#2022 reads
MENTAL ILLNESS, ACTIVATE!
Title: Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head
Author: Warsan Shire
Publication Date: March 2022
Publisher: Random House Trade
Genre: poetry
I was excited when I heard that Warsan Shire was publishing a new collection of poems. I enjoyed Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth and the themes that she covered. Not surprisingly, the themes that came up in her new collection were just as thought-provoking and haunting, exploring girlhood/womanhood, borders (both personal and political), faith, among others.
That said, something about these poems didn’t quite land the same way that her earlier poems did. The poems didn’t read as cohesive as a whole and, even within their sections, seemed a little scattered.
What I do love about Shire’s writing is how multisensorial her poems are, making for a unique experience any time you read anything by her. This was certainly the case in this collection, even if the poems didn’t have the same impact as her previous works did.
Some favorites: “Home,” “Bless Your Ugly Daughter,” “My Father, the Astronaut,” “Bless Our CCTV Star,” “Bless the Moon,” “Bless This House”
Content Warning: child abuse; rape; sexual assault; death; racism; violence; xenophobia; mentions of war, eating disorder, and suicide
Title: Heaven
Author:Mieko Kawakami
Translators: Sam Bett and David Boyd
Publication Date: September 2009 (original), May 2021 (translation)
Publisher: Europa Editions
Genre: fiction
Not that you can ever be in the right mindset to read about violent bullying, but I couldn’t get into the deeper themes of power and (self-)perception that Kawakami had woven into the story. She uses bullying as the tool to get those points across, and frankly, it was a bit gratuitous at times.
I also felt the story itself didn’t quite come together in a way that would hold your attention, most likely because I was taken aback by the sheer amount of bullying that was happening across the pages. However, even without the exorbitant amount of bullying, the story felt a bit disconnected. I can’t quite tell if this is a translation issue (which I don’t think it is, because Breasts and Eggs was fine) or what, but I felt something was missing. There was also that ending that I had mixed feelings about that kind of lean towards negative.
Kawakami still writes with a distinct voice and does an amazing job with imagery (well, maybe for worse in this case…) that I think makes her stories worth reading. However, I wasn’t as invested in Heaven as I was in Breasts and Eggs.
Content Warning: bullying, violence, suicide/suicidal thoughts, eating disorder, physical and emotional abuse, ableism, body shaming
Title:If We Were Villains
Author: M.L. Rio
Publication Date: April 2017
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Genre: fiction, mystery
I think this is a good book when it comes to upholding a particular theme. The overall presentation of the story was cleverly done with the decision to split it into five acts to throw the reader deep into the world of drama. Rio does a wonderful job weaving in appropriate Shakespearean references wherever possible (including this whole five-act structure), and it’s definitely an Easter egg hunt of sorts for anyone who loves the Bard or has significant familiarity with his oeuvre. That said, all this referencing is a double-edged sword, and I think it thwarted any chance of me loving the plot and characters.
The characters were playing Shakespearean archetypes, which is, interestingly enough, also acknowledged in the book with the protagonist, Oliver, mentioning the typecasting of his friend group. On the one hand, major kudos to the author for staying this faithful to the Bard. On the other hand, I think the characters didn’t have much dimension because they were too busy sticking to their respective roles, for better or for worse. Something I found particularly grating was the incessant quoting of Shakespeare. Again, double-edged sword. You get to make some incredible references, but you also end up with a group of melodramatic college students who can also be insufferable. That said, I felt horrible for the female characters, only because I thought they were so unfairly treated by other characters and, in a way, by the author as well. They were also far less developed than the male characters. I actually have more opinions about the characters, but that could easily turn into an essay. Let’s just say that they’re not… positive comments.
As for the plot, I was immediately drawn in by the end of the first act. And, again, I commend Rio for staying faithful to how Shakespeare approached his plays from the five-act structure and when certain characters (dis)appeared. However, the story started getting really predictable after the murder, and I found that I had already figured everything out by the time I reached the end. In other words, I got bored. I found that by the time I hit the end of Act III, I just wanted to jump to the end and be done with it. There were a few plot holes that I noticed, but I admittedly didn’t care enough to get riled up by it.
I think If We Were Villainshada lot of promise. Rio clearly seized the opportunity to flex her Shakespearean knowledge, and it’s damn incredible. However, there were a lot of flaws—especially with the characters—that made this book a frustrating read. If you’re looking for melodrama for the sake of melodrama, then this book might be up your alley. If you’re hoping to get something more nuanced and mysterious, though, this book might be a hit-or-miss, depending on what it is you like. Unfortunately, this book was a miss for me.
Content Warning: death, murder, eating disorder mentions, drug/alcohol use, suicide, homophobic comments, blood, physical/emotional abuse, slut-shaming
Note: I won a copy of If We Were Villains in a Goodreads giveaway.
starting on earth we’re briefly gorgeous and im sooooo excited!
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 065
Greenglass House by Kate Milford
“Nobody said it had to be a story with an ending all neatly tied up like some ridiculous fairy tale. This story’s true, and true stories don’t have endings, because things just keep going.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 064
In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
“It was all so clear now, so terrifyingly obvious. I was the villain; I always had been. It explained everything—why I’d never gotten what I wanted, no matter how hard I’d tried. It wasn’t because life was unfair, or not working the way it should. I’d had it backwards my whole life: I wasn’t the princess, set upon by misfortune; I was the witch.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 063
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
“I make a story for my life, for each step my brown shoe takes.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 062
Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood
“Even though i pushed him away over and over, he still came in a rocking boat in the middle of the coldest ocean on planet earth just to get me warm.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 061
The Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmon
“If you want people to change, you have to show them what it looks like.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 060
The Night Shift by Alex Finlay
“Here’s the thing. It’s kind of a big coincidence, don’t you agree? That you were researching that case and then happened to be involved in a similar attack.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 059
Siren Queen By Nghi Vo
“I’d like to see more monsters.“
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 058
Euphoria by Lily King
“Despite everything, I believed somehow there was time. Love’s first mistake. Perhaps love’s only mistake.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 057
Malice by Keigo Higashino
“Everyone has secrets. And everyone has the right to keep them. Even if they’re dead.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 056
Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik
“Why were the attractive ones always criminals?”
Books I’ve Read in 2022 no. 055
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
“Trees are never lonely. Humans think they know with certainty where their being ends and someone else’s starts. With their roots tangled and caught up underground, linked to fungi and bacteria, trees harbour no such illusions. For us, everything is interconnected.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 054
A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft
“If he can convince her of one thing in his life, let it be this: A life beyond that house, beyond all the ghosts that haunt it, is a dream worth believing in. One worth trying for.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 053
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
“She wonders how much space a person has left in her soul to change herself, once she gets older. What people does she still have to meet, what will they see in her, and what will they make her see in herself?”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 052
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
“We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 050
The Unknown Beloved by Amy Harmon
“The truth is, the harder we are, the easier we shatter. It takes some softness to absorb life’s blows.”
books I’ve read in 2022 no. 049
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
“And he paused, in the space between inhalation and exhalation, and invited the magic in.”
