• Book Reviews,  Fiction

    EDINBURGH by Alexander Chee | Audiobook Review 🎧

    31st January 2022
    Cover of Edinburgh (Alexander Chee)

    EDINBURGH by Alexander Chee, read by Daniel K. Isaac, Josh Hurley

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Somewhere between a 4- and a 5-star.

    The central theme of the book is pedophilia. It reminded me of the biographical movie Spotlight in the sense that both instances of church-related child molestation happened on the East Coast around the same time. Edinburgh was published the same year the original The Boston Globe’s “spotlight” team started the investigation (2001), way before the team won a Pulitzer Prize for it (2003). I picked up this book because it’s queer and Asian, and I expected it to be sad and disturbing but I didn’t know it would also be beautiful in both the writing and the perverseness of the characters.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    THE BREATH BETWEEN WAVES by Charlotte Anne Hamilton | ARC Review

    26th November 2021
    Cover of The Breath Between Waves (Charlotte Anne Hamilton)

    THE BREATH BETWEEN WAVES by Charlotte Anne Hamilton

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    The Titanic journey lasted for six days from April 10th to 15th, 1912. It was supposed to arrive at New York on the 17th. To make the main characters fall in love within the timeframe is a huge challenge, and unfortunately, the chemistry between them wasn’t enough for me to be fully invested in their story.

    Penelope Fletcher doesn’t want to leave Scotland, but she joins her parents onboard Titanic after being heartbroken by her ex-girlfriend. Her roommate, Ruby Cole, is traveling with her sister’s family. As they spend more time together, they realize there might be something brewing between them, but the clock is ticking as they get closer and closer to their destination.

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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

    While My Heart Beats by Erin McKenzie | ARC Review

    20th September 2020
    Cover of While My Heart Beats

    While My Heart Beats by Erin McKenzie

    CW: war, off-page deaths of family

    This is a beautiful historical romance across classes set in WWI Great Britain and France.

    Ellie Winthrop is high-born, a feminist, and holds big dreams during a time women cannot even vote. Her mother is eager to marry her off at twenty-two, but Ellie enlists in Volunteer Aid Detachment. At the hospital, she meets Johanna Lennox, a working-class, twenty-four-year-old nurse with a no-nonsense attitude. As the pair gradually become friends, they can no longer resist their yearnings for each other’s bodies. But with Ellie’s mother pestering Ellie with marriage, Johanna wonders if she, being poorer and a woman, could ever be good enough for her.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Nonfiction

    Female Husbands by Jen Manion | ARC Review

    5th April 2020
    Cover of Female Husbands (Jen Manion)

    Female Husbands: A Trans History by Jen Manion

    This book is engrossing. It is a fascinating academic work on queer pioneers in the UK and US from the 18th to early 20th century. For a brief moment upon finishing, I had to remind myself I am in the 21st century.

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