YA with aged up protagonists. Which is to say that the concept was interesting but motivations and magnitude felt flat and disappointing. There was frequently a lot of description that felt unnecessary or insignificant to the plot. It wasn't bad, but I wanted more from it. Not more story, though. How is this supposed to be a trilogy?!

Green Bone Saga (Fonda) and War Arts (Chu) are both better picks in this arena.

The relationships in this book (whether romantic, friendship, or spiritual) are just so universally good. 

If you like The Measure, this hits the same (or a very similar) place.

Highlights:
The Weight
White Rage
Black & Blue
Blacker Than Thou
Know Your Rights
Message to My Daughters

I'm not really sure how the bioessentialist "Composite Pops" slipped into the collection, but it had me return to previous essays in the collection with far more scrutiny than was ultimately fair. It definitely pumped my brakes on what was otherwise a masterful collection.  I feel like I need to reread hook's "The Will to Change" to get the taste out of my mouth. 

With the ways masculinity often shutters the emotional side of men and the ways fathers often withhold showing their love towards their sons and how that creates distrust and devalues the mothers’ love (which is easier to obtain), maybe our message should be one of loving as political action and living authentically.

It's clear that the author had the closest relationship with Jason, as his 'case study' dominates the narrative. I wish the women were given equal space.  Additionally, the failure of our HIV/AIDS crisis response (and Fauci's role) was also extremely watered down; I don't know if it is explicitly needed for the narrative, but it's absolutely offensive to not touch on what a monumental human failure that was for so many and only laud the 'achievements' of the science brought about. Also, let's actually name and shame Bayer, yeah?

All that said, this is a very accessible read on a very complex subject that we are still learning about today.  If you have studied Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis, there probably won't be anything new to take away here. Some of the metaphors might also feel like they are distinctly oversimplified. For someone new to Immunology, it’ll give you an excellent foundation and I can definitely recommend it. 

Really interesting world building concepts. I'll stick around for that and Florence. Hoping to see more of Cvareh's sister being a bad bitch.

It's just really cute, okay? It speaks to my inner child.