Tag: Literary Fiction

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Yellowface Review

by amyleighreads4 Comments on Yellowface Review

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

Because this book was written from June’s point of view it kind of gave me You vibes. Like she very much is Joe Goldberg but in the literary world. The ways in which this woman thread the various justifications around and around in her mind until she actually thought what she did was ok was intense to read. I was constantly on the edge of my seat wondering when and how she was going to be exposed and I was so thoroughly invested that I had to put the book down for a few days.

I liked the flashbacks to early on in June and Athena’s friendship and how their tenuous bond was established. Why Athena still chose to keep June around and why that prompted June in taking the manuscript in the first place. I feel like she thought she deserved and earned it after being used by Athena. The way that this one lie just spirals and how June feels so vindicated with all this success and after her initial failure.

Even though this was a pretty short-ish book there were some pretty heavy topics and themes woven throughout this book that without the help of the audiobook would of been a slog to get through. Worth it though I feel because the way the plot wraps up was shocking and unfortunately highly realistic and just makes you question a lot of the publishing industry as a whole.

⭐️4/5 stars This book was wild!

Reviews

Little Fires Everywhere Review

by amyleighreads2 Comments on Little Fires Everywhere Review

*MAJOR SPOILERS*

34273236Little Fires Everywhere is about the Richardson family and how from the surface they look like the quintessential family but when you delve a little deeper it seems that looks aren’t everything.

I really, really enjoyed this book. I honestly found it a little bit tedious at the start, sure the fire was a compelling introduction to the story but the plot took a little while to get established for me. But let me just say that the way that Celeste Ng wove the story together left me in awe!

I love that each family member really got a time to shine and develop within the book. Except for maybe Mr. Richardson who isn’t that big of an influence to the overall plot, though he still does have his moments. I would have to say that Izzy is probably my favourite of the Richardson’s. We don’t see a lot of her for like three quarters of the book; she is just painted by her family members as the weird, crazy one without an explanation as to why. But, when we finally did get to explore her background and the reasoning’s behind the way that she acts I was impressed. Even though she is only 15 she has a clear sense of right and wrong and isn’t afraid to call her family out on their skewed point of view. She understands how privileged she is but doesn’t accept that her privilege makes her better than anyone else.

Mia was definitely the most intriguing character for me though. Again we don’t get a lot of prior information about her and why she chose to move around so much with Pearl and why they decided to settle down in Shaker Heights. I like how compassionate and empathetic she is, especially after Lexie’s abortion and helping Bebe with her case. I loved finding out about her history with her family and Pauline Hawthorne and the Ryan’s.

Bebe’s case and how it eventuated was a plot line that I honestly didn’t see coming but it fit perfectly in the scope of the book. It was a way to show exactly the type of people that these characters are and the ethical and moral conversation that it starts was enlightening.

This book was a journey from start to finish. There wasn’t really one main focus to the story, it was all of the characters revolving around each other and seeing how they intersect and how based on one decision or action everything can completely change. The way that everything unfolded first with the fire and then backtracking and explaining the family dynamics and weaving all the differing storylines together was beautiful!

⭐️4.5/5 A slow burner!