emergencily's reviews
97 reviews

4.0

4.5

anthology of short stories from different authors writing about their relationships with their mothers
the things we shouldn't have said,the things left unsaid, and all the remnants of a shattered relationship in between
the eerie, self-actualizing moment of growth in a child's life where they understand their mother not as someone formed of their perceptions of her, but a person all in her own -- and the ensuing fallout of that new knowledge
there's like 2 or 3 stories that are weak or stylistically don't mesh with the collection as a whole, but most of them are really well written, emotional, insightful, vulnerable pieces
a few of them were so good and hit so close to home that it would bring me to tears multiple times in the span of a 30 page short story
I also love the diversity of the stories. each author comes from such a different context and has such a different outlook, but there's universal core themes in each of love, recovery, and forgiveness

4.25

it discusses and explains a variety of issues such as police brutality, the war on drugs, the school to prison pipeline, the criminalization of sex work etc.
it breaks down the history of the police and its current role in various social issues today, explains our current responses and systems for dealing with these issues, explains why they're ineffective and actively harmful, explains why modern reforms have been equally ineffective, and then names alternatives to policing & carceral responses, and gives evidence for how and why they work better

4.0

revolves around the inner lives of 5 women in Seoul who are all connected but occupy different social strata (e.g. artist, club hostess, single mother)
its class analysis is more interesting/thoughtful than its analysis of beauty standards, and I wish it had expanded more on the themes of trauma & "Han" -- a kind of collective cultural grief, resentment or anger & Korean cultural identity -- in some characters' stories
each character's story still had me hooked trying to find out what happens next even after it ended
although 1 or 2 characters felt like they didn't get a proper resolution, it was still worth it to get to know a really interesting, likable cast, to see them survive & beat back repressive social systems in their own small ways, and for a hopeful ending that brings all the women together in solidarity

5.0

a masterpiece and seminal work in magical realism
epic, multigenerational tragedy following generations of a family line and its sprawling family network

4.0

Very sweet read and not too long of a novel
About a woman whose father commits suicide in a pact with another woman he was having an affair with
Focuses on her grief, her healing and her relationship with her mother
Its also a love letter to the location it's set in, a neighbourhood in Tokyo that's today slowly being gentrified. I've been to Shimokita myself and it's a charming neighbourhood but definitely see the effects of that gentrification
The book's focus on the beauty in small everyday moments and routines is really lovely and refreshing
Gets too heavy handed near the end and feels like it's beating you over the head preaching trite bits of life wisdom at you (maybe it suffers from the translation?), but it's overall a sweet feel good novel about grief and recovery and growing up
I liked the bits of magical realism that the presence of the ghosts brings to the book

4.0

interrogation of racial micoaggressions and the part they play in systematic racism

4.5

super informative and well-researched, and always grounded in personal accounts & lived experiences
tells a needed Canadian perspective and side

5.0

4.0