The Neurospicy Bean

  There was so much hype around this book and it just…did not meet my expectations at all. I don’t have a ton to say specifically, but there were a couple reasons it annoyed me. First, there really wasn’t anything to make it unique. It felt as formulaic as a queer period romance can get – two upper-class white leads fall in love, they scheme to find a way to be together, they have sex, they break up at the end of the second act, they get back together. Whatever. There was just nothing to make it unique, nothing that gave it any grab or grit. The second issue is that Beth and Gwen were completely indistinguishable from one another. Aside from which parent they spent time with, there was really nothing about them that made it possible to keep track of who was narrating at a given point. Pro tip: if you can’t write distinctive characters, don’t have multiple POVs. They’re like the characters in a love triangle where the only difference is that one has brown hair (gasp). On another note, o

  Unfortunately I just don’t remember much about this book. Mostly, there are just a few bits and pieces – there was a story about a girl who gets trapped in the body of a service robot, which was reasonably compelling; one was a story told by the days of the week; but beyond those impressions, nothing really stuck with me. I think a lot of the stories could have been really strong if they were longer, or if more attention was given to characters. But because they were, for the most part, so short, I struggled to get invested or engage at all emotionally. Beyond that, I really don’t have much to say.

  So it has been three or four years since I read the first two books in this series, which definitely impacted my experience of reading it a bit – I had to look up summaries of what had already happened so I wouldn’t feel completely lost, and even then there were definitely still things I forgot, like how exactly the magic system worked. That said, I thought this was a strong ending to the trilogy.  It was especially cool to read it after having taken a couple of Chinese history classes, which gave me the context to understand the historical figures and events the series is based on. Rin being representative of Mao Zedong allowed for a really interesting exploration of the forces that lead to leaders becoming larger than life and abusing power in the name of the people. And while avoiding spoilers, I thought the ending hit just about the perfect balance – it doesn’t seek to redeem Rin, but it acknowledges her humanity and gives a sense of hope in the face of the insurmountable odds he

  I’m not generally a big literary fiction person, but wow this book was gorgeous and heartbreaking and fascinating. It takes a bit of time for things to really get established, but once they do the multiple overlapping stories are beautiful and compelling. It’s the kind of book I’d actually want to examine for symbolism, because there’s just so much. I imagine to someone more familiar with Taiwanese culture there’s even more to analyze. I should say that it’s definitely pretty dark at times, discussing rape, abuse, and violence in a very candid manner. It’s quite intense, especially in its depictions of various kinds of violence and cruelty. These scenes are important and they’re never gratuitous, but worth keeping in mind that nothing in this book is romanticized or sugarcoated. The only things I struggled with were keeping track of everything and the ending. I know there’s a reason for all the sisters’ names starting with the same letter (explained in the translator’s note for those

  I really have no idea what to think here. It’s not that any individual component of this book was actively bad; it’s just that there are so many different components going on that it all starts seeming very odd and hard to follow. Half of the book takes place in a futuristic world where one of the main characters, Mica, is being hunted by a cult that has infiltrated the government because they believe they can bring forth their god by sacrificing her. The other half takes place in Animkii’s world, where technology is forbidden and clans cling to survival through a system of rituals and structures that seems like a grab bag of a whole variety of indigenous traditions from around the world. It’s all a bit jarring.  Also, Animkii is shown as white on the cover, and although her race isn’t specifically discussed that I remember, like I said her world seems to be drawing very heavily from indigenous cultures, which feels a bit appropriation-y.  Come to think of it, I’m not sure there are

It takes a bit to get going, but once it does, this book is absolutely gorgeous. I should say – although this book is labeled as mystery/thriller, those genres are relatively small, subtle aspects of the story. The emphasis is much more on the main character, Jess, her relationship with her older sister, Liz, and the two of them navigating grief. There’s also a healthy dose of exploring small town prejudice. None of this is to say that there isn’t a mystery – there is, and the main characters work to solve it – but the mystery is for the sake of the characters’ growth, not the other way around. So I wouldn’t recommend going into the book with a mind towards a traditional mystery, because I don’t think that will get the best experience out of it. As far as what I really liked, I thought the depiction of grief was beautifully done – all the small things that bring it back, the way that it colors a person’s whole experience of life. I actually enjoyed Liz as a character more than Jess, be