Over the past few months I recently started Pharmacy school! Which explains the lack of reading I've been doing lately, honestly. I still try my best to read in small amounts, especially since taking little breaks to read definitely helps with my sanity between all the studying I do. I also have been making my way through some pretty hefty danmeis at a snail's pace.
Books Mentioned:
- A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
- The White Book by Han Kang
A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
Rating: ★★+0.5 (2.5/5)
To start, I thought this was a fine book. It wasn't bad by any means, it just didn't blow me away, and I wasn't taken with it as much as I wished I was. I think one of the most disappointing things about A Song to Drown Rivers is how much I anticipated it, only to be let down pretty hard. I'm a big fan of stories set in Ancient China, and I love the intricacies and wickedness of palace politics. Unfortunately, while I was expecting a grand drama like the shows my mother and grandparents enjoyed, A Song to Drown Rivers felt like a simplified, one-dimensional version of the stories I'm used to.
Something I noticed throughout the book was that Liang consistently fails to put any trust into the reader's ability to interpret a character's feelings and motivations. Though I believe it is very important to tell as well as show, Liang does too much telling and not enough showing, in a way that makes the prose feel disconnected from the story. This may also just be my pickiness, but the prose felt anachronous to the content. The dialogue felt a little out of place, and there were many trite phrases and filler descriptions that brought no substance to the story, and only served to remind the reader that this was written in the modern day, preventing a full immersion into the story.
I am quite heartbroken that I wasn't a fan of this story. I'm a huge fan of Ann Liang, and I was hoping that I would love this departure from her usual genre. Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. Nonetheless, I really do hope she continues to explore more genres and becomes more comfortable writing different kinds of stories; she has such a wealth of potential, and I look forward to all the stories she has to tell in the future.
The White Book by Han Kang
Rating: ★★★★+0.5 (4.5/5)
I, like many other people, have had Han Kang's books on my TBR for the longest time. With all the buzz surrounding her winning the Nobel Prize, I had to finally pluck it out of the dark depths of my never-ending TBR. The White Book is a very potent exploration of grief, longing, and pondering over what-ifs. Han Kang has a wonderful way with words—I often found myself ruminating over her words and phrases, many of which were hard-hitting and beautifully evocative. Her writing reads like poetry, which makes sense with her background as a poet. I highly enjoyed reading this compilation, and I look forward to picking up more of Kang's books in the near future.
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I can't believe I'm finishing this up and posting it in the new year :")
Happy New Year all! My resolution this year is to read more classics, and also read more silly books. Just reading a healthy amount in between my hefty work and school schedule.
Wishing everyone a prosperous year ahead!
—璇
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