• all the lovers in the night
    • 4.4/5
    • this book was written so well (i’ll add quotes in the archive). the metaphor of light was so good throughout but it didn’t feel overused?? the thing that really stuck to me throughout this book was like the commentary on womanhood and how like. the main character was constantly like not able to trust the women around her, esp hijiri and kyoto felt fine like shitting on her for no reason except that she was essentially like sleeping around. which is already wow patriarchy double standard. and yah… womanhood is going through phases i guess,,, like phases of apparently here such paranoia that it leads to alcoholism, and then depression, and then some kind of inspiration and confidence? and rethinking your experiences after you finish them? it’s interesting to look at this book through the motif of light, which is like. it absorbs everything except what it reflects, except what we perceive, and idk the story seems to say that people are like that. there’s not really any absence of light except for when we don’t reflect anything ???? and it goes back to what hijiri was saying abojt how maybe we don’t have emotions at all, and maybe we’re just reflecting what other people do, but what do we do at “night”?! when there’s nothing to reflect..? interesting…
  • this other eden
    • 4.3/5
    • i'm a sucker for historical fiction so obviously loved this book's story, it kind of felt a little abrupt to me at times though like the story was kind of rushed a little bit at the end imo BUT i also think that might have been very purposeful because of how it feels like everything is like taken away in an instant yk?? very artistic writing too and the story was v sad,, i especially loved all of the descriptions of ethan honey's paintings
    • the only reason it isn't higher is bc i kind of got a little lost in the words at times??
aug 9 2023 ∞
aug 13 2023 +