TW: death of parents discussed, car accidents

The art the art the ART. It just keeps getting better when it was already perfect to start with. I love each character so much - they are all an adorable mess.

TW: examples of ableism, bullying, gaslighting, disbelief of symptoms, mention of suicide, mentions of Hans Asperger

My thought reflect C. G Drew's review here already, but I'll add that this should probably rather be titled as describing autism that is undiagnosed in all folk who are not cis boys or men, since all research and diagnosis methods are based on cis boys. As another author, Devon Price, said, I'd argue that it should rather be called 'masked autism' than female autism. (https://twitter.com/drdevonprice/status/1420416414507282437?s=19)

AutisticSciencePerson also did a great thread on why we should not seperate autism by binary genders, as it leaves out trans women and trans men, non binary folk and even cis folk who's autism displays differently. https://twitter.com/AutSciPerson/status/1420208562282897411?s=19

TW: mentions of death

A fascinating inside look into the journey of becoming an astronaut and living in space. A wonderfully paced, well told memior.

TW: racism, police brutality, death, racial slurs, gaslighting

This was a kick to the gut...and heart... and soul. Such an important book, and I was genuily tied in knots throughout this amazingly crafted and engaging story. I can't wait to read Dear Justyce.

TW: possible(?) death of an animal

Whew! Lingering between both profound and absurd, deep and utterly fleeting, I personally enjoyed every second. Odd comparison but it felt like a soliloquy straight from Alucard from Castlvania.

TW: none

A charming Jr book! Jon Klasson's art is always a joy, and Amy's writing has the perfect pace and clip to keep even the most simple sentence jump with electricity. (being autistic myself, can I just say the book is my autistic mood.

TW: blood, death, abuse of children by parent, infidelity, toxic relationships

So refreshing a take on the murder/mystery/thriller genre! With jaded humour and toxic relationships combining to make such a great cocktail of morbid truths we all are guilty of.

TW: death, underage drinking and drug use, outing of gay character, homophobic slurs

Personally, I really didn't like this book. Was this because I had the audio book version, or perhaps where I am in my personal journey? I don't know. If you enjoyed it than that's awesome! Here follows my thoughts:

Isaac, the boy who passed away and was so important in his three friends lives, was just so unlikeable. He was so...lacking. His only traits were to drink, do drugs and try to get his friends to join him. What were his hobbies? His family life? His flaws? We don't know. He only was recalled as being... We'll...noy very nice. The only convincing friendship was with Ryan, who he let be himself and confide in him about being gay. But that's where his depth seemed to have ended.

In no way do I mean to imply only 'good' people are grieved for or have friends - we just were never really given, aside from Ryan, a reason why these boys were grieving. They just didn't seem to be friends with this boy who pushed them away from their own choices or in some cases just used them.

It felt the goal of the story was to show the three sidekicks forging their new journey together, but instead it was their very seperate povs that mostly focused on themselves alone or their flashbacks. They only came together in the very end of the book.

Please note this review comes from a white, transgender disabled person.

TW: Death, murder, ableism, ableist slurs, discrimination, torture, forced sterilisation, dismemberment, experimentation, death by starvation.

First of all this book was written in coordination with Disability Rights Advocates, so I thanked all the deities that be that it wasn't a non-disabled person writing their pity and ignorance from the outside, as is so often the case.

The main theme that is explored in both the intro and outro of this book is that NONE OF THESE EVENTS STARTED OR HAVE ENDED WITH THE NAZIS. Which is SO incredibly important. Other countries have been discriminating and torturing, sterilising and murdering disabled folks long before the nazis came to power, and continue to this day. The whole message of this book is two-fold:

1: To remember these forgotten victims,
2: And that by remembering them we see what lead to these atrocities, and how little things have changed for disabled folk even to this day.

So the book isn't "This sucked but we won, yay!" but rather a call to arms about the injustices we still see today and why fighting them is so important.

This book gets an absolute 5 stars, despite a few criticisms I have, but I will share them:

There was a lot of repetition, and normally I would find that grading, but in this case I found it important. It helped me really carve the important details into my brain so I can really build on this knowledge.

Another critique is the wish for more personal stories from disabled folk. However, this may not have been due to a myriad of factors, such as the lack of education and resources offered disabled folks. Also that they were never told anything when being taken from their families or transfered to other 'mental institutions' and their belongings all destroyed. I am keen now to hunt and see if I can find any other personal stories after reading this book.

Lastly, I would have loved to have seen anything mentioned about Hans Asperger or autism as these are very much intertwined subjects.

Despite any critiques, I cannot recommend enough the importance of this book. A great tool for disability advocates, people wanting to understand why disabled folk are far from done fighting for equal rights, teachers, historians, parents...pretty much everyone alive needs to read this.

TW: death, starvation

An easy to read middle grade that tackles it's hard subject matter well, especially the idea of morality and who exactly are the villians in war?