Margaux

I thought it would never end.

This is more of a 3.5 stars read than 4 (I'm pretty stingy with my ratings). Don't get me wrong though, I really enjoyed this book. The writing was SUPERB and the characterization of the two main characters was also very good and sympathetic that I was fully invested a couple of pages into the story. However, I would not consider it a GREAT whodunnit mystery. The twist at the end was wholly unexpected but does not totally make sense in the greater scheme of the story. So yeah, it's a good book and I look forward to more of Cormoran and Robin's adventures but I hope the second book is better.

1 star for the flimsy motivations driving the whole of the plot and the absurd characterizations.
However, I'm giving another star just for the Ron-Hermione interactions especially those in alternate realities (oops, spoiler).

This would have been a five if not for the tediousness of Chapter XI.

My first 5-star book of the year! Factory Girls is a powerful and eye-opening account of the lives of migrant workers in modern-day China. Written in 2008, the book provides a unique perspective on the experiences of young women who have left their rural homes in search of better opportunities in the cities. Through interviews and personal observations, the book delves into the challenges these women faced during China's period of hypergrowth in the early to mid-2000's, contrasting the grueling work conditions and desperate exploitation with ample opportunities for social mobility.

One of the strengths of this book is its humanizing portrayal of the workers, who are often seen as faceless and anonymous in the media. Chang brings their stories to life, highlighting their ambitions, hopes, and fears, and demonstrating the incredible resilience and determination they possess while navigating a rapidly changing economic reality.

Despite being written over a decade ago, many of the issues discussed in the book remain relevant today, as exemplified by recent worker protests at Foxconn triggered by the strict enforcement of no-COVID policies at that time.

In addition to its focus on the lives of migrant workers, Factory Girls also explores the author's family history, including her own experiences as a Chinese-American. Although I think this part could have easily been written as a separate book, it still provides a rich and fascinating insight into the experiences of the Chinese diaspora as well as the sufferings borne by those who stayed behind during the Cultural Revolution.

Overall, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary China and the lives of those who are driving its economic boom. It is a well-researched and insightful look on the realities of life for the millions of migrant workers sacrificed on the altar of globalization and serves as a stark reminder of the costs of rapid economic growth.

So this might be the hardest book for me to rate or to review in any intelligible manner. At some point, I was ready to give it a one-star rating not because of the despicable subject matter but because of how hard it made me work. (I found the French passages quite tedious in that they trip me up in my reading, as I constantly had to look up unfamiliar phrases on trusty old google.)

Despite my annoyance with the over-the-top use of French, I admit that I was really drawn in by the beautiful, BEAUTIFUL writing. As many a reviewer have said before, Nabokov really could write the fuck out of a sentence. And those delightfully witty word-plays! (Which I probably understood only half of the time.)

Notwithstanding the very murky morals of this novel, I think it was successful in what it set out to do–that is, describe an obsessive love (lust?) through the eyes of a very unreliable yet very eloquent narrator who obscures and obfuscates his more deplorable acts through hazy, dreamy language. And yet it manages to be more than the sum of its parts (in the way great works of fiction are). For although it may be regarded as a story of forbidden erotic desires, Lolita is also a tale of contrasts between the young and the old , about the crumbling European world and America, the unsettling subject matter and the enthralling beauty of language. After all, every good book contends with problems greater than the mere facts of its narrative.

Also, knowing what happened at the end, it is quite interesting to see how various things have been foreshadowed throughout the book. This is definitely worthy of a closer reading and one that I will revisit in the future just to see how my reading of the text has evolved.

**Upgrading this to a 4-star rating because I can't get it out of my mind and because it is definitely NOT a mediocre book.

This:

That fellow strikes me as a god's double,Couched with you face to face, delightingIn your warm manner, your amiableTalk and invitingLaughter—the revelation fluttersMy ventricles, my sternum and stomach.The least glimpse, and my lost voice stutters,Refuses to come backBecause my tongue is shattered. GauzyFlame runs radiating underMy skin; all that I see is hazy,My ears all thunder.Sweat comes quickly, and a shiverVibrates my frame. I am more sallowThan grass and suffer such a feverAs death should follow.But I must suffer further, worthlessAs I am ...

Most of the aphorisms make sense though chillingly Machiavellian in tone. Some however... are dated and quite hilarious if you really think about it. Still, this has been a fun read.

What can I say. The art is very good, especially the line work. However, the story just leaves me cold. Basically, it's a supernatural series set in modern Japan about a girl called Rori Lane who is a hāfu (lit. half), being a mixed-raised product of an Irish father and a Japanese mother. The story starts as Rori reunites with her mother in Japan following her parent's divorce. From the first few pages, we see Rori encountering a lot of legendary creatures of Japanese folklore (yōkai) as she ventures through the more seedy parts of Tokyo. However, I'd say that despite the plot being very fast-paced, it doesn't really do much in terms of exposition. It might be due to the fact that we're being introduced to a lot of characters, on top of all the yōkai that show up every couple of pages. Apart from the explanatory essays at the back regarding the supernatural creatures, not much was really explained so that it felt like we're being thrust from one plot point to the next without really knowing what's going on. We do get to see everything from Rori's perspective so we're offered glimpses of her personality. But then the other characters are a blank. Aside from their magical abilities, we don't really know much about them. Perhaps it's too much to ask from the first volume of an ongoing series, but hey, it is do-able with good plotting and a little character development.

I will probably give it another chance and pick up the next volume to see if there are any developments in the story. I really like the concept of a supernatural urban fantasy set in Tokyo, so I'll give it another try. The pretty art also helps in keeping my interest.

This series just keeps getting better and better.

This was all flash without much depth. In other words—the art was gorgeous, but the story was just MEH... They could have done so much with the basic premise but the characters all ended up being caricatures without much personality. Such a shame really, considering all the possibilities the writer could have explored with the awesome concept, like the various mythologies and back-stories of the gods introduced in the volume. I guess I just did not expect it to be a whodunnit mystery with an unsatisfying resolution. It did not help that we were following the story through the eyes of a vapid fangirl who wants her own slice of fame by playing mediator among the gods. This is the first disappointing Image title I've read, but I guess not everything lives up to the hype.

I was not expecting to love this book. I didn't know it was adapted from a webcomic and so I was a little disoriented upon finding that it did not have an overarching plot or narrative. Most of the short sketches are contained in 4 to 6 panels with a few exceptions. Despite my initial resistance to the format though, the characters really won me over.

Jillian Tamaki is really good in portraying relatable characters (yes, even super mutant ones) and the various ways they negotiate with the world. She does not gloss over topics such as teenage sexuality, dealing with insecurities and their various hormone-driven angst and she does it with so much heart that you start feeling for these characters in the very short strips that you encounter them.

I especially love the antics of one character named Frances. She appears to be your typical prickly, jaded, pseudo-intellectual teenager. She smokes in class and does a lot of crazy things in defiance of societal norms and expectations. But she does it with so much sass and acerbic wit that I can't help but love her.

I loved the first half perfectly well... the second half not so much.

“How sad that youth, with all its power,Was given us in vain, to burn;That we betrayed it every hour;And were deceived by it in turn;That all our finest aspirations,Our brightest dreams and inspirations,Have withered with each passing dayLike leaves dank autumn rots away.It's hard to face a long successionOf dinners stretching out of sight,To look at life as at a rite,And trail the seemly crowd's procession—Indifferent to the views they hold,And to their passions ever cold.”

(Chapter 8, XI)

This is a brilliant book. It is so subtle and complex at the same time that it's hard to appreciate it after a cursory reading. The watercolour art is also absolutely gorgeous and the amount of detail in every panel just blew my breath away.

I rated it 4 instead of 5 stars because I felt the ending was a bit rushed and also because some of the references just flew over my head. However, after reading this excellent guide: The Nao of Brown Study Guide, I'm just amazed at all the subtle themes and references weaved throughout the story.

I think this will definitely benefit from a reread.

I guess I fall into the majority of readers who love the buildup in the first part, saw the “twist” coming miles ahead in the second part and absolutely despised the ending. Seriously, I wish the book could have ended right after the “shocking reveal” instead of having a very anticlimactic and inconsistent ending. I guess my personal bias in wishing for Amy's punishment for her despicable acts is a major reason for my disliking the ending. This is also the reason why "Sharp Objects" remains to be my favorite of Gillian Flynn's books because the ending in that book was just so satisfying.