Can a book stick with you even before you've read it?
As I was reading the sample chapter, I became stuck on a little line: "An inch of hair is two months of your life." At face value, of course it means that within a month of your life, you grow about half an inch of hair. But, with the ominous, almost foreboding sense of that scene, you begin to wonder if perhaps that has a deeper meaning connected to the magic alluded to in the first paragraph.
In the second chapter, I love the discussion of selling tiny slices of immortality. The phrasing is a fun way to look at healing and life extension. Often, immortality seems like a boundless thing.
In fact, it is all these clever phrases that are sticking with me. Phrases like "he whispered, because the silent films had finally consumed his voice, leaving him only a shred to use" and "There were rumors of rituals performed in the basements of Everest Studios, peeling away her Mexican features, slivers of her soul and the lightning that danced at her fingertips" that make it hard for me to decide if they are talking about actual magic, or just a clever way of discussing more mundane realities.
The wordplay (or perhaps even literal representations of the "magic") has stuck with me since I read the teaser. Combine that with the interesting intersection of an Asian-American queer protagonist growing up in Hollywood's Golden Age, and this has the makings of 2022's biggest must-read. I hope I get the opportunity to try this one out, because I can't stop thinking about the ingenious prose and wondering where the author will lead us in this novel!
In the second chapter, I love the discussion of selling tiny slices of immortality. The phrasing is a fun way to look at healing and life extension. Often, immortality seems like a boundless thing.
In fact, it is all these clever phrases that are sticking with me. Phrases like "he whispered, because the silent films had finally consumed his voice, leaving him only a shred to use" and "There were rumors of rituals performed in the basements of Everest Studios, peeling away her Mexican features, slivers of her soul and the lightning that danced at her fingertips" that make it hard for me to decide if they are talking about actual magic, or just a clever way of discussing more mundane realities.
The wordplay (or perhaps even literal representations of the "magic") has stuck with me since I read the teaser. Combine that with the interesting intersection of an Asian-American queer protagonist growing up in Hollywood's Golden Age, and this has the makings of 2022's biggest must-read. I hope I get the opportunity to try this one out, because I can't stop thinking about the ingenious prose and wondering where the author will lead us in this novel!