It’s that time of the month when I look back at the titles I’ve read by Asian authors and share the good, the bad, and the ugly with you. This month has had some hits and some big misses, so let’s get started.
Manga
Ayakashi Hunter’s Tainted Bride volume 1 is a gorgeous and upsetting tale of a young woman who has been ostracized and abused by the family which she was meant to marry into after she is brutally attacked by a demon. Rescue eventually comes, after years of torture, from a handsome and powerful hunter who’s family has much higher ranking than the family she was originally promised to. The story has dark moments, and cute ones, and the romance is ultimately pretty healthy. I look forward to seeing what comes next.
Indigo is a religious manifesto thinly veiled as a story. The authors are just info-dumping their belief in aliens and indigo children and pretending there is a plot. The ‘storytelling’ is jumpy and chaotic with almost zero follow through. They introduce a mysterious death and then never explain or solve it. This book feels like when you have a dream that makes sense to you while you’re dreaming, but later when you try to explain it you realize it was really just a nonsensical string of images strung together. I’m sure this book makes sense to the authors, but they never connect any of the dots for their readers.
Modern Asian Family: Fresh Outta Busan is not a manga but I’m including it here anyway. This is a graphic novel about the life of the author, a Korean immigrant who moved to Canada as a child. It was an interesting read, but didn’t really teach me anything new or entertain me much. This might be a great read for folks who’ve never met an immigrant family or watched an episode of Kim’s Convenience, but there’s not much new added for folks with any experience on the subject. And the storytelling isn’t really fun enough for me to recommend seeking it out.
Romance
Something Cheeky is a friends to lovers/second chance romance with okay characters and way too much going on. The premise is that these two were besties in college and haven’t seen each other in the 6 years since graduation. In that time he has become a rockstar stage director and she is a fashion designer with her own boutique lingerie shop for plus-sized women. The timelines are all off in this book and it really took me out of the story. These characters should be mid-30s minimum, and our dear Jessie assures me that there’s no way they’re getting a Broadway style musical that’s not even fully written yet to the stage in less than 6 weeks without a lot of money and Andrew Lloyd Webber attached.
Yin Yang Love Song is a fake dating romance about a female lead from a family where the women are all cursed to never have true love. The fact that her family runs an herbal tea retreat to heal heartbreak and suffer a love curse led me to imagine that this was going to have a magical aspect. I was expecting a Chinese mysticism take on the Practical Magic format but with fake dating. There is no magic and the “curse” appears to be a family of women tanking their own relationships and then blaming everyone but themselves.
Magical Realism
Marigold Mind Laundry is an English translation of a beautiful story by Korean author Yun Jung Eun. It’s like a softer version of the story from Mystic Pop-Up Bar and I really enjoyed it. A young woman named Jieun has the power to wash away memories or smooth out the creases of your life at her magical laundromat. She has walked the world alone for centuries after accidentally erasing her own family from her life before learning to control her powers. This is a healing story about the power of found family. Some of the stories are pretty sad, but over all the vibe is pretty cozy.
That’s it for this month. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I have more positive reviews for you next month. In the mean time, what have you been reading? Let me know in the comments!
