rainbowbrarian's Reviews (1.85k)

 This book grabbed me with the title alone.  But it’s actually a really good story too.  It’s not just about elders reclaiming their sexuality and reasserting their humanity, but it is about that.  Nikki, a 20-something disappointment to her mother, signs up to teach a creative writing course for seniors at her local Punjabi community center.  But when she shows up she realizes the widows are there for her to teach them to read and write in English.  As they work through these misunderstandings they start to form a community where the widows want to share erotic stories that the rest of the community doesn’t think is appropriate for widows.

As word gets out about what’s really happening at this class some of the conservative young men in the community decide they need to put a stop to this, but as Nikki gets closer to her students and starts to learn more about the reality of a community she’s felt rejected by and actively distanced herself from, she realizes that the stakes are higher than she realized as she’s drawn into the story of a young wife’s death.

Favorite Parts - I love getting to see the relationships between these different generations of women as they start to trust each other and learn how much they can offer one another.  Also the moments when the women band together to assert themselves and push back on parts of their culture that want them to stay silent and forgotten.

Read This If You - Want to read a story set in a Punjabi community in London (or haven’t read one before), love stories of women standing up to men who just want them to be silent and biddable, think the worlds needs more stories of inter-generational relationships between women, want to support diverse authors and stories 

 Friends... I want to keyboard mash about this book.  Is that a thing anymore?  Do the kids asdf anymore?  Please, someone tell me!  ;)  Nonsense tangent aside, I need you all to know about this book.  I love so much about it.  This is Hollis Beckworth’s story and I saw so much of my own past in her that it made me FEEL things.

Hollis is trying to find a Swords and Sorcery (Dungeons and Dragons analog) game so that she can have something in common with her boyfriend, Chris, because she feels like they’re growing apart in the year before they all graduate high school and will end up going separate ways.  But Chris’s SnS group has a “No-Girlfriends” rule so she can’t play.

Hollis finds her place in an all girls game and unexpectedly finds an amazing new group of friends.  When her in game character develops a crush on a friend Aini’s character things get a little bit more complicated.  But also so much better.

Favorite Parts - I am a fat person myself and I fell in love with my wife through our characters, in games and online RPG message boards.  We wrote so many love stories through imaginary people before we ever realized that we loved each other and so this storyline hits so close to home in such a wonderful way.  This story is a love letter to anxious geeks who are trying things out through characters and games as a way to learn about themselves in the real world.  

Read This If You - Love DnD, love queer realization moments, remember your own awkward first romances before you knew you were queer, have ever fallen for a handsome bard, or just wanted to, or if you, like me, fell in love with your beloved through games.