• Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Wilder Girls by Rory Power

    30th November 2020
    Cover of Wilder Girls (Rory Power)

    Wilder Girls by Rory Power

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: body horror, blood, bones, gore, guns, death of prominent/secondary/minor characters, poisoning

    Fear like a veil, and everything looks like something else, like danger, like hurt.

    Hetty

    This is one of the very few horror books I have ever read, and as someone who was haunted by the supposedly cute animation Monster House, horror was never my first choice of genre. But October calls for spooky reads, and since Wilder Girls is sapphic, the scare would hopefully be worth it. And I was pleasantly surprised. The gore and horror, not entirely revolting, were almost poetic.

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  • Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis

    24th November 2020
    Cover of Cantoras (Carolina De Robertis)

    Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: homophobia, sexism, infidelity, government censorship, torture, abuse (cigarette burns), rape, sexual assault, pedophilia, loss of family, alcohol abuse, forced hospitalization (conversion therapy), electric shock, suicide, blood, miscarriage, death of prominent character (spoiler in white text)

    “I think you know how to love.”

    You know the question people like to ask: if you were only to read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be? I never had an answer; never, until today. I’d gladly read Cantoras a thousand times over; I’d hug this book to my heart forever if I could.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    The Holiday Treatment by Elle Spencer | ARC Review

    18th November 2020
    Cover of The Holiday Treatment (Elle Spencer)

    The Holiday Treatment by Elle Spencer

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warning: homophobia

    I finished this book on a perfect day, aka the trailer release day of the sapphic Christmas rom com Happiest Season, where, and I quote the book, “lesbian Twitter” was freaking out about it. You should see my timeline. And I also want to quote Kyle Krieger (soccer player Ali Krieger’s brother) on the Krashlyn wedding, “we get happy endings, too.” I love that speech and will probably be repeatedly quoting it.

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  • Rent a Boyfriend banner
    ARCs,  Blog Tour,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Blog Tour: Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao [EN/ZH-TW]

    13th November 2020
    Cover of Rent a Boyfriend (Gloria Chao)

    Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Book Depository | IndieBound

    Ta-ke hó*! I am Hsinju (she/they/他), a born-and-raised Taiwanese currently residing in Illinois. Today (November 13th, 2020) is my Hear Our Voices Book Tours blog stop for the adorable Taiwanese American, fake-dating YA romance Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao! Mostly set in Palo Alto with a few chapters in Chicago (yay, Illinois), the story opens with Chloe Wang and her family meeting her boyfriend—ahem—hired boyfriend, whose real name is Drew Chan, for the first time on Thanksgiving.

    * “Ta-ke hó” is “hi, everyone” in Taiwanese.

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