Child of Fortune

Originally posted on 3/25/20.

Author: Yuko Tsushima.

Genre: Feminist fiction, psychological.

Year of Original Publication: 1978.

Page Number: 153.

First Line: "...Earth's primeval atmosphere was not yet, as it is now, 'homogenized.'"

Any Triggers? No, I don't think so.

Summary: At thirty-seven years old, Koko has not lived a life that follows the social norms of 1970s Japan. She's a divorcee raising her daughter alone in their tiny apartment, living off the tiny salary she makes as a part-time piano teacher. But her relationship with her eleven-year-old daughter Kayako has not been going well recently. Kayako has decided to live with and go to a private school paid by Koko's sister, who openly disapproves of Koko's parenting. Koko knows that her sister is turning her daughter against her, but all Kayako sees is that her Aunt's family has the normal lifestyle she wants. As if things couldn't get more complicated, Koko notices that she's showing signs of pregnancy after a casual fling with a friend of her ex-husband. Then the book starts.

My Thoughts: So as you know if you read my list of books I've read in 2019, I've been trying to write this review for a very long time. I had never heard of this book when I purchased it from a Singapore bookshop last year, being enticed by it's cover design and first line. You may recognize the author's name from the recently (and posthumously) published Territory of Light. But while that book is getting a lot of attention, Child of Fortune is somewhat obscure.

You're going to have to excuse me if this review rambles a bit. I loved Child of Fortune, but I've found it very hard to articulate why. While this book does have a plot that twists and turns in interesting ways, the plot really isn't the point of the book. It's more of a psychological character study. Most of the story takes place inside Koko's memories, thoughts, and dreams. It puts you inside the head of an intelligent but flawed and lonely woman.

Throughout the book I wrestled with whether or not I thought Koko was a good mother. At the end I decided that she was, or at least she had the capability to be one if she lived in a culture that supported single mothers. It's really easy to empathize with her position even though she's not perfect and doesn't always make the right choices. The book does a good job painting a picture of a culture that just cannot conceive of any reason why a woman would divorce her husband unless he was abusive. Koko is viewed as an irresponsible single mother by the rest of society, and the pressure to become "respectable" and just get married is constant. A lot of the shaming comes from Koko's sister Shoko, who I hated. She is constantly condescending to Koko. She inspired close to Dolores Umbridge levels of hate in me. She's a rigidly conservative woman who I'm sure believes that she's just trying to help, but is actually just trying to take control of the parenting because she views her sister as incompetent.

Koko's main character flaw is that she's aimless and complacent. She doesn't really know what she wants to do with her life, she keeps sleeping with men that have nothing to offer her, she's not great at setting boundaries with her sister, and she really needs some female friends. But she clearly loves her daughter despite the difficulties in their relationship. And she has such interesting, complex thoughts that I half wished that she took Kayako and moved to a writers commune in the woods or something. I also liked Kayako's character. She's not a complete brat nor is she unbearably twee. I found her to be a realistic child with realistic child concerns and opinions. She loves her mother but like a lot of kids in unconventional living situations she just wants things to be easier.

The reason why I said that this book is somewhat obscure is because it did get some clout as a work of feminist literature when it came out, winning the Women of Literature prize in Japan. But I have never seen it in an American bookstore. Unfortunately, I think this book is still relevant today as the cultural idea of single mothers being selfish and irresponsible has not completely died yet. At the very least I'm hoping someone famous like Emma Watson could make this part of their book club so it can get some attention here in the States.

Bookish Resolutions for 2020

Originally posted on 2/29/20.

A post about New Years resolutions posted on the last day in February. Yeah, that sounds about right for me. Let's get to it.

BOOKISH RESOLUTIONS FOR 2019 REVIEWED

Read fifty books. Well, we know how that one went.

Write the first draft of a book. Didn't do this either. I had a good idea for NaNoWriMo this year which I'm most likely still going to try to get to, but there were too many things going on in my life at the time (in particular, financial problems) that I just couldn't focus on it.

Write a short story. See above.

Visit the Hobbiton set in New Zealand. Did it! It was stupidly beautiful.

Visit El Ateneo Grande Splendid. Did it! Would have been perfect if they had a better English language section but I can't fault a bookstore in a foreign country for not catering to American tourists, especially since our bookstores don't exactly have the best foreign language sections.

Read one book a day for a week. Did it! It brought me out of a bad reading slump.

Publish one blog post every two weeks. Didn't do well with this one obviously. I'm going to try to do better this year, but it's still probably best to keep expectations low.

Get bookshelves set up wherever I wind up living. Did it, but somehow the three bookshelves I've set up so far are still not enough to hold all of my books. My biggest problem is my enormous collection of unread books, hence why I have a big reading goal this year.

Go to a book festival or convention. Kind of? So, I moved to Providence, RI and they are really into Lovecraft here. Like, I cannot walk anywhere without passing some monument to Lovecraft. So it's not surprising that they have a Lovecraftian festival here. There are a lot of interesting events going on during this festival including author panels and a Lovecraftian tea party, but the only thing I could afford were the vendor tables. I thought that would be fine because I essentially go to conventions for the shopping. In this case, I was unimpressed.

BOOKISH RESOLUTIONS FOR 2020

Read 100 books this year. I have so many unread books that I really need to either read or get rid of. I have never in my life read 100 books in a year. The closest I've ever got was 85. As of right now I'm up to seven, so I'm having kind of a slow start. But hope springs eternal.

Don't buy any new books until my birthday. I don't know why I'm bothering with this one because I've technically already broken it. I broke down and bought one book in January and one in February. But I'm doing my best to keep the number of new books down. I know that I'm going to want to buy books for my birthday, but after that I'll go back to enforcing the buying ban until I go to a literary festival.

Read one book a day for a week. I always have fun with this challenge so I'm doing it again.

Read books about writing and Pagan spirituality. Maybe this isn't a very good resolution because it's vague and isn't measurable, but I'm okay with phrasing it this way anyway. I want to get serious about pursuing writing, and part of that is researching how books are made and how people make a living writing. I've also been feeling disconnected with my own spirituality, so I want to read witchy books that will feed my soul.

Write 500 words every day. Doesn't matter what it's for. It could be for a blog post, or a short story, or a book, or a diary entry. I just want to create a habit of writing.

Go to a literary festival. There are two that I'm thinking of: the Brooklyn Book Festival or the New York City Comic Con. It all depends on whatever work schedule I have, my best friend's availability, and how much I want to spend on tickets.

And that's about it for this year. Less individual resolutions but the ones I have are big. Wish me luck, and hopefully it won't be two months until my next post.

Every Book I Read in 2019

Originally posted on 1/2/20.

Happy New Year, everybody! It's been a long time since I've been here.

So at the beginning of the year I made it a goal to read 50 books in 2019. I made it to...41. Wop-wop. Unfortunately, I had a bad reading slump between April and September this year. That was the time that my long-term travel experience ended and was looking for a new home, so I was understandably very stressed. In September, I decided to read one book every day for a week and that helped me remember that reading every day is crucial to my mental wellbeing, and I shouldn't let whatever chaos is going on in my life break that habit.

So here's a list of all the books I've read this year with a one or two sentence review. Some of these have longer posts waiting to be published, some of these I have already talked about on this site. I put a star next to my favorites. The next post will be a look at how my 2019's bookish resolutions went, and what the resolutions for 2020 will be.

1. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami.* A great start to the year. A dose of surrealism always does me good.

2. The Pisces by Melissa Broder.* I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, but it's still a highlight of this year for being very thought provoking.

3. Kraken by China Mieville. I loved Mieville's Perdito Street Station, but this one did not grab me in the same way.

4. Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. I am not inclined to recommend this to anyone who is already familiar with her previous work as I found this book redundant. This would be better for business types who have not read anything by her.

5. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson. Fun, but it seemed like it was made for a younger and more British audience.

6. Child of Fortune by Yuko Tsushima.* Loved this book! I've been trying to write a review for this book forever. I have so much to say about this book that I don't know what to say.

7. Literary Witches: A Celebration of Magical Women Writers by Taisia Kitaiskaia.* An enchanting collection of prose poems that recommended authors I would never have checked out before.

8. Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube by Blair Bravermen. Sigh...men are the worst.

9. Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa.* A very sweet book about what makes life worth living.

10. Bury What We Cannot Take by Kirsten Chen.* A thrilling story about an impossible choice.

11. Circe by Madeline Miller.* Worth the hype!

12. Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Penelope Bagieu.* Despite some translation issues (tenses change in the middle of sentences and it's really jarring) this is an enjoyable and beautifully illustrated book that taught me about some amazing women.

13. Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito. Not better than his other collection Shiver, but it's still solid.

14. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle.* A compelling retelling of a classic work.

15. Monstress Vol. 1 by Marjorie Liu. A little too heavy in what I call "epic-fantasy babble," but I think I might have a new favorite series to follow based on the illustrations alone.

16. The Life Changing Manga of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I may have liked this better than the original. It is definitely more adorable than the original.

17. Adulthood is a Myth: A Sarah Scribbles Collection by Sarah Anderson. It's okay. I'm fine with just reading these comics online, honestly.

18. Magical Places by Nikki Van de Car. I always like a travel book that acknowledges that Neo-Pagans exist.

19. The Illustrated Herbiary by Maia Toll. The artwork is gorgeous, but I would have liked it better if it had actual spells instead of plant-themed meditations.

20. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamiko. It was fine. Just another slice-of-life high school coming of age story that I didn't really feel.

21. Pretty Deadly Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue Deconnick. Wow, I have no memory of this book.

22. Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor. A good second book in the trilogy but sheesh, her family needs to calm the fuck down.

23. The Secret Lives of Unicorns by Dr. Temisa Seraphini. Six year old me is squealing.

24. Basic Witches by Jaya Saxena & Jess Zimmerman. A little too basic for me, but it's fun.

25. The Prophet by Kahil Gibran.* An entire reading experience comprised of, "So that's where that quote comes from!"

26. Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott. A potentially interesting premise, but I wasn't thrilled by the execution.

27. The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami.* Bite sized strangeness, perfect for waiting for the bus while running errands.

28. The Girl From the Other Side: Siuil, a Run Vol. 1 by Nagabe. Cute, and has a very nice art style. Not much happens in the first volume though.

29. Monstress Vol. 2 by Marjorie Liu. The "epic-fantasy babble" is making it a little hard to remember what's going on in this series.

30. Saga Vol. 9 by Brian K. Vaughan. Oof, I did not like that cliffhanger. No sir.

31. On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden.* A beautifully illustrated space opera with a very sweet lesbian romance.

32. Tentacle by Rita Indiana. On paper, this should have been my kind of book. In practice, it was not.

33. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Surprisingly sad.

34. Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan.* Cemented Shaun Tan as one of the best author/illustrators of children's books working today in my mind.

35. Cats of the Louvre by Taiyo Masumoto.* The recent Cats musical movie adaptation should have been animated in this style.

36. Safari Honeymoon by Jesse Jacobs. The story of rich, entitled tourists in a bizarre jungle hellscape.

37. Goddess Rituals by Roni Jay. Beautifully illustrated, with information on goddesses from different cultures and interesting rituals.

38. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. I did not like this as much as everyone else seems to. I got too exasperated with the characters.

39. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty. I would have loved this as a morbid little child.

40. The Hidden Witch by Molly Knox Ostertag.* A great second book in a series. I think I liked this better than the first.

41. The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill.* I want one! I want a little tea dragon! Any chance that there's plushies somewhere?

Sweet Bean Paste

Originally posted on 8/3/19.

Author: Durian Sukegawa.

Genre: Contemporary fiction.

Year of Original Publication: 2013.

Page Number: 213.

First Line: "A sweetly scented breeze blew along Cherry Blossom Street."

Any Triggers? Discussion of suicide.

Summary: The story centers around Sentaro, a young man who works alone at a confectionery selling dorayaki (for those unfamiliar with Japanese sweets, it's a small pancake sandwich filled with the titular sweet bean paste). Sentaro lives a sad existence. He's an alcoholic with no meaningful relationships with anyone, his criminal record prevents him from getting better employment, and he has done nothing to reach his goal of becoming a writer. One day, a mysterious elderly woman named Tokue visits his shop and asks for a job. At first Sentaro rejects her, but she proves her worth by giving him a sample of her almost supernaturally delicious bean paste. Against his better judgement, Sentaro agrees to take her on. Gradually, a friendship blossoms between them that changes both of their lives.

My Thoughts: Many people value their life based on what they do for a living or on the relationships they have. But what happens when both of those things are taken away from you? What's your life's purpose then? That is the central question of this book, and it answers it beautifully.

I thought that I knew where this story was going based on the summary. I assumed this was just going to be a cute yet predictable story about a little old lady that saves a pastry shop. I was expecting this to read like a Japanese Chocolat (the movie, not the book). That comparison is not entirely incorrect, the element of magical food is there, and there is a quaint small town feel to the story despite it taking place in Tokyo. But then it takes a serious turn that I was not expecting (not unlike the book Chocolat, now that I think of it).

Eventually it's revealed that Tokue is hiding a secret past that gives Sentaro better perspective on his own hardships. Without giving away the precise nature of her past hardships, it is an interesting and satisfying reveal that shows a painful chapter of Japanese history that is not often talked about. It's a beautiful illustration of how even those who are unable to have all the traditional markers of a successful life still have lives that are special and full of purpose.

I wholeheartedly recommend this quiet little book that doesn't seem to be getting a lot of attention in the United States. Sweet Bean Paste is a bittersweet tale about the little pleasures that make life worth living. Just make sure you have some tissues nearby for the ending.

Personal note: Yes, I know I haven't updated in a while. I was sick all throughout June, and after that I've been going through the long and stressful process of moving into a new apartment. I do have posts that are half done, hopefully I'll be able to publish a few soon.

Bury What We Cannot Take

Originally posted on 5/29/19.

Author: Kristen Chen.

Genre: Historical fiction.

Year of Original Publication: 2018.

Page Number: 286.

First Line: "When San San followed her brother inside, she knew something was wrong."

Any Triggers? A minor character commits suicide, but it's not shown.

Summary: The story is set in motion when siblings San San and Ah Liam discover their grandmother smashing a framed portrait of Chairman Mao with a hammer. The brother, Ah Liam, fully believes in the values of the Communist Party, so he reports his grandmother to the authorities. Unbeknownst to the children the adults are setting a plan to escape the country into motion. But as a result of the report the family is under investigation and that adds a horrifying complication. When the mother goes to ask for visas for safe travel to Hong Kong, the government will only allow her to bring one of her children. The other must stay in China as proof of the family's intention to return. The mother chooses to leave her daughter behind, promising to find a way to shuttle her out later. But these are dark times in China, and reuniting the family will prove to be easier said than done.

My Thoughts: This is a historical fiction that feels like a thriller. The writer puts a lot of obstacles in the way of San San getting reunited with her family, which gives the story a lot of twists and turns. There's also a suspense element, because we're often given information that the characters don't know yet. This approach matches the time period in which the story is set. Reading this you get the sense that the Communist Revolution had just happened recently (I mean, the grandmother has bound feet, which is a pretty big tell) and everyone is trapped in the whirlwind that being in a culture in transition brings. On top of that all of the characters are being monitored by the government and by the community, and you get the sense that should the characters fail in their quest to reunite there will be a price paid. Mothers reading this will probably get a hernia.

Considering the subject matter there's a lot less harm to children than I thought there would be. I was half expecting that the daughter would be taken advantage of at some point, but it never happens. In fact, the book is fairly tame throughout. Dark things do happen but a lot of it is off page or implied. I would be comfortable recommending this book to a teenager open to exploring adult literature. The story switches between child and adult viewpoints and that makes it feel appropriate for an audience used to YA novels. I can picture myself having really loved this as a teenager.

While I did enjoy this story, I wouldn't say it's a favorite of mine. That has nothing to do with the quality of the book and more to do with my own tastes. Tight plotting and suspense are not really high priorities for me as a reader. What I look for is evocative, stylish writing and inventive storytelling. But as I said, there was a time in my life where I would have been really into this so I do see the appeal. Also, the moral of this story is "brothers ruin everything," which is a message I can get behind. (To my actual brother: I'm just kidding, you know I love you.)

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube

Originally posted on 3/17/19.

Author: Blair Braverman.

Genre: Memoir, adventure.

Page Number: 274.

First Line: "'I'm sick," said Marvin."

Any Triggers? Rape and sexual assault.

Summary: Ever since Blair was a young child, she knew that she belonged in the Great White North. This book chronicles her various adventures in Norway and Alaska which include learning how to drive sled dogs, working as a tour guide on a glacier, and fitting into a small Norwegian town.

My Thoughts: I didn't finish this. And I should probably admit to anyone reading this website that I routinely do not finish books. I have this system: at the halfway point of any book I'm reading I check in with myself and ask if I'm really connecting with the story. If the answer is no, I put it down (this is assuming I don't hate it within the first two chapters). I'm not saying that I think this book is terrible. Braverman is a competent writer and I can see why other people might enjoy this. It just wasn't working for me.

I mostly didn't like this book because it wasn't focused on the things that I wanted it to be. I picked up this book because I heard that it was about dog sledding. I was excited to read about an epic dog sledding race where she would overcome hardships and isolation, and bond with adorable huskies. Basically, I was expecting the cold version of Tracks by Robyn Davidson. And sure, dog sledding is a part of this book, but that's not really where the bulk of Braverman's attention is. A lot of the book centers on her nothing life in a rural town in Norway. I know that sounds really mean, and I'm sorry but I thought these parts were boring and it comprises most of the book. Maybe I'm too much of a city mouse to really appreciate these parts of the memoir.

Also, there's a lot of creepy men in this and that was a relentless downer. I'm not going to spend too much time describing what happens in the book here, but the number of times I mentally sighed and muttered, "Seriously, fuck men," was getting out of hand.

There was a time where I loved introspective-memoirs-by-women-traveling-the-world books, and thanks to the financial success of Eat, Pray Love there is enough of those to be a genre all on their own. But recently, they've started to feel either stale or generic to me. Am I just over this genre now that I'm in the middle of a long-term trip myself? Possibly.

The Pisces

Originally posted on 3/2/19.

Author: Melissa Broder.

Genre: Fantasy, erotica, psychological.

Year of Original Publication: 2018.

First Line: "I was no longer lonely but I was."

Any Triggers? After some deliberation, I'm going to give this book a trigger warning for animal cruelty. Also, though this is not necessarily a trigger per se, this book is very honest about bodily functions in a way that some people will find too graphic.

Summary: After punching her ex-boyfriend in the face and surviving a very dangerous meltdown, Lucy moves into her sister's ocean-side house to babysit her dog, finish her dissertation on Sappho, and complete group therapy sessions. Lucy is a woman with severe emotional problems who constantly seeks validation through sexual encounters with men, and the bulk of this book is about her journey towards finding peace with herself. Oh, she also has a love affair with a merman.

My Thoughts: So, a couple of warnings right off the bat. This book is often recommended to people who loved The Shape of Water. I...wouldn't. While there are superficial similarities, the two stories are tonally nothing alike. The Shape of Water is a whimsical modern fairy tale romance with some real world elements. The Pisces is a gritty story of a woman dealing with severe mental issues with some supernatural elements. They have very different priorities.

I would also not go into this book expecting it to be funny. I know humor is subjective, but this got not one laugh out of me and I don't think it's too much to expect that a book marketed as "hilarious" should actually be funny. This book is a lot like Where'd You Go, Bernadette in that the marketing around it has apparently confused quirkiness or larger than life situations with actual jokes. This didn't necessarily bother me, since I read some reviews beforehand and figured out that this would be "one of those" books. But I recommend not having any expectation of humor going into it, so if it does make you laugh out loud it would be a happy surprise.

With that out of the way, let's move on to the actual story. While I think this book has something interesting to say and I do think it's worth picking up, I would be lying if I said that I fell in love with it. A big part of why I didn't was the lead character. I found her extremely grating and I had a hard time empathizing with her world view. She's the type of person that believes that all a woman wants is men and their dicks and thinks that anyone who says otherwise is lying. Come on honey, I know that you know that lesbians exist. You're studying Sappho. She also rates the attractiveness of everyone around her which is a character trait I can't stand. Near the beginning, she mentally criticizes her only friend, saying that her hair looks "pubic" and that she would be shocked if her husband has sex with her. Just...wow.

Fortunately, the book knows that Lucy's point of view isn't correct, and Lucy eventually starts to recognize her unhealthy behavior and thoughts. And there is a reason why she is the way she is. Lucy is what happens when a woman fully ingests the toxic societal messages that says that being with a man is the only possible source of happiness. That's what I'm talking about when I say that this book is worth picking up.

Another thing that grabbed my attention was the subtle Pagan elements. Lucy has a bit of a new age side to her that she is in equal parts gaining solace from and is critical of. She's interested in things like crystals and mythology. She improvises something that feels like a spell before the merman shows up for the first time. There are references to Lucy longing for a mother goddess presence in her life. Now some people might roll their eyes at me and say, "You mean the part about her dead mom? She just misses her dead mom." And I agree, but there are still tons of suggestions that she's looking to get in touch with the divine feminine.

The merman character is also interesting. Broder uses a lot of feminine descriptions for him and because of that I half expected that the twist was going to be that he was a figment of Lucy's imagination. I thought that Theo (that's the merman's name, which I can't help but notice is Greek for "God," and I'm starting to think that's not a coincidence) was Lucy's animus, which in Jungian philosophy is a masculine archetype that all women have that shape the way they relate to men. That's not what the twist is. Except maybe it is? The more I think about it the more I'm convinced this is true...although the dog reacting to him is a bit of a sticking point. Nevertheless, I don't think we're supposed to take his existence at face value and I suspect that there's something very Jungian going on here. This book is a strong contender for an analysis post at some point in the future.

So yeah, extremely mixed feelings about this one. A lot of people hate it and a lot of people love it if Goodreads is any indication. On my side, it was something I enjoyed analyzing but it wasn't a book that swept me away.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Originally posted on 2/16/19.

Author: Haruki Murakami.

Genre: Cyberpunk, surrealism.

Year of Original Publication: 1985.

First Line: "The elevator continued its impossibly slow ascent."

Any Triggers? If you're afraid of leaches, there's a scene that will give you nightmares.

Summary: The first thing to understand about this book is that its actually two parallel storylines that switch chapters back and forth. One of the stories is called Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the other is End of the World.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland takes place in a cyberpunk futuristic Tokyo. In this story our unnamed narrator works as a Calcutec which, as far as I can tell, is a combination between a computer engineer and a living external hard drive. All Calcutecs work for a quasi-governmental organization called the System, which is intent on protecting data. The narrator takes on an assignment from an eccentric scientist who is working on a project involving sound removal. But the scientist has secret information that the System wants, and the narrator is caught in the crossfire.

End of the World has more of a fantastical, magical realist vibe. In this story, an unnamed narrator who is only referred to as the Dreamreader is a new citizen of a small town called the End of the World. At first the town seems perfect, but as the seasons change our narrator begins to expect that nothing is as it seems.

My Thoughts: This book was published the year I was born. There's no point in saying that, I just thought it was an auspicious pick for my first review.

As you already know from my first post, Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors. Which isn't to say that I've enjoyed everything he's ever written. I've read some of his more normal works and with the exception of Norwegian Wood (which is excellent) they don't do anything for me. A Murakami book is at its best when it's filled with what I can only call a deadpanned strangeness. I'm here for the weird, man. And Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World delivers.

A big part of where I got enjoyment from this book was trying to figure out what connects the two storylines. I won't give away the twist here, but suffice it to say I enjoyed catching all the clues. I sort of figured out what the connection was before they revealed it, but I didn't fully solve it so it was a satisfying surprise.

I have one caveat. There have been a few think pieces online about the problems some readers have had with the female characters in Murakami's work. I was confused before, because I have read a few of Murakami's books and I had no problem with any of the female characters. Well, that changed with this book. There is a character only referred to as the scientist's granddaughter (none of these characters are given names). When she is introduced, the narrator has an inner monologue that lasts for several paragraphs about how fat women confuse his boner. I'm not being hyperbolic. The scientist's granddaughter is also young and naïve but asks the narrator for sex in a way that feels like a male fantasy (they don't have sex, by the way). This uncomfortably fetishistic vibe continues throughout the book. Maybe these interactions were supposed to be funny? I didn't think it was enough for a trigger warning, but I did find it icky and unnecessary.

With that out of the way, I would still recommend this book. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is an overall well plotted and intriguing story for fans of multiple narrative books like Cloud Atlas.

Hark! An Introduction

Hello, my pretties. I am Isadora, the eccentric bookworm behind this blog. I don't know how you found my little corner of the internet, but while you're here I hope to keep things interesting.

So what kind of blog is this supposed to be? Well, I love books. I have always loved books. Arguably I was reading while in my mother's womb. So books will be mostly what I'll be talking about. my mind may also wonder to personal essays, witchery, music, art, and travel. You can expect reviews, analysis, sarcasm, and my halfhearted attempts at photography.

I have very eclectic reading tastes, but if I were to nail it down I would say that it is mostly science fiction/fantasy, magical realism, graphic novels, travelogues, and memoirs. I enjoy analyzing a story and figuring out why it works (or why it doesn't).

SOME OTHER THINGS ABOUT ME:

Favorite Books: I have hundreds of favorite books, but if you forced me to limit it to a few, here they are:

Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
Call Me By Your Name by Andre Acimen
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Hogwarts House: Gryffindor.

Favorite Authors: Kurt Vonnegut // Tom Robbins // Jonathan Carroll // Catherynne M. Valente // Haruki Murakami // Elizabeth Gilbert

Enneagram: Type 5, wing 4.

Zodiac: Sun Aries, moon Scorpio, Scorpio rising.

That's all for now. Let's move on to the fun stuff!