Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Goodreads

Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
Released: June 01st, 1890 (Paperback)
Trigger Warnings: Ableism, animal death (hunting scene), antisemitism, blood, death, drugs, fatphobia, misogyny, murder, racism, sexism, suicide
Rating: ★★★★★
Why Haven’t I Read This Before: I hadn’t heard of this until I was a younger adult, truthfully, but it was mostly in passing. I’ve heard of Oscar Wilde but now that I could, I wanted to check this out!

Description: Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author’s most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray’s moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel’s corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, “a terrible moral in Dorian Gray“. Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde’s homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment. Of Dorian Gray’s relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks of me: Dorian what I would like to be — in other ages, perhaps”.

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Please keep in mind that this review contains spoilers for the entire book. Read with caution. If you click on “Read More”, it is under the assumption you either don’t care about spoilers or you’ve already read the book.

Book Review: These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

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Title: These Violent Delights
Author: Chloe Gong
Released: November 17th, 2020 (Hardcover)
Series: These Violent Delights, Secret Shanghai
Trigger Warnings: Alcohol, blood, death, drugs, explosion, gore, grief, gun violence, insects, loss of loved ones, microaggressions, murder, parental abuse, racism, self-harm, suicide, torture, transphobia (minor), violence
Rating: ★★★★☆

Description: The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.

A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang – a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love… and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns – and grudges – aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

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Please keep in mind that this review contains spoilers for the entire book. Read with caution. If you click on “Read More”, it is under the assumption you either don’t care about spoilers or you’ve already read the book.

Book Review: The Red Palace by June Hur

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Title: The Red Palace
Author: June Hur
Released: January 25, 2022 (Hardcover)
Series: N/A
Trigger Warnings: Murder, violence, misogyny/sexism, human trafficking
Rating: ★★★★★

Description: Joseon (Korea), 1758. There are few options available to illegitimate daughters in the capital city, but through hard work and study, eighteen-year-old Hyeon has earned a position as a palace nurse. All she wants is to keep her head down, do a good job, and perhaps finally win her estranged father’s approval.

But Hyeon is suddenly thrust into the dark and dangerous world of court politics when someone murders four women in a single night, and the prime suspect is Hyeon’s closest friend and mentor. Determined to prove her beloved teacher’s innocence, Hyeon launches her own secret investigation.

In her hunt for the truth, she encounters Eojin, a young police inspector also searching for the killer. When evidence begins to point to the Crown Prince himself as the murderer, Hyeon and Eojin must work together to search the darkest corners of the palace to uncover the deadly secrets behind the bloodshed.

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Please keep in mind this review contains spoilers for the entire book. Read with caution. If you click on the “Read More”, it is under the assumption you either don’t care about spoilers or you’ve already read the book!

Book Review: Witch Born by Nicholas Bowling

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Title: Witch Born
Author: Nicholas Bowling
Released: September 25th, 2018 (Hardcover)
Series: N/A
Trigger Warnings: None listed.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Description: Alyce’s mother has just been burnt at the stake for practicing witchcraft. With only a thin set of instructions and a witch’s mommet for guidance, Alyce must face the world that she’s been sealed off from — a world of fear and superstition. With a witch hunter fast on her trail, she’ll need the help of an innkeeper and a boy to discover the truth behind his own mother’s past.

But as her journey continues, another war rages: a hidden war of the supernatural, of the living and the dead. Good and evil are blurred, and nobody’s motives can be trusted. And Alyce finds herself thrown unwillingly into the conflict. Struggling to understand her own powers, she is quickly drawn into a web of secrets, lies, and dark magic that could change the fate of the world she is just coming to know.

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Please keep in mind that this review contains spoilers for the entire book. Read with caution. If you click on the “Read More”, it is under the assumption you either don’t care about spoilers or you’ve already read the book.