I really enjoyed this book!! Min's writing is eloquent but full of suspense and it has this fluidity to it that I was awed by. The characters were well fleshed out and I found myself finding parts of myself in Alma, Daniel and others. Looking forward to buying a physical copy and rereading it!

This is a hard book to review.
It’s very well written, with a great number of potent insights. Most of the characters are well drawn and there were some very engaging scenes. (Basement) The plot held together… in the end.
But it didn’t always make me want to keep turning the pages. If I hadn’t been reviewing it I would’ve given up I think. I also think that the ending should’ve come a little earlier, but endings are, as Min says, subjective.
I didn’t love this novel, but you might.

A gripping story about an old white man with a Asian fetish. Daniel sleeps with every asian woman that comes along the way.
Kyoko blames hime for the suicide of her mother and becomes obsessed with him.

Well written, I couldn’t stop reading.

The plot has the makings of a Netflix story. Daniel is a ridiculous violinist - an older white man in love with himself and after meeting an Asian woman, committed to dating primarily Asian women. His lost love Alma is alone and unhappy considering what she has accomplished and if it was real. Then there is Kyoko, a young rebel who is convinced that Daniel's harsh behavior was the cause of her mother Emi's death. What else can Kyoko do except enact a plan of revenge?

This book starts really strongly with Kyoko a punk musician and graphic artist stalking a middle aged white man called Daniel,a formerly renowned violinist who nows runs a quintet playing private seesions for the ternimally ill. Daniel always tries to sleep with any asian women who come into his orbit trying to recreate the feelings he had for his first love, a celebrated cellist called Alma who now is battling MS. Kyoko blames Daniel for her mother's suicide and is out for revenge. I likehow the stories of the three characters interconnect and how the author describes their inner thoughts and feelings with beautiful prose. I felt that the final third of the book rather let the rest of teh strong story build up down.

The Fetishist is a slim book with three interlinking characters at its heart. Alma is a gifted cellist, fighting a losing battle against MS. Daniel is a once-celebrated violinist, now making a living from playing for the terminally ill, whose girlfriends since Alma - with the sole exception of the wife who recently left him - have all been Asian. Kyoko is a graphic artist and punk musician, driven by the desire to get revenge on the man she blames for her mother's death: Daniel.

Do you ever start reading a book, and just know it is going to be good? The Fetishist has a great opening, but I also loved the way this book is written. Katherine Min's writing feels confident in a way that I always appreciate, and I particularly loved the structure of this book. Reading this one just felt like you were in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing.

I ended up opting for four stars, because I wasn't entirely convinced by where the book leaves the reader, by what it is trying to say. The whole way through, we get the sense that Daniel fetishes Asian women, and I love the way that Alma (who I immediately fell in love with) calls him out for this. But I wasn't quite sure, in the end, about where this acknowledgement leaves the characters or the reader. The Fetishist is being published posthumously, so it may well be that some final edits didn't get made.

I really enjoyed The Fetishist, and I will definitely be seeking out more of Katherine Min's work.

𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘌𝘕𝘋.

This line occurs in the opening pages of this story, in the Author’s Note in fact, and now I have finished it, I am struck by how apt this line is, but unfortunately in this case it is apt for the wrong reasons. There were several points in this novel where I think, if the book had ended, the book would have been better for it. Not necessarily for a ‘happy’ ending, but one that isn’t quite so much of a wet fish.

The Fetishist tells the story of three characters; Daniel, Alma and Kyoko. The three are connected but only Kyoko knows that they are. Alma is a talented and remarkable cellist, struggling with MS which is only getting worse. Daniel was Alma’s boyfriend when they were in their twenties, he considers her the love of his life, but that didn’t stop him from betraying her. Kyoko is the daughter of the woman Daniel had an affair with, an affair that tore Kyoko’s family apart, which Daniel barely even knows about. It is a story about revenge and the ways our relationships influence the course of our lives in ways we are not always aware of. Oh, and there’s a kidnapping… It is also heavily concerned with scrutinising Daniel’s ‘preference’ for dating Asian women, a theme that while powerfully explored doesn’t really go anywhere? Some lines are powerful and cutting, but then the story continues to a point in the ending where it seems like Min hasn’t decided what to do with it. Like he can acknowledge that he fetishises Asian women and then… nothing?

𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦—𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭, 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘺, 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴.

It felt like either the story should have stopped earlier or the point was merely to point it out and then walk the accusation back to meaninglessness. I will also say, while I loved the dream-like quality of the narrative, where each scene bubbles up like a stream of consciousness jumping from POV to POV, some of the characters, especially Kyoko and Kornell were a little one-note. Min really pushes the notion of Kornell as being this gentle giant of a man, but also she plays into harmful stereotypes about large black men, especially in the sex scene between them, making Kornell’s desire manifest in a way that is destructive and violent “something in him wanted to break her, to tear her apart, even as he loved her and wanted to protect her”, all while playing up Kyoko’s smallness with lines like “She was so thin, so small, that Kornell had wondered how they could possibly make sex work between them” in a way that felt fetishising itself, but while that may have been the point, there is no commentary coming out of it, they are actually the most solid couple in the story. Kornell’s description really made me uncomfortable.

Overall, this was fun to read and very engaging, just I feel like its themes would have been better served with some edits.

𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘈𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯, 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯. 𝘈𝘭𝘮𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘭, 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴, 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘫𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘪𝘵, 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Thank you to Kayla and Katherine Min, Netgalley and the publishers for the digital advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this would be up my street and boy it did not disappoint. I had absolutely no idea where this book was going the whole time reading and I love that about a book, predictability is boring in my opinion.

You follow these characters with their own personal struggles, weaving backwards in time and with the present, coming to understand just how everyone got to be where they find themselves. Music features heavily in this book and whilst I am not musical in the slightest, it almost adds a sort of atmospheric backdrop to the story.

The fetishisation of Asian women is a main theme throughout and creates a unique dynamic of how likeable the characters are, why you like them and how this evolves throughout the book. I really enjoyed this theme and character development!

This was a fascinating exploration of the fetishisation of Asian women through three points of views of different characters involved on it. Although with quite an unrealistic way of resolving the main point of conflict, it was a good read.

I loved how dark this book got very quickly, although the end for me was a little disappointing considering the strong start.

The three main characters are Alma and Daniel who were in a relationship some years previously, and Kyoko who wanted revenge on Daniel as he had had brief affair with her mother Emi at the same time as he was seeing Alma.

All the characters are classical musicians in one way or another, and this shows a different view on the world of stringed instruments, and they are all wonderfully flawed. Both Alma and Daniel realise the depth of their feelings for each other when she is in a coma and he is locked in a basement as they are both reliving their past.

The title comes from the idea that Daniel fetishizes Asian women as other than his wife Sigrid all his girlfriends and one-night stands are Asian, something both Alma and Kyoko have a problem with.

This book was on a whole a good read, with some dark themes.

The Fetishist is an incredibly interesting and unique book which delves into the fetishization of Asian women and the many impacts it has. Although I had some prior knowledge before reading this I felt like I learnt so much and I loved how engaging and interesting this book was with incredibly human, raw and complex characters. I was also incredible touched to learn this will be published post-humously. Overall I think the message from this is so incredibly important and I highly recommend that people read this.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book gives a fascinating insight into the fetishisation of Asian women and the impact it can have through generations, in romantic relationships and in relationships Asian women have with themselves. As a white, English woman I really appreciated this book opening my eyes to this subject matter and felt it was dealt with in a really accessible and engaging way.

One of the things I loved most about this book was that even at the end of it, I couldn't categorise any of the characters as 'good' or 'bad'. They simply were human, deeply flawed and complex with at times questionable morals. I genuinely think Alma might be one of my favourite literary characters, her anger and pain are written so incredibly well.

I'm usually pretty bad at predicting how a book will end and as per usual the end of this book surprised me. I found it moving, touching and surprising. I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone.

I didn't learn until after reading that this book will be published post-humously which made this all the more touching. What a talent.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.