A review by 0100
The Border of Paradise by Esmé Weijun Wang

3.5

first: called it that marty is gay i'm always right

anyway. no idea what to think about this book. i picked it up because i read esmé weijun wang's greywolf press nonfiction prize-winning essay collection about schizophrenia last year (shoutout to yas!) and it was an immediate 5 stars, then learned she'd written a novel. her prose is gorgeous. 

this novel is so bleak. daisy and william vs gillian's actions as a whole feel a little racist because daisy and william are the only poc in this book but weijun wang is also taiwanese so i'm going to give her the benefit the doubt. beyond that: jesus. obvious tws for incest and suicide, as well as self harm and racism.

kind of reminded me of 100 years of solitude, in its messages of isolation and cycles/repetition. this feels much more bleak/hopeless/etc than 100 years of solitude did, though.