Dawn Chen’s Reviews > The Unexpected Afterlife of Salon Rose > Status Update
Dawn Chen
is 40% done
I’m switching between reading this and Local Heavens and that makes a good contrast bc Local Heaven has very sophisticated prose and complicated world building while this is a YA sapphic speculative fiction that I think has the greatest strength of it feeling like it is the closest I’ve ever read in a YA novel where the protagonist does talk like an actual teenager in 2026, so easier to read and breeze through
— Sep 01, 2026 07:31AM
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Dawn’s Previous Updates
Dawn Chen
is 64% done
Look I am so unsure especially with this new character introduction??? Everything before now I can take with an air of camp and maybe like a YA the Good Place vibe take that have good vibes but this new character feels like it is really messing up the balance of the unseriousness with the actual murder mystery plot?
— Sep 03, 2026 02:32AM
Dawn Chen
is 54% done
This is cute and again the dialogue is juvenile but realistic. It reminds me of the Diary of a Whimpy Kid in its diary format. I wonder if this would have worked better if the character is not 18 but a bit younger?
PS. There was a mention of Aristotle and Dante Discovering the Secret of the Universe that was a bit emotional as the author recently passed
— Sep 02, 2026 12:49AM
PS. There was a mention of Aristotle and Dante Discovering the Secret of the Universe that was a bit emotional as the author recently passed
Dawn Chen
is starting
Also going to start this as the ebook preorder just landed. I preordered this (sapphic coming of age ghost story lol) from Tiny Ghost Press, a UK located LGBTQ+ indie press that I have a lot of nostalgia and love for. Tiny Ghost Press and Nyx Publishing (the UK queer indie press that originally published A Dowry in Blood before it went trad) are like my comfy food but as in indie queer publishers
— Aug 04, 2026 10:55AM