Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge

13 reviews

kylewithann's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Strange Beasts of China seems like it sets up a format right away: each chapter and insular story about one of the species of beasts. Just as soon as you think you understand the formula, it immediately shifts it on its head. The intricate weaving of stories and world-building happening between the lines makes this a much more complicated novel than it originally seems. 

The narrative does not hold your hand. Sometimes I felt like I needed SparkNotes to understand what was happening the writing was so opaque. 

Mind the content warnings. I would put down the book between some chapters feeling emotionally and mentally wrecked. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

lucky_stars's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

 I want to get my hands on the original Chinese since I definitely feel like some things had to be lost in translation. (Even if my Chinese isn’t the best, I’d be willing to struggle for this if I get the extra money to purchase a copy of 异兽志). 

 

Although I might also be saying that because I spent a good portion of the book feeling like I was missing something.  Sometimes things connected in ways that seemed impossible since the supposed conclusion reached in one story was contradicted in another.  

 

The narrator’s relationship with the professor was one that endlessly confused me, even as it intrigued me.  At times I thought they were lovers, other times just more disappointed mentor and student,

and with the Heartsick Beasts story maybe literal creator and invention

.  The only consistency was the very unhealthy relationship, a common thread in a book that blurs the line between what it means to be beastly.  (Lucia is perfect though and I won’t hear a word against her.) 

 

The beasts are brilliantly constructed, although repetitive at times since there is so much death and melancholy. My favorite stories were the Impasse Beasts, the Heartsick Beasts, and the Flourishing Beasts.  

 

The setting of Yong’an is hard to pin down.  Most of the time is spent in either the Dolphin Bar or the narrator’s apartment, with a whole lot of un-described mostly unremarkable restaurants that Zhong Liang drags her to.  However, despite this, I couldn’t offer a description of any of these locations.  There are references to more concrete areas when talking about where the beasts live that are more conversational.  These places feel real and made me feel like the narrator was letting me in on some deep secret. The timeline is similarly opaque. You’re left in this timeless place where the only way you can track things is based on subtle hits from secondary characters (their deaths, their institutionalization, their references to the narrator’s books/newspaper column being published).  It’s very hypnotic and surreal.  It’s strange yes (made even stranger by the epilogue), but there’s whimsy in it even as the beasts brutally commit suicide or otherwise die. 

 

Common thematic ideas: Beasts are whoever the government decides to disenfranchise; Living must include pain to be worthwhile and Death is inevitable (and even an escape from living); People are beasts; Identity is a narrative, not a static idea.    

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Genocide, Toxic relationship, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Vomit and Dementia

charlie_cheese's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

the grief of figuring out everything too late and the humanity of the other........ great themes in this guy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gore, Self harm, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Forced institutionalization, and War

dragongirl271's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Suicide

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, and Grief

chocolate_pondue's review against another edition

I liked the story of the beasts even though they were all sorrowful. However the underlying story of main character and those around her was getting tedious and annoying. All the main character seemed to do was drink, have nightmares, and cry. She had her hand in the solution to some of the stories but it all just to be happening around her and not with her. Overall, I was getting tired of the repetitiveness of the stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Genocide, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, and Alcohol

Minor: Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Grief

laurareads87's review against another edition

mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

Strange Beasts of China follows an unnamed narrator who writes about beasts: creatures of various kinds who inhabit the city of Yong'an and who are different in some way but 'otherwise are just the same as humans.'  Each chapter relates the story of one type of beast, while also touching on the relationships between the narrator and other characters, particularly her professor and his assistant.  The whole book has a sort of eerie, mysterious tone, and the writing is beautiful.  The author addresses many themes -- labour exploitation, gendered oppression, urban alienation, grief -- in nuanced ways.  I will say I did like the beginning of the book more than the ending, and the 'twists' at the end felt abrupt and a bit out of place, but overall I really enjoyed this and would happily read more from the same author.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Cannibalism

spaceteapot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, and Car accident

theatrix's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was a quick and engrossing and thought-provoking read, but also challenging, both due to the wide range of disturbing themes (there are many, but most are touched on pretty briefly), and due to the style, which doesn't baby you with explanations and trusts you to put pieces together yourself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

feebles640's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Forced institutionalization