Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Remy Lai GENRE: Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: January 14, 2025 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A middle-grade graphic novel about a teen girl's chickenpox quarantine time with her younger siblings. Partly biographical. Great sibling dynamics and chickenpox info. 😉 Hit or miss on the other themes. A decent option for the target age group. Plot Preview: Once upon a time, Abby had wished for a younger sibling. But after her parents have given her FOUR younger siblings, the twelve-year-old has had enough! She's tired of being the responsible eldest child and fed up of her siblings’ immaturity. She tries to spend as much time away from home as possible, either at school or going out with her best friends. But when all five siblings get chickenpox, Abby faces a horrifying truth: she needs to stay quarantined in the house with those *animals*! How will she survive without losing her sanity? The story is written in Abby's first-person perspective. I have heard a lot abou...

AUTHOR: Jesse Q. Sutanto NARRATOR: Eunice Wong SERIES: Vera Wong, #2 GENRE: Cosy Mystery PUBLICATION DATE: April 1, 2025 RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: Officially a mystery, but practically, more of a comic drama with some dark content. Interesting but also infuriating geriatric lead. Relatively thin plot. Influencer trope, which is never my favourite. Recommended as long as you are looking for a mindless entertainer and not a mystery. The second novel of the Vera Wong series. Can work as a standalone, but better read in series order. This was decent enough, but I liked the first book more. Go in blind. Plot Preview: A year after the events of Book One. Vera is still running her tea shop and still competing with Winifred and her bakery. But with no dead bodies around, Vera is bored. So when she bumps into a girl looking for her missing friend, Vera is delighted to have a new mystery to poke her nose into. Even better when she discovers, thanks to snooping where she shouldn’t, that ...

EDITOR: Hanna Alkaf GENRE: Middle-Grade Anthology PUBLICATION DATE: October 21, 2025 RATING: 3.4 stars. In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices short story anthology aimed at middle-graders and highlighting some mythical “beasts” from South-East Asian cultures. Elaborate focus on various legendary cryptids from this region. Great illustrations to supplement the information. However, the plots focus more on the human characters than on the mythical beings, which is somewhat disappointing. Still, it’s a unique collection and deserves an audience. This anthology contains seventeen stories, each focussing on one specific cryptid from South-East Asian mythology. The list of contributors includes some exceptional known names such as Jesse Q. Sutanto and Erin Entrada Kelly. The book begins with an introductory note by Malaysian editor-author Hanna Alkaf, offering information about cryptids and their presence in the mythology of this region. This note is so well-written! Sample this line: "Cryptids, ...

AUTHOR: F.H. Batacan NARRATOR: Ramón de Ocampo GENRE: Mystery-Thriller PUBLICATION DATE: August 18, 2015 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A Filipino crime mystery focussed on two priests hunting for a serial killer in the late 1990s. The combination of priest + investigator is quite novel. The *mystery* is fairly straightforward, but this book is so much more than an ordinary mystery. It needs some stern editing, but if you pick this up more for the characters and for the Manila setting, this OwnVoices work really delivers. Despite its editorial gaps, I was fairly hooked from start to end. Recommended, not as a mystery or a police procedural but as a culturally-accurate socio-political drama. Check the content warnings. Plot Preview: 1997. Manila, Philippines. Fr. Gus Saenz, a skilful forensic anthropologist, and his protégé Fr. Jerome Lucero, a psychologist, have been called upon by the National Bureau of Investigations to help with a new investigation. The eviscerated body of a youn...

AUTHOR: Phuoc Thi Minh Tran ILLUSTRATORS: Dong Nguyen & Hop Thi Nguyen GENRE: Children's Picture Book, Folktales PUBLICATION DATE: October 22, 2024 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A bilingual folktale collection for children, containing ten traditional stories from Vietnam. Great intent, but the English execution was somewhat mixed. Fabulous illustrations, though. This book contains ten stories from Vietnamese myths, legends and folktales. As the tagline suggests, these are “Stories of Adventure and Wonder”. All the tales contain an element of the fantastical, whether through dragons or gods or talking animals. Most of the stories are great examples of lore, with a rich flavour of the local culture and beliefs and an ample dash of magic. The tales are written in parallel English and Vietnamese versions, with alternating blocks of content switching between the two languages – English in black text and Vietnamese in dark brown. This could be a great option for parents who w...

AUTHOR: Dominic Lim GENRE: MM Romance PUBLICATION DATE: September 17, 2024 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices Queer romance-drama with the protagonist having an alter ego as a drag queen. Nice characters, wonderful storyline, decent romance, amazing inclusive rep. I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did, especially as it had a few too many YA/NA vibes for my liking.  (Note that the book isn't YA/NA romance. It just feels like one because of some writing choices.) Plot Preview: Rex is openly gay and has embraced this part of his identity well. However, he has another identity that he has suppressed since many years. When he discovers that his college sweetheart Aaron, the one that got away, is back in town and struggling to keep his karaoke bar afloat, Rex jumps in. Or rather, his alter ego, the talented drag queen who goes by ‘Regina Moon Dee’, takes charge. There’s only one problem: Aaron has no fondness for drag queens, so Rex has to keep his Regina side a secr...

AUTHOR: Angie Kim SERIES: Good Intentions Collection, #7 GENRE: Short Story PUBLICATION DATE: April 27, 2023 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A short story focussed on regrets of the past and making amends even when it might be too late. By far, the best story of this collection. Loved the emotions and the realism. Much recommended. Plot Preview: Mina Pak Johnson, a widow after more than five decades of marriage, is clearing out her house before she is to move into a nursing home. At the back of her husband’s closet, she finds a picnic basket – an old forgotten wedding present from her mother. This discovery leads to the awakening of past memories and regrets. As Mina looks at the decisions of her youth with a guilty heart, she decides to finally do something that was intended but never done. The story comes to us in Mina’s third-person perspective. This is the seventh and final story in the ‘Good Intentions’ series, described on Amazon as “a riveting collection of stories about ...

AUTHOR: Lin Yi-Han TRANSLATOR: Chieh Lan Tang GENRE: Literary Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: May 21, 2024 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A darkly tragic story based on true events in Taiwan. TRIGGERS GALORE! Not for everyone, but if you can handle details of graphic sexual abuse and a slightly meandering writing style, do give this compelling story a try. This is the first time ever I have hated and loved a book at the same time. Plot Preview: Liu Yi-Ting and Fang Si-Chi are thirteen-year-old best friends, coming from well-to-do families, living in the same apartment complex, studying in the same school, and fond of the Russian classics. The first difference is that Yi-Ting is somewhat plain while Si-Chi is stunning. The second difference comes out only some years later, when Yi-Ting learns that Si-Chi has gone through something earth-shattering in the last five years, a fact that is revealed by Si-Chi’s journals only after she loses her mental stability. What happened to her in the int...

AUTHOR: Min Jin Lee SERIES: Disorder, #1 GENRE: Short Story. RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An impactful short story highlighting the patriarchal culture of South Korea through the eyes of a little girl. Gripping all the way till the stunning ending. If you want a happy story, stay away. For everyone else, this is a must-read. Story Synopsis: Our unnamed first-person narrator, who is nine years old, is the eldest of five children – with only the youngest being a boy. The narrator knows that only boys can provide for their families and bring acclaim to the family name. She also knows that her sisters and she must do all they can to ensure that her brother gets the best of everything, even if she herself is excellent at school. After all, she is a good girl. And this is what good girls do. This story is a part of ‘Disorder’, described on Amazon as “a collection of six short stories of living nightmares, chilling visions, and uncanny imagination that explore a world losing its bal...

AUTHOR: Jean Kwok GENRE: Mystery, Women's Fiction RATING: 2.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A book that is mostly women’s fiction focussing on a Chinese mom’s quest to be reunited with her daughter. The tag of ‘mystery/thriller’ applies to it in the loosest possible sense. I liked a few things but was equally unhappy with some other points. This is an outlier review. Story Synopsis: 2007. New York. Fleeing from an abusive marriage in China, Jasmine arrives in New York City with hardly any support system of money or family. Her main purpose is to be reunited with her daughter, who, unknown to her, was taken away at birth and offered to an American couple for adoption. With her ex searching for her, Jasmine is running out of time to find her child and escape permanently. But how is she to do that? Rebecca, an editor-in-chief at a publishing company, has it all – a job she loves, a talented and good-looking husband, a loveable adopted daughter Fifi, prestige, and wealth. However, her life s...

AUTHOR: Ai Jiang GENRE: Literary Horror Novella RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: An evocative literary novella, focussed on the living who can’t let the dead go. Allegorical, insightful, melancholic. A mood read, but what a treat if it comes to you at the right time! Story Synopsis: HOME, a mysterious town somewhere in Canada, is known for its special houses where the spirits of the dead can be summoned to the residences of their loved ones, who are desperate to have them back in their lives. Wenqi is a new resident in this strange place, having moved into a house with her parents, who long to meet their dead son. Liam is a “lingerer”, one of those persons who wait for a house in much-in-demand HOME to become vacant so that they can move in somehow and meet their departed loved one. “Mrs.” is a resident of a house near Wenqi’s. No one knows her name, or any other personal details. Through these three characters, we get a glimpse of HOME and its grief-stricken residents. Bookish Y...

AUTHOR: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai GENRE: Historical Fiction RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: Reveals some great insights about Vietnam and the aftermath of the American war on the country. The plot was somewhat predictable, but overall, a worthy OwnVoices work. Story Synopsis: 2016. Middle-aged Phong is the son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese mother, but as he grew up in an orphanage, he doesn’t know anything about his parents except their race. He has now decided to search for his father and using his help, escape to the US with his family to avoid the drudgery of Vietnam. 2016. Dan, an American veteran, has returned to the country where he served during the war, in the hope that his PTSD will improve, but unknown to his wife Linda, he has a secret agenda as well. 1969: Sisters Trang and Quỳnh follow their friend’s advice and leave their rice fields to work as ‘bar girls’ in Sài Gòn, hoping to earn enough to repay their parents’ debts. As Sài Gòn is filled with American GIs...

AUTHOR: Cho Nam-Joo TRANSLATOR: Jamie Chang GENRE: Literary Fiction, Korean, Dystopian. RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A character-oriented dystopian story set on a fictional estate named Saha. This is like a montage of disconnected stories that have a partial bearing on each other. The book is not for everyone. Do not compare it with “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982” – it won’t match up. Story Synopsis: A dystopian town known only as ‘Town’ - erstwhile a fishing village but now purchased and run by a capitalist corporation. Town takes care of its assets – the top class citizens (those with qualifications and wealth) with the L status. The second tier citizens, the L2s, function based on residence permits that they need to renew every two years, depending on their working status. And then there are those without any permit, the residents who survive via contractual work, those who have no access to insurance or security. The residents of the illegal Saha housing complex fall in this third cate...