The exposition is extremely heavy, and the plot lagged a lot. I liked the concept of the setting—a sort of steampunk boarding school. But I didn’t like how the world building was done. It was a bunch of info dumps through dialogue from classes, which felt lazy and like reading a history lesson. Which is fitting of the boarding school setting, but the author could’ve mixed in different ways to establish their setting.

I also didn’t get the point of Marta, who was an extremely frustrating character. She’s a in-between type, her racism and classicism not as overt as the boys who bully Anequs and Theod, which also serves in part of the critique against colonialism. But I didn’t get why she was constantly latching onto the friend group and still sitting with them at lunch when her bigotry still didn’t improve much over the course of the book. I would’ve enjoyed it more if she wasn’t included into the friend group, though it seems like there’s possible hints of romance between her and Sander.

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

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adventurous slow-paced

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

2.75

Changes to the original story depiction only serve a shallow ‘girlboss’ narrative. The feminism presented is heavy-handed and shallow, with Kaikeyi hailed as a warrior queen since being a good female fighter automatically makes it ‘feminist’ with patriarchy to blame for everything, with Kaikeyi being absolved of her original villainous intent.

The characters fall flat and are mere archetypes. It seems a narrow take on the original story, painting Kaikeyi as a generic fantasy feminist girlboss with every other character meant to be misogynist. And in this version, she’s dismissive of more traditionally feminine arts like painting and embroidery. Never mind that the ‘softer’ arts have just as much merit as fighting.

Ravana also kidnapped Sita in the original tale and yet this is ignored since the author changed him to be a good friend to Kaikeyi who only wants to protect his daughter. This reframing seems rather harmful. Overall, the story should've been treated with more nuance.

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

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informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

All the Yellow Suns by Malavika Kannan

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adventurous emotional inspiring tense fast-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

3.5

The writing and portrayal of themes came off as heavy-handed. Critiques were very on-the-nose. I did like the nuances in the story and how Juneau’s whiteness and subsequent privilege leads to consequences and risks for the other POC in their missions for protest and how it’s addressed within the narrative.

I would’ve liked more build-up with Juneau’s actions, like her behavior growing more out-of-control leading up to her stealing Squash’s car, and how her spiraling is received by the rest of the Pugilists. It felt like the group just got sidelined afterwards, with the exception of Mateo and Pat, despite the importance placed on activism.

I wish there were more forms of protest in the story, not just ones that are law-breaking. It would’ve been nice to see the other Pugilists participate in like gun rallies or painting signs after Juneau leaves Citrus Grove. Or like having Maya channel her abilities into starting a student art exhibition for activism in the epilogue. I also wished Maya confronted Mateo for outing her and Juneau after the running away arc. He’s just not mentioned afterwards and there’s no closure regarding it.

The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh

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hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It’s similar to Crazy Rich Asians in how campy and over-the-top it is. It started off as an entertaining read, but the constant pettiness and fighting and woman hate for tiring fast. The constant tearing each other down quickly got old. It felt like there were too many characters to keep track of, and it would’ve been better to have a limited but more fleshed-out cast.

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I was praying on the two husbands’ downfalls, that they’d somehow get their comeuppance in the end. The ending left me disappointed.

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puglord's reviews 177 reviews

puglord's reviews
177 reviews