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rdebner's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Racism
margaret_adams's review against another edition
Found on the small press prose shelf at Powell's. I keep picking up these collage-style hybrid books that are impossible to categorize and I'm really into them. A few pages in, thought, how have I not heard of Lily Hoang before? I don't want to miss whatever she publishes next.
beccas_books's review against another edition
4.0
I need to be better about reading things that are poetry or nontraditional prose. I read it really fast, but I should go back and savor more. I really liked this book, and I look forward to rereading passages later.
ayesha1816's review against another edition
2.25
This tried very hard to be In the Dream House but didn’t succeed. That might be unfair as this was probably conceptualized before its publication but it just pales in comparison.
It also tries very hard to warrant a place on my “magical atmosphere” tag but isn’t quite up to snuff.
It also tries very hard to warrant a place on my “magical atmosphere” tag but isn’t quite up to snuff.
mraible18's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely one of the most gorgeous books I have ever read in my life! I'm going to recommend reading this to everyone I know now!
amphitritemists's review against another edition
4.0
This is one of those artsy books that i would love if i wasnt expected to analyze it for class.
meganmilks's review against another edition
5.0
Gobbled this up on the plane ride home from AWP. Lily! So good.
chef_remily's review against another edition
4.0
This book was pretty different from what I usually read, but I really enjoyed the style and fragmentation. It felt so honest and true throughout, and I definitely related to some of the sentiments the author was struggling with (asian-ness, womanhood, and how they intersect specifically). It made me upset at times and I was for sure invested in the memoir-y bits of it. I liked this book a lot! Glad I picked it up.
hannahvwarren's review against another edition
5.0
In A Bestiary, Hoang meditates on the fairy tale and all the ways in which we confuse the mimetic with the non-mimetic, the real with the irreal. This collection of essays lies at the intersection of identity politics, grief, childhood and adult trauma, and tenderness in relationships.
"Stability, I learned, is necessitated by fear."
"Stability, I learned, is necessitated by fear."