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This was an impressive debut novel. Creepy and just the right amount of head scratching WTF moments. This is a book where the past and present collide In Vietnam when a young Vietnamese American woman moves to Saigon and stirs up some ghosts.

#12Booksof2022

#12booksof2022
Although I read 2 splendid novellas in May that I'd highly rec (L. Hunt's In the House in the Dark of the Woods & S. Nunez's The Friend), Violet Kupersmith's disorienting strange tale of a Vietnamese American teacher who disappears is the one that sticks with me. There are a lot of seemingly disconnected, disquieting sections but they came together in the end & formed a splendid macabre tapestry. Loved it.
@andrew65

I really want to like this book, but it's taking me forever to get through. Like 20-30 pages per day. It jumps around between so many different timelines, and whenever it leaves one I'm thinking ok, that's enough for now. I don't know if it's just the wrong time for me to read it. It's interesting, but I'm 200 pages in and I'm still not sure what's going on or even if what I'm reading is a ghost story or magical realism, or what.

A slow burn but worth the effort. Quite weird with supernatural, horror and folklore elements which I really like. I found this addictive once I really got into it 3.5 ⭐️

This weeks reading plans. The tagged book is from the library so I shall be reading that first. Already started Burmese Days and folk tales. Giovannis room is a buddy read which we will be reading a chapter a day

It was a tad long, but then I‘d be hard pressed to know what to cut. I can see the comparisons to David Mitchell‘s Ghostwritten. This book is a puzzle for the reader to put together with its time jumps and seemingly unconnected storylines. A supernatural tale of revenge set in modern day Vietnam with flashbacks to its colonial history, it also reminded me favorably of Hari Kunzru‘s White Tears.

1st completed #20in4 End Of Summer book

This complex, polyphonic & nonlinear novel is a slow burn, mildly creepy, & greatly addictive. A lonely unmoored Vietnamese American English teacher goes missing in Saigon. Past & present overlap in multiple timelines. Women on society‘s margins are the focus, & how they deal with misogyny. Queer content; supernatural possession; snake venom as recreational drug: there‘s something for everyone who appreciates a puzzle. Audiobook read by Quyen Ngo.

She hated the old drain, hated how it was always clogging, hated that every morning she had to twirl soggy bungs of coiled hair out of it like forkfuls of spaghetti. […] She did not know how her hair could wreak the kind of plumbing havoc that it did, now that it was so short.

This was not what I expected but still good! The jumpy timeline confused me quite a bit. This may be a great read for people who generally like the supernatural and was definitely unique.

What a wild, magical realism ride set in Vietnam! It took a little to warm up, but then everything grows beautifully strange.

I was confused at first because the chapters were not sequential and the three sets of characters took time for their stories to braid together. However, once the fantasy (ghosts, fortune tellers, powerful creatures) took over, this was an amazing read!

3 out of 5

The best thing about this book is its cover. The worst is a combination of indifferent characters, a mixture of chaotic timelines, and a “plot” that does nothing but irritate.

Definitely a favorite! 💚

What starts as a book about a girl's disappearance quickly becomes something much different. The non-linear chapters kept me on my toes, my curiosity growing with each new section wondering how it would all come together.

I'm a fan of strange books that leave me feeling unsettled and this book does that and also delivers a uniquely amazing story.

In a scene wholly original, yet calling to mind E.A. Poe in the best possible way, Vietnamese American teacher Winnie disappears at the beginning of Kupersmith's novel. The novel then proceeds in non-linear chapters filled with disquieting incidents & characters who reappear in later chapters but aren't instantaneously recognizable (they themselves disappear in a sense). The chapters & characters initially appear unconnected, but Kupersmith ties👇

Well, I finally finished a book 📚🤘 I actually focused all day & finished 2 of my 3 current reads today. Will post reviews of them tomorrow. One of them is one of the best that I've read this year. 💙

I'm only 80 pages in, but I'm really liking this one. So far I agree with Karen Joy Fowler's quote about it being original and disturbing.

Winnie moves to Saigon to teach. She feels an invisible outsider and then she disappears. Winnie‘s story is told in a fragmented timeline interspersed with the stories of numerous others which slowly come together. There is lots of vomit and, erm, hair. There are snakes, ghosts and mysterious smoke. It can be unsettling and unpleasant, and at times it veers into horror. Overall it wasn‘t for me, but was very clever 👇

Half way through this and it‘s an unexpected and highly original journey!

I like novels like Homecoming that jump around in voice and time to form a coherent polyphonic picture. This was like that but with less of a sense of how the jumps were connected until the (hurried) ending. I was very much here for the horror and folklore. Any time there‘s a two headed cobra, count me in! This is five for me from the #womensprize longlist; so far they‘ve all had something special about them.

Original, strange, kind of creepy. The story jumps around to different timelines with different POVs, but it all fits together in a very satisfying way.

My eighth read from the #womensprize longlist. I think this is one of those books where my appreciation will grow the more I think about it. Would probably make a good book club pick. I‘d like to see it on the shortlist.

Another longlisted book for the Women's Price and another one I enjoyed. Set in Vietnam in different decades, where two women disappear. It has ghosts and supernatural things going on.

This was a wild read, and I didn‘t understand some of it (probably my fault for being a speed-reader) but I still enjoyed it for the most part.

It‘s a strange mix of mystery, fantasy and horror that jumps around in time, and to many different locations, including a zoo, the jungle, a language school and a nightclub. Whilst it‘s not one of my favourite reads from the #womensprize long list, I can see it making the shortlist.

Fell in love with the cover. Was mislead by the cover. Too many times I was sick to my stomach by the food or hair. It was YUCK!!! interesting concept - revengeful ghosts within Vietnamese folklore.

Blurbers on my copy contrast with the new edition images online: interesting!

Great novel, recommended if you like historical fiction, supernatural mysteries and cross-cultural encounters.
I hope it gets shortlisted.

#WomensPrize #2022Longlist

What made it so sweet was its unsustainability. They were teetering on the edge: the Worm was knocking on the door, Tan was going to explode if he didn't start eating vegetables again soon, and any day now, Binh would catch her final snake and he would have to tell her the truth. But he wished it could stay like this forever, always seven cobras in the barrels and a little more time before he had to ruin everything.

...they watched the evening's regular lineup of street performers: first there was the man with an amplifier strapped to the back of his bicycle who sang ballads and circulated through the crowds with a fistful of stale candies for sale; then the pair of fire breathers...armed with old Sprite bottles full of kerosene; and finally the man who took a live snake [and] fed it up one of his nostrils, and then pulled it back out of his mouth.

...he was the one who had to chase after sacrificial chickens when they escaped, drag heavy teak furniture into arrangements the Fortune Teller deemed more pleasing to the spirits, and revive old women with eucalyptus oil when they fainted during exorcisms. He was the one sent outside to burn joss paper during a monsoon, crouching damp and miserable beneath a rusty umbrella while, inside, First Assistant...pretended to chat with the dead.

#bookmail A couple more from the Women‘s Prize longlist. I need to get reading!

What a fun ride! Absolutely loved this book. Great for readers who don‘t mind a slow read and doing a little bit of work, figuring out the puzzle and putting the pieces together.

Full review here: https://bit.ly/3dxmip7

Not a great reading month, especially considering three of my finished books were audio BUT I‘m enjoying the gorgeous weather; camping, kayaking and hiking! Got to get it in before the weather gets too cold. 🚣‍♂️🥾🏕

Really enjoyed this novel set in Vietnam with alternating POV, imperfect characters, hints of mysticism. Oh, and snakes 😩

This was a fun and strange book, for sure. It‘s a slow-burn kinda read (my favorite) about a 1/2 Vietnamese, American who goes to Saigon to get away from her family and/or find herself. The book goes back and forth in time as the story and characters slowly reveal themselves and how they interconnect about two girls who go missing decades apart. Throw in the supernatural, Vietnamese Folklore and snakes and you‘re in for an interesting ride!

My next book has a list of characters AND 3 maps! 😳

This was great. It's hard to explain, but it's summed up in the inside cover as part mystery, part ghost story, part revenge story. The main mystery happens in modern Vietnam, and then it goes back and forward in time, through periods in Vietnam's history, mixing in some folklore and more mysteries, until we find out what happened. Really well written, and I found it very compelling.

I think I'm hooked on this one already - love that feeling when you get sucked straight in. Excited to see where it goes. Stunning cover too.

WTF did I just read? The cover looks like a family drama/LitFic kind of thing that I would never pick up. The flap calls it “part puzzle, part revenge tale, part ghost story”. The reality is a fever dream of a horror novel and I loved every freaking minute of it! THIS is the novel I wish I‘d read for #readingasia2021 #vietnam The prose is a little overdone, like the author is trying too hard to “show, not tell” but it lulls you into the sights 1/

One of my local indies has a monthly subscription service which I just joined. The first book arrived today. This looks really good. I may be shifting my July reading plans around a bit! 😍

Much deeper and thought-provoking though than what I had imagined. It's also quite creepy, with some chapters deserving a horror label for the genre. I appreciated how it all came together in the end. Many clues and "a-ha" moments occur throughout the book but the ending still was a mystery to me until the last few pages. With important themes including feminism and colonialism, I can tell this is a book I'll be thinking about for a long time.

#BOOKSPIN #BOOKSPINBINGO round up for June!
Good month for me! Got to both my #bookspin and #doublebookspin - Liked on a lot, not so much the other. And yesterday I finished tagged to make 3 bingos this month (so, so close to 4!)
Thanks @thearomaofbooks so excited for July's fresh board and more off my TBR!

I really enjoyed this one. It is a bit confusing at times but if you just roll with it it is so worth it. Very much a Stranglings read.
Ghosts, hauntings, myth, mystery, and a cast of flawed characters.
Love the title, and the cover. This is an arc and the translation is a bit rough, but I am sure it will be cleaned up before release.

Excessive heat warning today for the PNW. We are not set up for this, we should still be having rainy grey days and this makes me anxious about fire season.
Staying in the house, curtains drawn, grateful that I ended up with the only house I viewed this winter with A/C

June reading.