This novel felt so raw and honest, very slice-of-life in that everything is shown to you the way it happens and you can decide how closely you want to read into it/make connections. It genuinely felt like I was reading something written by a friend, very of-the-time and modern when it comes to the queer experience, though one I'm not familiar with as Jonny navigates being Indigenous and Two-Spirit as intersections of his queerness. Though I say modern, I think it also feels a bit timeless, I think this will read just as easily many years from now, and you may only need to google what grindr was. 
The writing itself was also really well done, I wouldn't be surprised to discover that Joshua Whitehead may be a poet because the way he was able to provide a natural flow to the writing as we jump between different times in Jonny's life. 

I was a little scared going into this because I really wanted to like it, but I'm happy to say I actually really enjoyed this! I found that the beginning was very slow, and I wish it hadn't taken so long to get to the actual meat of the story. And I wish the ending had been a little less rushed. But I thought the writing was well done overall and every time it felt like the plot was slowing down a new plot hook was introduced, which is just smart writing. The body horror was something I wasn't expecting, but I think it added an element of grit the story really needed. The commentary on the perceived "good" and "evil" of society was so well done was very thought provoking, and had me thinking about Canada's military as "peacekeepers" that are sent to warring countries; are they really doing good there? A lot to think about with this book, plus it was also like, fun to read, there were a lot of instances I found myself laughing out loud. 

I truly flew through this book, there were a lot of moments I really enjoyed, and I liked the idea of the world and the characters. However, the whole of it felt flat and lacking for me, the characters didn't have a lot of emotional depth and they all felt like side characters, the intricacies of the magic system were never explained, and the world itself was underdeveloped (and I really wish there had been a map!). The idea of women being denied access to the same magic as men is obviously drawing a parallel to the real world, but that's all it was, a parallel, there was so subtlety or nuance to it whatsoever, there was no effort at sweeping prose to pull you in, no metaphor for drive it home, it was simply spelled out right in front of you. 
Though I was entertained, I wish there was more nuance, kinda like watching reality TV. So, 3/5 stars. 

Rating is subject to change because I'm not 100% sure I want to give it 5 stars yet. But wow, this was so wonderful, the narrative was so compelling! 

Overall, I really don't think this was the book for me. I can see a lot of other people who come from families with traumatic history connecting with, but as a white person who's family goes back more than 10 generations in Canada, I obviously didn't connect with it on a personal level. There's also a heavy presence of topography as Lee explores Taiwan, and a lot of history of the native botanical life on the island. This went right over my head, I honestly just think I wasn't smart enough for it. 
I did see a bit of a connection between these topographical descriptions and the history of colonizers ignoring the native plant life on Taiwan and Lee traversing that very landscape while grappling with her grandparent's history there. But that's as far as my brains got me, and I often found myself confused at the structure of the narrative and the order of topographical descriptions combined with stories of family history that just didn't seem to flow into each other as seamlessly as I would've liked. 
The writing itself, however, the words Lee wrote, are beautiful. And when we were in a narrative of family history, or Jessica telling of a particular bike ride on the coast, or hike to a new lake, I found myself falling into the storytelling and really enjoying it. 
The experience, for me, of reading this book was riding the line between trying to understand the Latin words for a type of tree and its history and falling into the narrative of Lee's grandmother leaving her family behind in China. 
Overall, I'm giving this book a 3/5 stars because I loved the writing and some aspects of the story being told, but overall I had issues with the structure, and honestly, I just think some of it went over my head. 

Oh man oh man, I loved this. I was a little nervous to read it, because I've loved basically everything Schwab has done, but I really loved this. Her writing is so beautiful and so perfectly fit this story of an invisible girl, forgotten by all she meets, throughout 300 years. 
Addie and her convictions are something I really connected with.  The ways in which she struggles but eventually finds her footing to adapt into the life she starts to live one she realizes she has all the time, ever. And in the beginning, her fear of running out of time, got me too, it's something I've always struggled with, especially on the days I find it hard to get out of bed. But if nothing could stop you, you could do it as Addie does, except of course, the catch that as soon as someone turns away, they will not remember you. 
Her relationship with the "shadow god" (I called him in my notes until the book named him), is also deeply interesting. Because of their deal, he is the only one who remembers her, but as the devil (?), he is fickle, only showing up occasionally to see if she is tired of life, only to find that she never is. Until, of course, Addie meets Henry, but spoilers! 
This is a book I never wanted to end, and yet I always wanted to know what part of Addie's story we would be told next. 

oh man did I want this to be a new favourite book. I loved that it was a sapphic romance, and I think a lot of other people will love this more than me, but I mainly had technical issues with it. And it being a debut, I think that I will keep my eye out for future releases from Helen Corcoran to see what she does next!
The first-person duel POV threw me off first, but I found that throughout it got easier and easier to distinguish Lia and Xania's POV from each other, which is hard to do, so I thought that was really well done.
This is the first "fantasy of manners" (fantasy kingdoms but no magic) I've read and I quite liked it. This is a book that's very plot-driven and has a LOT of politics and names involved and I don't /really/ mind that it wasn't character-driven (though I do prefer the characters pushing their plot to the plot pushing them) because I do like the politics. 
Mostly, however, I had issues with the pacing of the plot AND the character's and their relationships. This could've easily been a duology instead of one book, and I think I would've preferred that. There's a lot of times jumps, sometimes months-long, and suddenly all kinds of plot has happened and the narrator is reciting everything that happened during the time jump. This ultimately made it feel very told-and-not-seen and info-dumpy, and when the characters made decisions I thought were dumb, I found it difficult to see their reasoning because we weren't spending enough time with them for their actions to make sense. 

This book is so horrible in its content in every way. But the way it's done is so fantastic. The writing injects hope into the narrative in a way that makes you not want to get your hopes up, because everytime it feels like something is going to be okay, it's not. This is about to girls in a small village in India and the way they are treated there, and even when apart, the hope they find in their relationship to keep stoking the fire within them to keep going, to find a way out. It is wonderful and yet so awful.