mahiyaa's reviews
51 reviews

challenging emotional tense 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

i've never read a book that encapsulates what it means to heal as much as this one. healing is painful, and hard, and saddening, and it will never truly stop hurting, but you will be happier for it. so much to say here about motherhood and regret and the cyclical nature of generational abuse—what are we if not the echoes of the ghosts among us?—but sometimes those echoes culminate in a song truly beautiful.

i don't know. reading this has made me absolutely incoherent (in the best way). i think if you've ever had to heal a relationship with a family member the same way misaki has, with either a parent or spouse, this one will hurt different. i know it did for me. healing is an ugly, gruesome thing. and i'm glad this book did it justice.

Content Warnings

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint by sing N song

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

the fact that i cannot read this in its original korean or a translation that does it justice (yet) is a crime against humanity. HOWEVER. i cried nonetheless.

love is stored in the reader who laughs and cries and breathes in a world they know cannot have.

love is stored in the author who cannot help but give life and death and misery and hope to its characters in the attempt to reach someone else.

love is stored in the protagonist who bleeds and stumbles and lives and lives and lives.

i love you

kim dokja's company. and i will keep loving you forever and always, so you can live your epilogue happily.

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

i support women's rights but more importantly i support women's wrongs. and their godgiven right to crush on buff women and supervillain cyborgs. (cough,

vesper and leviathan

, anna has two hands, cough)

shoutout to all the people who watched avengers civil war and thought, wait, why is having a bunch of property-damaging self-proclaimed good guys being held accountable by an international court of law a bad thing. this one's for us!

Content Warnings

China Under Mao: A Revolution Derailed by Andrew G. Walder

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4.0

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

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adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

this is classic sci-fi: welcome to quantum theory 101 and the crippling paradoxical philosophy we as human beings have about the morality of life. what else can ya hope for?

scientifically, other than

the 11 dimension proton folding and quantum entanglement being used for data transfer

, the scientific theory in this book was so entwined with reality i was on the edge of my seat the whole time. truly, cixin liu has such a deep personal interest in these subjects and it shows!

philosophically: it is only humanity that can look at the stars with so much hope and wonder and awe that we forget that we are also starstuff—we are also part of the universe, for better and for worse. liu's work is a great reminder of this. we are also part of the great nothing, and that includes our wars, our prejudice, our love, our empathy, our shrewdness. all of it.

Speaking Bones by Ken Liu

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adventurous challenging reflective tense 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

5.0

a wile goose flies over a pond,
leaving behind a voice in the wind.
a man passes through this world,
leaving behind a name.

ken liu is an artist. the world of dara and ukyu-gondé is a realm i cannot leave behind or forget, and i have lived and breathed thousands of pages alongside his characters. i've loved lots of stories—but not all of them have their own life in them. this one does.

The Veiled Throne by Ken Liu

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adventurous challenging reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

i love ken liu but i also stopped reading for like a week after

thera and takval were betrayed

. yes, i am biased and play favorites. no, i am not ashamed of it.

this series has so many characters, each with their own political views, that it's kind of impossible to not play favorites. but liu is so good at making sure that each character's motivations are explained and given so much heart that even if you don't agree with them, you understand where they're coming from. and that makes this series so enjoyable.

(except

cutanrovo

all my homies hate

cutanrovo

The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu

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adventurous tense medium-paced