Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this book. I was completely drawn in by the Asian folklore and the synopsis gave me an air of Angela Carter.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. I'm sure people will really enjoy this book but for me it was a bit too graphic and I ended up not being able to finish it.

About transformation. Visceral, lyrical, violent, disturbing, really enjoyed it, will definitely be recommending.

Reading the blurb for this book, I was very much 'count me in'. Mythology, some mystery, Asian culture featuring LGBT+ storylines, eek, how exciting can it get.

I felt myself saying out loud, 'this is weird' a lot. And I won't lie, it's one of my prime takeaways, but in the best kind of way. Seriously. Also, how is this a debut novel?

This book is written beautifully, you really get a sense of the poetic background that Chang has, but what really strikes and causes discomfort, at least to me, was the content of the story. There is a lot of abuse, and so it feels hard to describe a book with such flow and song-like quality, when some of the content is actually really quite disturbing to read.

I loved the myths, of Hu Go Po and all the others, that live inside us. I was confused in parts but I didn't even care. Chang naturally and beautifully describes 'Daughters' relationship with Ben, the neighbourhood girl.

It's also really interesting how Chang gives so much detail and story about these Taiwanese women's lives, yet they remain so distant to us, "Ma", "Daughter", "Ama", "Jie". Each of which have their very own writing style, language, breaking up how the novel is written and making the whole book more mysterious and captivating.

I'm obsessed with the cover with the large tiger. So pretty, where is my tiger tail?

3.75, rounding to 4 stars.

Thanks to much to NetGalley, Random House UK, Vintage and K-Ming Chang for an eArc copy of this novel to review!

Bestiary tells the story of three generations of women of the same family, their history of violence, magic, love and queerness. On the surface, Bestiary is everything I love in a book: a family saga, poetic writing, magical realism, and Sapphic main characters are always a plus, but in the end I had mixed feelings about this book. I ended up giving it three stars but that doesn't mean I thought it was a meh book. Rather, it was beautiful, brilliantly, viscerally written and just whimsical enough to make it unique but not over-the-top... but sometimes I was so annoyed with it. While very lovely, the writing is also very crude and frankly, gross. I have never read a book that mentions farts, anuses and penises /mostly as metaphors) so much before, and it's the kind of thing I don't really like reading, I guess it offends my delicate sensibilities. The pacing of the book also threw me off a bit, and I felt that this was much longer than 280 pages. I had to force myself to finish reading it and, while I did really like the ending and several aspects of the book, it still felt like a chore to read it. This will be a brilliant read for some readers, but I suspect its writing style will not work for many - Bestiary is more of a feeling than a proper story.

I was very drawn to the idea this book proposed, but sadly I started getting lost and confused from the very beginning. Everything was very bizarre and unsettling at times when the narrative focused on body fluids and secretions? So I found myself rather uncomfortable throughout most of the book and just wasn't compelled to finish it.

I think what really made the story even more impactfull is the writing style. I'm not usually a fan of poetic prose but it worked so well with this story. Some aspects of this story are very weird and would be nonsensical but for whatever reason it just works. I really like the inclusion of queer characters within the story.

trigger warning
<spoiler> domestic violence, racism </spoiler>

After being told a peculiar good night story, a Taiwanese American girl grows a tigers' tail.

I dnf-ed this not because anything is wrong with it. My problem is that the writing goes in the stream of conscious direction. It's not fully there, but enough so that problems arise for me. For some neurodiverse people, this way of writing triggers dissociation or, at least, mind wandering. I simply get no real reading done, can't remember what I read.

Apart from the magical realism, this is a lot of slice of life from the perspective of Taiwanese people who immigrated to the US. Their father still works somewhere else and mostly is there through messages he sends, and they have to struggle with money, their neighbors' racism, and struggling in a world that's different to what you're used to.
Folklore plays a big role, as that's where mother gets her ideas for good night stories from.

Let me repeat: I did not find fault with this book. It's just not for me.
And that's okay. There are so many books in this world, that there will be enough for me, and the diversity gives me new and unexpected things, which I love.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

Thank you NetGalley for this ebook!

I should probably begin by saying that I couldn't follow the entirety of the story and I should probably read it again to make sense of things. There is something disgustingly magical about this book and it in my bookshelf so I can savor things properly.

Bestiary is a retelling of Taiwanese folklore that weaves mythology across three generations with a queer love story. The story revolves around three generations of Taiwenese women Ama, mother, and daughter and as you proceed, the plot unfolds their story of their lives carried by a multigenerational secret which is marked by war, poverty, queer love, desire, survival, and immigration.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Though the story is refreshing yet I felt the writing is crude which couldn’t help me to connect with the characters. The main challenge is with the strong and intense language with body fluid and visceral descriptions that couldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
However, there are moments that made me laugh and instances that are thought provoking. One can either thoroughly enjoy and love this book or might leave it behind.

Thank you NetGalley for sharing the eArc for a honest review.

This is a beautifully written story about three generations of Taiwanese American and the mythology of their past. Poetic and sometimes surreal, with wonderful imaginary, I only wish it had been longer.

This was a really ambitious book, and the writing was at times really lovely. Each chapter of the book is mediated through one of three women in a family - I think I preferred the voice of the 'Mother' sections, but there was striking imagery in many places. I agree with other reviewers that there were similarities between this and C. Pam Zhang's debut, but this really pushes the mythology/magical realism to the forefront. For me, at times the focus on bodily fluids bordered on too much, much like I find Otessa Moshfegh's writing does, but I think this would really appeal to her fans, as well as anyone who enjoyed Zhang's book. This is an interesting, very literary debut, and it's obvious that K-Ming Chang has a really interesting style of writing and career ahead of her, but this didn't fully work for me, despite it's strengths.

I was drawn to this book at the prospect of reading about Asian folklore however the execution was not to my taste. Too crude and slightly offensive I just could not get into the story.

I am sure there is reading crowd, potentially more comfortable with abstract literary books, that would appreciate this, unfortunately I am not the right reader for this story.

Certainly a very different and striking book

I think it will appeal to readers who:

- Enjoyed the occasional mythological elements in Pam Zhang's Booker shortlisted "How Much of These Hills is Gold" - but would prefer those mythological elements to emerge front and sides to subvert and direct the plot rather than just acting as a slightly off-kilter side-bar

- Enjoy the writing of an Ottessa Moshfegh or (perhaps even more so Patty Yumi Cottrell)

- Enjoy heavily allegorical writing and imagery - for example family tales emerging as a literal tale; generational and sexual fluidity represent by copious references to bodily fluids

For my own personal tastes, I preferred the more restrained magic realism of a Pam Zhang and found the writing and imagery here too scatological, to really appreciate the novel.

"Bestiary" draws heavily from myths and folklore and comments on the themes of family, migration, queer identity; the writing style is definitely lyrical, however the novel, overall, fell pretty flat.

I wanted to love this book. It promised a lot, and I've never read a Taiwanese author before so I was excited. But as I read it, the first person narrative started to bore me. I couldn't connect with any of the characters, so I didn't care about them. I tried focusing on the cultural aspects of it, but the narration just killed it for me.

Part mythology, part immigrant story, part a queer love story

Highlights:
- very raw, primal and visceral; ugliness is given a surreal twist at places.
The book doesn't focus on beauty all around, unlike many books of magical realism (eg: moss like pubic hair)
- Prose that hits you on the face "Ma donated her three daughters to her parents and birthed two new ones with Ba...We're the ones she kept. brought here, and beat".
"I was born with a gord shaped head. my Ma kneaded it back to a sphere while by bones were still milk
- very very surreal. A girl grows into a tree. A tiger spirits inhabits bodies of women. A daughter wakes up with a tiger tail that she keeps hidden. A woman who unscrews toes of sleeping daughters and snacks on them calling them (bones) 'peanuts'. And that's just the first few pages.
- I enjoyed being immersed in the weird and strange in the book. This is done so well. If you enjoy magical realism, you will love so many pages. I read an e-copy and I wish I had a physical book to underline.
- The poetic prose
"Our mother's teeth were brittle with lies", "The silence had shrunk his throat to the width of a string"


What didn't work for me:
The book is written in first person. While this is a very bold choice, and often used to make the reader feel deeply connected with the protagonist, I felt the overly poetic style of writing clashed with the first person narrative, bringing a disconnect and almost making us feel that the protagonist isn't real. I kept wishing this book was in third person. (I wouldn't say poetic prose does not make the reader connected. I enjoyed On Earth we are briefly gorgeous which is overly lyrical and still establishes a good connection).

Ambitious coming of age non-novel on myth and migration.

Growing up in America, Daughter defines herself through the matrilineal myths of her Taiwanese heritage.

Chang's writing is earthy and lyrical. The footnotes add a humorous, self-referential quality, in the style of Carmen Maria Machado.

I look forward with interest to what this author delivers next.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for the ARC.

Bestiary by K-Ming Chang is a difficult book to categorise. It's magical realism (with the emphasis on magical) written with heavy imagery and beautiful language, and thematically very interesting, exploring queer identities, maternal relationships, immigration, generational trauma and a whole host more.
I'm torn between giving the book 3 stars and giving it 4 stars, so I'll split the difference and say 3.5 stars.
There's a lot to like. Weird, odd magical realisim happenings, a really beautiful queer relationship, interesting mythologies and writing that is almost 80% intensely metaphorical.
But there are also things that put me off the book.
The writing is so metaphorical and there's so much symbolism and odd magical realism, that at times, I feel overwhelmed and I don't actually know what's happening. What's being said? What's the point of all the odd details? What's going on? What is being said by the grandfather giving birth to the moon? This is a book that requires an almost surgical level of analysis as you're reading it. It's one that will keep literary scholars unpicking and musing for decades. There are so many layers, so many symbols and meanings and interpretations - if you like your books to be riddles, this is definitely one for you. For me, it was a bit too much, a bit too heavy handed. I wanted more character, less obscurity. The writing is really powerful in its metaphors but at times, the metaphors don't seem to be saying much and feel contrived.
It's a book that needs you to concentrate, to remember, to read in one long stretch. I think it asked too much of me in 2020 but I do think there's lots in here that someone else might love.

I so wanted to enjoy this poetic tale of three generations of Taiwanese-American women, but unfortunately the relation of absolutely everything to bodily fluids and functions felt too forced and repetitive for me to push through. Probably one for fans of The Discomfort of Evening.

Bestiary is a book exploring 3 generations of Taiwanese American women.
The discussions and themes the book provoked were meaningful, like migration, family and queer relationships, but I just didn't enjoy the way it was presented. One thing I usually like is the inclusion of myths and folklore, but the symbolism throughout the book was too much for me personally and sometimes the mini-stories (and Grandmother's perspective) were long-winded and hard to follow. At times, the descriptions could be poetic, but they could also be blunt and downright gross. How many times can something be compared to 'piss'? There were a lot of disgusting comparisons and actions, but if you can tolerate that then I think you would enjoy this much more than I did.
I did enjoy the relationships in this book, particularly Daughter and Ben's growing relationship, and the family's relationship with Grandmother. However, the narrative was very confusing and there wasn't much of a plot. I had a hard time following what was actually happening.
There's a lot of substance to this book, but unfortunately it wasn't for me!