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Finally after 6 months delay, I've started reading the books from the International Booker 2025 long list. This is the first book that I've read, and if I'm being completely honest about it, I don't even really know what I think or feel about it yet.

When I read the first chapter, I was kind of annoyed and confused because I hadn't read the book blurb since I bought the book in March I think? But after I looked that up, I was pretty game again, and I think what's really interesting about this book is how it kind of weaves in and out of different perspectives.

One may think that everything is kind of being told through the eyes of the Narrator, but for anybody with a keen eye, you'll quickly realize that that isn't the case and that may be there or even more views that you're gaining as the reader than even just from Fanny and the Narrator.

Is Felix there too? Is there somebody else? Many more somebody elses? There aren't a lot of answers, and in the lack of answers, it seems to me that you find the actual answer.

This book is about not belonging, about existing on a different rhythm than everyone around you, about the inner conflict that comes with figuring out and understanding who you are.

I liked this book, but I'm not sure this review articulates why, and perhaps somewhat ironically given the nature of this book, I'm not sure I even know why to begin with.

As the title of my review implies, reading this book in the evening before you go to bed may not be the best idea. While most of the stories are mostly just creepy rather than being absolutely terrifying, exceptions apply. But yes, I read all of the stories in this collection to "wind down" before bed. I never claimed to be the brightest cookie in the jar.

I liked this collection much like I've liked the earlier English translations of this author's work. It's critical of misogyny and machoism in all the ways I enjoy, and it doesn't hold back the punches when it comes to pointing out other societal issues like poverty, but I'm currently shivering under the covers and wondering how I'm going to be able to go to sleep without thinking of demon children finding me in my room and dragging me out of my bed.

Much like the title suggests and a kind of roundabout way, I feel like this book has a lot to offer in terms of comparing and contrasting, and the near future climate crisis setting really helps with that.

There are a bunch of troubled girls being pumped full of a drug called BeZen in an effort to dull them down. Yet the world around them is absolute chaos. None of the adults who are charged with looking after them seem to be trained to do that job and the narrator herself is a mess of traumatic experiences.

Yet as bleak as the setting is, the story still manages to be hopeful in a kind of dark way. I think I wrote about this more intelligently on my long form review on my blog, but I really liked this but quite a lot. It's calm chaos really resonated with me.

I love speculative fiction like this.

@reading_recluse@c.im I actually have a review copy, so unless I end up hating it, you'll hear from me in detail soon!! 😁

(One chapter in, and it's pretty cool already.)

This isn't the kind of book I normally read. It's a book that was originally published for free online as a web novel that got picked up by a publisher and it's an isekai. For stylistic preference reasons, I normally don't read these.

That being said, I was kind of surprised by this! Basically, the main character Liar gets reincarnated into his favourite game and all kinds of chaos ensues. But the system that the world functions under is really interesting. It takes a lot from Christianity and the idea of the seven sins. So it's absurd in every way possible, but also extremely serious because it talks about sins and the consequences of lying and blah blah blah.

The magic system is also related to the seven sins, but there was also a part that kind of reminded me of Pokémon? I don't know, there's a lot going on with this.

It's a style I'm not used to, but the story itself is really interesting and the longer I read the more I got into it. Will definitely read the next book in the series at some point in the future.

📗 "I Decided to Live as Me" by Kim Suhyun, translated from Korean into English by Anton Hur

I saw this earlier this year in @mollymay5000 's feed and saved the title. I never have unrealistically high hopes for self-help non-fiction, but some are okay and this one looked cute.

I got so much more than I expected! It was helpful and funny. Most chapters are supportive and do encourage the reader gently, but then some chapters draw hard lines and the drawings get a little sassy, which was great. It went beyond generic advice for treating yourself well and being kind to the world.

I don't agree with every advice and outlook in this book (who ever does?) and maybe some things were a little naïve (like some of the romanticizing of other Western countries). Nevertheless, overall I had a good time and some pages challenged and changed my own views on how I handle difficult things.

#AmReading #NonFiction #books #WomenInTranslation

@reading_recluse@c.im Yay! I'm so glad you liked it! I definitely appreciated how this book wasn't artificially hopeful and THIS IS THE ONLY WAY about things. It definitely saves it from the pitfall that I think a lot of books like this have and that they just sound really patronizing needlessly.

(And also glad I figured out that the fact that I didn't get a notification was because I was seeing the post on Mastodon, but my account on Bookwyrm is tagged 😆)

I had no idea that this was a horror novel until I was halfway done the book even though there's a blurb on the front of the cover that says it's a horror debut. Anyway, I have no idea what I read, but I really liked it. Queer, creepy fiction that takes place at the beginning of the 20th century seems to be something that I like.

Natalie Naudus narration was also perfection as usual and I realized near the end of the novel that the author is actually from the same province as me, which honestly as an extra layer of fascination and coolness to the whole experience.