This was a really interesting read. I enjoyed the irreverent tone and the almost absurdist humour that took the idea of fetishisation of Asian women and pushed it to comedy in a way that felt biting and clever. I liked the complex, nuanced female characters, although the male characters felt a little more flat but this may have been part of the point. I did enjoy the sections that focused on the main relationship more than the bizarro punk band, although that did add an interesting twist and perspective on the fetishist of the title, overall a fun read.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I found Katherine Min's writing to be beautiful, engaging and immersive. Her character building and development is brilliant and and I can see how this book might not be for everyone but to me it felt original, fresh, different and kind of does its own thing and goes its own way, I fully subscribed. I also quite enjoy an unlikable character, so that was delivered in spades. I wasn't massively drawn to the overarching theme, touching upon the preference of white males towards asian women (yellow fever ie the fetishist) and maybe because I am a huge crime genre fan I was hoping for a darker turn of events. But overall I enjoyed reading the story of Alma and Daniel's love story and later his reckoning, delivered by the fiercely passionate and driven Kyoko.

So, if you enjoy beautiful writing and character development, this is a book you will enjoy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my review copy, all opinions are my own.

Weird and intriguing, a well plotted novel that made me learn something new and I appreciated
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Fetishist was quite an interesting read.. I never knew anything about Fetishism of a white man over an Asian woman before I read this book and was delighted to be educated on fetishisation also know as Yellow fever. I liked the part of Daniel and Kyoko, I felt that was the only part that kept me moving forward in this book. Sad that this was Katherine Min’s last book before she passed away.

Thank you Netgalley and Little Brown for this ARC.

Exciting idea. Mystical and at times disconcerting.
Not my usual read but the author has accomplished a special book here.

The Fetishist is perhaps unsurprisingly a novel which tackles the topic of a white man's fetishization of asian women, pushing against the stereotypical views of what it means to be an asian woman with the main character Kyoko who plans to get revenge by kidnapping Daniel, a man who wrecked her mother's life.

A thought-provoking read about power dynamics, grief and a loss of sense of self. Thank you Netgalley and Little Brown for the e-ARC.

Beautifully written and very much a needed topic that needs to be talked more openly about!
I loved how well the characters were explored and were fleshed out.
Definetly a must read.
Rest in peace Katherine Min.

I really liked the sound of this, but I did feel that too many characters were introduced in the beginning without much attachment being created towards them.

Although I found the whole process of publishing this book posthumously praiseworthy , I haven’t really connected with the characters, especially the male protagonist whose redemption in the end I’ve found a bit disappointing.

This was my first read of 2024 and it did not disappoint. Witty, sharp, nuanced, I could go on! I have already recommended to many friends and colleagues and will be interested to read more by Katherine Min. Excellent.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my digital ARC of The Fetishist! I don’t believe I’ve read many posthumously published works but I’ve read three so far in 2024. The Fetishist does what it says on the tin - explores one white man’s fetishisation of Asian women - but it does so with impeccable wit and warmth. I loved spending time with these characters (okay, not Daniel), especially Kyoko and Kornell.
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Obviously the whole novel is a pushback against the stereotypical views of Asian and Asian-American women, but Kyoko was just the embodiment of this pushback. She’s infused with so much love and depth, the author and her intent are clear as day - but not in a ‘beat you over the head with a stick’ kind of way. I’m explaining this badly, but basically we love Kyoko and fuck the stereotype of the meek, pliable Asian/Asian-American woman.
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I won’t give too much away of the plot, but the cover is SO good. The sections we spend in Daniel’s head are tough to read but so important. It’s like I said before, Daniel’s fetishisation is clear as day but also subtle. His ‘preferences’ are all the more harmful because he genuinely doesn’t see himself as one of those guys blatantly chasing after Asian women. He *does* love Alma (another great character I haven’t even mentioned yet!) but Min doesn’t shy away from plumbing the seedier depths of his desires, prejudices and the power dynamics of such a relationship.
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And Alma! Her sections was amazing and heartbreaking. She’s a classical musician with MS, dealing with the subsequent loss of a huge part of her life. I loved her relationship with her neighbour (although I forget his name, oops), and her strength.
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I did find the timelines a little bit confusing. Usually I don’t have trouble jumping back and forth in time in books, but for some reason it took me a while to get acclimated to each new section.
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A taut, dark, funny read which makes me so sad that Katherine Min passed away before we could see more of her talent. She does have another book from 2006 though!

The Fetishist boasts a blurb all about revenge which drew me in - with Kyoko planning a kidnapping of Daniel, a man who callously dropped her mother, leading to her death.

I got 37% of the way through this book and decided to DNF it unfortunately. There are a lot of characters and they are quite similar in their backstories which muddied the story. It’s very slow moving and I was hoping it would pick up the pace once the kidnapping had happened but even that seemed quite dull. Then the flashbacks started, and I found that I just wasn’t invested in the story enough to keep reading. I understand that the book takes on the wider topic of the fetishisation of Asian women and so it may be that I’m just not the target market, but on the whole it didn’t keep me engaged.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK – Fleet for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Katherine Min's The Fetishist isn't just another tale of vengeance but a cocktail of humor, heartache, and punk rock rebellion, all shaken up with a twist of cultural introspection. Meet Kyoko, our protagonist, who's as likely to wield a witty comeback as she is her knife, all while wrestling with her Japanese American identity and a grudge list longer than a punk band's setlist. Get ready for a botched kidnapping, a love triangle that's more complicated than your Facebook relationship status, and a narrative voice that's equal parts sassy and sage.

*Thank you for the ARC!

This. Fk'in. Book.

Katherine Min was a writer of rare talent and this posthumous release makes for essential and poignant reading.

The fetishisation of Asian women(and men) by the Western world has created massively unbalanced power dynamics that are often dangerous and toxic. The Fetishist follows Daniel as he unwillingly embarks on a path of absolution for his past mistakes and the lives destroyed by his hedonistic ways.

Whilst the meat of the story is focused on power dynamics, the fetishisation of minorities and repentance the story also deftly handles grief, disabilities and the loss of self.

This book is hard to read, but it's a rewarding and at times addicting story about the dangers and ripple effects of selfishness.

Pleased to say that I enjoyed this offbeat novel and found it compulsively readable.

Min has written a confronting and unique story about a young woman trying to get revenge on the man that she believes drove her mother to commit suicide. The writing delves into the lives of several characters, and explores themes of fetishism (obviously) and chronic illness.

I appreciated the way the author kept the momentum of the story line by jumping between different characters and places in time, but would have appreciated more time spent with some of the characters that were explored less than others.

Initially I was confused by the route that the story took, and then was pleasantly surprised when I remembered the Author's Note that is included at the beginning. Min’s introduction (alongside those last two excellent chapters of the novel) changes the entire narrative and meaning of the events, as she warns that the story is a fairytale of sorts, and that every story has a happy ending depending on where you put the ending. I won't say anything else - in order to avoid the risk of spoilers - but the author's sometimes scathing wit, as well as her excellent framing of the narrative, really made for a unique novel that kept me thinking about it long after reading it.

This will be a fun one to recommend to a lot of my customers.

An intense read about obsession, this story kept me gripped from beginning to end, the characters and their motivations were convoluted and complex, and the whole book was a wild ride. The relationships between Kyoko, Daniel and Alma are explored over time, and the novel is funny, sad, challenging and touching throughout, although the ending is a little unbelievable.
Altogether this is a work of love and an honour to read a finished book after the author's death.

Beautiful writing and technically adept, but the story lost momentum for me. Didn't find the ARC of the male main character believable, and cringed at some elements, but overall enjoyed the experience. Felt very original, and the writing about music is wonderful

Sad to say that this book was a disappointment as the blurb was very intriguing. The writing is slightly clumsy and the timeline jumping around is a bit confusing. I wasn't rooting for any character at all. Wish it could be executed better. After all it's still good to have it published with Min's family's help after she sadly passed away.

Thank you netgalley for the advanced e-copy.

Expectations are always strange things. The very title, "The Fetishist", suggests a certain extremeness and intensity. The blurb talked of rain, rage, grief, and revenge. A punk singer seeking retribution gives a strong sense of anger and violence in a few simple words. And these things all exist in this book, but they are accents rather than the overall tone. For while this is a story about the harm love causes when it falls apart, it is also a celebration of love. As someone who came for the revenge story I found myself wondering why I was enjoying the love stories as much as I did. I should've felt cheated and deprived of that bleakness, but instead I found comfort in the warmth. The plots of love are well crafted. We explore the scars and brokenness of the characters through the various subplots. Books about revenge are supposed to have clear villains, often on both sides, but I found these characters sympathetic. Maybe not always pleasant, but they are human and relatable.

About three quarters of the way through I was struck by something very cliched. Not in the story, but my opinion of it. For all the classical music references throughout, there came a moment looking back on a trip to Italy where I realised the writing itself felt like a long classical piece of music. The way the different threads wove together, like the different sections of an orchestra rising and falling. The tempo adjusting smoothly between the emotions - peril giving way to nostalgia and back again. The back and forth that feels natural in a performance. I think that's when I stopped feeling puzzled why I was enjoying the story. It was that very flow that was keeping me engaged as much as anything else. But then, right at the end, I think it all just clocked. Those final pages gave me the conclusions I never knew I wanted - those storylines I'd become invested in tied themselves up nicely. No loose ends. No "what if"s despite plenty of unwritten future. I felt sated. My satisfaction with the whole thing just lifted as it all drew to a close.

This was an enjoyable read about fetishisation and obsession, something you can tell was incredibly important to the author, and it is a story that well deserved finishing following her sad death.

The characters in this are so whole and complete that you feel like they exist in the world around you - whether for better or worse, and I loved the way that music is included throughout.