The Fetishist

The Fetishist

Katherine Min

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0
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In this hilariously savage, poignant novel by acclaimed author Katherine Min, a grieving daughter’s revenge on the man who caused her mother’s death sets off a series of unexpected reckonings. On a cold, gloomy night, twenty-three-year-old Kyoko stands in the rain with a knife in her hoodie’s pocket. Her target is Daniel, who seduced Kyoko’s mother then callously dropped her, leading to her death. But tonight, there will be repercussions. Following the unsuspecting Daniel home, Kyoko manages to get a rash kidnapping plot off the ground . . . and then nothing goes as planned. The Fetishist is the story of three people—Kyoko, a Japanese American punk-rock singer full of rage and grief; Daniel, a philandering violinist forced to confront the wreckage of his past; and Alma, the love of Daniel’s life, a Korean American cello prodigy long adored for her beauty, passion, and talent, but who spends her final days examining if she was ever, truly, loved. An exuberant, provocative story that confronts race, complicity, visibility, and ideals of femininity, The Fetishist was written before the celebrated author’s untimely death in 2019. Startlingly prescient, as wise and powerful as it is utterly delightful, this novel cements Katherine Min’s legacy as a writer with a singular voice for our times.


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  • Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0
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    I was sold on the hook--a Lolita retelling exploring the fetishization of Asian women...and this novel delivered. Beautiful prose with a farcical build up of events at once entertaining and confronting, The Fetishist was published posthumously this year (Jan 2024), but Min actually wrote the manuscript a decade ago and "abandoned" it. Incredible how the novel feels prescient today given post-Covid Asian hate crimes and the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings. This book captured so many aspects of my lived experience as an Asian American woman and presented no clear answers, which I actually prefer because it's real. As someone who has spent a long time thinking about these thorny topics--white supremacy, internalized racism, misogyny--and had to make life decisions in a world shaped by it, the multifaceted perspectives and complexities presented on "yellow fever" resonated deeply. It's hard to do that and present a well-written, engaging story that is pulsing with forward momentum. The Fetishist is a must-read for anyone navigating interracial relationships.

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