jolin

“I had fancied myself so noble when I saved his life, forgetting that sometimes living was not enough.” REVIEW ೃ༄ The Poet Empress by Shen Tao Wei Yin is desperate to save her family and village, dying from starvation. Desperate enough to join the concubine selection of the royal Azalea House’s cruel heir. Unpredictable in every way, the story follows Wei as she navigates the palace’s succession war, attempts on her life from all directions, and uncovering her violent prince’s past to compose the most powerful spell of all—a ballad of death…and love. “The Ancestors are fair, after all. To be the judge of whether it is necessary for someone to die, one must love them first. But once there is love, it becomes very hard to still want them dead, does it not?” I deeply appreciate a novel so thoroughly Chinese in its writing, poetry magic system, and naming conventions (simply New Year instead of CNY, chess instead of Chinese chess, nicknames like little lark) written in English for its accessibility for Asian diaspora. Shen Tao vividly captures the horrors of being a woman. It’s not just fear of an abusive husband, but also fulfilling your responsibility to bear an heir and fighting for your life (literally) in the Inner Court, all the while acting demure and unambitious. Enduring, Wei swallows the injustices and hardens herself while maintaining her morality. 害人之心不可有，防人之心不可无. One should not harbour harming intent, one should guard against harm. But when is harming others considered a form of guarding oneself? But Wei’s experiences aren’t the only source of anguish. As she separates rumour from truth in the Azalea House history we get to know the two brothers, so young and so close, pit against one another for the sake of maintaining this dynasty. Of course Terren was a better poet; he was driven by emotion and did not yet carry the weight of the world, unlike Maro. As much as studying helps, it is feeling that creates. It pains me to see how much they’ve changed from the cruelties shown to them by the world and how so much suffering was truly unnecessary. (cont.)

it’s been a BUSY first quarter as you can tell from my inactivity 😆🤓✍️ but i’m happy i still read a lot alongside my internship!! the 5 day workweek is a stark contrast to my sparse uni timetable, and though i’m constantly lacking sleep it’s satisfying to see the work i’ve done. also every bit of free time is greatly cherished 😍🤞 my reading taste is literally asian literature and freaky novels, whatever keeps me going i guess 🤣 but the BEST thing about working (besides the paycheck ofc) is that you can take leave without worrying about exam schedules. revisiting da nang and the golden hand bridge, despite the fog. the coffee, the skies, and the seafood. being in seoul for txt’s 7th anniversary and 3 day moacon!!! and all the food we ate after the concerts~ 두바이 쫀뜩 쿠키, 보쌈, 양곺창 🤤 then nanning, which stunned us with huge malls that checked every shopping niche: makeup, danmei, kpop merch, bubble tea, etc etc the tastes, the sights, and the company are worth all the weekend makeup shifts :”) i’m also extremely grateful for the local book events and catching up with friends and family 🫂 i hope you all have a pleasant (lowkey last week of) april ahead! rest well and stay hydrated <3

“That’s not a tomato at all. That’s Robert. I could recognize him in any form. It doesn’t look like Robert. It looks like a goddamn tomato, but as much as I can tell I’m a cucumber, I can tell that tomato is Robert.” REVIEW ೃ༄ Pounded by Produce by G.M. Fairy Yes, this is the book about two priests who are best friends and in love and occasionally a tomato and cucumber. I clocked the Veggietales fanfic immediately, but then I saw another reel, with a girl parish cook in the mix. I was surprised because I thought it was mlm, but it was POLY. Chef’s kiss, literally. It starts with Emily coming upon this secluded job and jumping at the opportunity to leave her unhappiness behind. Soon she entered a new world indeed, one filled with two hot priests and their (surprisingly justified) vegetable transformations. Genuinely though, Emily was lovely to root for. I loved her positive outlook despite her past and the way she took charge of her future. All their mutual yearning and sexual tension was top notch. As ex-roommates, Robert and Laurent had a solid foundation of longing and proximity, the cherry on top being them both joining the ministry. Since Robert is the serious holy boy who carries “both of [their] moralities”, Laurent brings joyful, light banter as he flirts and teases and touches, because that’s all Robert will give (has given) him these 15 years. But the best thing about being delusional is the internal monologue, and Robert delivers. Emily is so sweet yet assertive in her desires so I love how they all communicated. This is a polyamorous relationship, it’s not 2+1 or some harem; they all realise it wouldn’t be complete without any of them. I also liked the focus on sex as a sin (re: Robert is sexually repressed) and not homosexuality or polyamory because that wouldn’t be as enjoyable. I don’t know much about religion but I did find it inspiring in here and Wake Up Dead Man that many people found direction in religion, in God, and I’m glad priesthood helped Robert (and Jud). At the end of the day salvation is up to your own interpretation, and your relationship with God is between you and God. ੈ✩‧₊˚ #twentyreviews

“The teachings say to be the best at what Fate has chosen for you. Well, if Fate wanted me to be a thief, then I’ll be the best thief anyone has seen and rob Maederyss herself.” REVIEW ೃ༄ Fateless by Julie Kagawa Seventeen-year-old Sparrow is the prodigy of the Thieves Guild, personally raised by the Grandmaster, and desperate to prove herself. But the guild and the mysterious Circle that controls them are more than simple criminals. Sent on a Fate-changing mission, Sparrow soon discovers that it’s not only her own fate that rests in her hands. I love a love triangle, but good news for my friends who don’t: this is NOT one! I recommend going in without reading the synopsis (or the rest of this review), because I did not expect where this went, both plot- and romance-wise. You know this isn’t a romantasy when the communication is actually good LOL. I really liked Sparrow as a main character. She’s adventurous, logical, and has a pleasing arc as she learns from her friends and the outside world. Sparrow has always been a tough survivor but seeing her grow into a fighter and trust again after everything was so sweet. I loved Halek’s easy affection and cheerful demeanour. It’s kind of in contrast to the rest, including Sparrow, who’s reserved despite her hopeful nature. I love Kysa and her big rock beetle and I unexpectedly loved Raithe. They provided a great support system and I loved their individuality too. Starting in Sparrow’s familiar streets in Kovass, the world expanded so much as she left home. The insect monsters were particularly interesting because I don’t see them often, and Kagawa describes these hideous hybrid creatures so well. The ancient magic system and undead beings were also strong antagonists. Some things were convenient, like how fast they get out of life or death situations (though Kagawa’s fight scenes are great) and the time skips in the journey, but I like that about YA novels. Less stress, more closure. I’m really looking forward to following the rest of Sparrow’s journey. “...there are few things more distracting than falling in love and worrying about the welfare of one individual soul.” ੈ✩‧₊˚ #twentyreviews @times.reads

“To be young and free. To have searched for Chopin and found a soulmate. To be alive in Paris’s largest and most enchanting cemetery.” REVIEW ೃ༄ Finding Chopin by Rachel Tey A mother and her teenage son explore memory, loss, and relationships. In a rapidly changing Singapore it’s rare to return to a place and find it the way you remembered it, and with fragmented memories to complete, the two are left piecing the past together. Emerald and her son Finn can communicate more openly because Emerald does not harbour resentment towards him like her mother Jolene does her—for ruining her life as the third child during the Stop at Two campaign, during which Jolene prematurely ended her career due to the forfeited maternity leave. But though Emerald is “better” compared to her mother’s scathing passive aggression, she’s still not seen as approachable in her son’s eyes, where she comes across as melancholic and overly self-critical. It’s still difficult for him to talk to her because she always blames herself first when things go wrong. They grow closer when they revisit places in Emerald’s memory and hold deeper conversations for Finn’s photography project. I have found there is so much to learn from someone when we just ask. And while Finn is disappointed he can’t capture the scenery he saw all those years ago, that things weren’t as they left it, Emerald reassuringly reminds him that memory belongs to individuals, not objects. I’m also grappling with the idea that, maybe we need not obsess over the act of remembering, maybe it’s okay to forget things. It’s inevitable that things look sweeter in hindsight; as Emerald says, perhaps it’s not the act of shopping with her mother that she misses, but the “bliss of a certain time”. Emerald recalls the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, thinking “there was no explanation for the princesses’ motives…only a fleeting, hazy quality that strung the narrative together,” and I can see how Tey drew inspiration from this in the way the story alternates between present day and flashbacks from dreaming or spacing out. I enjoyed uncovering the truths behind each relationship, strained but meaningful in their own ways.

“I welcome grief as a necessary visitor and even as a muse at times. But laughter contains an innate and ridiculous need to express gratitude; a desire to search for joy, betraying adversity. At points of departure in my life, I want to be in community, and I want to laugh.” REVIEW ೃ༄ Ginsberg, sing me a jiwang song! by nor This is slice-of-life. This is never-gonna-love-again, but also kiss-me-hard-before-you-go. This is life-in-technicolour, and nor in all their 4C glory. In this mixtape of poems, longing becomes communal, laughter cuts through loss, and survival resounds in chorus. I tear again rereading these poems; they really could only have been composed by someone with a profound love for language, life, and love itself. Community, too, shines through every verse: “If tomorrow my friends and I die, I can’t say for sure we are good people but I can say we lived with a ferocious love for our short time here on Earth.” I liked the exploration of how belonging is tied to our command of our mother tongue. How nor felt it was easier to connect through old songs, influenced by parents and grandparents. Borrowing lyrics to express our emotions in our mother tongue is so romantic. “Life can be so simple.” nor beautifully captures the small details in memories, small actions like leaning into their motorcyclist’s back when no one else was on the road, listening to songs with friends from the backseat and thinking of their mother. The author’s note made me chuckle: “The last time I put out a book, the discourse was around genre. So, my dear reader: How? Poems or not?” There is beauty and weight in nor’s words and I think that’s all that matters. They’re accessible and flow comfortably, warmly inviting the reader to reread and digest. The curated images and fonts bursting with colour and variety elevated the reading experience further. I loved this dearly (and highly recommend it!) and I cannot wait to read more nor.  “How differently would we live? If the community gathered at our casket was asked if the departed brought joy into their hearts during their lifetime?” ੈ✩‧₊˚ #twentyreviews @afterimage.press

ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧ we have @times.reads ’s book buffet at home~ Q. any you’ve read or on your tbr? which should i read first? THANK YOU SO MUCH @dezziray_ for this insane surprise!!! i was so sad to miss the book buffet because i was overseas and i never imagined you’d curate for me this huge box of goodies and ARCs 🤍🤍 this selection captures everything i love perfectly: dystopian/fantasy romance and asian lit with themes of family and intrigue. i’m so excited just looking at all these titles (full unboxing reel is up!) but if i had to choose a top 3 it’d be: 🗡️ Weavingshaw by @alwasityhh (coming 24 Feb) • adult gothic fantasy; first in trilogy • seeing the dead, bartering secrets, and historical writing • debut author is also a doctor(!!!) 🛡️ The Isle in the Silver Sea by @tashasuri • adult romantasy • SAPPHIC witch x knight tragic yearn?!?!? • author of The Jasmine Throne 🏔️ Defying China by Tsultrim Dolma & @generalasian (coming 10 Mar) • YA nonfiction memoir • teen activist arrested under Tibet’s occupation • fighting for independence and women’s rights 🦅 Beneath and ⛓️‍💥 To Cage a Wild Bird are dystopian romances and 🐯 Prodigal Tiger and 🌊 Twin Tides are Southeast Asian works; an urban fantasy and speculative thriller respectively. ✍️ Sibylline is a dark academia romantasy and 🧠 Almond is a Korean litfic about mental health. i also love all the book merch!! including the Times book sleeve, totes, and pins and badges. Intermezzo my love! and the stunning Penguin 90th anniversary classics ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ i’m so thankful to start my year with these new and upcoming releases from Times. i hope you all have a read-ful year ahead ｡𖦹°‧⭑.ᐟ

“Young girl, always dangling off the precipice of someone else. Clinging to the promise of being transformed by her wanting.”
 REVIEW ೃ༄ dream girl, loading by Adeline Loh Is girlhood a state of endless possibility until a hero comes along? The themes of wishing to restart one’s life parallel the otome game style, which allows for endless save files and redos, for the “best ending”. I’m charmed by the beautiful concept and harsh realities of longing held within.   I’m really in awe of the way Adeline has laid her heart out on the page. The blur between fiction and reality may have helped, though some poems read as if written from lived experiences. I resonated deeply with her devotion to wanting, from viewing relationships with rose-tinted lenses to the acts of self-reassurance. My favourite poems were the ones about yearning not just for someone, but for love itself. I think she captures the guttural feeling really well, as well as the need to always be in love. Besides the introspective ones about feeling, there were also ones like Slide 2 which explored the wider experience of girlhood, like expectations and our relationships with our mothers. I’d love to read Adeline’s journal works next :”) I love works about girlhood! And I really, really love the pink text. It’s so pleasing to the eye. The formatting in this chapbook is so unique (like the spreads across two pages!), and just makes 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦. It’s one of the reasons I started to love poetry, it’s so satisfying when it clicks in your mind. “A little grief is to be expected with seeing things through to the end.” ੈ✩‧₊˚ #twentyreviews @afterimage.press

happy new year 🐙🎀🎉 going into 2026 with more books on my tbr than ever hahaahah #qotd: what’s your favourite discovery from 2025? i attended manyyyy book events last year, from my first QRC and Wormhole ppt parties to charming community discussions hosted by Ethos and, of course, Singapore Writers Fest. a huge part is having friends to go, with thanks to NEC (and Liy!!!) 🙆🏻‍♀️ i’m grateful to the local literary scene for continually publishing stories that matter. i read 11 singlit works last year and they’ve at once broadened my perspective and comforted me with their familiarity. i’m also eternally thankful to local distributors Pansing and Times for always pampering me with latest releases, the most exciting author events, and goodies and displays in our bookstores! it’s endearing to think that we were brought together by books but now share all sorts of other interests too. this warmth and open exchange of ideas has changed me 💚for good🩷 and i can’t wait to learn and grow alongside you all in 2026 as well. 2025 has been an eventful and fulfilling one! here’s to more amazing reads, doing things you love, and lots of laughter 💗 i wish you all good health and prosperity in the year ahead!!!

This is the true story of a journey with schizophrenia, a moving account of human resiliency and sacrifice in the face of brokenness, beautifully told by Danielle Lim who grew up witnessing her uncle’s untold struggle and her mother’s difficult role as caregiver.  REVIEW ೃ༄ The Sound of SCH by Danielle Lim A “fulfilling” life is often measured by attaining our goals, one after another, and then finding our next new milestone. So for Seng to make the best of life, working when he could and spending time with his family amid the dry, bitter medicine he has to take, takes a lot of resilience. I’m inspired because his story wasn’t victimising; he lived contentedly and so can we. I often wondered how Seng stayed uncomplaining and found the will to live on. One thing we struggle with is “wasted potential”. It hurts to think that in the past Seng had friends with whom he could discuss educated matters, only to lose them and essentially all human contact since his illness. And when he loses his job, he can only go for walks all day, getting strange looks and, at worst, bullied or lost. Danielle and I wondered the same thing, “What’s the purpose of Ah Gu’s life?” There’s no definite answer, but through talking with her friend (Slide 7) she realises this: while there’s no /point/ to Seng suffering in silence because “in the end nobody knows and nobody cares”, she knows, and it’s made a difference to her. And I’m so thankful she’s shared it with us too; there are so many things to take away from Seng and Mum’s story. I loved the strong bond and affection between Danielle and her mother Chu. Somehow those made me cry the most (Slides 3, 5) cry thinking of how much my mom has done for me out of love too :”) When I grew resentful of Ah Ma’s guilt I remember that she, too, was afraid and trying her best. Sometimes there simply isn’t anything we could have done better, given who we were at the time. That’s the power of reading nonfiction I think: at the end of the day these are real people with real lives, which pushes me to reconsider their perspective of the situation, and ultimately see just how widespread the impact of caregiving is.

“I can’t change without accepting everything that I am and you are just a part of me.” REVIEW ೃ༄ DELAY: A Comics Anthology edited by Charis Loke and Paolo Chikiamco What does delay mean to you? Writers and illustrators from Southeast Asia take on this theme, exploring identity, family, and other twists and turns of modern life. Most narratives revolved around family (very Southeast Asian of us) and that hit so much harder. Our experiences differ and yet the settings are familiar. I love how these stories depict characters shouldering the burden of time passing, at times reading like non-fiction with their devastating realness. From denied citizenship and schooling setbacks to caregiving and parents with dementia, a lot of the stories realistically had no true resolution but still ended on a hopeful note. My favourites were The Adventures of Sunday Domingo feat. Yaya Precy by @zekemachine and DELAYED by @prodigalgeek and @li_vermin_il . The first was about Sunday, an online artist struggling to produce a comic for her first big convention, and her helper Yaya, who selflessly and courageously worked abroad to support her siblings’ education and family, including separating from her daughter. I cherished Yaya’s endless well of love and support for Sunday, her family, and comics (Slide 7)! DELAYED was about a grandmother reflecting on her past, told through fragmented memories as dementia set in. It explored her denial and resistance to her family babying her, and the sad inevitability (Slide 5). I loved the utter Singaporean-ness and loving multigenerational family. Special mentions to Ad Astra by @wanlingnic and Time For That Later by @waynereewrites , @nadiadaeng , and @wheredidabsgoh for also making me bawl and cry! I LOVED the ingenuity of the sticky note overlays and full page capturing Evan’s overthinking (Slide 6) in Limerence Station by @eliotlime , and I adored the manhua-esque expressions in Ma, Pa, Delayed Ako by @justhanselart (Slide 4). But I honestly loved ALL of these so please pick up this collection and let these spreads fill you with emotion! Experiencing a story through visuals is irreplaceable, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

happy november! the last few months of the year (aka the ‘ber’ months) fly by, but they’re usually also when i pick up tons of obsessions. it’s like i’m scrambling to include all my new hobbies in 2025 >⩊< q. what’s your fav media from oct/currently? october started off strong with recess week (university break), which allowed my mdzs novel series full binge (˶ˆᗜˆ˵) some things i particularly enjoyed last month included: • friends and family birthday get togethers ㅤ♡ so much joy contained • listening to mdzs audio drama/广播剧 while walking to class (forever grateful to yz from @wordwanderlust for putting me on!!) • sweet drinks. coffee addict, matcha addict, bbt addict (๑ᵔ⤙ᵔ๑) • WEBTOONS!!!!! oh my goodness i keep getting tiktok recs so i finally caved and they’re so funny & adorable ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧ • reading 9 whole books. i’m really happy about that! • got tickets to txt in sg next year, planned a few trips to come, and overall so much to look forward to :”) i hope november treats you kindly 🌷 remember to drink up and do things purely for enjoyment!