• ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Spellbound by Ophelia Silk | ARC Review

    8th April 2021
    Cover of Spellbound (Ophelia Silk)

    Spellbound by Ophelia Silk

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Check trigger warnings on the author’s website.

    I went into the story knowing I’m going to get cottagecore sapphics with a simplistic plot, but I didn’t expect it to be so cute.

    Jane Paris (20) and William make a striking couple. Or so the villagers say. One day, after another dissatisfying evening with William, Jane walks into the dangerous forest for a shortcut back home. Soon, a poisonous beast attacks her and it is only because of the witch Adelaide Thompson’s magic and cure that Jane survives. Raised to be proper and polite and marry a man, Jane learns that not all expectations are meant to be fulfilled, especially when there are other things that bring her happiness.

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  • Feb 2021 Wrap-up Banner
    Wrap-Ups

    February 2021 Wrap-Up

    30th March 2021

    Hi, friends! Is this really a February wrap-up and not a March one? Yes, because time is unreal.

    Again, I am very behind on everything, but I think, at this point, we are all very burned out and it is enough that I am trying. I do blog hop from time to time, and since WordPress Reader doesn’t work amazingly for me (because my blog is self-hosted), I catch up with one blog at a time instead of one week at a time. Say hi to me in the comments and I will attempt to read everything you’ve written in March and/or since whenever I last read your posts.

    Love you all and I hope everyone is okay.

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  • Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo [EN/ZH-TW]

    22nd March 2021
    Cover of Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Malinda Lo)

    Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, read by Emily Woo Zeller

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    AUDIOBOOK REVIEW IN EN & ZH-TW | 有聲書書評（中英對照）

    EN

    Content warning: racism, homophobia, manipulation, mention of miscarriage, alcohol (underage drinking)

    She couldn’t find the right words for this dammed-up feeling inside, as if she were denying herself something absolutely vital, and she didn’t know why.

    Last Night at the Telegraph Club is less about the romance between Lily and Kath but more about Lily trying to grasp her identity as a Chinese American lesbian in the 1950s.

    In the prologue, four years before the main story (1950), thirteen-year-old Lily Hu (胡麗麗) and her childhood best friend Shirley Lum attend Miss Chinatown Contest with their families. I’d say this one chapter is the summary of the entire book in one way or another as we see Lily becoming aware of skin and bodies and the interactions between her and Shirley.

    When Lily stumbles upon an ad for male impersonator Tommy Andrews’ performance at the Telegraph Club (1954), she is mesmerized, not quite understanding why. But she keeps the clip along with a few others in her copy of The Exploration of Space. All her dreams in one place, I think. As the new school year starts, there are only two girls left in Advanced Math—Lily herself and Kathleen Miller, who dreams of becoming a pilot. Their orbits never coincide until this very moment, and it makes all the difference.

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  • Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

    10th March 2021
    Cover of Bestiary (K-Ming Chang)

    Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: cannibalism, animal abuse, animal killing, child abuse, miscarriage, suicide, blood, poison, gore, bestiality, PTSD, gun shot, on-page amputation

    Throughout most of the read, I thought the gruesome imageries were the author’s attempt to make Bestiary a disturbing read. But when I was two-thirds in, I realized this isn’t just a Taiwanese American novel, but also a retelling of Tayal fables (Tayal are a Taiwanese indigenous people, 泰雅族), strung together with common themes, told in English but are really also in Chinese (mostly Mandarin, but Taiwanese sort of helps).

    So I continued my reading as my eyes trailed the lines of English, my thoughts flipped to Mandarin and all the Tayal folklore I remembered and could find.

    Then things started to make sense.

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