The Fetishist is a tale, in fact, it calls itself a fairytale, of three disparate people connected through one fateful summer in Florence that irrevocably changed all their lives and led them to be a kidnapper, a captive and comatose.

The real story is mostly told in flashbacks and I found myself more interested in those sections than in what was happening in the present storyline. Throughout, the writing is beautiful and evocative. I just didn’t feel as connected to some of the characters as others.

I found Katherine Min’s novel, “The Fetishist,” a perplexing novel to both read and evaluate because its focus is about how negatively Asian women often perceive Caucasian men’s desire for relationships with them as an irrational form of carnal desire.

The novel centers around musical prodigies—the women Asian, the men that they have romantic affairs with are not.

Per Mins characters, these Asian women consider that these men typically pursue romantic intimacy with them based upon stereotypes like: their small physical statures; a submissive geisha-like natures; their dark eyes and hair; their talent, studiousness and smarts; or an antithesis rebellious nature.

My opinion is that if this is your view, then DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH THESE MEN!

Although I read the entire novel, I did not enjoy anything about it at all. The subject matter made me uncomfortable from the start, although I kept reading in the hopes that there would be something elevating or ennobling about the endeavor. Alas, nothing was worthy of the hours that I spent reading “The Fetishist.”

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Katherine Min, and Publisher G.P. Putnam’s and Sons for this advanced reader’s copy (ARC) for review.

I was given an advanced reader copy through Netgalley for this book and have been so anxious to get to it.
In this one, we just between three main characters-- Kyoko, Daniel, and Alma. In the beginning, you aren't fully informed on their connection to each other, but it soon becomes clear how their stories will diverge.
Kyoko is full of rage, spite, and grief. After her mother's tragic suicide, Kyoko is hell bent on avenging her mother's death. She and her boyfriend, in a messy turn of events, end up kidnapping the man that Kyoko believes is responsible for her mother's spiral into darkness. Daniel finds himself locked in the basement of a half-forgotten former lover's basement, unsure how to get himself out of the situation. All the while, he left to parse with the disaster he has made of his love life, the grievances others have had against him, all of his shortcomings that have lead him into his middle age without much to show for it. Is he all the things that he has been accused of?

This book seeks to explore the fetishization of asian women, particularly by white men. How are women gutted by the lack of agency afforded to their public persona? How are men culpable in women's pain? What does it mean to love someone, to revere someone, to grieve someone? Can you love someone and hate what they have done to you?

I enjoyed so many parts about this book. Kyoko and her boyfriend were a particular soft spot for me. As the book continued, I grew to really dislike Daniel in a way that felt intentional, so I was slightly let down by the ending when it became about Daniel's happy ending in a sense. Of course, it was about Kyoko's too, which is what lead me to give it 4 stars. I was engaged the whole way through!

So much to ponder in this novel. Kyoko wants to avenge her mother's death by killing Daniel. Daniel seduced her mother and then left her which led to her death. Daniel is a cheating, conniving man who seems to only care about himself. Alma is the love of Daniel's life. Kyoko's plan backfires when nothing goes as planned. This novel is funny, full of thought-provoking incidents and surprises.

A definitely different type of love, revenge, and ultimately forgiveness and redemption story. The fish on the cover completely makes sense and is actually a major element in Kyoko's (the daughter) and Daniel's (her mother's ex-lover) personal journey.

It was in turns funny, darkly sad, tender, and thought-provoking as the story weaves themes of race, objectification of women, and the fear of losing your identity when you love someone.

What a strange little book. I found the plot and characters to be fascinating, but the ending left me wanting more. Also, something about the writing style felt forced and confusing. Sometimes the story would flow very well, and other times, the writing felt clunky and cliche-ridden. I don't think it's a bad book, but it's nothing special either.

Funny, poignant and vicious at times, The Fetishist is a wonderful novel from an author that published posthumously.
Kyoko is a Japanese American rock musician, while Alma is a Korean American cellist whose career was sidelined by illness. Both are ties to Daniel, a white man and fellow musician whose pursuit of Asian women seems to have ruined both Alma's life and the life of Kyoko's late mother. Shifting between these 3 characters' POVs, Min tells us the captivating, hilariously twisted story of their intertwined lives, from a potential hit song and an infamous affair, to a kidnapping gone wrong.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Putnam for this e-arc.*

The Fetishist is a provocative and poignant work that challenges the stereotypes and power dynamics that shape Asian femininity and anti Asian racism. It is very successful as an exploration of relationships, racism, the fetishization of Asian woman, and marriage. The story is highly character driven, and I had strong feelings about all of the characters. Overall, this book is beautifully written, and I would recommend it to someone who is looking for a character driven drama. Advance reader copy was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Fresh-voiced, intelligent, and dynamic. I appreciated reading this- a needed take on the fetishization (and dehumanization) of Asian women by white men. Appreciate the multiple POVs and literary smarts in The Fetishist.

An intertwining story of a white man who fetishizes asian women and those who got mixed up in his messiness.

We follow the POVs of the fetishist himself along with two women who have been affected by him and his relationships. One looking to move on and one looking for revenge.

It took me a bit to get into this due to the changing POVs and timelines, but I was invested about halfway through and began to enjoy Alma, Kyoko and Kornell. While I didn’t enjoy the direction the ending took, I can see why the author wrapped it up that way. Just wasn’t what I was hoping for!

This book hits heavy topics like depression, chronic illness, stereotypes and fetishism, but managed to have a little comedic relief, enjoyable characters and an interesting storyline. Overall it was a good read with relevant social commentary and would recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC :)

Katherine Min’s posthumous novel opens with Kyoko Tokugawa, a “tiny, grumpy-looking” punk musician with spiky blue hair, piercings and tattoos who proclaims that this is the “perfect evening to kill Daniel Karmody.” Kyoko believes that the root source of her late mother, Emi’s, unhappiness and the cause of her parents’ divorce, Emi’s depression and subsequent suicide was her affair with Daniel which began when Emi, a violinist, studied with Daniel at a conservatory. Kyoko’s life had been “deformed by grief, grief, in turn, twisted to hate, hate hammered to anger, until the anger, the hate, and the grief had become grotesquely fused.”

Daniel Karmody, the focus of Kyoko’s rage, was a tall and handsome musician of some renown, but when we are introduced to him, he is a “[r]ent-for-hire-fiddler for affluent terminal cases.” The recently divorced Daniel receives a Facebook message from Alma Soon Ja Lee after nearly two decades of silence which makes him reflect on the selfish, careless, and inexcusable things that he had done in his life. He believes that losing Alma “had been the pivotal point at which everything began to change for him, when everything in his life had turned to shit.” Alma had been a celebrated cellist, compared in her prime to Jacqueline du Pre, but Alma is afflicted with a chronic illness and is now a suicidal shut-in.

Daniel is sitting in his car, listening to Alma play Bach, and trying to kill himself by carbon monoxide poisoning when he is abducted by masked intruders and dumped into the back of a van. During his captivity, he acknowledges that he is a “selfish man” and he concludes that “these unpleasant realizations made him yearn to live long enough to become . . . different. Kind, if he was feeling ambitious. Decent would be enough. Would be aspirational.”

Traveling back and forth over decades, Min unveils these intertwined lives: desperate Emi destroyed by misplaced love, frenzied Kyoko trapped in a revenge fantasy, and fading Alma isolated by regret and illness. What binds these characters together is Daniel, the titular fetishist: “Alma had been a mere appetizer, the first of a veritable smorgasbord of Asian delights.” Although the primary characters are deeply flawed, and Min tackles serious subjects such as sexism, racism, chronic illness and suicide, the novel is remains engaging, playful, buoyant and redemptive. Thank you G.P. Putnam Sons and Net Galley for the opportunity to read an advance reader’s copy of this delightful novel.

This is a novel about three different people; Kyogo, Daniel, and Alma. Kyogo is faced with an extreme amount on pain and anger... most of which can be focused on Daniel, who she holds responsible for her mothers' death. Daniel, has in fact left wreckage in his wake, and has focused on a "type" in his life. However, his life is not going as he planned either. As he remembers his greatest love, "Alma", Alma is on the other side of the country going through her own difficulties, and facing the side effects of her somewhat recent diagnosis of MS. The music community holds all three of these individuals, and gives them a point of similarity. Over the course of the novel, their paths cross and each one is forced to give and ask for their own version of forgiveness.

I found this novel to be well-written, and unique. There is a quality of dark humor, the topics are serious, but at times the scenes are so over the top is adds comical value to the reading. The book verges of depressing and sad, but toes the line well so that ultimately I felt more uplifted after reading the novel than I had expected. There is a decent resolution, and ended with a powerful and interesting story. Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. Plus it that it is easy to read and kept my interest the whole time.

Kiako wants to kill the man she blames for The death of her mother Emi. When Kiakoi fails at her latest attempt her boyfriend Cornell sees how it has affected her so negatively and would do anything to put a smile on her face and so they come up with a different plan. While this is going on Danny who is the man with the target on his back is a classically trained violinist and has known many levels of success but nowadays he plays in a symphony for the dying. He was leaving a restaurant with his youngest and latest love interest when Kiako but when she falls and trips in the pouring rain he and Melody get away in a cab. If only she would know later that night he to wooden barrel sleep fail and get a Facebook message from his long lost lol who he also did wrong maybe she would’ve looked at Daniel differently but that’s not what happened and that’s why we get this hilarious book. I want to say I absolutely love this part but didn’t see the point in the whole story about the retainer… I mean I get it that’s where his obsession came from but I could’ve lived without reading that having said that this was an awesome book and that story is at the absolute end of the book itself you’re looking for a funny humorous sad heart filled story about redemption and what that looks like then you’ll love the fetishist by Catherine Min. I was sad to hear the author of this book died right after having written it and my condolences go out to the family and thanks for seeing fit to give the world this great book. In my reviews I always like to say who is my favorite character or who I love the most but in this one there were three top favorites and that is Irma Cornell and Caico I want to thank Penguin group Putnam and NetGalley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review

3.5 stars. Contemporary/literary fiction can be hit or miss for me, but this drew me in. The beginning starts with Kyoko, who I found to be the most compelling character. As the story moves along we get more into the other characters, whose stories are interesting, but not what I thought the focus was going to be. Because of this, the book starts off really strong but lagged for me around halfway through. The prose and form of this was so so good though and I loved Min’s writing style. I thought her discussions of racism and fetishization were a unique take (and gave what I thought Yellowface was going to).

I loved this one!! This was a very thought-provoking read about the fetishization of Asian women by white men. I especially loved how music played such a big role in this story.

This book was very unique and I loved how the complexity of relationships was presented.

It made me sad to learn that this will be published posthumously by the author’s daughter. I will add her first novel to my TBR and look up her essays.

Darkly funny, tender, and thoughtful. An unconventional love story of sorts -- all types of love -- and an excellent look at making art.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

I really wasn’t sure what to think about this book. I liked the kidnapping and the three different perspectives. I feel like I learned a little bit more about how Asian women can fetishized.

I think the reason I wouldn’t recommend it was because the amount of sex. It was necessary for the story but as a librarian I tend to stay away from that graphic of sex in my regular recommendations because I don’t know how patrons will feel.

"The Fetishist" by Katherine Min is a haunting and evocative novel that explores the intricate layers of identity, culture, and desire. Set against the backdrop of postwar Korea and 1960s New York, Min's narrative follows the life of its complex protagonist, Haru, as he grapples with personal demons and societal expectations. The novel delves into the shadows of the human psyche, addressing themes of trauma, obsession, and the search for belonging. Min's lyrical prose and rich character development create a mesmerizing reading experience. "The Fetishist" is a powerful and thought-provoking work that lingers in the mind, challenging conventional notions of self and society.

Wow! Such a powerful, page-turner about a young woman wanting to take revenge on the man who caused her mother to commit suicide. The story alternates between the past and present weaving in music, "yellow fever," MS and love.

This book is a painful reminder of the unjust treatment that so many Asian women, including my mother, have faced. However, it is a necessary read for those who seek to understand the struggles and inequalities they have endured.