I will say the start was hard to get into. At first, there’s a lot of introductions with a lot of characters that is as surface level as detailed descriptions of their clothing, something that I found uncompelling. Between the first two stories I felt I was growing impatient from what I thought was a lot of information and dialogue I didn’t care to hear about. (Upon learning Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a playwright I don’t know I guess that makes sense?) But as we go between each chapter, we learn more about these characters and how meaningful time travel is. Even if it doesn’t change the present, for just a bit of time it can mean so much.

Overall I had a pleasant time. Not my favourite due to a rough start for me, but everything finally came together for me in a really heartwarming ending.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

An immersive, heart-felt, and gripping tale of a Korean family in Japan during the early 20th century that is seamless as we go character-to-character and generation-to-generation. I didn't know too much about this part of history but I'm glad that this book could act as an introduction. There's great power in putting a name and face to the kinds of trials and tribulations that Koreans surviving and existing within Japanese colonialism experienced.

I feel like it's never too good of an idea to rate a book so soon after reading it but I'm between a 4.75 and 5 because I wasn't as invested in the later characters as I was by the first generation.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

Detailed RTC. Effortlessly incredible and beautiful writing.

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

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emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

3.75

review to come

but sneak peek I thought I was going through a romance funk but now I think I'm entering my romance era

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

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funny hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

3.0

Such a sugary sweet romance between the son of female president of the United States and a prince from England. From reading the synopsis you already have the expectation that this could categorize as fantasy - but this far-fetched set-up adds to its charm.

This book's strongest asset: its characters. I was emotionally invested in everyone. In fact, in my ideal world, Casey McQuiston does a Bridgerton-series style situation (minus all that mess) and gives us a spin-off of every single character: June, Nora, Pez, Cash, Shaan, Amy (I'm listing everyone I can remember but notably minus the Royal Family). Alex has all the aspects I love for a main character; neurotic, emotionally dense (but that's why we love him), funny. There are few books labelled funny that I actually find funny but there were jokes that had me laughing out loud. All these scenes were so vivid in my mind, especially the montage where they're all out to karaoke to Queen.

I know I said this book's far-fetchedness added to its charm but the nature of writing about figures that have a long history of oppression and evil being painted in this kind of light felt off. I found myself rolling my eyes at how anti-colonialist the members of the Royal Family were and it felt... I can't describe it. Just the cynic in me with my personal biases.. but other than that it was a fun and fresh time.

Circe by Madeline Miller

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I'm familiar with the very basics of Circe's story so I didn't really know what to expect, but I truly loved it. I really loved Circe's character development - how she goes from someone who is waiting to be noticed to finding who she is on her own as a witch. I'm not very good at identifying bad writing vs good writing.. but this was GOOD writing. There were moments where it didn't really feel like reading for me. I took this book out at the library so there were so many times that I took pictures of the pages and marked them up on my phone - so many quotes/moments that are so beautiful.

I really liked this overarching idea questioning how valuable immortality is. Learning and exploring Greek mythology growing up, the gods being immortal was part of what made them so awesome and admirable. But Circe admires the fine lines that slowly form on humans, the scars and imperfections of mortals. And this perspective was developed so well, weaved in from the very moment Circe met Prometheus and began to wonder why he was willing to suffer for eternity for what he did for humans, to her curiosities about Daedalus and Odysseus, to the very end. I read this book like 2 weeks ago and just thinking of the ending again gave me CHILLS because it was so good.

~~OMG I'm so mad I forgot to leave a review a little sooner because these are the kinds of books where I want to document how I felt while and after reading.~~

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machuvicchu's reviews 89 reviews

machuvicchu's reviews
89 reviews