The Reckonings is an essay collection broadly encompassing themes of justice. Johnson touches on her experience being kidnapped and raped and her vision for justice for the perpetrator of that horrific violence. She writes about rape culture, school shootings, the death penalty and white privilege, and delves deep in essays on nuclear waste and Hurricane Harvey. Johnson’s writing is always beautiful, and she writes with great care and nuance. ⁣
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I feel like I absorbed a lot reading this essay collection. It was a weird mix of easy and tough to read; Johnson is so eloquent and thought-provoking, but reading about disasters and the state of our world was often overpoweringly heartbreaking. It was in turns a good and bad pairing with the current world situation, I was upset and inspired and all over the place. That said, I’m really looking forward to discussing this book and I think I’ll be chewing on it for a long time to come.