Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

14 reviews

10stormlight's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

Some really conceptually interesting and thought provoking stuff. A collection of very emotional (and sometimes heartrending) stories. Primarily sci fi and magical realism with a heavy historical influence. 

As a warning, there is a ton of *extremely* graphic content in here. In fact, I think this may be the most explicitly graphic book I have ever read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Torture, Violence, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Body horror, Death, Grief, Medical content, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Racism, Child death, Sexual content, War, Death of parent, Confinement, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Terminal illness, Bullying, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, and Racial slurs

ruthhelizabeth's review

challenging dark informative medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Gore, Confinement, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Genocide, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Blood, War, Torture, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Suicide

samdalefox's review

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I had first read 'The paper menagerie' as a stand alone story and loved it, so bought Liu's full short story collection. As you can see from the individual ratings below, I also loved the rest of the stories. The only one to drop below 4/5 was 'All the flavours', mostly because I don't think the structure and length entirely paid off. Outstanding pieces include 'State change', Simulacrum', 'The paper menagerie', and 'The man who ended history: a documentary'. Although the collection averaged 4.5, I'm bumping it up to 4.75 because the work is greater than the sum of its parts. 
 
It's hard to describe Ken Liu's writing style and subject matter. It's an easy to read, sci-fi, magical realism, literary, historical fiction, kind of genre. There were several times I looked up specific events referenced and learnt about Chinese and pan-Asian history. I found this incredibly enjoyable, the way history and culture are presented is informative, but in an appeasing way because it's told almost like a fairy tale. I also greatly appeciated the author's notes at the end of the stories with historical features explaining the references and pointing to further reading. 

The stories cover difficult themes such as imperialism, industrialisation, migration and immigrant experience, ethical use/misuse and philosophical development of technology, revolution and nationalism, militarianism, philosophy of communication and memory, and censorship, all with respect to Chinese people.

"Every act of communication is a miracle of translation"

The book making habits of select species 4.25⭐
State change 4.75⭐ 
The perfect match 4.25⭐
Good hunting 4⭐
The literomancer 4.5⭐
Simulacrum 5⭐
The regular 4⭐
The paper menagerie 5⭐
An advanced reader's picture book of comparative cognition 4.25⭐
The waves 4.5⭐
Mono no aware 4.5⭐
All the flavours 3.5⭐
A brief history of the trans Pacific tunnel 4.25⭐
The litigation master and the monkey king 4.75⭐
The man who ended history: a documentary 5⭐

Average = 4.43 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation and Classism

Minor: Murder, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Genocide, Confinement, Hate crime, Bullying, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Rape

The stories cover difficult themes such as imperialism, industrialisation, migration and immigrant experience, ethical use/misuse and philosophical development of technology, revolution and nationalism, militarianism, philosophy of communication and memory, and censorship all with respect to Chinese people.

dkrish22's review

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Xenophobia, War, and Medical content

mariopartygod's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

this is a book I'd love to read again. upon re-reading the preface (comparing every communication to an almost impossible feat of translation), I realize that there is a thread I didn't notice at first connecting all the stories - that there are many truths sometimes, or a truth comprised of many perspectives, and it always has many facets that are hard to reconcile, or perhaps cannot be reconciled. I appreciated the nuance in perspective in the "the man who ended history: a documentary" story, as well as the "simulacrum". meanwhile, the stories tell us that even though the truth is perhaps never going to be 100% understood or discovered, an approximation is enough, and we should act to do what we think is right given that information. "mono no aware", "a brief history of the trans-atlantic tunnel", "the litigation master and the monkey king", "good hunting" seem to communicate this to me, despite all the nuance. ordinary characters faced with extraordinary truths and choices. and then there are stories where a character perhaps learn a bit more later, and maybe looks back on their actions with regret. "the paper menagerie" and "state change" both had this twinge of living life on assumptions, almost to the regret of the characters. I also appreciated the form of the stories - sci-fi, fantasy, and historical fiction blend seamlessly in this collection to paint intricate stories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Colonisation, War, and Violence

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Colonisation, Genocide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Death of parent, Racism, Suicide, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Rape, Racial slurs, Infidelity, Police brutality, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Minor: Dementia and Sexual content

sofiadanielle's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow, just wow. 

Ken Liu is certainly an author who has undeniable power in his words. Each story has left an impact on me. He created worlds so complete that even the shortest stories included don’t leave the reader feeling not submerged in whatever the setting and plot is. 

The intertwining of Asian folklore, futuristic creations and ideals, was something new for me to find in a singular story, never mind a series of them. Liu also doesn’t shy away from gruesome bits in the stories centered around real wars and global conflicts. 

Definitely not for the faint of heart, as some topics are heavy and detailed, but I feel that despite these sometimes gory details, the heart of the story- reflectivity on society most of the time- always prevails. 

Simply amazing and deeply moving. I won’t be forgetting this read for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Torture, and War

Moderate: Suicide, Racism, and Xenophobia

kalira's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ken Lie has a brilliant approach to weaving together history and realism with fantastical/speculative fiction elements, drawing it all into poignant and deeply emotional relief.

It took me a long time to read this anthology, largely because the stories are very good . . . and sometimes, so painful and heavy and immediate that upon finishing I needed to set the book aside and take some time. Both to process the story and to give myself a little emotional space to breathe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Child death, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Gore, Trafficking, Vomit, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Death, War, Alcohol, Colonisation, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Chronic illness, and Grief

konfx's review

challenging inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Stalking, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Torture, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Genocide, Grief, Murder, and Racism

mikeypwest's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Awesome compilation and book here! I was very impressed with Liu's short stories and feel like he is one of the most skilled 'author-artists' I've come across in a long time. I feel like a lot of these stories will just stick with me for a while - mostly because of the haunting feeling they invoked in me. Liu has a great way to convey a ton of thought, emotion, and context into these short stories. 

These stories cover all sorts of genres: magical realism, sci-fi, fantasy (more fantasy-lite), alternate history, and historical fiction (and sometimes a mix of these). Important topics/themes that are touched upon here:
culture (especially when cultures collide), sacrifice, loss, death, identity, unrighteous authority, moral duty, xenophobia, humanity, and relationships.

Most of Liu's stories touch on aspects of Chinese culture in some way. (Liu is a Chinese American). Many touch on the Chinese/American culture dynamic. Others are influenced by Chinese history (and/or Japanese in a couple of cases). A lot of his stories made me dive a bit deeper into that history (and he does provide references for some of them).  While I still feel ignorant of much of Chinese history, these stories definitely taught me more than I previously knew. 

Liu is a master at what he does here.  Each story was compelling in its own way and a few stories here are straight-up haunting. Warning: he does incorporate some HEAVY topics (torture, murder, racism, sexual violence, genocide) as part of his story-telling, but they are not there for shock value but to open our eyes to the broader philosophical and moral meanings/context. I feel like I could spend hours on some of these stories just researching the historical context as well as musing on the moral and philosophical meanings that are present.

Overall, I wouldn't call this book outright "entertaining", but the stories within are at an artistic/literary level that I feel is unmatched (at least I can't remember reading anything so artistically captivating).  I will say while not a popcorn read, all of the stories did grab my interest - some in a very intense way. (There is a sci-fi detective story that I felt was a little more of a popcorn story, but it was the outlier here).  There are some REALLY fascinating sci-fi premises for his stories as well.  All in all, if you want to read some stuff that may make you feel uncomfortable and make you think about the complexities (and dark side!) of humanity, I cannot recommend this book more.

My favorites: Waves, All the Flavors, Mono No Aware, The Man Who Ended History, and The Regular (as an honorary mention).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Xenophobia, and Violence