I requested this book on NetGalley due to the promise of a multi-generational Chinese-American family gothic horror novel. Overall I enjoyed it, althoI requested this book on NetGalley due to the promise of a multi-generational Chinese-American family gothic horror novel. Overall I enjoyed it, although it wasn't one that I eagerly looked forward to getting back to whenever I had to put it down. It leaned far more heavily into the family drama than it did the gothic/horror elements. Those elements were really more like highlights on the full picture, and there were no moments of dread or anything I found particularly creepy. Despite the synopsis mentioning that the characters are "racing" to find out what happened to the deceased matriarch of the family, the pacing was fairly slow and unhurried as the history of the family unfolds through flashbacks that take up the majority of the story. If family dramas are something one enjoys, there's certainly a solid one here....more
I requested this book from NetGalley because as I've probably mentioned before, I'm always into anything that sounds a little Black Mirror-y. The afteI requested this book from NetGalley because as I've probably mentioned before, I'm always into anything that sounds a little Black Mirror-y. The afterlife as a wellness commune where the main character has to deal with unexpected and unwanted interpersonal issues instead of just moving on to peace pinged my radar. Also, I apparently had read and enjoyed the author's book The Psalm of Lost Girls, according to my GoodReads history.
For the first 60% of the book, I was really looking forward to picking it up at the end of each day and honestly thought I was on track to consider it a 4-star read. But then it just started spinning its wheels and it felt like I was never getting any closer to the end. The final 20% of the book in particular really needed an editor to suggest drastically simplifying the plot and asking the author what exactly the motivations of the antagonists were (and maybe even clarifying who the antagonists were). The very final stretch of 10-15 pages takes on a goofy, slapstick tone that isn't consistent with the rest of the book and left me skimming through as fast as I could so that I could just be done with it. ...more
Stories about the dark side of the wellness industry seem to be a thing right now, such as the movie The Substance. I read Ling Ling Huang's Natural BStories about the dark side of the wellness industry seem to be a thing right now, such as the movie The Substance. I read Ling Ling Huang's Natural Beauty recently and really dug it, so when I saw this book that sounded like it was in a similar vein available to read on NetGalley, I immediately requested it.
Unlike the two aforementioned examples of this subgenre, which use horror and fantasy elements to comment on "wellness" being sold to us at a great price, this book is firmly grounded in reality and seems like it could have been plucked straight from the headlines. It is a really well written account of the main character getting sucked into a wellness guru's orbit yet finding something darker there than she bargained for.
The pacing is really snappy and I blew through it in two days because I wanted to see where it was going. Without spoiling anything, I particularly liked how the author situated the main character to be able to see through what was going on when no one else was able to. I liked the book so much I grabbed another one of the author's books from the library as soon as I was done....more
I tend to like books that are about the internet, especially when they are genre fiction. This one was being offered on NetGalley, and the idea of a gI tend to like books that are about the internet, especially when they are genre fiction. This one was being offered on NetGalley, and the idea of a ghost haunting streamers pulled me in. A lot of the narrative is told through chat transcripts and descriptions of what viewers are seeing while watching streamers on the screen. It is definitely creepy, to the point that I had to switch to something a lot less intense when reading at bedtime. The mystery that unfolds as the main character gets wrapped up in the hauntings is well plotted, and I thought that the author did a very nice job of laying out the crumbs for the main character and reader to follow. Endings to horror novels can sometimes feel like a let-down, but this one stuck the landing pretty well. It left me unsure if the final conclusion was hopeful or ominous, which was a nice bit of ambiguity. ...more
There is no piece of media that I love more than Buffy, so when I saw this book available on NetGalley, I grabbed it without scrutinizing the synopsisThere is no piece of media that I love more than Buffy, so when I saw this book available on NetGalley, I grabbed it without scrutinizing the synopsis too much. I didn't quite realize that it was really more about a podcast about Buffy, and about the personal lives of the hosts of the podcast. I still would have read it if I'd realized - I like memoirs, and I know of Jenny Owen Youngs' music, and did I mention Buffy? - but since I'm not a podcast person and I wasn't aware of this podcast or its community of listeners, I don't think I was fully the right audience. It felt really voyeuristic at times, since they were jointly talking about their divorce and sharing some gnarly details together. I would have rather read a book where they talked about the topics they covered on the podcast, rather than a behind-the-scenes deal, because those bits where they shed some light on that were my favorite parts....more
I requested this book from NetGalley because the synopsis sounded like it would fit right in on a season of Black Mirror. It's very Minority-Report-y,I requested this book from NetGalley because the synopsis sounded like it would fit right in on a season of Black Mirror. It's very Minority-Report-y, where people are retained due to their dreams and other factors that are being surveilled by an algorithm (there are over 200 sources of data it looks at, we're told several times) that is looking for people who are at high risk for committing a violent crime in the future. There is a lot packed into this, including critiquing for-profit prisons, the commodification of our data that we "agree" to in exchange for devices that make our lives easier, racial profiling, the abuses of the discretion of police and other people in authority, etc.
I did wish that it leaned into the dreams surveillance a little more, in order to give it more of a near future vibe. Without this aspect, it isn't near future as much as it is things that could happen here and now with the technology that we have and the devices and digital services that people use. There is a storyline involving an employee of the dream software company conducting product update tests on the retainees without their knowledge, and that wasn't fleshed out as much as it could have been or taken to a conclusion, it felt like a little snippet to demonstrate possible consequences of this universe, but I would have liked to have seen the author lean way more into this plotline.
Overall, this is a really well written book that made me feel a lot of feelings, as I spent a lot of time being frustrated with the main character and the people around her while also knowing the futility of her acting any differently because of her impossible situation. ...more
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