Magical realism meets Taiwanese American immigrant story in this coming-of-age family saga that includes intense mother-daughter drama, surreal human-animal romances, plenty of bodily fluids, and a budding lesbian relationship. It’s rare that a novel has both gorgeously poetic writing and an engaging plot, but Bestiary has both, engrossing the reader in a world of myths, family, wars, trauma, and healing. This book is great for fans of Jeanette Winterson and Helen Oyeyemi.

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐓𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐠 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐝. 𝐁𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧.

Generational history, fabrications, mythology and wildly imaginative tales entertain the readers of 𝘉𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘺 until its ‘tail’ end. It’s nothing out of the ordinary for the characters here to pour salt on festering wounds of their elders, like Ba (Agong) – whose memory is nothing but snakes. Fleeing their homeland, learning the strange new customs of the Western world, remembering rivers that swallowed young men during war and leaving behind firstborn children to birth new ones… this is the cage, the past that the Taiwanese women carry in this family.

With Ma (Ama) searching for the gold (their future, security) Ba ‘misplaced’ along with his mind, their daughters are digging holes in the earth searching. This is the freedom they first learn on new shores. It’s a strange inheritance, a pit of loss, a collision of cultures. They cannot outrun their buried shadows, as we follow three generations of women. They know too well how to scratch the earth, much like chickens, trying to make a living.

Now a mother with her own family, Ma lives in a city far enough away from Ama and Agong that she is close enough for their needs and yet comforted by the distance. With a main lander husband, more disappointment than good fortune, she waits for his checks to pay their rent while their son and daughter dig into the earth, waiting to see what it will give birth to. Feeding their heads with fantastical tales like that of Hu Gu Po (a tiger spirit that longs to be human, attained only by feasting on the toes of children) is it any shock that Daughter wakes up with a Tiger’s tail herself? Her own mother’s price were her toes, stubs now. When father lets them down, is away with the kites, Duck Uncle steps in, but nothing good can last. In Daughter, hungers rise that must be named and fed. It is beside her friend Ben “the one who’d come halfway through the year and could spit a watermelon seed so fair it skipped the sea and planted in another country” exploring each other’s blossoming bodies, that her tiger heart soars. Ben whom she shows the holes in their backyard to. Ben is a willing captive, befriending the wild beast she is becoming.

The stories are meant to save the daughters by serving as warnings but in the end Ama, Mother and Daughter are the same story, looking only for a cure, ‘which is to survive’. Survive the snakes in the river, the soldiers, lies, ghosts, the dead and anything that lives off a woman’s body. Then there are Alma’s mysterious letters, a bit like riddles, written to her eldest child first, as if she’s a corpse. A daughter whose father was imprisoned, accused of being a ‘red father’, the reason that the entire family must avoid shoelaces, like a curse.

Ama’s daughters have been made unclean by holy hands, they are born laughing, tying knots or meant for America- a strange type of afterlife. Husbands and men seem to be ‘synonymous with the missing’, either through imprisonment, abandonment or buried by their own scrambled minds. Ama’s husbands, soldiers always, aren’t the true fighters, it is Ama- the only country Agong ever needed. Ama’s warnings to her grandchild about keeping ginger root between her knees to ‘ward off boys’ isn’t so much corruption as security. Ama knows the truth of why Daughter digs holes in her yard, these instincts are in the marrow of her family’s bones.

Ma’s stories may not be as full of soldiers as Ama’s but there are always wars and struggles, living with her sister Jie, Ba and Ama in Arkansas until debts could be paid. Then to California, it’s cleaning houses, factories, fires and her beloved sister Jie fleeing the main story. With her tail twitching mean, Daughter longs to understand what her mother is trying to tell her, what Ama’s letters explain, better to return them to the holes in the ground. Did Ama feed her daughters to the river? Is she trying to kill off Agong? Can Ama ever be forgiven? Is fluency really about forgetting? Is the price of having a body really hunger? Is it wrong, the hunger Daughter feels for Ben? What are they digging for? Truth, treasure, memories? Can you dig too deep?

A beguiling, bizarre novel about family history as folktale- an engaging, unique debut!

Publication Date: September 8, 2020

Random House

One World

A Bestiary starts off talking copiously about 'shit' (of the fecal variety), 'piss', 'boogers' and the narrator's sister being 'fingered' at the diner where she works. And doesn't seem to let up on its juvenile crudeness and vulgarity. Like a six year old obsessed with bodily functions and fluids insistent on regaling their audience about poop, pee, snot and vagina/penis.

Hopefully children don't think of doing this to their fathers:

"I think about bringing the broomstick down on Ba’s body, beating him soft as peach meat, parsing through his bird-shy bones to find whatever gold is still bobbing in his belly."

This is how mother passes on family history:
"You’ve never met your great-aunts because they die faster than I can remember their names:"
Yup, charming.

More wholesome family winsomeness:
"In the photo on the card table, Ma is pregnant with Jie and holding two babies like they’re grenades with the pins pulled out. She’s waiting for this picture to be taken so she can throw them far out of frame."

Onto folklore and mythology also bedtime stories by mother of the year. A tiger spirit in a woman's body has an unusual craving: "With her teeth, she unscrewed the toes of sleeping daughters and sucked the knuckles clean of meat, renaming them peanuts." " The next morning, every child in the village woke with a toe subtracted from each foot."

While I enjoy reading Journey to the West retellings and love mythic fiction, this one just got mired in more and more excrement literally. With the liberal amounts of gratuitous violence and sex thrown into A Bestiary, I might as well go watch some TV. It's quite disappointing because reading the blurb, I was expecting something completely different. Three generations of Taiwanese women, Chinese mythology, immigration, queerness should have made an intriguing tale. Instead I felt the author merely aimed to shock and tintillate.
If this is a young writer's attempt at edgy storytelling then I'll pass, thanks.

Because this was an ARC kindly provided by One World and Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review, I tried to slog on for as long as possible but it's a DNF for me.

This book is quite possibly one of the strangest things I have ever read. But it is also incredibly beautiful and raw at the same time. At times it is like a poem and at others it is like a string of folk tales that are loosely woven together. I thought it was really interesting and different. I might not recommend this to everyone, but if you're interested in folk tales and can accept the fact that the main character grows a tiger tail, this might be the perfect thing.

Book: Bestiary
Author: K-Ming Chang
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, One World, for providing me with an ARC.

So, this is a very tricky one for me to rate. I actually finished this yesterday and spent some time going back and forth between a three star and a four star. On the one hand, I really enjoyed this book. On the other, there was a lot about it that kind of bothered me. I am not a big fan of magical realism. I like magic, but having it just appear for no one reason has always been a no go for me.

The writing was beautiful and elegant. K-Ming certainly has a very atmospheric writing style. She pulls you into the story and makes it really difficult to pull away. It is very flowery, which is something that I normally don’t like. I think the pose did work very well for this story. I think something that wasn’t as lyrical would not had worked very well. I know a lot of people are saying that this book doesn’t go into graphic detail, it does. There is a lot of talk about bodily functions, the role they play, and it is pretty detailed. I was talking to someone else with an ARC and they said it’s gross, which it is. While it isn’t anything like body horror, it is still there. I’m just putting this in my review to make others aware.

This book is about a family from Taiwan, who has been forced to flee and finds themselves in the USA. I don’t know why they had to flee, if I knew more about the history of Taiwan, then I’m sure I would understand. We get to see their struggles and hardship as they try to deal with a society that will not fully accept them. There is racism, poverty, and difficult times. What I liked about this was it showed that different groups do experience racism. I liked that K-Ming brought this to light and talked about it in a very effective way. It made me think; actually, this whole book got me thinking. This is a good thing, because if people are thinking, then that are going to talk about the book. Sorry, didn’t mean to go off there… I liked this because it felt like we were getting a first hand look into the struggles that people face when they arrive in this country. Not only does it focus on the struggles on one generation, but generation after generation. We see the affects spread throughout the years and how it affects everyone.

So, let’s talk about the magical realism elements for a minute. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Magical realism really isn’t my thing. When I agreed to read this, I didn’t realize it was magical realism. It kind of took me a minute, but I did adjust. The characters are infected by nature. One can grow a tiger’s tail and swallow sandstorms. The world, meanwhile, takes on human traits. Holes become mouths and eat letters. The characters just expect this as part of their lives. While this normally isn’t my cup of tea, it works for this story. I don’t think the story could have had the punch that it did had it not been for these elements. To me, this is what kind of held the characters together.
This is K-Ming Chang’s first novel and I must say that, for the most part, it did really impress me. This is an adult title, so don’t pick it up thinking that it’s YA.

Anyway, this book comes out on September 8, 2020.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/5grFXUZVTkM

Author K-Ming Chang might be known best for her poetry and that poetic sensibility shines through on every page of her first novel, Bestiary. Filled with myth and allusion, in sentences crackling with lyric inventiveness, Chang explores three generations of Taiwanese-Americans, using the imagery of muck and filth to expose the unacknowledged beauty in otherness (trust me, it works). Employing a variety of styles and shifting POVs, there's nothing straightforward in Bestiary, but I was captivated by these characters and their lives; dazzled by the language. Just a stellar debut.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishing for reaching out to me FIRST with an ARC of this. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish the book and made it about of a quarter into it before I had to stop.

I was very drawn in by the idea of Asian folklore and queer inclusion, but the book quickly devolved into a stream of consciousness narrative that my brain could not follow. If you asked me where I left off what was happening, I honestly could not tell you. And then…there was this weird realism to it. The writing is very poetic at times, very gritty and it’s like the scene is right before your eyes, so at first it was heavily reminiscent of Han Kang’s prose, very unsettling at times to read but not necessarily bad. But the content in this book…I can take gore, and scenes of blood, but for whatever reason, this book was really bluntly focused on details of bodily functions and strange metaphors of the same. I saw another review mention the “scatological” vocabulary of the book, and that tracks. I found myself…very grossed out by what was happening and being described. A little too gritty, a little too realistic. I think there’s a niche set of readers who may enjoy this, and unfortunately, I am not one of them.

In a clear minority.

I love a book in a different cultural setting--and folklore. I love beautiful language. BUT.

The setting:
"Three generations of Taiwanese American woman are haunted by the myths of their homeland...visceral debut about one family's queer desires, violent inpulses, and buried secrets." Pretty much sums it up.

Some of the descriptions that caught me:

"Sweat sequined his upper lip."

"...the sky bruised into night"

"We'd just begun seventh grade sex education, which mostly meant our teacher explained that the adhesive "wings" of a Maxi pad were not literal wings and could not equip us with flight." [BTW, very little humor]

And too many eeewww/brutal/graphic moments for me. Also, dislike notes at the end of a chapter--prefer them at the bottom of the page.

In the end, just paged through it. But maybe you will see it differently.

A unique and experimental look at how family narrative and cultural mythology shape us by exploring the lives of three Taiwanese women. Beautifully and brutally written, Chang discusses sexuality and poverty in an often graphic manner that may not appeal to all readers. Chang's prose is both lyrical and blunt, but it draws the reader in and leaves one thinking about and reflecting on the book long after finishing it.

So I finished Bestiary by K-Ming Chang for Pride Month and I honestly have to say that it was a tough one to get through. The language has a lot to do with mythical aspects that can be hard to understand and I feel, for me, that you just have to be in the mood for. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautifully written, and I think that K-Ming Change did a wonderful job of portraying the Taiwanese American women in this book. I just don’t think that it was for me necessarily. I tend to have a rarely be in the mood for a magical realism theme in my books, but I wanted to give this a shot because it does have a lot to do with the LGBTQ+ community and considering the fact that it was Pride Month, I felt that this would be a good choice. Like I said, this book isn’t going to be for everyone, but given the right audience I think this book will be amazing.

This is a very unique and ambitious novel. I really was blown away by the linguistic creativity. The writer is undeniably talented and has gorgeous, gorgeous prose. Her descriptions, sentences, and the mood of the writing is really astounding. That said, sometimes I did feel that the story was bogged down in language to the point where things rang a little over the top or meaning got obscured because things were so written "up." I do think that's a matter of taste, however, so I would definitely still recommend this book, especially if you're a lover of poetry or value reading slowly and really sitting with each sentence or paragraph. I was also impressed by the way the writer weaves in so many stories, and how she depicts family and intergenerational trauma. I also like the way queerness was handled in the piece. This book isn't quite my favorite but I strongly recommend it.

Bestiary is a raw and unflinching examination of parental violence and psychological warfare, the fighting of self against history and trauma, and the ways in which co-dependency becomes anger and hatred and inability to live at ease. It tells intergenerational stories of fact mingled with folklore, blended with history and escapism. Throughout there is beautiful writing and heart-breaking writing and writing about disgust and disgusting things, and at times I wasn't sure if this rollercoaster would make me feel exhilarated or make me nauseated, but I persevered, and found the experience worthwhile.

One Taiwanese American family grapples with their history as the mythology of their homeland haunts them. From tiger tails to missing toes to an all-knowing hole in the yard, three generations of women are plagued by fantastical family lore come to life, and the youngest in the line wonders if she can change their destiny.

Bestiary often feels like a fever dream - with reality and impossibility mixed into one, jumping from one location to another and not entirely sure how you got there. It's lyrical and mystical and moving, absolutely, but often hard to follow. This book is a fascinating way to explore migration, generational differences, and family history. But my best advice is to release control of the journey and let the book take you where it will.

I struggled with Bestiary and still don't know if I'm the right audience for this book. You know those books where you wonder, "Am I missing something? Will everyone else understand this but me?" That's my entire experience with Bestiary. Bestiary is incredibly experimental in a way that either readers will LOVE or HATE (to be clear I don't hate this!) Full of little almost vignette style chapters, Bestiary is a book steeped in imagery and felt surreal. Chang's queer debut is, at times, both grotesque and gorgeous. There are sentences and chapters that made me take a pause. Almost like Chang records the thoughts, fears, and feelings we have which are actualized.

Overall, to truly enjoy Bestiary, I think it's a book that has to sit with you. To find the kernels within the text and to accept that you might not understand everything. They are stories of survival, of trauma, of acceptance, and sacrifice. It definitely pushes the boundaries and expectations and I can always appreciate a book that challenges our anticipations. If you're looking for a literary fiction novel that will shock you, then definitely check out Bestiary.

At times this book could be hard to follow, especially at the beginning, but when I took time to really block out everything else that was happening around me.. that was when I found myself transported inside the novel. I am absolutely mystified by Bestiary and I appreciate everything it stands for. Thank you to netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

I really tried to give this book a fair chance but about 10% into it I had to jump ship. The language makes the book very hard to read and you jump into multiple characters without any back story. I feel like the author uses a lot of sexual language in order to be provocative without actually saying anything.

**I received a free ARC from netgalley**

i was so excited when i first heard about k-ming chang’s forthcoming novel and absolutely thrilled when it showed up as an arc i could request on netgalley!!!! i love everything about chang’s short writing – its sensuousness and its twistiness and the way it marries grief and longing – and this book provides that in spades while still retaining the complexity/integrity of a novel that unfolds slowly. every chapter had moments that left me breathless but the prose was never precious or overwrought. i think that’s what k-ming chang does best actually, write gorgeously with sentences and phrases you can dwell on and get lost in while scaffolding them into an entire intergenerational saga. i’m obsessed with it!!!

in many ways the novel feels like a spiral – told primarily through the daughter’s attempts to understand her mother, her tayal grandmother and the aunts she doesn’t know, but also the wildness inside of her and ben, the girl she loves. we’re introduced to the general story of her family but those moments are returned to over and over and told through the eyes of her mother and her grandmother too, and in the process of retelling chang both tells and shows how history is poeisis is romance, how storytelling (whether written or spoken or remembered) makes sense of the past and transforms our humanity – in this case literally.

i’m grateful, also, that i had a certain amount of context (as a chinese american from the mainland) to really resonate with some of the sticky, corporeal experiences that chang is able to put into words.... but also really excited about a book that features an indigenous taiwanese matriarch and the complicated ways that chinese and japanese imperialism have shaped her life + the lives of her descendants. it’s hard to even wrap my mind around everything chang does so masterfully here. the magical realism is poignant and more than a story of mothers and daughters its also a story of queer love between women, and the mutability and animation of the gendered body. and on top of THAT it manages levity, too, like the kind of twisted humor of buying and eating cat food from the grocery on accident, or thinking that a handjob is any job you do with your hands, or annotating translations of your grandmother’s letters with your teenage girlfriend as a mode of courting. there’s just soooo much and i definitely want to buy a copy of this when it finally releases TT_______TT

I enjoyed this book. It was different than most the books I've read recently, which was a nice change. The characters had some strange but wonderful things happening to them and I was intrigued by this. There were a few things that caught my attention, like how often people peed their pants. And the fact that everyone talked about bowl movements and penises like it was a normal conversational subject. The one thing that really struck me as odd was how the rain was always F*ing their mouths. Its a strange visual I can't even wrap my head around.

If you are not OK with potty language being a passive conversational piece, then don't read this book, but for the rest of you rebels who snicker anytime someone says penis, then please, pick up this really interesting read. You won't regret it.

My review will go live on the Book Confessions blog on 6-11-20.

Just like its characters, this book cannot simply be put on one shelf. Multidimensional and poetic, "Bestiary" is simultaneously a Taiwanese folklore fantasy and a touching contemporary novel about migration, sexuality and family.

I have a university degree in China Studies and as such, modern Instagram-age Chinese diaspora is one of my main interests - and this aspect of the book is truly brilliant. "Bestiary" follows a Taiwanese immigrant family in the US struggling with identity and poverty in the aftermath of trauma. But as they go about their normal, messy lives, we witness some crazy AF, supernatural drama evolve; we're talking growing animal body parts inside and out as well as wild animalistic instincts. These instincts blended to the point where I wasn't sure which of those were human and which weren't - a sign that the author absolutely nailed it.

Are we humans with animal desires or animals with human features? Are we even in control of our minds and bodies, or are we just an intelligent species with an ego big enough to think we're in charge?

Oh, and we NEED to talk about the writing in this book. I loved the raw, lyrical prose that doesn't stray from difficult and often brutal imagery. It's very graphic at times - with sex and bodily functions - which is certainly not for for everybody, but I think it ties masterfully with the subject matter explored in this book.

I highly recommend "Bestiary" to adventurous readers looking for something new and totally unusual. However, be warned, it's not a light read without need for reflection, be rather one that will leave you weirded out and amazed for a long while.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, what does one even say about this book? I think Chang wrote it to be savored. Turning humans into animals, Bestiary is the story of three generations of a Taiwanese family, stripped down to animal form with human tendencies. I'm talking humans with tails and a woman who nibbled and ate children's toes. I laughed so much at the animalistic comparisons, but also was a little surprised by the mentions of poop and piss as if it were totally normal. (yes, it's totally normal, but I don't need a whole book about it)

Magical and full of lore, I enjoyed this one but can see why it's not everyone's cup of tea.