Poetic and at times bizarre, this was a beautiful collection of essays. I really enjoyed the flow of each essay and will defiantly be looking into more from this author .

I usually enjoy reading collections of short stories but I did not find this book to be particularly engaging. I was disappointed that they were not relatable at all. The cover art reminds me of a Japanese horror film but the stories were pretty dull in comparison.

Dinner on Monster Island is beautifully written, a poetic and informative memoir split into essays. Each essay looks at a different part of de Rozario’s life and experiences.

I highly recommend if you enjoy horror movies, or just looking for a queer memoir to pick up!

TW/CW: religious bigotry, religious trauma, death of parent, suicide, fatphobia, body shaming, eating disorder, homophobia, suicidal ideations, self-harm, alcoholism, racism, colorism, classism.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Perennial and Paperbacks and the author for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

- DINNER ON MONSTER ISLAND is a knockout essay collection. De Rozario fills this short book with rage, love, and thoughtfulness.
- De Rozario speaks not on just being queer, but being fat, brown and queer in a society that actively works to suppress or eliminate all these things. I think we in the U.S. often think of Singapore as being an incredibly strict society, and while that’s true, a lot of what is described isn’t so far off from the way we treat each other here.
- A good chunk of this book centers on self-policing and what to do when your fellow citizens are the ones doing the surveillance and reporting. I’m not sure there is an answer since it’s such a big thing to grapple with, but it’s something to open our eyes to for sure.

Although not my typical go to genre, Dinner On Monster Island drew me in quickly. Tania De Rozario delivers this beautifully vulnerable collection of essays that provoke so many emotions from her perspective and the reader’s. These essays left me shaking my head with disbelief. Her mother allowing the church to gay-exorcise her at the age of twelve. The constant body shaming from her family, peers, school and society. A government with an unhealthy reach, doing its best to censor its population and limit access to representation. I found De Rozario’s ability to relate her life experiences to pop culture references to be quite fascinating. Some parts were slower, some references I didn’t understand as I am not a big horror movie fan, but I still found this to be an important read.

✵𝖬𝖺𝗇𝗒 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗄𝗌 𝗍𝗈 𝖧𝖺𝗋𝗉𝖾𝗋 𝖯𝖾𝗋𝖾𝗇𝗇𝗂𝖺𝗅 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖯𝖺𝗉𝖾𝗋𝖻𝖺𝖼𝗄𝗌, 𝖳𝖺𝗇𝗂𝖺 𝖣𝖾 𝖱𝗈𝗓𝖺𝗋𝗂𝗈 ＆ 𝖭𝖾𝗍𝖦𝖺𝗅𝗅𝖾𝗒 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗀𝗂𝖿𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗆𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝖠𝖽𝗏𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾𝖽 𝖱𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋’𝗌 𝖢𝗈𝗉𝗒 𝗂𝗇 𝖾𝗑𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗀𝖾 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗆𝗒 𝗁𝗈𝗇𝖾𝗌𝗍 𝗋𝖾𝗏𝗂𝖾𝗐.✵

Starting off February with a 5 star read and new favorite!!

Each essay looks at a different part of de Rozario’s life and experiences. The essays mostly look at complicated mother-daughter relationships, fatphobia, homophobia, racism/colorism and life in general in Singapore.

Beautiful poetic writing! I highlighted many quotes within the first 50 pages. Sometimes she uses horror movies or dystopian shows as connections to her own views of Singapore or her childhood which I found unique and interesting for a memoir!

She also looked at how horror movies reflect society (for example strained mother daughter relationships in Carrie, lack of bodily autonomy in The Exorcist, familial tragedy/trauma in The Shining vs Doctor Sleep). It was also interesting to learn about ghost stories in different Asian countries and history or significance of certain cultural traditions in Singapore. I especially enjoyed the look at Japanese/Thai/Korean horror films and how the stories could connect to folklore or have new meanings inside the cultural context of the countries!

As much as I learned about the author’s upbringing and being queer in Singapore, I also a lot about the country in general! I didn’t know much about this country before but reading the author’s experiences and sharing some of its history, I feel much more knowledgeable about the island.

Overall a poetic and informative memoir split into essays. I highly recommend if you enjoy horror movies, reflective writing that makes you think, want to learn more about Singapore, or just looking for a queer memoir to pick up! But be warned there’s a lot of trigger warnings for this one, mostly moderate in depiction


TW/CW: religious bigotry, religious trauma, death of parent, suicide (brief mention), fatphobia, body shaming, eating disorder (brief), homophobia, suicidal ideation, self harm, alcoholism, racism, colorism, classism

I wanted to connect with this book because of the LGBTQIA representation but the long boring discussions regarding horror movies seemed so bizarre that it overshadowed alot of the rest of the story. I didn't really understand the horror movie stuff and felt like it didn't make sense.

This set of essays offers powerful insight into what it means to be queer, fat, and a racial minority in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan yet conservative cities. I was moved by De Rozario’s descriptions of her fraught relationship with her place of birth and the formative experiences that provide her foundation for her art and activism. She writes evocatively about fear and disappointment, and provides chilling descriptions of what it’s like to grow up in a police state comprised of all of your neighbors.

This was a very quick, interesting read, but I'm not sure I loved it. It's hard to rate as it's a memoir/personal, and was really intimate.

This was reply beautifully written and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I would give this a solid 3/5 I appreciate Net galley and the publisher providing me a copy of this to read.