DNF @ 13% - I really tried to get into this one, but after numerous scatological scenes, which I was barely able to tolerate, there was a very odd scene with the two girls trying to pee through the fence like a boy. So, I will be stopping here.

It is my understanding that if you are a K-Ming Chang reader already, this will be of interest to you.

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Woo! What a ride! I've read K-Ming's other books, and absolutely loved them. This is no exception. Honestly, I was both prepared and unprepared (in a good way) for this latest book. I knew it was going to amazing prose and a good story... and I was right. This story was utterly visceral, and it really helped amply the storytelling of this poetic, haunting, and beautiful story of two best friends, Anita and Rainie. This books reads like a fever dream that you are captivated by and almost never want to leave until you know how it ends. That's how I felt as I was reading this book. I can't wait for K-Ming's next book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this eARC!

THE CHAOS ENSUES AND CONTINUES with K-Ming Chang, and I'm here for it. I am beyond thankful to Random House / One World Pub, PRH Audio, K-Ming Chang, and Netgalley for granting me advanced access to this unhinged read before it hits shelves on October 24, 2023.

Organ Meats indicates the book's content, for there's lore and history to notate its origin. Two friends, Anita and Rainie, find solace in their meeting spot, an Old Sycamore tree that shares ownership with a pack of stray dogs that the girls feel kin to. Moreover, they feel they can also commune with the dogs, knowing their lineage and the red yarn that ties them all together. Anita and Rainie then strive to become dogs, returning to their combined blood heritage. Still, when a dog bite leaves Anita unconscious, with her body rotting away, it's up to Rainie to revive her lost friend with love and companionship that mimics the pack-mindset and devotion.

This book was a bit scattered on audio, but after listening to it again at a slower speed and following along on my Kindle, I could fully grasp the depth of emotion and wildness conveyed in this work of art.

I feel a bit queasy and confused after this one. At first, I thought Chang’s writing was like a first taste of the hard stuff…vodka, gin, tequila, whiskey. The stuff burns before it begins to intoxicate you. I thought that, with time, the feral grin of Chang’s prose would ensnarl me to the level of the unpoutdownable read…I was really intrigued by how she doesn’t shy away from what burns, from breath that stinks, from rawness in all its forms. Her writing style made me want to keep reading…at first.

However, it takes more than intoxicating writing to keep me engaged. The world-building made me feel loopy, lost, and left behind. Too often, i felt confused. Every time i picked the book back up, i needed to readjust to the logic of an upside down world that runs on no rules I could keep track of. Trying to keep up stressed me out, made me wonder if I was simply “missing something”. Why…Dogs are everywhere, and they are women, and they are speaking like shakespearean weird sisters…I so badly wanted to feel their speech resonate in my soul, because their words were jagged on the page and written with such feeling and imagination…there were so many lines that shone like jewels, so many turns of phrase that left me in awe, but the paragraphs were so packed with these turns of phrases, i felt rolled-over, 360-degrees, over and over, downhill. I eventually stopped enjoying feeling dizzy.

Maybe i was, indeed, missing something. Maybe i just wasnt the intended audience or maybe it just wasnt the right book for me. Part of me feels sad that it didnt quite click with me. I’m grateful to have encountered this author’s writing. On the scale of the sentence, this book is exquisitely wrought. On the scale of the paragraph, the book is a bit stinky, but in an interesting way (there are loads of references to bodily substances to be found within). On the scale of the book, i am lost at the halfway mark, so I guess I won’t know how all the jewels add up…maybe I’ll get some hints when I read some of the blazing reviews I am sure are headed this book’s way.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher. I was very grateful to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher Random House, and the author K-Ming Chang for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Chang does it again in embedding queerness, Asian/Chinese-American diaspora, womanhood, and magical realism together. The final piece of the tripytch portrait of all these concepts come together leaving the reader in awe. The simple concept of a red string of fate becomes much more than the idea. The red string of fate becomes more complicated than simply fate and makes the reaer think of the debt we owe to each other.

This was my second K-Ming Chang book, but even having read Bestiary when it came out, there was no way to prepare myself for this book. Surrealism has always been a genre I feel too stupid for and confused by, so I don’t read it often, but the queer, Asian themes and mastery of language used by Chang made me come back for more.

On the whole, this book was frankly a bit of a mindfuck. It had the same sapphic overtures between the two protagonists, Anita and Rainie, as there were in Bestiary, but it felt a lot more subliminal and threaded through euphemism and metaphors. There was also a lot more gruesome content than I thought there would be, as other reviewers have noted. I don’t consider myself a squeamish person, but the seemingly endless imagery of bodily fluids, secretions, births, and blood was… a lot.

I find that this novel had far less tangible plot moving it forward than the prior text I had read. I know this is the third and final piece of Chang’s triptych, so I recommend reading the other texts first to ensure this vague book of *vibes* does not read as even more confusing and disjointed. As usual, the writing itself is structurally flawless, with some of the best imagery I have ever read—gruesome or not. I would just warn readers who prefer concrete plots and storylines that this book isn’t that. Yet I still enjoyed it on the whole, and will always read Chang’s unique and experimental work, so this gets 3 ⭐

*Thank you again to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Yes. Well. There's all sorts of things going on in this novel about Anita and Rainie who believe they will become dogs (and are of dog heritage) but I was unable to make sense of much of it. This is a theme of sorts for Chang, whose work is both surreal and bizarre- but Bestiary was more accessible. The one thing that comes through is the friendship between the young women. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is likely going to be a love it or hate it book for fans of literary fiction.

Oh man- "Organ Meats" is SUCH A TRIP.
Funny. Profound. Bizarre. Beautiful. Dream-like.

I adored this journey and highly recommend letting the words carry you through. Attempting to overthink this one will get you nowhere.

The narrative style is reminiscent of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" in that, as a whole- all of the elements together feel extremely random and jumbled. But- much like the red thread that binds the childhood friends/protagonists of the story- there is always an image, idea, or narrative element that will connect you to the next wave.

The story explores ideas of queerness, childhood, family history, otherness, alienation, and the roles of women in society.

It's gorgeous and bizarre, and I loved it.

I recommend it to fans of Daniels' "Everything Everywhere All at Once," Sayaka Murata's "Earthlings," and Mona Awad's "Bunny."

Thank you to NetGalley, and One World, An Imprint of Random House, for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this. But, MY GOD, it is overwritten and incredibly, pretentious. The writing is insufferable and it's trying too hard to be outrageous.

No way.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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.