Alicia
Meh.... 2.5. It was only fine but I take off points for the gross yet predictable much-older-white-man-falls-for-9-year-old-Asian-girl-but-not-in-a-gross-way-I-swear. The story was fine. The time jumping didn't work for me and I didn't particularly like any of the characters but it still held my attention. Obviously stuff evolves over the course of the book but in the middle of it I was sort of offended by the way we were framing immigration and being Chinese/Chinese American. Would not reread
This book is quite funny and had me smirking and taking screenshots here and there. Definitely inventive and also kind of all over the place, which it sounds like is just the nature of this story. It's very much Science Fiction, capital S capital F, so get ready to onboard quickly to new made up words and terms, but if you're down for that it's very quick witted and funny
I'm so so sorry........ I do not think this book is well written. The last 30 pages made me want to add a star but I think it's also because I took a break before reading those final 30 pages and I forgot how I felt before. 1 star for Marcellus and 1 star for Tova, but beyond that I fear I thought the writing was bad, many of the situations were very contrived, and Cameron fuckin sucks so much as a character
I enjoyed Yellowface! It was sort of fun in a satire(ish?), meme-of-a-white-woman, Bodies Bodies Bodies way. We all know a Well Meaning White Woman like June and her racist/microaggressive inner monologue really made me laugh in moments just bc of how familiar it felt as an Asian woman in America. Made me think about how we reach for extremes: only hero or villain, no grey area. I thought things sort of dragged towards the end but overall had fun with it
I'm sad about it but this book just didn't work for me. I LOVED the first ~100 pages but then it just lost me. I wish it had been more of a memoir, but in many moments it felt like something I would have been assigned in grad school - which isn't necessarily a negative, but it's a specific kind of reading. I really disliked the section focused on Erin and Helen, I felt like it lost a lot of momentum picked up in the first half of the book, and I just generally have a very limited appetite for thinking about the political climate of 2016 - it's still too charged for me. Also a lot of art-specific stuff that went over my head.
Stuff I personally would have liked to pre-read in order to best digest this book: Jhumpa Lahiri, Ocean Vuong, Claudia Rankine's Citizen, Catcher in the Rye, Wordsworth, and the Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom
I really believe writings on social justice are products of their era and are challenging to revisit with a critical eye years later. This book/essay could definitely be better and more intersectional. But it was also written almost a decade ago. It doesn't make the gender essentialism and dismissal of the trans experience ok, but I feel like this essay is a byproduct of the politics and public consciousness of the moment. If it changed minds at the time and drove people to think critically (and I believe it did) then it did it's job. I don't see a reason to revisit it in 2023 besides the fact that I needed a short book to tide me over between library loans lol. I think our public consciousness around gender justice is more advanced and nuanced today, and that's great!
Oh my god this book was so boring. It got a little interesting in the last 50 pages when the twist that was telegraphed in the first 10 pages of the book is finally revealed but until then I was finding every free moment to read this book so that it could finally be out of my life. This seems like a plot and format that could be really interesting and reward the reader for paying attention and noticing details, but no, it does that maybe two or three times across the entire book. Also I just couldn't suspend my disbelief with the diary entries (which make up 90% of the book) — who writes in their diary like that?????
Really inventive concept! It was sometimes hard to get my bearings on exactly /what/ was going on, but I think that gave the book more flexibility to play and highlight its message. It got a little preachy near the end but in general I liked it, especially as an Asian woman with complicated feelings about my role in the fight for racial justice. Made me think about ageism a lot too
Deeply lovely. Every character flawed but also feeling very human with delightful little details and unique family units. I loved all the deep thinking around games and how we play, and I loved all the mixed kid representation. It's rare to find books that feature mixed race or third culture kid protagonists, and it was so nice to see my community highlighted in all its complexity
My god I loved this book. Uplifting, inspiring, intersectional. Reminds me of the famous Mariame Kaba quote, “Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.” I love how this book calls out and names the harsh realities of injustice and subjugation, and how it highlights direct action as a form of profound love and community. This book reinvigorated me to revisit my ASL education from college, and taught me so much more about the different experiences and nuances of Deaf culture. I loved it!!! May we build towards Eyeth
I loved this book and tore through it in 3 days. Just really captivating, honest, raw writing. Roxane Gay is irrevocably shaped by her trauma, and we wish it had never happened, but it did and she is and that also might be OK. It made me feel better about the way I live with the trauma I experienced as a teenager, which similarly shaped me and sent me trying to protect myself in destructive ways but also makes me, me. I loved it
I've never read a book like Crying in H Mart, that saw me so clearly and wrapped me up so fully.
My mom came to the US from China in her 20s and met my dad, a white East Coaster who now has a new Chinese wife after they divorced. I grew up mixed, in suburban Massachusetts where my race was a source of confusion and the butt of jokes for my 98% white classmates. I rejected my culture, and in many ways my own mother, in many of the same ways Michelle did. Her accounts of living life as a mixed person sliced straight through me and felt like looking in a mirror. I don't speak Chinese at the fluency I wish I did because I rejected it so fully as a teenager. I can't cook most traditional Chinese dishes, and when my grandmother passed I mourned the loss of my ability to ever learn from her how to fold dumplings like she did, “the little rat” dumplings with ridges down the middle that sit up on their own.
Of course the book is devastating, but somehow in many ways it was also deeply and tremendously comforting. Comforting that I could know my mother and my ancestors despite the barriers and pain that came before. Comforting to feel proud of Michelle as she learned Korean dishes from YouTube, which I always privately thought would be cheating if I did it myself. Comforting to see the love of her family, in all it's forms, and the joy and release of ritual and memory.
I loved this book. I've lived my life feeling half and half, and this book made me feel whole.