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was juggling three books at once (this, space politics, and horny queers fighting zombies) and this was the lightest fare and the narration was fun. (and i don't even like/drink coffee) turns out this homebody really enjoyed the soft, cozy companionship and reno projects. the cast is very sweet and tender 🥹 i wanna be friends with viv and tandri and cal and thimble 🥺 also lol at all the other characters commenting on viv's obliviousness regarding a certain someone.

(notes on 6/27/2023) this was a reread (dates are estimated, but definitely during june 2023), only brought on by me watching 2/3 of the disney+ television adaptation (mediocre, imo, despite the cast) and wanting to revisit the source material to see if the MC was as insufferable in the graphic novel as he is in the show. i last read this a very long time ago, likely close to release date, and i've kept it on my shelf for this long because it was a showoff title for my asian american lit collection. i can't say i love it now or find as much importance in it the further away from high school i get, but it was certainly a book of its time.

i think it embellishes the story of the monkey king and i'm kinda intrigued about how the OG story actually went, because i only remember bits and pieces from my upbringing. i was trying to summarize the OG for a friend before we started the show but couldn't remember details beyond him storing a size-changing magic staff in his ear, wrecking a peach garden, and trying to outrun someone's hand and peeing on it thinking it was a mountain then getting trapped under a rock.

giving this five stars because it is very much a title i would acquire for my otherwise very minimal hard copy collection, i'm excited to bundle up and walk to my little village library and read its sequel, and because i didn't think i would like a space politics book if it weren't for the personalities and sass in a second language. makes me want to rewatch the expanse (which i watched all of) and altered carbon (which i watched most of one season of). and also, the buffy episode with willow and tara's first onscreen kiss, because there is very much a sort of “mad reaching-out for comfort” (440), tender desperation throughout the book that i quite enjoyed.