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aliciaclarereads's Reviews (1.25k)
read for PopSugar 2019 Advanced Reading Challenge: two books with the same title, paired with [b:Forbidden|25760151|Forbidden (Old West, #1)|Beverly Jenkins|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436290539s/25760151.jpg|45264426] by Beverly Jenkins
This book... I don't even quite know how to start talking about it. It had been on my tbr for a few years because it was so highly rated, and I recently removed it. However, after reading Beverly Jenkins, I realized picking this up could fulfill a reading challenge. And honestly, I wish I hadn't read it.
This book isn't bad. Suzuma is a good writer and she handles a taboo topic very delicately. This isn't a VC Andrews book where incest is sensationalized into a soap opera-esque drama. Instead it's a book about two deeply traumatized and neglected teenagers who have to step into the role of mom and dad for their younger siblings. Due to their extenuating circumstances, they fall in love. And my issue is not that this is relationship is incestuous (I mean it's SO uncomfortable to read the physical intimacy scenes, but I was expecting that much), but that I don't believe the love story. I don't feel like I read two characters falling in love, but two kids who are deeply emotionally reliant on the other in order to survive. Had they not been siblings, I still think their relationship was unhealthy because they had absolutely no one else in their lives. Supposedly Maya is chatty and outgoing, but we barely see her in social situations. I think she was involved with things at school, but it's a fleeting mention in the first few chapters. Her best friend is a complete prop to make Maya slightly different from Lochan and his social anxiety. Otherwise, I can't really separate their individual characteristics. The chapters alternate between the two and I frequently was confused about who was speaking until I saw the pronouns. Also so many reviews mentioned the tragic ending, and so I was building up in my head what could happen, ultimately to be disappointed? I was expecting more of a twist.I mean Lochan's suicide is awful, but I was SO convinced Willa was going to die while maya and Lochan were covering for themselves. So his death didn't feel as tragic to me as one of the other siblings getting hurt
I can't pretend that my reaction isn't influenced by personal prejudices. And I don't think people who like this book support incest. It's just, there are so many leaps the characters take to justify their actions. Maya compares it to a teacher and student (aka an adult and a teenager) falling in love and how that's okay despite the age difference. Which it isn't! There's a deep power imbalance and the teenager can't consent. There's just so many jumps to justify why this is consensual and how they've never viewed each other as siblings, but it seems to defeat the purpose? I mean they are in love *because* they are siblings who have had to take over parenting their younger siblings.
I don't know, I started to look up articles about consensual incest because I was curious about how frequently this happens, and it is a dark world out there. It seems mostly consensual incest happens when separated family members meet again as adults, which makes sense as they don't have a shared childhood/family lifestyle. But then I found a reddit forum dedicated to incest, where a large portion of these relationships were mother and son, and I was appalled. It's not possible for those relationships to ever be consensual. No fucking way, the power divide will always make it unequal. Maybe finishing this book right after [b:The Color Purple|11486|The Color Purple|Alice Walker|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386925078s/11486.jpg|3300573] where the main character is raped by her father on the first page made me feel extra sensitive to how incest is nearly always abuse. I just couldn't garner enough sympathy to Maya and Lochan. I read quite a bit of romance, and their story was not romantic to me. I was not compelled by these characters falling in love.
CLEARLY I have a lot of thoughts and this will be a book that sticks with me (even when i don't want it to.) Again, I respect Suzuma for trying to tell a tragic, taboo story and my low rating is not reflective on what I think about her. I liked her writing enough that I'd be willing to try another book from her.
(Personally my biggest gripe, how the hell is Lochan pronounced? I ended up just referring to him as Lachlan in my head in order to not go cray when his name appeared. This is a minute, petty concern, but it really irked me!!)
This book... I don't even quite know how to start talking about it. It had been on my tbr for a few years because it was so highly rated, and I recently removed it. However, after reading Beverly Jenkins, I realized picking this up could fulfill a reading challenge. And honestly, I wish I hadn't read it.
This book isn't bad. Suzuma is a good writer and she handles a taboo topic very delicately. This isn't a VC Andrews book where incest is sensationalized into a soap opera-esque drama. Instead it's a book about two deeply traumatized and neglected teenagers who have to step into the role of mom and dad for their younger siblings. Due to their extenuating circumstances, they fall in love. And my issue is not that this is relationship is incestuous (I mean it's SO uncomfortable to read the physical intimacy scenes, but I was expecting that much), but that I don't believe the love story. I don't feel like I read two characters falling in love, but two kids who are deeply emotionally reliant on the other in order to survive. Had they not been siblings, I still think their relationship was unhealthy because they had absolutely no one else in their lives. Supposedly Maya is chatty and outgoing, but we barely see her in social situations. I think she was involved with things at school, but it's a fleeting mention in the first few chapters. Her best friend is a complete prop to make Maya slightly different from Lochan and his social anxiety. Otherwise, I can't really separate their individual characteristics. The chapters alternate between the two and I frequently was confused about who was speaking until I saw the pronouns. Also so many reviews mentioned the tragic ending, and so I was building up in my head what could happen, ultimately to be disappointed? I was expecting more of a twist.
I can't pretend that my reaction isn't influenced by personal prejudices. And I don't think people who like this book support incest. It's just, there are so many leaps the characters take to justify their actions. Maya compares it to a teacher and student (aka an adult and a teenager) falling in love and how that's okay despite the age difference. Which it isn't! There's a deep power imbalance and the teenager can't consent. There's just so many jumps to justify why this is consensual and how they've never viewed each other as siblings, but it seems to defeat the purpose? I mean they are in love *because* they are siblings who have had to take over parenting their younger siblings.
I don't know, I started to look up articles about consensual incest because I was curious about how frequently this happens, and it is a dark world out there. It seems mostly consensual incest happens when separated family members meet again as adults, which makes sense as they don't have a shared childhood/family lifestyle. But then I found a reddit forum dedicated to incest, where a large portion of these relationships were mother and son, and I was appalled. It's not possible for those relationships to ever be consensual. No fucking way, the power divide will always make it unequal. Maybe finishing this book right after [b:The Color Purple|11486|The Color Purple|Alice Walker|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386925078s/11486.jpg|3300573] where the main character is raped by her father on the first page made me feel extra sensitive to how incest is nearly always abuse. I just couldn't garner enough sympathy to Maya and Lochan. I read quite a bit of romance, and their story was not romantic to me. I was not compelled by these characters falling in love.
CLEARLY I have a lot of thoughts and this will be a book that sticks with me (even when i don't want it to.) Again, I respect Suzuma for trying to tell a tragic, taboo story and my low rating is not reflective on what I think about her. I liked her writing enough that I'd be willing to try another book from her.
(Personally my biggest gripe, how the hell is Lochan pronounced? I ended up just referring to him as Lachlan in my head in order to not go cray when his name appeared. This is a minute, petty concern, but it really irked me!!)
Nothing but zits, flowers, and regret bloom overnight
I really love Iliza's comedy, and this was basically her stand up routine in a book. She gets to go in on girl logic and why it is that women act so "crazy." She's pivoted her comedy from mocking women to embracing that the expectations for women are what drive us to insanity, which works much better. There were plenty of times I was nodding along about how much she was hitting the nail on the head. Plus I laughed out loud quite a few times! I would definitely recommend getting this as an audiobook since you get Iliza's excellent voices and intonations. Honestly I don't think I would have enjoyed that much if I picked up the physical copy.
The biggest drawback is she doesn't really seem to ever truly define "girl logic" itself, just that it's all the instincts women have. IN fact most of girl logic seems to be tied to dating, although towards the end she talks a little bit about how it's influenced her career. And in talking about dating, her observations seem to reflect her life as a white, heterosexual woman, which she does briefly acknowledge. I mean she can't really speak from experience about being a lesbian or a woman of color, but its absence does make some of the advice one-dimensional. Basically, you can't dig too deep into this book because there's not much there beyond Iliza embellishing her standup.
If you've never heard of Iliza definitely watch her stand up before picking this up to get a taste of what her style and sense of humor is. Otherwise this book will not be for you.
I really love Iliza's comedy, and this was basically her stand up routine in a book. She gets to go in on girl logic and why it is that women act so "crazy." She's pivoted her comedy from mocking women to embracing that the expectations for women are what drive us to insanity, which works much better. There were plenty of times I was nodding along about how much she was hitting the nail on the head. Plus I laughed out loud quite a few times! I would definitely recommend getting this as an audiobook since you get Iliza's excellent voices and intonations. Honestly I don't think I would have enjoyed that much if I picked up the physical copy.
The biggest drawback is she doesn't really seem to ever truly define "girl logic" itself, just that it's all the instincts women have. IN fact most of girl logic seems to be tied to dating, although towards the end she talks a little bit about how it's influenced her career. And in talking about dating, her observations seem to reflect her life as a white, heterosexual woman, which she does briefly acknowledge. I mean she can't really speak from experience about being a lesbian or a woman of color, but its absence does make some of the advice one-dimensional. Basically, you can't dig too deep into this book because there's not much there beyond Iliza embellishing her standup.
If you've never heard of Iliza definitely watch her stand up before picking this up to get a taste of what her style and sense of humor is. Otherwise this book will not be for you.
read for PopSugar 2019 challenge: a book by two female authors
This book is basically Black Swan + Pretty Little Liars + Gossip Girl, aka I was in heaven reading it. It's some of the fun, backstabby, bitchy YA I've been missing in my life.
This book is basically Black Swan + Pretty Little Liars + Gossip Girl, aka I was in heaven reading it. It's some of the fun, backstabby, bitchy YA I've been missing in my life.
read for PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge: a book published in 2019
I wish I could bottle my joy of starting a Sally Thorne book. That way the moment I'm feeling down, I can take a swig and instantly be happy again.
I, like many others, loved The Hating Game so much, that I was almost nervous that this book would let me down. In fact the response to this book hasn't been as glowing as THG, so I put this off for a few weeks because I was so nervous about being let down. Great news -I wasn't! I mean this can't top my love of THG, but that's a really high bar for any romance novel. This book is an excellent sophomore attempt from Thorne. She gets the chance to try out a new voice, someone who isn't as sweet and naive as Lucy, and she clearly had a lot of fun with Darcy. Darcy and Tom's sexual tension was... whew. I'm fanning myself. Thorne is a master of sexy banter and tension building and building until it all explodes in the best way.
Some of the things I thought Thorne improved on since THG: adding more side characters! There's Truly, Darcy's best friend (yes, a female friend! finally!), Vince, the sort of slimy hook up, the renovation crew, and Holly (who I actually wanted more from! She was so sweet). Plus we get Jamie and all the weird and loving complicated family dynamics (who I wish had popped into the story a bit earlier!). Don't get me wrong this book is so focused on Darcy and Tom, but interactions with side characters are another way to give the reader a glance at who the person really is, and I felt that THG was often just so zoomed in on Lucy and Josh you saw nothing else. It did work for THG because Lucy and Josh change so much in the book. I didn't think that focus would affect
That leads to my main gripe: character development. I don't feel that Darcy and Tom changed much from the beginning to the end of this. I think the main issue is these characters already have a decades long history and have really intense and complicated feelings. The structure of that kind of love story is different than witnessing two people who barely know each other fall in love. But this love story tended to lean more into the second half. The history is obviously there and talked about, but there's no discussion about why nothing happened until now.I really wanted Tom to confront Darcy on why she ran away when he first said I love you. I think she owed him that. I guess what I'm saying is I wanted a tad more angst that wasn't just wrapped up in sexual attraction.
All in all, this book was a delightful little gem, and I'm so happy it's in the world! Sally Thorne, I absolutely adore you.
I wish I could bottle my joy of starting a Sally Thorne book. That way the moment I'm feeling down, I can take a swig and instantly be happy again.
I, like many others, loved The Hating Game so much, that I was almost nervous that this book would let me down. In fact the response to this book hasn't been as glowing as THG, so I put this off for a few weeks because I was so nervous about being let down. Great news -I wasn't! I mean this can't top my love of THG, but that's a really high bar for any romance novel. This book is an excellent sophomore attempt from Thorne. She gets the chance to try out a new voice, someone who isn't as sweet and naive as Lucy, and she clearly had a lot of fun with Darcy. Darcy and Tom's sexual tension was... whew. I'm fanning myself. Thorne is a master of sexy banter and tension building and building until it all explodes in the best way.
Some of the things I thought Thorne improved on since THG: adding more side characters! There's Truly, Darcy's best friend (yes, a female friend! finally!), Vince, the sort of slimy hook up, the renovation crew, and Holly (who I actually wanted more from! She was so sweet). Plus we get Jamie and all the weird and loving complicated family dynamics (who I wish had popped into the story a bit earlier!). Don't get me wrong this book is so focused on Darcy and Tom, but interactions with side characters are another way to give the reader a glance at who the person really is, and I felt that THG was often just so zoomed in on Lucy and Josh you saw nothing else. It did work for THG because Lucy and Josh change so much in the book. I didn't think that focus would affect
That leads to my main gripe: character development. I don't feel that Darcy and Tom changed much from the beginning to the end of this. I think the main issue is these characters already have a decades long history and have really intense and complicated feelings. The structure of that kind of love story is different than witnessing two people who barely know each other fall in love. But this love story tended to lean more into the second half. The history is obviously there and talked about, but there's no discussion about why nothing happened until now.
All in all, this book was a delightful little gem, and I'm so happy it's in the world! Sally Thorne, I absolutely adore you.
I reread this on my plane and WOW I still love this. It's probably one of my favorite HRs.
read for Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge: a book about someone with a superpower
Cussing and praying. Mixing the profane and sacred together. No one can cuss you out more eloquently than a Black woman can. It might be a stereotype, but it's also a truth. We cuss out of rage, and we pray that the cussing will be enough to get the rage out. We curse those who trespass against us, and we pray for divine help to overcome those very same systems. ... Most Black girls and women come to lean on that same holy language for divine help when the system shows up to mash them into a million pieces. Rage and respectability can't exist in the same space. But cussing and praying absolutely can.
I LOVED THIS. What an excellent collection of essays! Cooper's writing strikes a perfect balance of intellectual and accessible. Basically you can read this and feel so smart as your parse through her thoughts, without getting bogged down by superfluous academic jargon. Cooper digs into issues surrounding race and gender in America and how black women are stuck in the middle of these issues. She goes into sexuality, religion, ambition, and education all through the lens of why black women have so much rage. But she goes a step further of demonstrating how black women channel that rage into a means of survival. I think if you're vaguely aware of issues surrounding racism and sexism, a lot of the points Cooper makes aren't new. However it doesn't feel like a basic primer; there's still more to learn from what she writes, especially as she incorporates her personal stories. And boy oh boy did her discussions about religion and womanhood resonate with me! I just kept nodding and saying "yes, yes, yes!" throughout the whole chapter.
Most Christian theology infantilizes women in just this manner. It makes us think that because we are all children of God, God only ever sees us as children. And, as a result, we'll be grown women afraid of embracing our sexuality, approaching it with the ingrained trepidation we learned in our teenage years. I rebuke this foolishness. I am God's child, as I think every human being is. But God knows I'm grown.
If I had any critiques, it's that the essays are a little long. They're not repetitive but could've been edited down slightly to be more concise. Also, there wasn't any citing of studies. She references a lot of different statistics, but I'm not quite sure where she got them from.
All in all, this is an excellent book that I highly recommend. I'd like to personally deliver the essay on white women tears to every single white woman I know.
Cussing and praying. Mixing the profane and sacred together. No one can cuss you out more eloquently than a Black woman can. It might be a stereotype, but it's also a truth. We cuss out of rage, and we pray that the cussing will be enough to get the rage out. We curse those who trespass against us, and we pray for divine help to overcome those very same systems. ... Most Black girls and women come to lean on that same holy language for divine help when the system shows up to mash them into a million pieces. Rage and respectability can't exist in the same space. But cussing and praying absolutely can.
I LOVED THIS. What an excellent collection of essays! Cooper's writing strikes a perfect balance of intellectual and accessible. Basically you can read this and feel so smart as your parse through her thoughts, without getting bogged down by superfluous academic jargon. Cooper digs into issues surrounding race and gender in America and how black women are stuck in the middle of these issues. She goes into sexuality, religion, ambition, and education all through the lens of why black women have so much rage. But she goes a step further of demonstrating how black women channel that rage into a means of survival. I think if you're vaguely aware of issues surrounding racism and sexism, a lot of the points Cooper makes aren't new. However it doesn't feel like a basic primer; there's still more to learn from what she writes, especially as she incorporates her personal stories. And boy oh boy did her discussions about religion and womanhood resonate with me! I just kept nodding and saying "yes, yes, yes!" throughout the whole chapter.
Most Christian theology infantilizes women in just this manner. It makes us think that because we are all children of God, God only ever sees us as children. And, as a result, we'll be grown women afraid of embracing our sexuality, approaching it with the ingrained trepidation we learned in our teenage years. I rebuke this foolishness. I am God's child, as I think every human being is. But God knows I'm grown.
If I had any critiques, it's that the essays are a little long. They're not repetitive but could've been edited down slightly to be more concise. Also, there wasn't any citing of studies. She references a lot of different statistics, but I'm not quite sure where she got them from.
All in all, this is an excellent book that I highly recommend. I'd like to personally deliver the essay on white women tears to every single white woman I know.
I didn't know what to expect from this book, honestly. I'm writing a paper on CS Lewis for my English class, and this seemed like an interesting book to read. I was blown away. His critique of the church and Christian actions in general were so accurate. The whole time I continually picture people I knew like the ones Screwtape describes. Also the format of letters made it easy to set the book down and pick it back up without missing anything, which is good considering my schedule has gotten incredibly hectic.
read for Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge: a book with an extinct or imaginary creature
This series completely keeps me on my toes, which I love. I have no idea what's going to happen next and several turns had me dropping my jaw. The mythology is so fascinating that I didn't mind the info-dumping because I just want to learn as much as I can about this world. I'm so thrilled we get to see Nassun's perspective because she is such an interesting contrast from Essun.
And this audiobook... oh Robin Miles you have my heart. She is an incredible narrator that adds so much depth to this story for me. I'm so pumped to listen to her narrate the finale!
This series completely keeps me on my toes, which I love. I have no idea what's going to happen next and several turns had me dropping my jaw. The mythology is so fascinating that I didn't mind the info-dumping because I just want to learn as much as I can about this world. I'm so thrilled we get to see Nassun's perspective because she is such an interesting contrast from Essun.
And this audiobook... oh Robin Miles you have my heart. She is an incredible narrator that adds so much depth to this story for me. I'm so pumped to listen to her narrate the finale!
I wonder how much of my love for this book is influenced by Lin Manuel Miranda reading the audiobook (a lot, I'm going to guess).