Category: Book Review
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What Separates Murder and Mercy: A Review of Find Me as the Creature I Am
Review by Carson Compos There are beautiful bodies buried within Find Me as the Creature I Am. Poet, translator, editor, and professor of Korean literature Emily Jungmin Yoon’s second collection of poetry uncovers connections between death and love and offers dualities of violence and peace to come to the conclusion that, in many ways, we…
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A Detective Novel Gone South: A Review of Elevator in Sài Gòn
The year is 2004. Vietnam is now one, but reverberations of the preceding wars—and its chasms—remain. It is in this year that Thuận opens Elevator in Sài Gòn, her second book translated into English from Vietnamese by Nguyễn An Lý. I have been looking forward to Thuận’s follow up in English since encountering her Anglophone…
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Redefining Narrative Through Bingo: A Review of Bingo Bango Boingo
Review by Gabriella Contratto Occasionally I come across a book that upends my previously held expectations of how to form a narrative. Alan Michael Parker’s upcoming collection of flash fiction Bingo Bango Boingo (2025) is such a book. The book alternates between stand alone flash fiction, and stories presented as bingo cards. The flash is…
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Finding ʻOhana and Home: A Review of Clairboyance
by Andrew Hoe A friend from Big Island recently told me how Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles were foundational to him as a child, and I, also being a fan of Riordan, brought up the Rick Riordan Presents books. My friend lamented that, while there were so many cultures represented in that wonderful series, there were…
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How to Walk With Your Yokai: A Review of The Night Parade
By Ryan Yamauchi The Hyakki Yagyō, Japan’s fabled march of one hundred demons, has long been a subject of interest to scholars and everyday people alike. The march is a special moment in which those mystic beings that exist along the boundaries of human understanding are free to roam the earth. In The Night Parade:…
MĀNOA 