I felt this way when I read Gods of Want: Stories as well, but maybe I am just not smart enough to read this style of literary/surrealist fiction. The writing is so beautiful, despite some absolutely gross content, but I never fully understood what was going on. I'd still recommend this book based on the writing alone, but I would forewarn people that it's hard to grasp the content.

Posted on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5882407406

What the heck did I read lol

I do not really understand the point of the book. I was confused throughout it all. They want to be dogs? I understand it’s an asian author writing about 2 girls who might be more than friends, but that doesn’t automatically make a book good. I wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t keep reading. I had to force myself to keep reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story that follows two oddly-bounded young girls (Rainie and Anita) who decide to become dogs by watching real dogs.

ORGAN MEATS is the strangest book ever. Rainie and Anita are unhinged characters, written in all their imperfection and wanting to function without feeling everything. The longing weaves mushroom, ghosts and dreams; and it becomes more interesting when the narrative starts to dive into their ancestry (and connection with dog).

What makes this book unique is Chang's refusal to confine to the conventional, making use of abstract ideas to cover grief, (toxic) female friendship, heritage, generational trauma, mother-daughter relationship and womanhood (or rather doghood?). Infusing an immense dose of mythologies and surrealism, there's a disturbing imagery populated by visceral descriptions of fluids and body parts - typical in Chang's works. By blending metaphors and literal images in a scattered plot that doesn't come together until the very end, I was left disoriented most of the time. I recognize the talent and poetic prose, however the execution felt distant and it was challenging to follow Chang's (concealed) intentions.

ORGAN MEATS is the third piece of Chang's mythical triptych (after BESTIARY and GODS OF WANT). This surrealist fiction is queer, macabre and brutal. Reading it makes 'Y/N by Esther Yi' feel like an ordinary story and I definitely didn't fully extract its complexity/intimacy. Read this book if you're into a muddled plot line and complete weirdness.

This was a harder book for me. Surrealism is not my jam. But I think people who have enjoyed her other books wiil like this too!

I just reviewed Organ Meats by K-Ming Chang. #OrganMeats #NetGalley

I really enjoyed the first few chapters of this but towards 50% way through really fell off in keeping interest. I tried to repick up a few times but ultimately had to DNF at this point.

I think it's mostly the writing style that was hard for me to follow and stay interested in.

If nothing else, I am a hungry reader. I swallow books whole, devour across genres and time periods. K-Ming Chang has a way of stringing together words and sentences and stories that makes it impossible to turn away. You want to dive right in! And ORGAN MEATS is the kind of book that makes me want to savor every word—I want to roll them across my tongue and taste where they've been. This visceral, queer, sensual feast is hands down my favorite read of 2023.
There is a particular sort of obsession that can only be understood through a dream; through having been a six year-old girl meeting your best friend; through being haunted by every woman you've ever known.
Just like with BESTIARY and GODS OF WANT, I likely won't recommend ORGAN MEATS to many of my friends, especially those who are squeamish about body horror and the feverish hunger of consumption. But I know exactly who I *will* recommend this to. Hell, I'll probably pre-order copies to shove into their hands the day it's published and then eagerly sit by the phone to wait until they call me screaming about how good it is.

Reading this book felt a lot like a fever dream to me. I devoured this book in one day, but I did get to the point at the end of the the novel were I asked myself “what on earth did I just read?”.

This is my first K-Ming Chang novel, and it has left me wholly intrigued. I understand that this is the most recent book written, but may be best read after reading their other novels.

I was unfamiliar with the writing style, though clearly lit-fic in its own right, it’s just so unique. The prose is nearly beautiful, even though it is describing death, decay, and some other gross things.

The largest underlying theme I noticed in the book is loyalty and love between the two main characters. With moments of betrayal, these characters eventually come full circle in their relationship.

What gave this book the rating it got was that I had absolutely no concept of time or location. One moment we are talking about what seems a current time period, and then the next it feels somewhat ancient. I couldn’t tell where the novel was to take place- it felt very much out of the States, and given the authors background I could venture to guess this as well. I was just left with SO many questions-Hence the fever dream feel.

I am incredibly intrigued, and will definitely be checking out the authors other books.

This book leaves EVERYTHING up to your imagination, and has large amounts of room for interpretation. I understand the draw to this author and am so appreciative of NetGalley and Random House One World for the ARC read!

Dogs are amazing. Humans who are dogs are even amazinger. I felt no amazing was whatsoever as I read this story, though. It felt like many strung out sentences. Sorry, not for me. It’s my second book by this author that didn’t click so I think it’s a basic incompatibility between the writing and this reader.

K-Ming Chang is a master of original, inventive storytelling, and she comes through with that again in Organ Meats. Her poetry continues to shine through her narrative prose, and I'm excited for this book to find its engaged audience this fall.

I previously read Bestiary from this author and loved it. I loved how absolutely weird it was. Organ Meats is even weirder. And I also loved it. It relies so heavily on surrealism that sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on. It’s hard to tell what is a metaphor and what the metaphor is. So I was often confused. But maybe I’m just not smart enough to get it. All that said, it’s still so beautifully written. I approached it more like I was reading a long poem. I went in looking to for big takeaways rather than grasping the minute details. For me this worked. This book is weird and queer and gross and female. But it’s a book about girlhood, and girlhood is (or at least can be all of those things). Girlhood and friendship is confusing and hard to navigate and that lost and confused feeling permeates while reading this book.

This is one of those books that I think that I would have enjoyed much more on audio, and if I do get an audio copy I will update my review.

This book is odd and reminded me in a way of Natural Beauty (another reason I think I’d prefer it on audio). The book was meaningful, lyrical and weird. Probably the strangest book I have ever read. However, I just didn’t get it most of the time and was so confused. I didn’t understand why there was so much spit and other bodily fluids…just why? This book also touches on some really triggering subject. I sometimes am more emotional about animal cruelty and have a shorter threshold than when it comes to similar things against humans, that was the case here.

Like I said, beautiful but so confusing and I did ultimately DNF this book. I do hope that I can listen to this one on audio later, and like I said if I do I will revisit this review.

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Book: Organ Meats
Author: K-Ming Chang
Rating: 3 Out of 5 Stars

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

In this one, we follow Anita and Rainie who are best friends. They live in a town that has this ability that allows them to communicate with dogs and dogs are able to communicate with humans. The two girls decide to become dogs. The red ribbon they wrap around their necks will forever tie them together, making them bond. However, it is not to last. They are separated and Anita ends up in a coma. Only Rainie knows how to awaken her. Anita ends up starting to rot and it is now a race against time. Trapped between here and there, Rainie must do everything in her power to make sure her friend survives.

This book is gross. Let me start out by saying. There is a lot of mention of bodily fluids and how involved our characters are in it. If that bothers you, then I highly encourage you not to give this one a go. However, there is a deeper meaning to everything. K-Ming does this and does it well. She takes those things that we don’t talk about and brings them into her books. She takes the gross and adds more layers to it. Most of the time, I do miss the meaning while I am reading. However, once I had been away from the book for a little bit, it sinks in and makes you think. You may not always take it in the way the author means, but it is one of those things that makes you sit back and wonder.

The characters have so many layers. I love how K-Min does this deep dive into the bonds their characters have with each other. Rainie and Antia have such a deep relationship and will go to the ends of the world for each other. As a matter of fact, they do. These two will do anything for each other.


I did want to love this one more than I did. I have read one other book by this author and I did like it. I found this one did not pull me in as much. I found myself being taken out of the story and losing interest in what was happening. I don’t know why, but it just didn’t. It had so many different elements that I like in books, but for some odd reason it did not keep me engaged. Maybe I didn’t pick it up at the right time. I don’t know.

Overall, this was just an okay book for me.

This book comes out on October 24, 2023.

DNF @30%

This novel just wasn't for me. I didn't understand it. Too pretentious for my taste. Interesting concept and plot, but I was totally confused and baffled by all the metaphors and outrageousness. Less is more.

In a world overrun with mindless entertainment, media written with no clear motive or heart, clearly made as a synonym for quick cash, K-Ming Chang is a lighthouse. Her work is inspired and meaningful, unique and weird. She's a master in relaying magical realism, folklore, mythology, culture and girlhood packaged in her beautiful prose and symbolisms. After Organ Meats and Gods Of Want, I'm still dying to pick up Bestiary. She's an auto-buy author who never disappoints.

K-Ming Chang writes in stunning, lyrical passages that are also just deeply disturbing. What does it mean to be tethered to another person? Body horror, obsession, ties that bind. This isn't easily digestible but that's not a bad thing. It won't be for everyone. I have visceral, physical reactions to Chang's writing.

Anita is a young bully and abuser. Her friend Rainie lets her get away with it. They both suffer. This, coupled with an obsession with stray dogs (who may or may not be women) and excrement, is the TL;DR of this book. While the elements of magic and magical realism are interesting, there's just honestly too much abuse and shit in this book for me. Is the point that women are dehumanized? That abusers start young? That if we get lost in dreams, the real world vanishes for us, and we from it? Maybe all of these things, but despite some incredibly original writing, I can't really recommend it.

Another weird and wonderfully written story by K-Ming. I was so excited when I saw she had a novel coming out. I have been a fan of her short stories and Organ Meats did not disappoint. There were so many themes interwoven throughout this story of friendship and the struggles of being a woman. Such a bold book but I wouldn't have expected anything else!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC (my first!)

I’m a huge fan of K-Ming Chang, I’ve read all her books. In general, my favorite thing about her writing is her creative and poetic use of language, which pops off the page. Reading this felt like coming back to an old friend, yet I still experience wonder at her ideas and turns of phrase.

These books are heavy magical realism, and in Bestiary I had a hard time following sometimes. This book has some improvements in structure and craft, most notably the use of multiple narrators, that made this feel more like a novel where I was actually invested in the plot. Part of the challenge of a magical realism book narrated by a very credulous child is that it can come across as just regurgitation of myth and imagination, and here that is successfully avoided.

The themes of Chang’s work are always around dislocation, mythology and history, and girlhood. The main plot, between Rainie and Anita, is about bonds between people and what they mean (and how that can be different to each person), and is used to demonstrate how history/myth is tessellated between families. The stories complement and conflict but are only complete together.

I’d like to touch on the symbolism, because the language does give any given section many meanings. We have woman-headed dogs or dog-headed women, trees (esp sycamore and banana), red thread, an island that flips between the top and bottom, orchids and organs. Blood and hair. These are used to bring in both factual history (Chang is the only writer I’ve read on Taiwan’s indigenous people) and the concept of one’s family or peoples history (the chapters narrated by the chorus of dogs). Men are rare and women are myths, but also very real, and also a metaphor for the colonization of the island.

Altogether, this is her best book yet. In the acknowledgements she mentions that she considers these three works a triptych of sorts, and I agree. I’m not sure how much my reading experience is improved by the context of having read her other books. However, if you only read one. I would recommend this one. Content warning for poop and rot and general grossness.

*My review for this book will go live on Good Reads on 10/10.

This is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, and that’s saying something. I was going to shelve it at first, because I didn’t think I’d have the focus required for such an experimental novel right now, but I didn’t want to give up on it so I gave it another shot. I’m certainly not opposed to surrealist fiction and I enjoy it on occasion. (“Fever Dream” comes to mind.) The more I read, the easier it was to vibe with. Like a strong alcoholic drink with exotic flavors you aren’t used to, but after a few sips you start to feel it.

Most of the other reviews for this book say that it was difficult to understand what was going on, and I agree. There were times when the writing seemed like it was on the verge of accomplishing something very poetic and other times where I felt like I was wasting my own time reading paragraphs of nonsense. (A specific example would be when the stray dogs were “speaking” to the girls in a sort stream of consciousness interview format.)

I won’t sugarcoat it: this book is gross. “Visceral” is definitely a good word for it. Among other things, there’s a lot of talk about feces, specifically and gross imagery in general. If you really love dogs, maybe don’t read this. There are vivid descriptions of stray dogs suffering in various ways and surreal depictions of dogs giving birth to human babies, etc. This is one of those books that you can smell, and not in a good way. There’s even a family legend at one point that involves many girls collectively trying to fart into a river to remove its reflective surface. There’s so much content involving bodily substances that it almost feels gratuitous rather than purposeful.

I might be an outlier here, but Anita’s love for Rainie felt a bit abusive and possessive to me. I won’t elaborate for the sake of spoilers, but it seemed like a strange relationship to glorify.

There WERE full chapters in the book that I enjoyed. Anything involving dreams, all the weird stuff with Rainie’s “dogtooth,” and the ending. There were many beautifully crafted sentences scattered throughout. I think this author absolutely has talent and writes from a unique perspective. I’m glad that I gave this a second chance, but it was a bit of a challenge to read overall and took a lot of concentration.

Trigger Warnings: animal violence/death, bodily fluids/substances

K-Ming Chang has done it again!!! ORGAN MEATS is such a strange delight. The dream-like story of two girls and their lineage as dog-headed women. The chapters are short, and read almost as stand-alone pieces to the mythos of these dog-women. Sentences are diamond-sharp, perfect. Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!