krystalgaia's reviews
14 reviews

The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami

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funny lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-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

5.0

First, the blurb doesn’t do this book justice! I know blurbs are usually written by the marketing team, so I’m not going to include the blurb in my review (I never did for other books anyway). Just wanted to point that out because the romance in this novel is just, I dare say, a subplot. The story focuses more on Pablo’s coming-of-age journey and, although Lee is the biggest catalyst in his life, she’s not the only one. I honestly almost did not pick up this book because of the blurb, but I’m so happy I gave this a chance anyway!

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Think Norwegian Wood funnier, way way WAY more lighthearted, and also incredibly quiet. I read this as a character study of Pablo and by extension every person he’s meant to represent. Choi hit the nail in the head in showing us what it means to be lost in your early twenties and that sometimes, even adults don’t know where they’re headed, and that “life isn’t a destination” but an accumulation of regular events that teach us how to live.

The writing style is easily digestible, and its wordiness fits Pablo’s overthinking tendencies. This is also very detailed and Choi has done a great job building the world for non-New Yorker readers.

The plot was a little slow in the beginning because I expected them to meet right away on the first chapter (again, it was marketed as a romance book), but it slowly dawned on me that this is not about Pablo and Lee. It’s about Pablo with Lee. And I loved how everything led to the climax! It’s so believable and Choi’s specificity paid off.

Overall, five stars! 
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

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emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This novel is a page-turner! It made me want to sacrifice sleep just to get to the end, but I ironically procrastinated reading the last three chapters because I didn’t want this book to end.

The story is structured brilliantly. I loved how the past and present events are weaved in a way that both progressed and regressed their relationship, like two lines on a graph that slowly intersect and combine into one.

Poppy and Alex (as well as the other characters that come and go in their lives) have goals and desires, and it creates this constant tension that never gets resolved until the climax. Poppy is a very refreshing and funny character whose growth is relatable, and she just speaks to me (pun intended). Alex, on the other hand, is a complicated character who at first seems reliable but is a mess himself. It’s evident that their childhood experiences echoed in the way they made their choices as adults. Truly a great blueprint for creating characters!

The writing style is snappy and simple, but the imagery is still strong. I enjoyed the bickering as much as the introspection and dramatic scenes, and I went back-and-forth between laughing and crying. Every depicted emotion is well-timed and well-placed that it creates this natural flow of ease and tension.

But it wasn’t easy to give five stars. I noticed that there is a constant reminder of the “speaks to me” reference that it sort of annoyed me, but I guess it’s because I read it continuously for three days. And I love Alex’s character, I really do, but then it begs the question, “Why do male love interests have to be this tall and handsome hunk?” I can’t really fault Emily Henry for that; it’s more of an inquiry to the genre itself.

But again, I enjoyed the book, and its strengths overshadowed its flaws that it feels like a mistake to give this anything lower than five stars.
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

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challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Very reflective, introspective, and I very much enjoyed it. I have filled this book with a lot of paper flags -- that's my own way of knowing that I enjoyed a book.

I loved the writing style: how, regardless of where Charlie was on the intellectual spectrum, it remained true to itself, always straightforward and undecorated, which provokes thought in a way that words packaged in an excess of metaphors can never do. I also loved how everything looped back to how things were in the beginning — but somehow, simultaneously, worse.

It reminds me of a passage in A Little Life, which goes, "x will always be equal to x, no matter what he does." It's just amazing that these two novels, written more than fifty years apart, were able to reflect on the human experience in almost the same way, as if proving that the only other thing constant in the world aside from change is our humanity.

I couldn't give this a full five stars, because some parts were slow and repetitive that I was tempted to put this down for another book. But after the midpoint mark, things were well-paced again and the tension was handled with great care, but it was also after the midpoint mark that I saw how poorly portrayed Alice and Fay were. It was either a goddess or a manic pixie dream girl. Rose and Norma are debatable, though; their strengths and flaws are beyond the confines of gender.

I would've given this 4.9 stars, so I'll just leave the highest rating I can give on this site.

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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This book took me a long time to finish because, on top of me being busy, Vuong's words seem to be multilayered. I couldn't get past a page without annotating almost every other sentence. I think that's because he's trained in writing poetry, so he took his time in finding the right words and metaphor and imagery to put on paper, and as a reader, it's my job to strip it off until all that's left is its meaning, its core.

I enjoyed the writing style: a mix of essayistic, prosaic, and poetic. Very introspective, which is right up my alley. The way the whole story is a letter and is structured in vignettes made me feel like I was following Vuong's natural stream of consciousness, but I was never lost the way most stream-of-consciousness stories had made me feel.

The only thing that's keeping me from giving this a full five stars is the dialogue. There are parts, especially with Rose's and Lan's dialogue, that seemed more like Vuong's own voice rather than his mother's and grandmother's. This is noticeable on the first part, but as the book progressed, the dialogue became more natural to me.

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The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
This sounds unfair because I’ve only read two pages, but honestly it reads like badly written fanfiction. The way the opening scene was written (not just the writing style, but the characters’ interaction) was enough for me to drop the book.

And please, stop using fanfiction terms to sell a book. Tell me what it’s about. The blurb just gave me quick summaries about the main characters and their situation, but not what the story itself is about. Look at the blurbs of A Little Life, Kafka on the Shore, and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, and you’ll get an idea.
Memorial by Bryan Washington

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Easiest five stars I’ve ever given.

Everything about this book is quietly tender, quietly palming my cheeks like a bruise. It makes you think of what it means to love, to let go, and to change, and loving the fact that you have the option to let go and therefore change. Whether that’s for the better or worse, no one knows: what matters is there is always an option, a choice, and what’s more important is you choose and act on it.

Washington’s sentences were very clean and clear. He said a lot by not saying a lot. The dialogue was topnotch but this novel’s power lies in the quiet moments, the scenes where it seems like nothing is happening when, in fact, everything is happening. He doesn’t adorn his words and simply tells the story as it is.

As Ocean Vuong said it, “this book made me happy.”

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No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

No Longer Human is a difficult book to read. The story revolves around Yozo’s feelings of alienation which stemmed way back in childhood, and his attempts to reconcile on what it means to be a human being.

The tone is, as described in the blurb, devoid of sentimentality, which is something I have never read before. So when the narrator delivers a shocking event, the impact is doubly felt, to the point that I even had to take a break from reading this for a while.

My only concern is the translation. After reading both the novel and the translator’s introduction, it seems like much of Keene’s own writing style bled on the translated work.

Aside from that, I’d still recommend this book to anyone who’s in a reflective mood, and especially to those who enjoy Murakami.

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Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

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emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It’s quite difficult to review an “anthology” because the character & story arcs are not as fleshed-out as full-length novels, and most especially when there is only one story that resonated with you. Perhaps I lack the experience/empathy needed to relate with the other stories; but then, I think it’s also part of the author’s job to make us care for their characters.

The world where this novel was set was interesting though. The premise (“What would you do if you could go back in time?”) was definitely something that had been used over and over again in other novels, so I was interested in how Kawaguchi executed it differently. And although I’d give him full marks for worldbuilding and the world itself, I still wish there was something more to this novel, something that would keep me up at night.

As for the technical aspect, there were a lot of stage directions that became repetitive, and Kawaguchi was mostly telling and not showing. Though I’d cut him some slack here, since this is his debut novel, and it must have been difficult to transition from playwriting to prose writing.

Overall, this is a warm, lighthearted read that wouldn’t ruin your vacation.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I admire how interconnected every characters' decisions are. The characters are dynamic, the pacing was perfect, the subplots were resolved wonderfully, and the "clear and obvious" goal was reached satisfactorily — in other words, it made sense. Impeccable worldbuilding too: Austen took her time, so when I got to the midpoint, it was satisfying. And the climax? Beyond satisfying. The story structure was also very clear.

Austen plays around with words like how Elizabeth does: witty, clever, snappy. And although the Penguin Classics edition preserved the early 19th century language which Austen had used, it's still a fairly easy read for a modern reader—and English is my second language.

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