly more codependent in their relationships.

This will be a particularly horrific read for parents and I caution you to make sure you’re prepared if you have or want kids. But Slimani is an excellent writer who is able to pack so much into such a slim novel and I will absolutely be recommending this.

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Detransition, Baby [review]

Sarah

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Published by One World on January 12, 2021
my rating: 5 stars
Goodreads avg: 4.00 (as of 2022-08-31)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

[…] her life as a woman arrived with pain; pain that had to be endured, withstood, pain that was the same as being alive, and so was without end.

This was really incredible. Torrey Peters is an incredible writer and I was constantly awed by how clever this was. ‘A whipsmart debut’ indeed. Reese is a trans woman living in New York who is figuring out herself and how to get what she wants in life. Ames is her ex-girlfriend, now detransitioned but not quite a cis man, trying to live a ‘normal’ life. Ames has gotten his current partner, his boss, pregnant and is frantically trying to decide what to do.

Before I knew this was authored by a trans women, the inclusion of detransition concerns me. I mean, we’re surrounded with right-wing rhetoric about how allowing trans children to be themselves will lead to all these horrible things, and how soo many people detransition. But Peters is trans and I felt that she handled this topic gracefully, emphasizing how so many trans folks are forced to detransition because it is so difficult to live in such a transphobic world.

While I am not a trans woman, as a member of the queer community I did find a lot of comfort and familiarity in this book. I’m also polyamorous and seeing the development of this triad warmed my heart — even if they have far to go when it comes to communication. But this book deals with a lot of dark topics, things that I don’t think could have been left out of a story like this. There is an interesting commentary about various forms of colonization and oppression; Ames’ partner Katrina is a cis woman but is biracial. Reese is used to viewing all cis women as privileged, but has to confront the fact that not all cis women are cis white women.

I also appreciated that Peters didn’t pause the story to introduce concepts of Gender 101; she used in-group language without explanation in a way that I found immersive and important. I appreciate when authors do this for any kind of culture — sprinkling in definitions often feels forced or pulls a reader out of the story. We all have access to Google and are able to look up anything we don’t understand from prior knowledge or context alone.

There were so many fascinating explorations of misogyny and transmisogyny and I’m excited to come back to this someday to pick up on more than can be processed via a first read. I feel like each page could spawn dozens of essays. Peters brought a remarkable book into this world and I’m looking forward to picking up her next one.

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Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

The Odyssey [review]

Sarah

The Odyssey by Lara Williams
Published by Zando on April 21, 2022
my rating: 4 stars
Goodreads avg: 3.26 (as of 2022-08-18)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration. Quotes have been taken from the advanced copy and may differ from the final publication.

I was already feeling kind of slumpy when I picked this up and when I saw the average Goodreads rating (an abysmal 3.26), I was nervous. I thought this would edge me further into my reading slump and that I’d have another DNF on my hands. Instead, I found myself pulled straight in to Ingrid’s story. A crewmember on an immense cruise ship, Ingrid is a strange person having strange experiences. It’s hard to say more without getting into spoilers, but I found this to be a delightfully messy and confusing book. There both is and isn’t much in the way of plot and the characters themselves are odd and difficult to connect with. I can see why this isn’t for everyone, but I felt like Lara Williams did a great job here and I’m glad I finally got around to picking this up.

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Fault Lines [review]

Sarah

Fault Lines by Emily Itami
Published by Custom House on September 7, 2021
my rating: 3.5 stars
Goodreads avg: 3.75 (as of 2022-06-16)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

I went into this completely cold and found myself a bit bored by it at first. Mizuki is a Japanese housewife who has spent time in America and dreams of more than domesticity. She begins an affair with a stranger, as she feels neglected by her husband and bored with her life. This sounds like the start of plenty of literary novels, but I found her relationship with Kiyoshi lovely and refreshing. I also liked that instead of causing her to drift further from her family, her relationship with Kyoshi allows her to settle more fully into her role as wife and mother when she is home. I was even quite emotional at the ending, although I knew it couldn’t have ended any other way. I’m glad to have read this and am looking forward to seeing if Itami puts out any more books. Thanks to Fatma for the rec!

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Pizza Girl [review]

Sarah

Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier
Published by Doubleday on June 9, 2020
my rating: 4 stars
Goodreads avg: 3.37 (as of 2022-06-03)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

I truly had no idea what to expect from this, but a pregnant 18-year-old obsessing over a middle aged woman wasn’t it. The titular Pizza Girl is a delivery driver who is dealing with grief, the looming future of motherhood, and a deepening divide between herself and her family, which consists of only her boyfriend and her own mother. This book has humorous moments and its fair share of vulgarity, but it’s a deep look into coming of age while in the throes of depression. I was frantic and heartbroken by the end of this, more closely invested in Pizza Girl than I thought I would become. I’m glad I was recommended this for the 12 in 12 Challenge, as I honestly think I wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise.

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The Memory Police [review]

Sarah

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa, transl. by Stephen Snyder
Published by Pantheon in August 13, 2019 (originally 1994)
my rating: 3 stars
Goodreads avg: 3.75 (as of 2022-05-25)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

I wish I had gotten along with this more, but it was a little flatter than I expected. It was reminiscent to me of 1984 in some ways, although I wouldn’t draw a tight comparison between the two. I thought the titular Memory Police would play a more pivotal role in this, but it felt like they only existed to add stakes to the story. I just felt a lot of “why?” reading this. I could draw connections to colonialism and the erasure of cultures, or the oppression of afab bodies, but it didn’t feel like a fully formed commentary was there. I was largely bored by this and although some aspects were compelling, I felt let down.

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Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

Build Your House Around My Body [review]

Sarah

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
Published by Random House in July 6, 2021
my rating: 3 stars
Goodreads avg: 3.87 (as of 2022-05-23)
Spoiler-free review
Goodreads

I’m still not sure whether I read this book or whether it was all a fever dream that I imagined. Build Your House Around My Body spans decades and follows an ever-changing cast of characters through a dark, fantastical story. The ‘main’ character, Winnie, is a Vietnamese-American woman attempting to find herself in Vietnam while slipping deeper and deeper into a depressive spiral.

While I appreciated this story overall, I found myself swinging between bored, confused, and intrigued. Sadly, too much of my time was spent waiting to get to the end of the story rather than appreciating the journey itself. This novel is often difficult to follow, although I was impressed by the way Kupersmith was able to connect the characters to each other. There were many instances where I found myself highlighting lines that would have meant little-to-nothing in another book, but that gave me an ‘aha!’ moment in seeing another connection.

I would recommend this with the caveat that if you don’t like sweeping storylines that take their time to intersect and become clear, this is probably not the book for you. It does have a lot of interesting commentary on colonialism and bodily autonomy, but I struggled to untangle this from the story itself.

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Convenience Store Woman [review]

Sarah

This post contains affiliate links; if you use these links to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thanks for reading!

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata transl. by Ginny Tapley Takemori
Published by Grove Press in August 2019 (originally 2016)
my rating: 3.5 stars
Goodreads avg: 3.72 (as of 2022-05-18)
Spoiler-free review

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This short novel (or is it technically a novella? I never know) is a pleasantly written examination of societal expectations. It’s set in Japan so while expectations are a little bit different than what I’m used to seeing in my area of the US, I think this is a book everyone can relate to in some way. Keiko has been working at the same convenience store for 18 years and at 36 has friends and family who are concerned about her apparent lack of ambition regarding both her career and romance. Our narrator, on the other hand, is happy with her life. She understands the flow of the convenience store, is able to predict its needs the way one might do with a lover or a child. She doesn’t see the need to expand her horizon, and doesn’t understand why others may be so concerned with it.

This really felt like the perfect length to me; we had plenty of time to understand Keiko’s life, routine, and mindset before the obligatory conflict and subsequent disaster set in. I liked the humor in this and found it easy to get through. It did make me think a lot about how we judge people for not hitting certain ‘milestones’ whether it’s what they want or not. I loved how she was so happy with herself and her life and didn’t understand why that wasn’t good enough for others.

I thought this was great at doing what it was meant to do, but it was just missing something for me, which is why my rating is a little lower. I did enjoy it overall, though, and will be recommending it! Additionally, it is not explicitly stated but I found it heavily implied that Keiko is autistic and aroace. She faces a lot of critique and discrimination for this, so I would make sure you’re in the right headspace to read this if that’s something that could be difficult for you to read!

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