Published by Wednesday Books on 16 Jul 2019
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In this hilarious follow-up novel to the New York Times bestseller I Hate Everyone But You, long distance best friends Ava and Gen have finally made it to the same time zone (although they’re still over a thousand miles apart).

Through their hilarious, sometimes emotional, but always relatable conversations, Ava and Gen are each other’s support systems through internships, relationship troubles, questionable roommates, undercover reporting, and whether or not it’s a good idea to take in a feral cat. Please Send Help perfectly captures the voice of young adults looking to find their place in the world and how no matter how desperate things seem, you always have your best friend to tell it like it is and pick you back up.

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I didn't read I Hate Everyone But You but hoped I'd be able to follow along anyway. The series follows Ava and Gen via correspondences over text and email. In the first book, they help each other survive the first semester of college, and in this second book, they help each other survive life post-grad. As someone who has no idea what's been going on in her life since graduation, I was especially interested in the second novel and dived straight into it instead of starting with the first book.

At first, I was entertained by the office drama and other updates Ava and Gen shared with each other, but after awhile, I couldn't help but feel that there was something disingenuous about the banter between these supposed best friends. Maybe this is where reading the first book would have come into play--to help me get a better sense of these characters--but that's not something I'm planning on going back to do.

The main reason for their banter feeling disingenuous to me was that there were so many explanatory asides throughout their correspondence, which cheapened their relationship to me. The explanatory asides felt like a crude attempt at giving Ava and Gen distinctive personalities. Gen's only personality was being gay; it was as if she just discovered her sexuality and couldn't stop talking about how she was gay. All the 2019 references you could think of were thrown in, and they cracked jokes that I would have missed if not for, again, the explanatory asides.

I suppose this is the challenge that comes with writing in epistolary format (or this kind of modern epistolary format). There's not much context to draw from, so these explanations must be made.

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Published by Celadon Books on 20 Aug 2019
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After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes a fresh start will help him and his young son Jake heal. A new beginning, a new house, a new town. Featherbank.

But the town has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed "The Whisper Man," for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night.

Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Frank Carter's crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late, even if that means Pete has to revisit his great foe in prison: The Whisper Man.

And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window...

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I gotta give a shout out to my reading buddies Sadia and Tegan for recommending this book to me! Both received ARCs of this book and recommended me to request one as well, so I did, and now The Whisper Man is my favourite thriller of 2019!

I was especially intrigued by the blurb because I had read I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara, a true crime account of the Golden State Killer, just the month prior. The Golden State Killer was known for casing his victims' homes months in advance and peeping under their windows at night. Before he was caught, he was even sighted under a window and described as a ghostly figure in the bushes... So with that knowledge tucked under my belt, the Whisper Man really came to life for me, for better or for worse!

Small triumphs on terrible days. You had to cling to them.

This story is far from your formulaic thriller that relies on the account of a high functioning alcoholic woman. We've had enough of those. This thriller is the first one that has properly creeped me out. (Most thrillers I read simply keep me in suspense with my curiosity. Maybe I'm choosing the wrong ones haha.) The creepy sensory descriptions were so vivid--not just visual imagery, but oral imagery too, hence Whisper Man. Creepy men. Creepy voices. Creepy kids. Creepy kids are the worst, man. Lots of suspense. (How are these disappearances still happening if Frank Carter is already incarcerated?)

It was past midnight by the time I reached the last 20% of the book, and at that point, I had to stay up and finish the rest, because it was too creepy for me to fall asleep until it was resolved. The end was really satisfying. And still creepy. Haunting.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves thrillers!

Note: I've recommended this book to a few friends already and it seems that I may have overhyped it for them. I mean, they still rated it 4 stars, so they liked it, but perhaps didn't find it as creepy or original as I did!

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Published by St. Martin's Press on 13 Aug 2019
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Cassie Hanwell was born for emergencies. As one of the only female firefighters in her Texas firehouse, she's seen her fair share of them, and she's excellent at dealing with other people's tragedies. But when her estranged and ailing mother asks her to uproot her life and move to Boston, it's an emergency of a kind Cassie never anticipated.

The tough, old-school Boston firehouse is as different from Cassie's old job as it could possibly be. Hazing, a lack of funding, and poor facilities mean that the firemen aren't exactly thrilled to have a "lady" on the crew, even one as competent and smart as Cassie. Except for the handsome rookie, who doesn't seem to mind having Cassie around. But she can't think about that. Because she doesn't fall in love. And because of the advice her old captain gave her: don't date firefighters. Cassie can feel her resolve slipping... but will she jeopardise her place in a career where she's worked so hard to be taken seriously?

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Who doesn't love a strong female lead? Plus, I interned at the Austin Fire Department one winter, so that's fun. However, I felt that the idea of a strong woman in this book was a bit superficial and nothing that I hadn't seen in a superhero movie already. That said, I keep watching superhero movies and am still entertained. This book was no exception.

Choosing to love--despite all the ways that people let you down, and disappear, and break your heart. Knowing everything we know about how hard life is and choosing to love anyway... That's not weakness. That's courage.

At the beginning of the book, Cassie and her superiors list off everything she, as a woman, can't do, in order to maintain her credibility at the station. You already know that the rest of the book involves breaking every single one of those rules. The most obvious of which? To not get involved with another firefighter. No matter how hot, how good natured, how perfectly dreamy he is. So waddyaknow??

Yes, the world is full of unspeakable cruelty. But the answer wasn't to never feel hope, or bliss, or love--but to savor every fleeting, precious second of those feelings when they came.
The answer wasn't to never love anyone.
It was to love like crazy whenever you could.

It was super predictable and reads like a YA novel except for a traumatic experience in Cassie's life that is alluded to throughout the book and revealed at the end. I loved her mother Diana and Diana's best friend Josie, and loved seeing how Cassie and Diana's relationship developed throughout the book.

What I think would be interesting to explore is this whole "I'm not a girl"/"I'm not like most girls" thing.

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Published by Gallery/Scout Press on 30 Jul 2019
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Natalie, a young art student in New York City, is struggling to pay her bills when a friend makes a suggestion: Why not go online and find a sugar daddy—a wealthy, older man who will pay her for dates, and even give her a monthly allowance? Lots of girls do it, Nat learns. All that’s required is to look pretty and hang on his every word. Sexual favours are optional.

Though more than thirty years her senior, Gabe, a handsome corporate finance attorney, seems like the perfect candidate, and within a month, they are madly in love. At least, Nat is... Gabe already has a family, whom he has no intention of leaving.

So when he abruptly ends things, Nat can’t let go. She begins drinking heavily and stalking him: watching him at work, spying on his wife, even befriending his daughter, who is not much younger than she is. But Gabe’s not about to let his sugar baby destroy his perfect life. What was supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement devolves into a nightmare of deception, obsession, and, when a body is found near Gabe’s posh Upper East Side apartment, murder.

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I would never consider being a sugar baby because social interaction is scary and sugar daddies seem creepy, but oh, how nice would it be to have someone sponsor your Manhattan penthouse apartment?

The story started fun with a playful amount of danger, and the writing was very easy and readable. I was teetering between a 4 and a 3 star rating--leaning toward a 4--but the end was completely lukewarm, settling my rating at a solid 3. I won't say more on the end because I don't want to spoil anything!

But I will say--just to get it off my chest--Nat and Gabe are both psychotic, and I don't feel bad for either of them.

Reading buddy: Tegan's review

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Published by Crown on 11 Jun 2019
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Memory makes reality. That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

Neuroscientist Helena Smith already understands the power of memory. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious moments of our pasts. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face-to-face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

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I love sci-fi and have ventured in many a story exploring memory; Recursion is the best of them. Memory, changed memories, and changing realities are tricky things to write about. It's easy to get confused when you're following an "everything was not what it seemed" kinda story (i.e. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton and The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh fell short of my expectations). Yet Recursion was executed so well; I was able to follow the concepts and stay engaged, and still continue to be surprised as events unfurled.

Life with a cheat code isn't life. Our existence isn't something to be engineered or optimized for the avoidance of pain. That's what it is to be human--the beauty and the pain, each meaningless without the other.

What is False Memory Syndrome? How is it spreading? Why/how are the consequences so devastating? How much longer can the world tolerate looping through recursive memories and realities before everyone goes completely crazy? These questions kept me plowing through this adventure.

Recursion was as mind-bending for me as Inception was; I'll have to give it a reread eventually and create an infographic to straighten out the timelines in my head! I'll also have to read more Blake Crouch; I'm thinking of going for Dark Matter!

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Published by Hogarth on 14 May 2019
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In twelve stunning stories of love, family, and identity, Xuan Juliana Wang’s debut collection captures the unheard voices of an emerging generation. Young, reckless, and catapulted toward uncertain futures, here is the new face of Chinese youth on a quest for every kind of freedom.

From a crowded apartment on Mott Street, where an immigrant family raises its first real Americans, to a pair of divers at the Beijing Olympics poised at the edge of success and self-discovery, Wang’s unforgettable characters–with their unusual careers, unconventional sex lives and fantastical technologies–share the bold hope that, no matter where they’ve come from, their lives too can be extraordinary.

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I was really excited about this collection and was ready to rave about an Asian-American author and stories about the Asian-American experience, but unfortunately I felt completely disconnected from the characters and writing.

What I love about diverse stories is how they bring forward unique people/experiences and at the same time show how we're all human, all the same, all in this together. However, I didn't get that intimate feeling from these stories. I felt like I only got a sense of a type of person but not any particular person from these stories, if that makes any sense; the characters felt more like archetypes than real people. Perhaps short stories are not long enough to delve into these characters.

Theirs was a Chinese love. It was not about making each other happy. It was about sacrifice. It was a love devoted to suffering for the beloved. They were supposed to sacrifice over and over again for each other, each getting a turn to give up something he or she did not want for the other, until one of them died.

There were some interesting concepts with lots of potential though. I was particularly hopeful about "Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments," "Algorithmic Problem-Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships," and "Echo of the Moment."

"Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments": A silly list of emotional problems and advice on how to deal with them.

"Algorithmic Problem-Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships": A father tries to understand his daughter algorithmically.

"Echo of the Moment": A woman reinvents herself with luxurious outfits swiped from a dead rich lady's wardrobe.

The Goodreads rating for this collection is average, but the Goodreads reviews are quite positive, with many speaking on the beautiful writing and raw emotion. But again, I felt distant and disconnected from these stories and characters, and no emotional chord was struck within me whatsoever. I'm confused and would be very curious to hear from anyone else who has read this collection!

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Published by St. Martin's Press on 04 Jun 2019
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In this heartfelt, funny, touching memoir, Tan France, star of Netflix’s smash-hit Queer Eye, tells his origin story for the first time. With his trademark wit, humour, and radical compassion, Tan reveals what it was like to grow up gay in a traditional Muslim family, as one of the few people of colour in Doncaster, England. He illuminates his winding journey of coming of age, finding his voice (and style!), and how he finally came out to his family at the age of 34, revealing that he was happily married to the love of his life--a Mormon cowboy from Salt Lake City.

In Tan's own words, “The book is meant to spread joy, personal acceptance, and most of all understanding. Each of us is living our own private journey, and the more we know about each other, the healthier and happier the world will be.”

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As a fan of Queer Eye, I was super excited about this memoir. I love how the Fab Five see the beauty in everyone, and I was intrigued to know more about Tan's own journey.

This memoir was a fun, easy read and Tan's voice was very distinct in the writing. Though he has faced many challenges, he keeps his tone upbeat. The happy parts made me smile and laugh; the harder parts made me respect him so much more.

Tan fans will not be disappointed by this memoir. He covers racial and sexual identity, growing up South Asian and gay, raised in South Yorkshire in a traditional Muslim family; school life; his early realisation of his interest in fashion; relationships; his unconventional career path and experience on Queer Eye, including the audition process, how the opportunity came upon him, and insecurities; and fashion tips, of course.

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Published by Lenny on 01 Aug 2017
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I knew in the very fuzzy part of what I paid attention to that my parents had suffered, too, they had struggled, too, and whatever happened to them in the year before I was brought to America was somehow related to their refusal to ever order beverages at restaurants because paying an extra dollar or two for something they could get in bulk for cheaper activated some kind of trauma inside them. It really did. But even more astounding was how they never stopped me or my brother from ordering those drinks.

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Published by Little, Brown and Company on 30 May 2017
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Grief-stricken over his partner’s death, Gavin sets fire to every physical reminder in the couple’s home. A neighbour captures the ordeal on video, turning this unsung TV actor into a household name. Now, Gavin is fleeing the hysteria of Los Angeles for New Jersey, hoping to find peace with the family of an old friend. Instead, he finds Joan.

Joan, the family’s ten-year-old daughter, was born with the rare ability to recall every day of her life in cinematic detail. In seconds, she can tell you how many times her mother has uttered the phrase “it never fails” in the last six months (27) or what she was wearing when her grandfather took her fishing on a particular Sunday in June years ago (fox socks). Joan has never met Gavin until now, but she did know his partner, Sydney, and waiting inside her uncanny mind are half a dozen startlingly vivid memories to prove it.

Gavin strikes a deal with Joan: in return for sharing all her memories of Sydney, Gavin will help Joan win a local songwriting contest she’s convinced could make her unforgettable. The unlikely duo sets off on their quest until Joan reveals unexpected details about Sydney’s final months, forcing Gavin to question not only the purity of his past with Sydney but the course of his own immediate future.

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I appreciated how this book had LGBTQIA+ representation without making it a character's whole identity. LGBTQIA+ people are people and have identities outside of their sexual orientation. They have stories. And you're going to have to read this book to to discover Gavin and Joan's.

People have all kinds of reasons for why they don’t remember. They blame it on their batteries dying, or their ears not hearing right, or just being too busy, or too old, or too tired. But really it’s because they don’t have enough room inside their boxes. When I was turning five, Mom bought me a box for all my art. She was fed up with me leaving my drawings and projects around the house. She told me to choose which pieces were most important because there wasn’t enough room in the box to keep everything. That’s how it is with people’s brains. There’s only enough room for the most important memories and the rest gets thrown away. When I’m the thing that gets thrown away, because I’m not important enough, it’s hard not to get the blues like John Lennon on The White Album when he sings, I’m lonely and I wanna die.

I immediately fell in love with Joan. She’s so pure! I loved that this book used simple words, but the ways in which they were used, man, they made you feel things. I think many of us can relate to not wanting to be forgotten. For some of us, it may be a selfish reason; some of us crave the attention. For some of us, it may be an existential reason; what is our purpose and how do we do something that matters? For Joan, it’s simple. She’s a girl who remembers everything. But when she remembers everything and the rest of the world can’t, it’s a lonely feeling.

But then I realized, it’s not people’s fault that they have crappy brains. That’s what reminders are for. Mom never forgets to pay the bills because she has a reminder on her calendar. And Dad remembers to put new batteries in our smoke alarm only because it starts beeping. And no one forgets Martin Luther King because he has his own holiday every year. It works the same way with songs. Everyone remembers John Lennon, even Grandma, because his songs are reminders. My song is going to be a reminder to everyone that they should keep me in their brainboxes, and I have less than two weeks to finish it.

So there’s the heavy stuff. Joan, being forgotten. Gavin, widowed. But there’s also so much love and light and life.

I don’t know if I can wait that long because waiting is the worst thing ever invented.

Okay so maybe talking about the “worst thing ever invented” isn’t the happiest thing to say, but it made me smile when I read it. When I was little, there were a lot of things that were the worst things ever invented. I repeat, Joan is so pure!!

Now I’ve said a lot about Joan, but I think that I’m more of the Gavin in this story, and this book was my Joan. Growing up, many of us lose our childlike wonder; it's something we could all do with a little more of. Joan was that. We all need more Joans in our lives.

This book was one of my favourite books of 2017. It has humour, it has pain, it has existential crises, it has art, it has... life.

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