book i read in 2023 q2
May. 4th, 2023 02:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhodochrositeyes i am aware we are not even halfway through q2 but i do not really foresee myself reading anything else over the next 2 months or so, i'm in an illiteracy mood again. not really sure what has been happening to my spare time as I haven’t been reading but I also haven’t been watching anything other than magical girl lyrical nanoha over the past couple days or cultivating any hobbies so I guess I must have just spent all that time staring at walls or something.
anyway i only read one (1) book but it was good and i liked it so i wanted to post about it now:
if you could see the sun – ann liang
FINALLY SOME GOOD FUCKING FOOD!!!!!!!!!!! My friend rhonnie recced this to me on the premise that it might not be good but it is extremely baitful. and she was 100% correct this was the most fun reading experience I’ve had for a longggg time and full of delicious tropes that I love AND that are executed beautifully. Chinese international school academic enemyrivals (she thinks they’re legit bitter enemies engaged in a miserable battle to death, he thinks they’re rivals having a fun sporting competition for mutual self-improvement) to business partners (!!!!!!) to lovers And there were superpowers too I LOVE YOU. SO MUCH. This book is the textual personification of the song I won’t say (I’m in love) from Hercules. I seriously cannot express how happy I am to experience a satisfying het enemies ship after the incredible disappointment that was chloe gong’s historical shanghai romijuli series.
The ship dynamic reminded me of my beloved night world hets I was rolling around kicking my feet grinning every second page… emotionphobic heroine so focused on working towards her internal ambitions that she is completely oblivious to the fact that her arch nemesis is actually totally in love with her and that she is also in love with him. When alice first starts getting her involuntary invisibility problem and she turns to henry for help first AHHHHHHH and then when she sees he has a photo of the two of them getting an award tacked up on his wall in his dorm room (OBVIOUSLY BECAUSE HE LIKES HER) and she’s just like wow… he hates me so much he keeps a photo of me in view to remind him of his haterism every day… AHHHHHHHHHHH. YOURE DOING FLIPS READ OUR LIPS YOURE IN LOVE!!!!!
Like alice is constantly thinking about henry and how handsome and smart he is and how much she hates that everything is so effortless for him when she is busting her ass to stay afloat bc she’s a scholarship girlie and she cares a lot about her study machine top of the class image and she has 50000000 neuroses and complexes and issues to deal with on top of the financial pressure. So really she cannot be blamed for not interrogating the precise tenor of her feelings about henry further. I love her she is so real and her constant cost/benefit ethical slippery slope analysis is also so real. I do wish alice had fully gotten away with her crimes because I really think she deserved to have this one thing go her way and she slayed for immediately capitalising on her uncontrollable invisibility bouts for black market profits, though I understand why she had to face consequences for her actions for systemic reasons even though I SUPPORT WOMEN’S WRONGS. Society is so cruel to girlbosses with entrepreneurial spirit 😔 I also think it’s funny that any like Kidnapping Is Bad moral of the story is hamstrung by the fact that she and henry and chanel basically blackmailed their way into officially getting alice off the hook.
Henry is a really good love interest as he ticks all of the boxes (cool, handsome, charming, confident verging on arrogant, future ceo, outwardly perfect, completely in love with alice even though she is unaware of this, unintentionally ruined alice’s life bc he doesn’t know about her difficult personal circumstances, willing to set aside any moral qualms in order to help alice so he’s obviously a save one person but doom the world type of guy, a not undesirable name though I probably would not classify “henry” as desirable, inexplicably vaguely British, I have just realised I’m listing off classic killer traits but henry lacks the sociopathy/manipulativeness to be a real killer he’s like killer lite (pos)). Enjoyed how every time henry tries to be friendly or nice or jokey towards alice she interprets it as condescension and seethes ragefully about it and hates him even more. Alice being like “well I hate you and obviously you hate me” and henry being like “i… don’t hate you though?” and alice being like this fake bitch pretending we aren’t enemies who does he think he’s fooling LIKE GET A GRIP GIRL!!!!!!!! Or don’t I love griplessness<3 but seriously why do you have random personal info about your nemesis memorised. I can say from personal experience that that is not normal feelings of enmity.
Now I do need to say something about the mild discomfort I was experiencing over the slight parallels to my own life that I was observing, I personally dislike it when book characters have overlapping experiences with me bc I do not like to reflect upon myself via the prism of media I am consuming for relaxation (and I also hate and do my best to distance myself from self-pitying gifted kid discourse—I wouldn’t say this book is about that bc it’s more about the active process of being grindpilled and effortmaxxed, but it is a little adjacent so I am trying to be careful in how I discuss it to avoid landmining myself) but the pros of Baby Business Major Perfect Rivalmance Power Couple and Really Interesting Character outweighed the con of Relatability. And rather than being annoying and causing me to feel derogatory it did come off cathartic and vindicating instead:)
anyway I always like cliquey bitchy rich private school settings and I love that alice has really heart touching relationships with other girls!!! Like chanel!!!! Speaking of op nailed the fuerdai english names lmfao chanel… rainie… vanessa… krystal... The author bio did jumpscare me bc it mentions that op is Chinese-Australian but mysteriously developed an American accent which is literally like wait a second why are you me I’m me. the prose is competent and easy to read, though nothing particularly special or beautiful. Really enjoyed the jokes though! especially the jokes title LOL I always approve of a jokes title. the fact that everything else I read prior to this book has been so mid seriously made reading this book feel like the skies parted and heavenly choirs began singing in luminous angelic chorus so I think I liked it even more than I normally would have due to the power of comparison. 9/10 but actually maybe I’m overcorrecting for the relative effect and it’s actually 10/10… I mean I had a really good time I just wish the ending was less “realistic” and more power trip revenge fantasy but that’s not necessarily an indictment of the book that’s just my tiny little wish.
Favourite line:
“Do you seriously hate me?” Henry says, a strange, unreadable expression on his face. And maybe it’s just the angle from where I’m standing, but his eyes look suddenly lighter in the sun, more gold than their usual coffee black. Softer, somehow. “Well?”
I cross my arms over my chest, weighing out my response.
Yes, is the obvious answer. I do hate you. I hate everything about you. I hate you so much that whenever I’m around you, I can barely think straight. I can barely even breathe.
But when I open my mouth, none of that comes out. What I say instead is, “Don’t you... Don’t you hate me too?”
Immediately, I regret it. What a ridiculous question to ask. He’s obviously going to laugh at me and say yes, the way that I should have just now, and whatever sense of comradery we’ve built over these past couple of weeks will collapse, which will then affect our efficiency in completing Beijing Ghost tasks. But it’s not just that. For some reason, the thought of him telling me he hates me—right here, out loud, in plain English—feels like a punch to the chest. Which is even more ridiculous, because—
“No.”
I blink. “Huh?”
“No, Alice.” The faintest movement in his throat. I still have no idea what his expression means, why his voice sounds so strained. “I don’t hate you.”
anyway i only read one (1) book but it was good and i liked it so i wanted to post about it now:
if you could see the sun – ann liang
FINALLY SOME GOOD FUCKING FOOD!!!!!!!!!!! My friend rhonnie recced this to me on the premise that it might not be good but it is extremely baitful. and she was 100% correct this was the most fun reading experience I’ve had for a longggg time and full of delicious tropes that I love AND that are executed beautifully. Chinese international school academic enemyrivals (she thinks they’re legit bitter enemies engaged in a miserable battle to death, he thinks they’re rivals having a fun sporting competition for mutual self-improvement) to business partners (!!!!!!) to lovers And there were superpowers too I LOVE YOU. SO MUCH. This book is the textual personification of the song I won’t say (I’m in love) from Hercules. I seriously cannot express how happy I am to experience a satisfying het enemies ship after the incredible disappointment that was chloe gong’s historical shanghai romijuli series.
The ship dynamic reminded me of my beloved night world hets I was rolling around kicking my feet grinning every second page… emotionphobic heroine so focused on working towards her internal ambitions that she is completely oblivious to the fact that her arch nemesis is actually totally in love with her and that she is also in love with him. When alice first starts getting her involuntary invisibility problem and she turns to henry for help first AHHHHHHH and then when she sees he has a photo of the two of them getting an award tacked up on his wall in his dorm room (OBVIOUSLY BECAUSE HE LIKES HER) and she’s just like wow… he hates me so much he keeps a photo of me in view to remind him of his haterism every day… AHHHHHHHHHHH. YOURE DOING FLIPS READ OUR LIPS YOURE IN LOVE!!!!!
Like alice is constantly thinking about henry and how handsome and smart he is and how much she hates that everything is so effortless for him when she is busting her ass to stay afloat bc she’s a scholarship girlie and she cares a lot about her study machine top of the class image and she has 50000000 neuroses and complexes and issues to deal with on top of the financial pressure. So really she cannot be blamed for not interrogating the precise tenor of her feelings about henry further. I love her she is so real and her constant cost/benefit ethical slippery slope analysis is also so real. I do wish alice had fully gotten away with her crimes because I really think she deserved to have this one thing go her way and she slayed for immediately capitalising on her uncontrollable invisibility bouts for black market profits, though I understand why she had to face consequences for her actions for systemic reasons even though I SUPPORT WOMEN’S WRONGS. Society is so cruel to girlbosses with entrepreneurial spirit 😔 I also think it’s funny that any like Kidnapping Is Bad moral of the story is hamstrung by the fact that she and henry and chanel basically blackmailed their way into officially getting alice off the hook.
Henry is a really good love interest as he ticks all of the boxes (cool, handsome, charming, confident verging on arrogant, future ceo, outwardly perfect, completely in love with alice even though she is unaware of this, unintentionally ruined alice’s life bc he doesn’t know about her difficult personal circumstances, willing to set aside any moral qualms in order to help alice so he’s obviously a save one person but doom the world type of guy, a not undesirable name though I probably would not classify “henry” as desirable, inexplicably vaguely British, I have just realised I’m listing off classic killer traits but henry lacks the sociopathy/manipulativeness to be a real killer he’s like killer lite (pos)). Enjoyed how every time henry tries to be friendly or nice or jokey towards alice she interprets it as condescension and seethes ragefully about it and hates him even more. Alice being like “well I hate you and obviously you hate me” and henry being like “i… don’t hate you though?” and alice being like this fake bitch pretending we aren’t enemies who does he think he’s fooling LIKE GET A GRIP GIRL!!!!!!!! Or don’t I love griplessness<3 but seriously why do you have random personal info about your nemesis memorised. I can say from personal experience that that is not normal feelings of enmity.
Now I do need to say something about the mild discomfort I was experiencing over the slight parallels to my own life that I was observing, I personally dislike it when book characters have overlapping experiences with me bc I do not like to reflect upon myself via the prism of media I am consuming for relaxation (and I also hate and do my best to distance myself from self-pitying gifted kid discourse—I wouldn’t say this book is about that bc it’s more about the active process of being grindpilled and effortmaxxed, but it is a little adjacent so I am trying to be careful in how I discuss it to avoid landmining myself) but the pros of Baby Business Major Perfect Rivalmance Power Couple and Really Interesting Character outweighed the con of Relatability. And rather than being annoying and causing me to feel derogatory it did come off cathartic and vindicating instead:)
anyway I always like cliquey bitchy rich private school settings and I love that alice has really heart touching relationships with other girls!!! Like chanel!!!! Speaking of op nailed the fuerdai english names lmfao chanel… rainie… vanessa… krystal... The author bio did jumpscare me bc it mentions that op is Chinese-Australian but mysteriously developed an American accent which is literally like wait a second why are you me I’m me. the prose is competent and easy to read, though nothing particularly special or beautiful. Really enjoyed the jokes though! especially the jokes title LOL I always approve of a jokes title. the fact that everything else I read prior to this book has been so mid seriously made reading this book feel like the skies parted and heavenly choirs began singing in luminous angelic chorus so I think I liked it even more than I normally would have due to the power of comparison. 9/10 but actually maybe I’m overcorrecting for the relative effect and it’s actually 10/10… I mean I had a really good time I just wish the ending was less “realistic” and more power trip revenge fantasy but that’s not necessarily an indictment of the book that’s just my tiny little wish.
Favourite line:
“Do you seriously hate me?” Henry says, a strange, unreadable expression on his face. And maybe it’s just the angle from where I’m standing, but his eyes look suddenly lighter in the sun, more gold than their usual coffee black. Softer, somehow. “Well?”
I cross my arms over my chest, weighing out my response.
Yes, is the obvious answer. I do hate you. I hate everything about you. I hate you so much that whenever I’m around you, I can barely think straight. I can barely even breathe.
But when I open my mouth, none of that comes out. What I say instead is, “Don’t you... Don’t you hate me too?”
Immediately, I regret it. What a ridiculous question to ask. He’s obviously going to laugh at me and say yes, the way that I should have just now, and whatever sense of comradery we’ve built over these past couple of weeks will collapse, which will then affect our efficiency in completing Beijing Ghost tasks. But it’s not just that. For some reason, the thought of him telling me he hates me—right here, out loud, in plain English—feels like a punch to the chest. Which is even more ridiculous, because—
“No.”
I blink. “Huh?”
“No, Alice.” The faintest movement in his throat. I still have no idea what his expression means, why his voice sounds so strained. “I don’t hate you.”
- GIRL U CAN'T CONCEAL IT WE KNOW HOW YOU FEEL AND WHO YOU'RE THIIIIIIIINKING OF
