Questa lettura è stata piuttosto deludente e purtroppo non ha soddisfatto le mie aspettative.

Innanzitutto, la struttura stessa del romanzo è stata confusa, poiché, a mio parere, non ha sfruttato bene i flashback temporali, lasciando molte spiegazioni degli eventi attuali piuttosto vaghe.

Questo ha influito sullo sviluppo dei personaggi, lasciando incompiute alcune storie in un modo che ho trovato frustrante. Inoltre, ho notato che non c'è stato praticamente alcuno sviluppo dei personaggi.

Infine, pensavo che la storia stessa di un disastro ambientale che colpisce un villaggio immaginario sulla costa uruguaiana avrebbe potuto porre le basi per un approfondimento potenzialmente interessante sulla disuguaglianza ambientale. Tuttavia, questo aspetto non è stato esplorato dall'autorice, il che mi è sembrato un'occasione mancata.

Maali Almeida, a Sri Lankan closeted queer, gambler and war photographer, wakes up dead one day. While he does not understand nor accept the reality of it at first, he them embark on a journey filled up of ghosts and demons (both literal ones as well as metaphorical ones) in order to retrace how he died, while also trying to comunicate with his loved ones in an attempt to give his past life meaning.

The writing of Shenan Karunatilaka is absolutely captivating as he imagines an afterlife which mimics the real world: the variety of inhabitants of the afterlife are just as complicated as they were in real life, and driven by their own desires and interests. All of this will make Maali journey intricated, and it will make him question his own motives and desires. Will he be able to reach the light before his seven moons run out?

Ghost Music is the second novel by Chinese author An Yu.
 I enjoyed this reading, especially the insight on how love in a relationship can slowly fade away, and how one's identity can fade as well into the other person's needs and necessities

However, there were some elements of the novel structure that left me a little perplexed and slightly ruined what was otherwise an enjoyable reading. Notably, I felt that the few elements of magical realism are not fully exploited and do not fit into the story. They could have worked if only they were enhanced more, and made more present.
Concerning the plot itself, there was one part of the plot in particular that appeared disjointed from the rest of the story, creating a sort of a second separate plot that comes together at the end, but in a forced way.

Let me tell you, this short stories collection by South Korean author Bora Chung will MESS your brain.

I enjoyed the writing and the coherence of the short stories, while being independent of one another and very unique, they still present some common themes as well as a cohesive narrative style. 

Do not expect anything cute, these short stories are disturbing from the beginning till the end, and honestly, even if I finished this read so long ago and just now writing the review, some images from the book live rent-free in my head - and nightmares. 

Bora Chung not only plays with the human mind, but also with society's constructions and stereotypes, specifically about women, while also proving a master of shaping reality to create imaginative, weird, and disturbing new ones.

 This is my second Pilar Quintana book, and just like the first one it was crude and quite disturbing, giving an insight into the inner troubles of the human mind and emotions.
Damaris, living with her longtime husband on the coast of Colombia, decides one day to adopt a rescue dog, which quickly becomes the child she never had.  However, when the dog escapes and unexpectedly comes back home, their relationship begins to deteriorate as Damaris struggles with attachment issues and jealousy, all leading to a surprising unfolding of events.

 I enjoyed the writing and the bald description of human nature. Without holding back on the ugliness, Pilar Quintana manages to paint an image of human emotions, showing how they can completely overcome logic and take over people's lives. 

In this novel, we follow the life of teenager Charlie Vega while she struggles to appreciate her own body, a conflictual relationship with her mother, her first crushes, rejection, and feeling loved for the first time: but will she be able to overcome her insecurities and accept the fact that yes, she too deserves to be loved?
I am not the biggest fan of romance books, as I usually find them heavily predictable and reliant on clichés.
 However, I highly recommend Fat Chance, Charlie Vega if you are looking for a feel-good YA romance with yes some classic romance clichés, but also some serious insight into the life and thoughts of a fat teen going through her first crushes and relationship. In addition to the fact that the main protagonist is fat, I particularly enjoyed the representation of the mother-daughter relationship: how to reconcile feelings towards a parent who is full of love but at the same time has some problematic and toxic behaviors resulting from her/his traumas in life?
The writing is simple, and even if various themes are addressed (being fat in modern society, first love, personal insecurities, grief, parental toxicity) it does not become an emotionally hard reading and manages to keep the lightness of a YA while also serving serious reflections.

I can finally say that I enjoyed a romance YA novel.

This is a masterpiece, a MUST read in your feminist TBRs. In such a short space, Virginie Despentes showcases her writing skills outside of fiction with a unique style in the non-fiction genre. 

The first 10 pages alone manage to resume in a short but truly poignant way what being a woman and feminism is: I cried while reading it, and I have never felt more represented, never felt my voice as a woman was being put into words, my body seen as well as my rage. This book is not an essay based on numbered facts, statistics, and studies made by scholars (not that there is nothing wrong with them, they are just a different type of essay).

Virginie Despentes, drawing from her personal experiences, screams about rape instead of whispering about it, she points the finger at patriarchy instead to point fingers at people, she exposes imperfection instead of trying and hiding it under a rug of hypocrisy, and most of all she deconstructs the image of what the perfect woman or the perfect feminist should be. 

I knew before starting to read this that I would have enjoyed it, but I hadn’t planned to fall in love with it. King Kong Theory has quickly and easily entered the list of my favorite books ever.

This short stories collection literally killed me of boredom, there was not ONE single story that got me interested or involved, to the point that as soon as I closed the book, I forgot about them in an instant. However, I will never forget the feeling of flatness and emptiness that exude from every single element of the books: descriptions, the story arches that just do not go anywhere, the characters.
I am rarely this harsh with books, and always try to find some positive things about a book, but I find it impossible with this one. What I will say, however, is that I am not particularly fond of nordic literature, so maybe if you enjoy hermetic literature, this could be your cup of tea!