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rainwaterspark) wrote2023-02-03 11:50 am
rainwaterspark) wrote2023-02-03 11:50 am
Book reviews/thoughts
Just a bunch of random thoughts I had lately on some books—one review and a few rambles on openings of books that haven't come out yet.
Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt
Genre: YA, contemporary
I've got to be honest, I wouldn't have finished this book if not for the fact that I started playing Persona 5 and realized that Akechi's voice actor was the narrator for this audiobook. He does a great job, don't get me wrong, but the thing is that despite being called "a heist," this book isn't really a heist story. It's more about five asexual friends chilling and trying to F up a major casino mogul. Which is fine if that's what you're looking for, but not if you were expecting an exciting heist story.
Thoughts on Shanghai Immortal by AY Chao
The first chapter of this book was posted online, so I read it out of curiosity.
I feel bad about nitpicking books by Chinese diaspora authors, I really do, but there were a couple of things that really bugged me from the first chapter:
1. The King of Hell, Yanluo, is referred to as "Big Wang" by the main character (Jing). I'm assuming the author meant 大王，which can be translated as "big Wang." Here's the problem, though. "Wang" (王) in this context isn't Yanluo's name, but his title; the name Yanluowang is supposed to be "King Yanluo," not "Wang" as a surname. So when Chinese people call him 大王，it's supposed to be an honorific, like "Master" or "Your Majesty." It's not supposed to function like the affectionate "big [surname]"/"little [surname]" that is a thing in Chinese culture. Seeing that in this book just drove me up the wall.
2. Jing pulling her qipao up to her thighs because she's so hot and then saying if anyone caught her, she'd be criticized for not showing Confucian modesty—my friends, Confucius was about describing relationships in society, not policing dress codes. Qipao didn't even exist when Confucius was alive. I hate the way Confucianism is invoked to explain everything conservative about Chinese culture, as though Chinese people walk around thinking "what would Confucius say about _____?" because NO ONE THINKS LIKE THAT. (Also, qipao have a slit up one side! How is she still hot if that's the case?!!)
3. The way Tony Lee spoke, like "this humble servant begs Lady Jing [blah blah blah]," annoyed me. I get that it's trying to translate a specific cultural norm in Mandarin, but in this case, it came off as, I don't know, feeling really disingenuous in English? I think She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan was able to pull off that style of translation, but that was also a historical, more literary-feeling book where that kind of language didn't feel so out of place. Here, it felt to me like a caricature.
Thoughts on Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
I read the first four-ish chapters of this book ahead of its release. I was initially excited for this because I'm still on the hunt for good haunted house books, but I'm starting to think I just don't gel with Liselle Sambury's writing style.
For both this book and her debut, Blood Like Magic, I felt like the pacing was way too slow and there's too much infodumping in the beginning. I may make another attempt to get through this book by listening to the audiobook, but I know I won't be able to read a print/ebook copy because I found myself exasperated with how slowly the story was moving. While I normally enjoy dual timelines, I feel like the timing of the two POVs in this book didn't work for me because the present timeline told us that Daisy from the past timeline was going to die in a haunted house before Daisy even mentions the *idea* of moving to a house. I feel that dual timelines should each enhance the tension of the other timeline, but that didn't happen in this book.
I also couldn't tell when the timelines were supposed to take place. I feel like I read somewhere online that Daisy's timeline was supposed to take place in the early 00s? But that didn't make sense because she talks so much about social media and influencer culture, and that was absolutely not a thing in the early 00s. Even if her timeline took place in 2013, Instagram wasn't nearly as big then as it is now.
Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt
Genre: YA, contemporary
I've got to be honest, I wouldn't have finished this book if not for the fact that I started playing Persona 5 and realized that Akechi's voice actor was the narrator for this audiobook. He does a great job, don't get me wrong, but the thing is that despite being called "a heist," this book isn't really a heist story. It's more about five asexual friends chilling and trying to F up a major casino mogul. Which is fine if that's what you're looking for, but not if you were expecting an exciting heist story.
Thoughts on Shanghai Immortal by AY Chao
The first chapter of this book was posted online, so I read it out of curiosity.
I feel bad about nitpicking books by Chinese diaspora authors, I really do, but there were a couple of things that really bugged me from the first chapter:
1. The King of Hell, Yanluo, is referred to as "Big Wang" by the main character (Jing). I'm assuming the author meant 大王，which can be translated as "big Wang." Here's the problem, though. "Wang" (王) in this context isn't Yanluo's name, but his title; the name Yanluowang is supposed to be "King Yanluo," not "Wang" as a surname. So when Chinese people call him 大王，it's supposed to be an honorific, like "Master" or "Your Majesty." It's not supposed to function like the affectionate "big [surname]"/"little [surname]" that is a thing in Chinese culture. Seeing that in this book just drove me up the wall.
2. Jing pulling her qipao up to her thighs because she's so hot and then saying if anyone caught her, she'd be criticized for not showing Confucian modesty—my friends, Confucius was about describing relationships in society, not policing dress codes. Qipao didn't even exist when Confucius was alive. I hate the way Confucianism is invoked to explain everything conservative about Chinese culture, as though Chinese people walk around thinking "what would Confucius say about _____?" because NO ONE THINKS LIKE THAT. (Also, qipao have a slit up one side! How is she still hot if that's the case?!!)
3. The way Tony Lee spoke, like "this humble servant begs Lady Jing [blah blah blah]," annoyed me. I get that it's trying to translate a specific cultural norm in Mandarin, but in this case, it came off as, I don't know, feeling really disingenuous in English? I think She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan was able to pull off that style of translation, but that was also a historical, more literary-feeling book where that kind of language didn't feel so out of place. Here, it felt to me like a caricature.
Thoughts on Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
I read the first four-ish chapters of this book ahead of its release. I was initially excited for this because I'm still on the hunt for good haunted house books, but I'm starting to think I just don't gel with Liselle Sambury's writing style.
For both this book and her debut, Blood Like Magic, I felt like the pacing was way too slow and there's too much infodumping in the beginning. I may make another attempt to get through this book by listening to the audiobook, but I know I won't be able to read a print/ebook copy because I found myself exasperated with how slowly the story was moving. While I normally enjoy dual timelines, I feel like the timing of the two POVs in this book didn't work for me because the present timeline told us that Daisy from the past timeline was going to die in a haunted house before Daisy even mentions the *idea* of moving to a house. I feel that dual timelines should each enhance the tension of the other timeline, but that didn't happen in this book.
I also couldn't tell when the timelines were supposed to take place. I feel like I read somewhere online that Daisy's timeline was supposed to take place in the early 00s? But that didn't make sense because she talks so much about social media and influencer culture, and that was absolutely not a thing in the early 00s. Even if her timeline took place in 2013, Instagram wasn't nearly as big then as it is now.