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juliaureads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Addiction, Bullying, and Colonisation
thehighshelf's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Racial slurs and Xenophobia
Minor: Addiction
tiny_comforts's review against another edition
- 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
Ingrid's character arc was so satisfying to read through, especially with her self-reflection and her relationships with the people around her! The ending felt so satisfying, and the way her character was written definitely made me care for her.
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, and Cultural appropriation
bites_of_books's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
5.0
Ingrid is a young PhD student on track to become someone in academia, if only she could figure out how to finish her dissertation. The character development that she goes through is impeccable and all the other supporting characters provide great contrast, add complexity, and kept the story moving at a fast pace.
A great novel that I'd highly recommend if you're at all interested in the ways that academia has and continues to profit off of POC students and cultures. Also, if you just want a story that is character driven with complex character development!
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Classism, and Deportation
secunda's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Violence, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Religious bigotry
sissizc's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Racism, and Gaslighting
Minor: Vomit
frankiedoodle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book had a lot to say about identity, academia, and the way that White Supremacy subconsciously infiltrates all of our senses of self, but I didn't feel super trusted as a reader to pick up on that message. Most of this book's more thoughtful points get delivered through lectures and op-ed style blocks of text (sometimes literally coming in the form of op-ed articles written by one of the academic characters), and it made the pacing drag quite a bit. I appreciated and even learned a lot from the points this book had to make, I just wished that maybe we had gotten the chance to find our way to those points through the plot, been shown more and told less.
Every single character in this book fits neatly and completely into a trope. I couldn't decide whether I liked that or not, honestly. I think it was an intentional choice...Disorientation reads as parody, it exists in a world where, by the end, everyone has dropped any inhibition or pretense. Everyone is always at every turn saying the quiet part out loud. On the other hand, existing in the head of an unreliable narrator who's doing outrageous things gets a little less enjoyable when NOBODY in this literary universe is any more reliable or any less outrageous. I guess I was just expecting a little more grounding and had to work to suspend my disbelief as I caught up with what kind of book this was going to be.
Ingrid's visceral journey to find herself and her voice was evocative and fulfilling, and I think will likely hold a lot of validation for AAPI individuals or those in academia. It might have been a little bit on the nose about it all, but overall I found it a very ambitious and creative undertaking and I enjoyed it.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Racism, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Sexual assault
goldencages's review against another edition
- 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
trigger warnings: gaslighting, pill addiction, cultural appropriation, externalised and internalised racism
You know you have a good book in your hands when you want to recommend it to everyone. A bit over a month now after reading it, I still feel that it is one of my most impactful reads of this year. If I had more time, I'd have written an essay about it but alas, I'll keep this to a short but hopefully still helpful review. Disorientation is a book about Chinese American PhD student Ingrid, a major of East Asian Studies who hasn't been able to finish her thesis about the works of a (fictional) famous Chinese-American poet for years. One day, however, she makes a shocking finding – one that sets her off to question everything about her life: the purpose of her thesis, her fellow students, her mentors and supervisors, her boyfriend, her best friend, and most of all herself. Who is she and who is she on the way of becoming? Who does she want to be and what does it mean to be Asian-American? Who gets to say what Asian-American means and who gets to represent it?
Now, this description may sound vague and maybe even a bit basic. However, the real gem of this book is its writing style. Ingrid's spiral into madness is written as a satire, rendering it both darkly funny yet also furiously on-point as a reflection of our unjust society.
All the while, Ingrid is not a perfect human being (nor are any of the other characters for the matter): she is written as flawed, self-righteous, insecure, conflicted, and cowardly yet also impulsive, which made her perfect main character material for me. In that sense, Disorientation is an excellent Bildungsroman that doesn't shy away from the (hypo)critical and difficult aspects of being part of an Asian diaspora - aspects that we may also have exhibited or performed ourselves but may have always felt somewhat reluctant or shameful to confront and reflect – at the same time that it takes us on the mad but also hopeful journey of Ingrid's slow but sure enlightening, a journey I highly recommend to everyone taking.
Graphic: Racism and Cultural appropriation
Moderate: Addiction and Gaslighting
flowchelle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, and Dysphoria
luna_bear's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Violence and Murder