Summary and Reviews of Cecilia by K-Ming Chang

Cecilia by K-Ming Chang

Cecilia

by K-Ming Chang
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Paperback:
  • May 2024, 144 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

An erotic, surreal novella from the author of Organ Meats and Bestiary.

Seven, who works as a cleaner at a chiropractor's office, reencounters Cecilia, a woman who has obsessed her since their school days. As the two of them board the same bus—each dubiously claiming not to be following the other—their chance meeting spurs a series of intensely vivid and corporeal memories. As past and present bleed together, Seven can feel her desire begin to unmoor her from the flow of time.

Smart, subversive, and gripping, Cecilia is a winding, misty road trip through bodily transformation, the inextricable histories of violence and love, and the ghosts of girlhood friendship.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

In broad strokes, Cecilia's story is a familiar one: girlhood friends pushed apart by an inability to deal with their burgeoning sexuality, reunited years later. But Chang's prose, as well as her willingness to dig her fingers into the fertile soil of her protagonists, truly sets it apart. There is nothing polished or sanitized about the desire this novella puts on display, none of the gauzy, soft-focus sensuality of lesser lesbian fiction. With something unmentionable caked under its fingernails, Cecilia clutches at the reader and refuses to let go...continued

Full Review Members Only (479 words)

(Reviewed by Joe Hoeffner).

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book



The Symbolism of Urine

Fountain depicting a boy urinatingFrom the first pages of K-Ming Chang's novella Cecilia, narrator Seven is preoccupied with urine. She describes overhearing the strong flow of a chiropractor's urine in the toilet, and remarks upon the receptionist's quieter stream. She holds her own urine until her bladder "tautens into a grape of pain"; later, while dreaming of Cecilia, she wets the bed. Seven received her strange name because her mother drank nothing but 7-Up while she was in the womb, "until her piss thickened into syrup." At one point in a childhood flashback, inspired by a wilderness survival TV show, Cecilia urges Seven to pee in her mouth. (Seven misses and mostly soaks Cecilia's shirt.)

Urine may be a natural product of our bodies, but it's still heavily ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Cecilia, try these:

  • All Fours jacket

    All Fours

    by Miranda July

    Published 2025

    About this book

    More by this author

    The New York Times bestselling author returns with an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and surprising novel about a woman upending her life

  • Hunchback jacket

    Hunchback

    by Saou Ichikawa

    Published 2025

    About this book

    A bombshell bestseller in Japan, a provocative, defiant debut novel about a young woman in a care home seeking autonomy and the full possibilities of her life—"a darkly funny portrait of disability" (Japan Times)

We have 4 read-alikes for Cecilia, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by K-Ming Chang
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Husbands
    by Holly Gramazio
    The Husbands delights in asking: how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Girl Falling
    by Hayley Scrivenor

    The USA Today bestselling author of Dirt Creek returns with a story of grief and truth.

  • Book Jacket

    Jane and Dan at the End of the World
    by Colleen Oakley

    Date Night meets Bel Canto in this hilarious tale.

  • Book Jacket

    The Antidote
    by Karen Russell

    A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.

Who Said...

The longest journey of any person is the journey inward

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

T B S of T F

and be entered to win..