This is a novel of three parts - the first is from the point of view of The Vegetarian's husband, the second her brother-in-law and and finally, her sister. In the beginning we see Yeong-hye, our titular character, has had an unsettling dream and decides to become a vegetarian from that day forward. It is the beginning of the end for her as everything crumbles - her marriage, her relationship with her parents and even who she is as a person, if we ever knew who that was to begin with.

We're supposed to be unnerved by her behavior as described by her spouse, Mr. Cheong - and I am, but it's not accompanied by the expected sympathy for the confused and frightened man. He's kind of a dick. Scratch that,

he's a garbage human and a marital rapist. He then gets upset that her expression across the breakfast table "made it seem as though she were a woman of bitter experience, who had suffered many hardships". No shit, fuckwad, you raped her multiple times.

DUN DUN, TWO YEARS LATER.

Yeong-hye's unnamed brother-in-law has an odd sexual fixation with Mongolian marks. He feels the same about his wife as Mr. Cheong does Yeong-hye, without any unusual behavior to "justify" it. What I am getting from this book is that men are never satisfied with what women give them, even if it is their very best. ("She's a good woman," he thought. "The kind of woman whose goodness is oppressive.")

Unnamed brother-in-law ALSO makes his wife cry when they have sex. This is a very uncomfortable theme. He fetishizes Yeong-hye's mental illness, enraptured by her lack of affect & participation in the waking world. He takes advantage of this in the most disgusting of ways. Basically the only male character in this story who isn't entirely repulsive is Ji-woo, who is five.

Lastly, we meet Yeong-hye's sister In-hye after she leaves her husband due to the events in his chapter. Her section is unfocused and confused, almost as if the mental disconnect her sister is experiencing is a contagion she also contracted. I am still unsure about whether or not In-hye's choice to "abandon" her son Ji-woo means that she is temporarily leaving him in someone else's care for the first time since her husband slunk off or if she means in a permanent sense, that she and Yeong-hye are off together, to dream or die or become trees. It is not the most concrete of endings, which is fitting to the somewhat otherworldly tone her chapter takes as she becomes more and more involved in Yeong-hye's care.

Favorite lines: "It seemed enough for [Yeong-hye] to just deal with whatever it was that came her way, calmly and without fuss. Or perhaps it was simply that things were happening inside her, terrible things, which no one else could even guess at, and thus it was impossible for her to engage with everyday life at the same time."

Notes on translation: I want to get this in the original Korean and try my hand at reading it. It sounds a lot more interesting than painstakingly translating newspaper articles or children's books.

- The descriptors and pronouns are more confusing in English than they presumably would be in Korean. Mr. Cheong references his brother-in-law several times, but it's not always clear if he means his wife's brother (Yeong-ho) or his wife's sister's husband (unnamed), who would both hold this title.

- In-hye's unnamed husband calling her "Ji-woo's mom" ... is this supposed to be a commentary on how he sees her or just a literal translation of the Korean? Unclear.

Rounded up 3.75 stars.

[Trump] began by admiring his own menu card, which he held up.

“They write these things out one at a time, by hand,” he marveled, referring to the White House staff.

“A calligrapher,” I replied, nodding.

He looked quizzical. “They write them by hand,” he repeated.

Review to come.

I mean it really is not so bad to get up early when there is something to get up early about, but when a girl gets up early and there is nothing to get up early about, it really begins to seem as if there was no sense to it.

Sing it, sister. Review to come.

Ito Junji has never disappointed me and this collection is no exception. I know the biggest issue people have with his work is that his endings are abrupt or just, you know, don't exist. The fear and suspense just stretch on past the last page with no relief in sight. Marks a successful venture into the horror genre, if you ask me.

As a note: do not pick up his works if you have trypophobia.

I loved the explanations and little anecdotes at the end of each story! It's fascinating to see the mundane things he used as inspiration and the resulting twisted creations we see in Shiver. The only thing that fell a little flat for me was the opening story, "Used Record". It's super difficult to reflect eerie death music with text only, but the harried look of the man pursuing the girl with the record made up for it, a bit.

"Hanging Blimp" was my favorite, for a given value of favorite in this creepy genre.

A microhistory for POPSUGAR's reading challenge. I bet she had a hell of a time choosing the title for this book - the list of "could haves" must be miles long.

Ms. Roach has gone the distance when it comes to the poring through the minutiae of academic research on sex, translating overly conservative terminology into something that might pass as informative with her trademark irreverent humor. I think my favorite portion of this book is actually the part where she decides to become a part of a study with her husband - a study that uses 3D ultrasound imaging to observe all the bits and bobs while a couple is engaged in coitus. She gives you a pretty sound description of what's happening, where everyone in the room is and how the experiment works - but it's couched in so much distance and humor, you have to read it twice to really get that she's talking about having (very very) clinical sex with her husband:

Ed keeps up an idle, disaffected rhythm. He and Dr. Deng chat about their children. I'm taking notes. Or half of me is.

Her voice turned sour and her face twisted up to match. “The world didn’t change. There is still murder, still rape and fighting. We fucked it up,” she said. “We had this chance, this clean slate, and we just carried on the same as we always have.”

I knew what she was talking ’bout, knew why she was sore over it. I seen all them evils a’ this world firsthand and they done damage to me I don’t even know about yet.

Review to come.

Noah's lazy sons, tired of working all day, turned away a special visitor:

'Oh noble and unmated beast, my sons were all unkind;
In such a night what stable and manager will you find?

'Oh golden hoofs, oh cataracts of mane, oh nostrils wide
With indignation! Oh the neck wave-arched, the lovely pride!

'Oh long shall be the furrows ploughed across the hearts of men
Before it comes to stable and manger once again,

'And dark and crooked all the ways in which our race shall walk,
And shrivelled all their manhood like a flower with broken stalk,

'And all the world, oh Ham, may curse the hour when you were born;
Because of you the Ark must sail without the Unicorn.'

Reading this with zero background on Chechnya's history is a mistake. The basis of this story (a man joins his enemies to reap revenge upon a former comrade who has taken his family hostage) is surrounded by so much historical miasma that it's somewhat difficult to trawl through.

Let's boil it down folks: those In Charge (aka rich white dudes) wanted to keep people of color, women and the poors downtrodden, which is how they liked 'em. There was an strong upswing in the interest in eugenics during and immediately after after WWI. Many intellectuals worried about the state of the USA and how we could possibly keep our "Greatest Country Ever" mugs if too many "lesser" people were able to procreate and therefore populate our country with their progeny. Clearly, these Great Men of Science and Intellect were the best ones to choose who should get to have babies! With their (dodgy as fuck, when it wasn't straight up lying) statistics and racist underpinnings, this was a marriage made in hell.

Review to come.

The section from Wuthering Heights is simply perfect.

c: oh my god
what are you going to scream at my grave
h: oh man
what aren't i going to scream at your grave
i'll scream everything
i'll scream at your soul
c: good good
h: i'll scream about what a bitch you were
c: i am so excited
i am going to just
ruin heaven with my screaming back at you
h: that is so sweet of you to do that
c: i'll just murder everyone's heart