los angeles
Blood Grove by Walter Mosley
“Life is one long side street with about a million crossroads, Sorry used to tell me when I was a boy. Every hour, sometimes every minute, you got to make the choice which way to go. Some of them turns don’t matter but don’t let that fool ya. The minute you start to think that […]
MoreMilk Fed by Melissa Broder
(heads up: this review contains mentions of eating disorders and body dysmorphia as well as explicit language) While I doubt that Milk Fed will win many awards, I sure hope that it wins the Bad Sex in Fiction Award. It 100% deserves to. “Was it real freedom? Unlikely. But my rituals kept me skinny, and […]
MoreNothing Like I Imagined by Mindy Kaling
Nothing Like I Imagined is collection of lighthearted essays by Mindy Kaling. Being quite a fan of Kaling and her shows I knew that these essays would be fun. If you like Kaling’s humour chances are you will also like her essays. In ‘Kind of Hindu’ she writes about not feeling Hindu enough, in ‘Help […]
MoreMonstress by Lysley Tenorio — book review
Monstress is an evocative collection of short stories, most of which are set in the United States and the Philippines. These stories revolve around Filipino and Filipino-American characters as they try acclimatise and make a living outside of their homeland or as they try to reconcile cultural and familial expectations with their personal desires. Lysley […]
MoreAnd Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall — book review
“Boyfriends and husbands, baby daddies and one-night stands were always madly, deeply, truly in love. Bloody love. Crazy love. Love-you-to-death kind of love.” Last year I read the first book in Rachel Howzell Hall’s ‘Detective Elouise Norton’ series. It had a great sense of place and a brilliant main character. And Now She’s Gone shares […]
MoreThe Necessary Hunger by Nina Revoyr — book review
The Necessary Hunger, Nina Revoyr’s debut novel first published in 1997, had the potential of being a great YA book. In many ways this novel was ahead of its times. Set in Inglewood, L. A., in the late 1980s The Necessary Hunger is narrated by seventeen-year-old Nancy Takahiro, a Japanese-American all-star high school basketball player. […]
MorePizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier — book review
“They could support a teenage pregnancy, but not this, not a person who drifted from one moment to the next without any idea about where she was headed.” Sayaka Murata meets Ottessa Moshfegh in this freewheeling and darkly funny debut novel. Jean Kyoung Frazier’s deadpan wit and playful cynicism give a subversive edge to what […]
MoreThe Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett — book review
“At first, passing seemed so simple, she couldn’t understand why her parents hadn’t done it. But she was young then. She hadn’t realized how long it takes to become somebody else, or how lonely it can be living in a world not meant for you.” Brit Bennett’s second novel is a tour de force. The […]
MoreBorderline by Mishell Baker
After her suicide attempt, Millie has lost her legs and gained a myriad of scars. She has spent months in a private clinic, not really planning to get back out. But, when she receives an intriguing ’employment’ offer, she finds herself unable to refuse. Turns out that Hollywood is brimming with fairies, and people like […]
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