m/m side
Deceit and Other Possibilities by Vanessa Hua
Hua’s stories explore, however superficially, the experiences of Chinese and Chinese-Americans in the United States: the generational and cultural differences between immigrant parents and their American-born children, the struggle to assimilate into a different country, especially one which will treat you as Other, the desire to adopt new customs vs. the pull towards traditions. These […]
MoreTunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories by Kevin Wilson
A very Wilsonesque collection of stories: dysfunctional families, spontaneous human combustion, surreal scenarios, and plenty of eccentric characters. Each story in this collection held my attention, and while they share similarities, they also showcase Wilson’s range: from lighthearted tales (such as “Grand Stand-In” and “Tunneling to the Center of the Earth”) to more bittersweet stories […]
MoreThe Great Godden by Meg Rosoff
“When I think back on that it’s always with a sense of having lost something fragile and fleeting, something I can’t quite name.” I loved every single page of The Great Godden. This is one of those rare novels that is simultaneously simple and mesmerising: an unmanned narrator recounts the summer in which they fell […]
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 […]
MoreChain of Gold by Cassandra Clare — book review
“We don’t always love people who deserve it.” To be honest, I thought I was over Cassandra Clare….and it turns out I was very wrong. There is something about the Shadowhunter world that I find interesting. And over the past ten years or so I have grown fond of it and the characters that inhabit […]
MoreThe King of Crows by Libba Bray — book review
I hate to say it, or write it, but The King of Crows wasn’t a very satisfying conclusion to The Diviners series. “Who got to decide what made somebody an American? America, the ideal of it at least, was its own form of elusive magic.” While it isn’t as drawn-out as the finale to the […]
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