People say the poor love to dream, but that isn't quite right. Dreaming is the privilege of the moneyed, and the world has all kinds of ways to protect their dreams.

What a quietly fascinating read Women, Seated turned out to be, and I was riveted from the first page to the last.

I don't see a lot of contemporary Chinese novels making their way out of China. So when I heard Riverhead had hired a new Mandarin-speaking editor committed towards that goal, and this was the first such book to be translated and published under that effort, of course my interests were instantly peaked.

This story is told through the eyes of the nanny Yu Ling. She works for this wealthy and powerful family, looking after their son. But when things start to go wrong for the family, where does that leave her and the child she looks after?

This felt like such an interesting exploration of class and gender. At first, it seems like the focus is solely on wealth and privilege. Yu Ling is envious of the family and the madam that she works for. They hold all this power and all this money. If only she could get some from them, she too would be set. But then as the story unfolds, she starts to realize that maybe she (poor as can be) and the madam (wealthy as can be) both dance to the tune of the men around them.

I feel like the messages in this book are so subtle, they're not at all in your face. If you were to read the story at surface level, there doesn't seem much there. But underneath, there are so many layers, it's quite compelling.

Going in, I wasn't sure how much of this story I would find relevant only to life in modern China versus being applicable everywhere. But I was happy to see that my concerns were unfounded. Yu Ling's struggles with her place in the family and in the world are as pertinent in the East as here in the West.

I'm looking at the low rating for this book, and I'm a little bit surprised. I wonder if it's partly due to the miscategorization of this story. The blurb, with all of its references to "secrets" and "life-changing choices," seems to imply this is more suspenseful and plot-driven than it really is. In fact, I would say the plot doesn't much matter here at all. This is really all about the characters.

So if you're in the mood for a quiet, reflective, character-driven story, this is well worth a look. As for me, I can't wait to see what other Chinese literature Riverhead brings over.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

I'll be honest. This is a case where the story on the pages just wasn't as interesting as the premise would lead you to believe, and I'll try to explain why.

Dorothy wakes up in 1954 on a transport bus bound for Hanover State Psychiatric Hospital. She has no memory of who she is, but the one thing she does know is that she isn’t Dorothy. She has visions of a future where she’s someone named Bix sent back to 1954 on a mission to save the world. But the longer she's held at Hanover, the more she is forced into believing she is Dorothy. So which version in her mind is real—Dorothy or Bix?

That’s a cool premise, right? There's so much potential here, so many different ways this story could've unfolded that's both brilliant and riveting. But unfortunately, none of those things happened and what we end up with is surprisingly banal.

One of the major problems here is that we spend too long in Dorothy's head as she's subjected to endless psychiatric treatments while trying to puzzle out the question of whether she’s really from the future. Now, this would've been more interesting to us readers if we shared the same puzzle, but we don't. We know she's from the future because otherwise, what kind of pointless nonstory would this be? She'd just be a mental patient making everything up, which could be a story, but not this one because this one's billed as sci-fi. So it’s clear to us what's going on right from the beginning even if it’s not clear to Dorothy, but we still have to stick around for 200 pages while she figures it out.

But that's fine. I'm not against a long setup if it means the payoff is spectacular. But here again, it was inexplicably disappointing. Instead of choosing to flesh out the sci-fi and speculative elements of this book (the whole reason I'm reading this), we choose to focus on one action scene after another—of running, crouching, hiding, dodging—interspersed with the sort of no show all tell infodump that makes me want to abandon reading as a hobby.

Tabula Rasa, Reckoner, Reclamation, The Guest, New Covenant—it all certainly sounds impressive, I'll give you that. But just because you name some simple concepts with important sounding words doesn’t make it any more compelling, and that’s never been more true than here. While the terms might sound fancy, I can’t help but feel that they’re thinly veiled disguises for just how poorly sketched out the future really is.

Then there is Dorothy, secret agent extraordinaire, except she keeps messing things up during crucial moments. She needs to slowly walk across the field to avoid attention? Oh no, she panics and breaks into a run and everyone notices. She has the key and just needs to get to the door and escape? Oh no, she accidentally screams and alerts everyone. She has to read a secret message on a piece of paper and then destroy it? Oh no, she leaves it face up across the room for all to see. Like, come on! What kind of dumb fuckery is that.

But it wasn't that bad, if you can believe it. Even with my long list of complaints, this somehow managed to remain a three-star read until almost the very end. At that point, we are hit with the most lazy non-ending I have ever come across. One of the final lines of this book is Dorothy asking herself:

Will I be able to pull it off? . . . Don't know.

And that's the end, ladies and gentlemen. Like what the heck! Where is the payoff, the resolution, the closure? I'm having a hard time believing this isn't some sort of joke, but no, it's all written there in black and white, clear as day. So yeah, I'm going to have to deduct a star for that.

It took me a bit, but towards the end, I finally figured out what was so off about this story. It's constructed like the pilot of a tv series. Each scene is there for maximum tension, all the while not actually giving you much nor moving the plot forward. It tries to stretch the thinnest of plotlines into the most number of episodes, and it even ends on a cliffhanger just to entice you back. No, thank you.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

She would figure it out. Because it was impossible that there was no solution. People had babies all the time and somehow managed it.

When a book is described as "wholly original," I admit it makes me a little bit hesitant. What does that mean? Is it original because it contains the sort of fun heretofore unseen, or is it original because no one was crazy enough to have put such ideas to paper before? Then you throw in a premise that includes OnlyFans and pro wrestling, and well really, what the heck are we even talking about here?

But I've been in a reading slump for months now and needed something to shake me out. So I reached for Margo's Got Money Troubles not expecting much, and boy oh boy, did it deliver in every single way.

Right off the bat, I was captivated. The first thing I noticed was the writing, how sharp and persuasive and just gosh darn funny it was. I'm trying to think of the last book that made me chuckle so hard, and I'm coming up empty. All that humor in here was the perfect medium through which more serious topics could be tackled and explored without coming across preachy or righteous.

And this book did not shy away from serious topics—teenage motherhood, love affair with a teacher, pornography, selling one's body, addiction, and of course, how to make money and a life for yourself and your baby when you have no viable skills. But everything was done with such a subtle hand and delightful tone that you hardly realize you're reading something profound when you're having so much fun.

The characters in here were sketched with such acute clarity, it's hard to not take them for real. Margo is exactly the sort of sweet, smart, and spirited character I can love and cheer for. Yes, bad things happened to her, but she doesn't let that get her down. In fact, every side character in here is their own version of loveable, and it makes reading this story even more of a delight from beginning to end.

Honestly, this was such an exuberant and feelgood story, one I didn't even know I needed. Looking back on it, I'm still not sure I could properly describe it or put it in a box, just because I've never read anything quite like it before. But I do know it was a hell of an entertaining and insightful read. If you're like me and have been hesitating on this book, just go pick it up.

P.S. How is it I've never heard of Rufi Thorpe until now? All her books are going straight onto my TBR.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

I can't resist fairy tale retellings. All those beautiful princesses, all their tragic misfortunes, and of course all the furry creature companions. What's not to like? And since Snow White is at the top of my list, there's no way I was going to pass this up.

And right away, I thought we were off to an auspicious start. We meet Healer Anja—your typical smart, independent, poison drinker. Her research has saved quite a few folks from certain death, and she would like to continue to do so in peace and quiet. But the king arrives at her door with a unusual request, and soon she's swept away on a secret mission to save his daughter Snow.

The premise sounds fascinating, so I settled in and eagerly awaited the moment when we would get past the setup and the tale would really take off. And I waited. And then I waited some more. You can see where I'm going with this. It wasn't until a hundred pages in that Anja even arrives at the palace to start her investigations.

So herein lies my biggest issue with this story. The pace was so sluggish and leisurely, it was hard to keep my attention. There was a lot of filler, including tons of details about every animal god and the history of every poison/antidote known to this world. But it's all made up and completely irrelevant to the storyline, so who cares?

Anja also started to grate on my nerves. She is both a fretter and a foot-in-the-mouther, and let me tell you, the combination was not pleasant. We are privy to her every thought—however middling, hesitant, and bumbling it may be—as well as her entire trial and error process in figuring out Snow's problem. I'm sorry, but I just don't need that level of detail.

And yet, even after all that thinking out loud, Anja was still somehow really slow on the uptake. Everything had to be completely spelled out in order for her to understand what was going on. I mean, I don't expect every main character to be super clever, but I also can't be hundreds of pages ahead of them.

And the real kicker is, even after all that, I didn't really understand what happened at the very end. Everything had been wrapped up, and then the story tosses in one final twist. It wasn't a very good one since I had seen coming from two hundred pages prior, but no matter, I can look past that. What I cannot look past was the explanation that accompanied it, for it made absolutely no sense.

Served in the tale's typical hemming and hawing style, every additional hesitating statement moved me further and further from clarity, until I had no idea what was going on anymore. It was like the author had completely forgotten the story she had written and all the rules she had made up for the universe, and just served up some random tidbits because they sounded good.

Not gonna lie, this was kind of a disappointment. I've heard nothing but great things about T. Kingfisher, and this being my first by the author, I thought it would serve as the gateway to a whole feast of fantasies heretofore unexplored. Instead, I'm left wondering if maybe this author isn't really for me.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars