abbie_'s Reviews (1.79k)

If you haven't read any Atwood yet and your attention span still isn't too great, I can definitely recommend Good Bones as an excellent way of getting a feel for Atwood's style and savage wit! This is a collection of flash fiction, short stories and prose poems, not something I'd usually reach for but, of course, Maggie always delivers.
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I loved how, in every story, she flipped something on its head - some gender norm or fictional trope. She has such a knack for showing us things we take for granted, or accept as the norm, from a different perspective and opening our eyes to how reductive or damaging something is. Even if you're already aware of how destructive gender roles can be, this collection will still surprise you!
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Some of my favourites were Epaulettes, where world leaders are chosen in a beauty pageant-esque competition, Alien Territory, which explores the politics of having a body, particularly a male one, and Cold-Blooded, where some insectile alien muses gently on when they will once again rule the earth after humans have destroyed it...
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A couple didn't leave much of an impression, and Poppies: Three Variations was clever but didn't really fit in with the other stories, which were all gender-based or sci-fi/dystopian-esque (which made me really want to reread Oryx & Crake). But overall, a deft, funny, subversive collection that I recommend!

Based on true events, This House is Not a Home by Dene author Katłıà follows an Indigenous family who return from a hunting trip only to find their house gone, forcing them to assimilate into the nearby settler town. The book demonstrates how efficiently coloniser governments strip Indigenous families of their ways of life, from residential schools to the housing office. Kǫ̀ and his family, forced into paying rent on land that belongs to them, quickly fall into the cycle of poverty, facing other issues such as addiction and gambling. Sometimes it felt a bit rushed, such as when Kǫ̀’s son’s progression from slightly sullen teenager to drug-dealing gang member was explained in less than a sentence. But taken as a whole, this book is a testament to the perseverance of Indigenous people in the face of a system designed to oppress them, with a glimmer of hope at the end.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC in exchange for a review!

A delightfully creepy little Japanese horror novella (+ two short stories!) that would be a good pick if you’re looking to include some women in translation in your October TBR! 👻

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The titular novella really steals the show here. It’s about a young woman who becomes a stepmother to a little girl who is decidedly unnerving. There was an incident with the girl’s mother which she may or may not, accidentally or intentionally, had a hand in, resulting in her death. I loved how Kaori Fujino explored these timorous dynamics - the woman never knowing how much authority she has, how much she should discipline the child, where the boundaries lie. This becomes all the more complicated when she becomes obsessed with the deceased mother’s interiors blog. There are also themes of infidelity and revenge explored, with some scenes that will definitely make you squirm!

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I did have some questions about the ending though. The child is supposed to be three years old, and based on my own niece when she was three, I’m not sure she’d have had the fine motor skills to pull that off?? 😂 But either way it was creepy and made me cringe in a good psychological-horror-y way!

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The two short stories were also pretty good. One features an old woman in physical therapy who’s convinced she’s being harassed by a malevolent spirit, and the other has more of an urban legend vibe, where a young boy is traumatised by the ‘curse’ supposedly placed on him by the ghost of a playground he visits 👻

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Quick read, good thrills, interesting themes, would recommend!

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Translated by Kendall Heitzman

(PR product @netgalley @solarisbooks) I tried something a little out of my comfort zone with this locked-door-hamlet-retelling-queer-sci-fi-thriller and… it sort of paid off?🤔 I have no doubt this book will find its audience and folks will fall head over heels, but it left me feeling a bit ambivalent. Probably those folks will have a working knowledge of Shakespeare - I requested it because I wanted to explore more queer lit in other genres, and I did love that aspect of it! (It involves an AI so if you were a fan of Lovey and Jenks in The Wayfarers, you’ll love this 👀)

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I like it when thrillers make use of mixed formats, which Em X. Liu offers here! They give us a mix of book excerpts, articles, pager conversations, security camera logs, and then POVs from our main character Hayden and Horatio, the AI who is the only one Hayden can trust. I always think it helps build a more robust picture of the mystery!

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In terms of side characters, Felicia was awesome, loved her. Hayden’s uncle felt a bit underdeveloped - somewhere between a mustachio-twirling villain and puppy-eyed lover who’d do *anything* for his person. I think Horatio steals the show though, and I loved his scenes with Hayden.

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However, for the first 100 pages or so I didn’t feel particularly motivated to pick it up. I also would find myself a few steps behind at some parts. For example, someone would be betrayed or double crossed but I wouldn’t realise it when it was happening - only a few pages later when alliances were no longer adding up 😂 But that’s more likely on me!

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If you’re into Shakespeare retellings and sci fi thrillers then definitely look out for this one out on 12th September!

This is the first audiobook I’ve listened to in who knows how long at 1x speed. Oyeyemi has no time for handholding with her magic & fantasy worlds, so I wanted to make sure I was catching everything. Even when I didn’t, I think it’s one of those books where you can just enjoy the vibes, you know? It’s whimsical but it has an edge. The writing is gorgeous, there’s humour running throughout and I like the way it has a fairytale feel while being thoroughly rooted in today’s world. There were slightly too many characters to keep proper track of via audio, especially by the end when all the Kerchevals came along. If you’re an Erin Morgenstern fan then I definitely think you’ll get on well with this one!

I like it when an author can take serious topics and have some fun with them, probably because I also use humour as a defence mechanism 👀 Just by Looking at Him tackles addiction, disability, queer & open relationships and infidelity and will also have you cackling. Sometimes the humour went a little overboard tbf, but overall the effect was good. I’ve seen some reviews which worry this book feeds into the stereotype of the promiscuous gay man, but I (although a lesbian not a gay man) didn’t take it that way. Elliott is a disabled queer man and I think the author does a good job of showing that it’s Elliott’s own personal baggage he’s working through, not to be taken (as no book should) as a representative of gay men as a whole. Some of the side characters felt underdeveloped and I questioned Elliott’s newfound friendship with a certain terrible man, but overall I enjoyed it a lot!

Women in Translation Month 2023 had a lot of gems but unfortunately Saha by Cho Nam-Joo didn’t quite do it for me. Like most people, I was a fan of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, and Saha takes quite the departure from that novel. I’m all for authors exploring different themes, genres, styles, but sometimes it just doesn’t really work. I think the lack of buzz I’ve seen around Saha (published in English in 2022) confirms that I’m sadly not alone in this feeling 😭

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It’s a sort of mystery novel set in a dystopian near-future where a huge business has bought out an entire city and turned it into its own country. ‘Town’ is split into three groups: Ls, L2s and Sahas. Ls have the best jobs, L2s perform more menial labour, and Sahas cannot ‘officially’ get work anywhere. All of the latter group live on the Saha estates, the looming, utilitarian apartment complexes they take their name from.

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I actually really liked the beginning of the book, where we see snapshots of the various people living in the Saha estates. This section does a nice job of displaying how corruption and greed lead to such a vicious class divide, and I enjoyed the glimpse into everyday life in this dystopian society. There was also an interesting but under-explored storyline where a young Saha woman is experimented on/used for medical research? But when the murder mystery part was introduced as well, everything starts to feel a little thrown together.

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The writing (or translation) never wowed me either - it felt sparse but not purposefully so, not to any particular end. I appreciated the commentary on class, wealth gaps, corporate greed, opposition against systems of oppression, and morals under pressure, but it felt halfhearted. It was only short, so maybe more time was needed to flesh these ideas out more?

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Not mad I read it, but not a particularly memorable one either. I am looking forward to her new one, Miss Kim Knows & Other Stories too!

I picked up this collection secondhand a month or so ago, and was excited because I’d just been approved for Lahiri’s latest collection on Netgalley. Now that I’ve read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Interpreter of Maladies, I’m even more looking forward to reading Roman Stories because Jhumpa Lahiri knows her way around a short story collection!

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There are 9 stories in this collection and I’d say 6/9 were very good to fantastic, and the other 3 were still well written but just didn’t make as much of an impact. Lahiri’s short stories have that feeling of being tiny little contained novels. I immediately felt situated with the new characters, as though I’d been reading about them for 100 pages, not 4. They mostly examine relationships in various forms (families, marriages, lodger/landlord, strangers) and migration. They all felt so real, like Lahiri could have been recounting episodes she’d lived.

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Some of my favourites were Mrs Sen (an Indian woman struggling to adjust to life in America babysits a young white boy who narrates), This Blessed House (a young couple find Christian paraphernalia all over their new home and it leads to complications in their marriage), and the titular Interpreter of Maladies. This last one gave that ‘sonder’ feeling (thanks for reminding me of the word @nodunayo!), where you look at a stranger and realise their lives are just as complex as yours. In this story, a tour guide who is infatuated with a client realises she’s far from who he assumed her to be. It feels wrong to not mention the other three stories I loved, so that should show you how strong a collection it is! Her writing is just beautiful, and I’m so intrigued by Roman Stories as for that one she’s written them initially in Italian and then translated them - gonna read it in September!

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Also did my first ever buddy read on @the.storygraph with Nadia for this one! Such a fun experience and maybe I won’t be such a lone wolf in my reading anymore?! Though no promises 😂

I started reading this digitally on my phone and kept forgetting to go back to it once I got my tablet for ebooks 🤦‍♀️ I need to restart it but atm don’t feel like rereading 50% of the book! 

Will come back