Reviews

Portable Curiosities, by Julie Koh

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sarahreincastle's review

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dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

smblanc1793's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

‘The reviewer said my fiction is bland,’ I tell him. ‘I think it’s a typo. I think he meant to type “wild”.’

“Wild/Bland” is an observation Koh makes of her own writing through her signature tongue-and-cheek, autofictional lens, and it could not be more true. Her self awareness—in this comment as well as the rest of the collection—is perhaps the most striking element tying the stories together. Her willingness to be weird while being simultaneously straightforward leaves the oddities of her stories flagrantly exposed; she does not hide behind prose. She does not shy away from satire that’s both flagrantly ridiculous and painfully (accurately) on the nose. She is not subtle, but she is good. I have to imagine this book is not for everyone—at some points it wasn’t even for me—but I cannot help but respect her the way she leaves the messy meanderings of her wonderfully imaginative mind out for all the world to see.