Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter

 

RIPE is probably one of the most bizarre books I've read in a while. When I put it down, I actually had to think about how I felt about it-- did I like it? The writing style is very clean and spare, but the story itself is a downer: a depressed woman experiencing existential angst is working a tech job that she hates, and her CEO is asking her to do increasingly immoral things to keep her job.

Based on the back blurb, I was a little confused about what this book was actually about. I thought this would explore the relationship between the heroine and her boss more, but he was more of a secondary character. The blurb also makes it sound like they have a sexual relationship because it's so vague, but she's involved with a chef whose name we never learn, but who is in an "open" relationship.

Overall, this was a decent read. I wouldn't read it again but I would read more by this author.

3 out of 5 stars

A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon

 

DNF @ 42%

Absolutely gorgeous cover and very creative and potentially humorous premise, but this wasn't what I was expecting at all. I thought it would be a comedic book about an older magical girl having an existential crisis and it was sort of that, but it wasn't very funny. It reminded me a lot of I WANT TO DIE BUT I WANT TO EAT TTEOKBOKKI in the sense that the focal element is more about Asian women struggling to manage their depression and how it makes them feel selfish and unpleasant at people in a culture that not only values togetherness and putting other people first, but also doesn't really talk about mental illness publicly out of shame and stigma.

I found it to be really boring and a little too weird for me personally, and even halfway through this novella, it still didn't feel like it had all its shit together. It might be funny to others and maybe it just wasn't my personal sense of humor, so if you enjoyed Baek Se-hee and also enjoy anime, you might be the target audience for this book.

2 out of 5 stars

Prohibited by Madeline Thorne

 

I feel like the fact that people are so hard on FMCs has caused a lot of authors to be afraid to take risks with their female characters. Male protagonists can get away with virtually anything but if an FMC even squints at someone the wrong way, suddenly she's unlikable or a bitch. That's why it was so refreshing to read about Evie. There's an idea that strong women aren't allowed to be vulnerable or feel weak, but I am constantly reiterating that sometimes survival can be enough: and that's what Evie is. Caught between two powerful and abusive men, she is doing everything that she can do to survive, given her father's own brand of oppression and her traumatic experiences in the war.

When her lover, Walter Stanley, uses her as a set-up to assassinate someone in his way, she ends up out of the frying pan and into the fire because that someone has two angry half-brothers and a cousin who decide to kidnap Evie and use her to get back at Walter. Those people are the Lockwoods: Alex, Ryan, and Lindsay. And just in case that weren't drama enough, Ryan was her lover when she was young, back when he was the gardener for her childhood estate. Now he hates her, but he still kind of wants her, too. Uh-oh.

PROHIBITED has the vibes of one of those old skool bodice rippers I love, specifically Christine Monson or Natasha Peters: both of them had spirited heroines who went through hell and back, and never stopped surviving. I'm not usually a fan of Why Choose but I liked this book because I liked how distinct every male character felt, and because they all had relationships with each other, it felt like a natural progression for their circle to open to involve Evie. (And by the way, there's no incest: Alex and Ryan are stepbrothers, and Lindsay is Ryan's cousin, who has no blood relation to Alex. So you know, in case you were worried.)

I would have liked more suffering to happen to the two bad guys, especially considering what they did. It kind of felt like they got off easy. Like another review said, I also felt like there were too many Roberts POVs. The one with Walters and Saoirse was chilling and really well done in a way that added to the suspense and stakes (I actually said "holy shit" out loud), but some of them dragged the pacing a bit. BUT overall this was just really well done, dark without feeling like it was trying to shock. Everything felt like it unrolled exactly as it needed to for the sake of the characters and their development arcs and I can't say that about every dark romance I read. This is the second book I've read by Thorne and after this book, I kind of feel like I might have to read every single book they write.

Thanks to the author/publisher for providing me with a copy!

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars

Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim

 

WITHOUT YOU, THERE IS NO US has been sitting on my Kindle for a while but it took me a while to finish because it is so heavy. I read every nonfiction book about N. Korea that I can get my hands on because I find it so fascinating but most of the books I've read are memoirs from defectors. I've read a couple memoirs from people who traveled there for one reason or another, but usually it was to get a story or travel somewhere really unusual. Suki Kim is different from those: she is a journalist who traveled there incognito with a bunch of Christian missionaries to learn more about N. Korea through one of its universities, teaching English to some of their elite youth.

I thought this memoir was interesting because Kim is South Korean and so she did at times feel an almost cultural kinship with the N. Korean students she was teaching because of their shared history. But at the same time, the way they have been isolated from the rest of the world and raised to believe in the complete superiority of their nation with a fairytale fervor that feels almost religious made it hard for her to relate to them because she literally came from a different world.

I think this memoir shows her frustration at teaching without really being able to teach, and wanting to shed light and inform without getting anyone into trouble. Her whole situation felt very precarious and dangerous and it felt like she constantly had to walk on eggshells. Not just with the N. Koreans either, but with the very missionaries she arrived there with, with whom she does not share her faith.

Anyway, I liked this book a lot, although with books like these when there's no real sense of closure at the end, it makes me realize how life doesn't come to a neat full stop like fiction and how unsatisfying that can be (which is maybe why we shape fictional narratives the way we do). Highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning about N. Korea from a gentle, sympathetic, but grounded Western perspective.

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars

Twelve Rolls of Tit Torture by Matt Nicholson

 

I found this while randomly looking for extreme BDSM books and the premise sounded wild enough that I had to read it. Abbey is a college student taking a photography class and for some reason, she thinks it would be a great idea to submit a bunch of photos where she's clawing and biting her own boobs. She takes the rolls to a professional photographer who specializes in this sort of kink and he offers to take even better photos that will guarantee her an A in class.

Ostensibly it's consensual but the line sure thins out between the dub and the non side of con. The writing is not the best although the story was compelling enough that I had to see what nonsense these two were going to get up to after he kidnaps her and takes her to the desert. The author lost me when he leaves lubes up her whole body with sunscreen, except for her vajazzle and her tittays, and leaves her to get sunburned all day under the hot sun. That's how you get melanoma, friend. What are you doing? What ARE you doing?

Absolutely insane BUT I do appreciate the author's note at the end that's like, "Hey, maybe don't do this specifically, and if you do want to try kink, maybe don't start with this. There are books that actually instruct you on that sort of thing."

2.5 out of 5 stars

Their Heart A Hive by Fox N. Locke

 

THEIR HEART A HIVE was a purely impulsive read because I saw that Cat Hellisen had given it a high rating and I really respect their writing (and their taste). And they weren't wrong! This is a vastly underrated queer fantasy with Celtic and cottagecore undertones that at times almost feels like a sweeping gothic with a fantasy backdrop.

One of the critiques of fantasy is that they often include homophobia as part of the default world-building but in this book queerness is completely accepted. The hero, Lowen, is gay. When he kills a magical bee that belongs to the local lord, he is summoned to the lord's domain where he finds out that the "lord" is actually genderqueer and is also sometimes "the lady" or even "themself" or "lord and lady."

The Lord and Lady of Honeymoore has a mysterious relationship to bees and their household staff, one of whom, Brem, Lowen ends up in a sexual relationship with. The plot is very slow and this is mostly just a book of vibes. I liked the vibes but the drop-off in pacing did make this a little harder to finish in the second act, although the ending was fantastic and left me a little misty-eyed.

Highly recommend this to people who wanted something like ACOTAR, but gay, or something that has an almost Miyazaki feel to it. I'm honestly shocked more people haven't read this.

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

 

I was a little hesitant to read this book because I am a HUGE WUSS when it comes to horror and I don't care who knows. Body horror and spatterpunk are really hard for me to read and the cover makes it look like this book is going to be really gory. But it's not. It's kind of like if you crossed MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER with YELLOWFACE: you have the literary female serial killer pulp juxtaposed against some very powerful discussions of Asian racism.

Most of the horror doesn't happen until the last 40%. The first 60% is an intense character portrait about Ji-won, whose mother has just started dating a white man named George. George is That Creep(TM) who has a fetish for Asian women-- and even worse, he ogles and objectifies Ji-won's younger sister. She needs him gone, stat. But he has the prettiest big blue eyes... and she thinks they look tasty.

The imagery of literally eating the white male gaze is quite powerful and I think this book does a great job of showing the anger that a lot of Asian women (rightfully) have when they exist in a culture that fetishizes and objectifies them, denying them the right to exist as autonomous, flawed human beings, as well as the expression of their identity on their own terms.

I had a few issues with the ending and there were one or two things that felt a little over the top, but on the whole this feels like a smart and campy horror movie and I was actually pretty into it.

3.5 to 4 out of 5 stars