Yakult Boy’s Reviews > Next Time Will Be Our Turn > Status Update

Iris in this moment is at her finest. Her characterization can feel flatly Mean Girl without enough bittersweet nuance. But when she shows up to contrast Magnolia as the independent diaspora woman, she drops such a much needed pathos bomb into this story. Her return is the best part of this book so far.

Please just stop with present day Nainai constantly interjecting about internalized misogyny and slut shaming and heteronormativity and purity culture she experienced as a younger woman. It just reads as insecure. Let me experience this character's flaws as they are without someone constantly telling me "I know this is bad now but I didn't know that back then!" Yeah no shit

It's the way Magnolia has spent years pining over and longing and yearning for a white girl with the personality of cardboard

I buy the appeal and flaws of the relationship with Parker a lot more than the one with Ellery. The writer is still tell not showing most of the time, but Magnolia and Parker are connecting over real pathos-driven things and not just generic small talk. It's okay. Nothing riveting tho.

The concept of having to exposit to your chindo granddaughter who lives in Indonesia that Indonesia is a muslim majority country where it's hard to get bacon. I'm pretty sure she knows that. What's the point of this narrative framing device if you're just going to ignore the character to hand hold-style explain your culture to the presumed non-indo reader

Talking about Chindo misogyny is clearly where the writer is most passionate, even when it feels basic + juvenile. Just keep in mind that whenever the writer/Magnolia tries to teach us about Chindo cultural norms, it is always through an upper class lens being monolithically framed as the chindo norm.

Good notes about mental health acceptance in Indonesia at the time. You were either normal or crazy. It just pairs strangely with how aware younger Magnolia was of being "straight" and not gay. When her understanding of queerness from Indo would've been similar. You were either normal or crazy.

"I have since learned that the best things in life are often very, very troublesome." cough cough

I get that it's about queer yearning but Magnolia just comes off really clingy through these letters. We once again are told not shown the most crucial pathos about her and her relationship with James.

We've got letters written by past Magnolia to Ellery (probably not sent) that montage through the years in college. There is an acknowledgment that Magnolia is growing up and realizing that maybe Ellery didn't share everything about herself to someone she considers a kid- while still being upset at her.