She starts working as an English teacher for kindergarteners, and she’s comically reprehensible at it.Īva then meets Julian, a relatively nice banker who is treated with all the warmth and friendliness warranted by the biological offspring of Satan. I don’t say what the ending is, and this book has no real plot, but there’s your warning.Īn Irish expat, Ava, who moves to Hong Kong for truly no reason, except perhaps for the challenge of surrounding herself with 100 percent white people in a not-majority-white country, or otherwise being a one-woman force of colonization. This has spoilers in it, I guess, but honestly I don’t know what there is to spoil. (Goodreads admin, this is not a threat, just a possible scolding.) (Don’t take down my review, please.) (You have never done that to this point and to be honest it feels like I’m playing with fire at this juncture.) Well, I suppose I will begin with the Lofty Assumption that most of you reading this review have not read this book, because the only reason I even justified myself finishing it is because I very much wanted to be the top review of this and give it one star, and I only validated my own belief in my ability to do so by threatening all of you who TBRed it with grievous bodily me-yelling-at-you. But unfortunately the constant onslaught of bigotry and toxicity, both intended and not, ruined it for me. I know that this book is attempting to discuss imperialism and colonization and race, but in my opinion, it bungles it.įurthermore, there are implicit biases in this book that go beyond that intentional discussion.įinally, I thought there was a lot of promise in this book. I know that authors are not the same as narrators, and some of my favorite books have had unlikable or problematic main characters that are separate from the person who wrote them. I hid this entire review due to spoilers (but mostly because I'm tired of everyone getting mad at me and misinterpreting what I'm trying to say). See /privacy for more information.NOTE: I am coming in here a little over a year after writing this because I have changed a bit as a reader and reviewer, and want this, which is still getting eyes on it pretty constantly, to reflect that. Patrick Freyne - Ok Let's Do Your Stupid Idea For more about Daisy's new podcast Daisy is Insatiable head HERE. We talked to her about memorable book deaths, the literary allure of London, Zadie Smith and sneaking sexy books. Naoise's debut novel was the critically acclaimed Exciting Times, shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award. This week we are delighted to welcome the author of our of our favourite books in recent times, Naoise Dolan.
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