Considering this was a little over 200 pages long I reckon I would have finished it a week ago. Alas, that’s not how it wound up.

I liked this a lot. The prose was beautiful, yet made it equally challenging to read too. During the end one of the chapters nearly brought me to tears. I had hoped it would have been a five star and I had high hopes for it, and while it was a stunning book, I found myself bored at times. The Crocodile chapters were especially kind of rough, which I think is unfortunate because there’s bound to be some hidden symbolism in them that I didn’t catch the first time around. Granted, my focus has been elsewhere on uni preparations immensely so that may have something to do with it too.

I loved and disliked the characters simultaneously. Meng Sheng weirded me out when at first. Still kind of at the end too. I adored Tun Tun, Chuang, and Zhi. Lazi… she’s complex. I could see myself in parts of her, her thoughts and feelings, for better or worse. Shui Ling was an interesting character. I don’t know how I feel about her. I do think she was stringing Lazi along but also… Lazi needed to let go. She needed to give herself that push and allow herself to move on instead of being hung up on Shui. It’s clear they were incompatible. I don’t think they would have worked in the long run. I do like the sentiment it has about how some people never truly leave you even after your time with them is over though. But also that for your own sake of mind you have to let them go and live your life.

Overall an excellent book. I’d recommend highly if you’re into prose and lesbian literature.