Reading her essays makes you feel like you could learn anything, because hey, Jia did. Knowing yourself is a more crucial asset than anything else these days, and allows for a bigger worldview. Tolentino’s talent is capturing this perspective in words, inspiring her readers to take the same leap.
Young adult literature has two lives: The first is during adolescence, when the stories being told connect directly with their target audience. YA helps people through their teenage years, offering relatable characters and exciting adventures, teaching empathy and resilience.
Though we find ourselves circling back to the original themes we encountered in “Over the Wall,” there’s never a moment where it feels redundant or trite, given the more complex plot line and the entanglements of other characters.
Like Hazel Grace with “An Imperial Affliction,” John Green’s work feels intensely personal to me. It’s evangelical-zeal-inducing and formative in every sense of the word, not only emotionally or intellectually, but also in terms of real relationships Green’s work has impacted my life.
The coincidences keep flying.
In truth, the realities of being human are not easily swallowable, and certainly more complicated than we wish they were. Vuong knows this well and weaves each aspect of his semi-autobiographical story through the lens of personhood, making the big picture distinguishable among its million puzzle pieces.
It is difficult to review Evenson’s work because it is so dependent on its reader’s state of mind, almost like the literary equivalent of a mood ring. For an audience to judge his writing, they must experience it themselves, influenced by their own perceptions and insecurities of identity.
May 17 can be one of those spring days where everything goes right.
Fiction — science fiction in particular — is obsessed with the post-apocalyptic world. From space odysseys to duels with zombies, readers and authors alike have a strange fascination with the world after the end of the world.
One of the poems in Franny Choi’s latest collection is written in code.