readingpicnic's Reviews (500)

I love Tillie Walden’s art style and storytelling ability so much. Very sorrowful queer girlhood story that made me cry a bit at times. I feel like I learned a lot about figure skating too, which is cool. 

I was so intrigued by this, but unfortunately I did not like it as much as Heaven. I think the pacing threw me off and it went back and forth in time in jarring ways. I wasn’t sure what the direction of the story was most of the time and it kind of felt like it ended before it should have. I did still love the author’s word choice and writing itself, and I found myself writing down lots of quotes.

Such a unique and fun take on a memoir. The writing was so addicting and unique that I finished this in a day. I loved the author's mission to tell a trans memoir that wasn't just about transition or victimhood, to instead complicate these common narratives this with their trans community's dynamic personalities, showing the beauty and fun and drama of the transfem community, as well as mixing in magical realism elements and mystical creatures. I don't really know what's actually based in memoir with this book, but I'm okay with that because it was so exciting to read and I love creative nonfiction.

Wow, this book is incredible! I haven’t been so caught up in a fiction book in so long. I loved how complicated all the characters were, how distinct their voices were, the little powers they had, everything! The alpha vagina power? Incredible. I love the humor in this book so much. The food descriptions were excellent as always, as Elizabeth Acevedo clearly writes with so much passion and love for food and how it's made and enjoyed as a community. All of the different generations of women with points of view in this story did such a good job showing generational trauma within this family and cycles of abuse, as well as just how complicated familial relationships are in general. I love everything Elizabeth Acevedo has written, but this is a new favorite.

This book is quite dense, but I’m glad that I read it and learned more about the history of the occupation of Palestine by Israel. I was not educated on Palestine for most of my life until recently, and I’m committed to changing that this year. I will say, I did not like the audiobook narrator, so that did affect my reading experience a little bit. 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🍉🍉🍉

I learned a lot, and I’ll definitely be checking out the other works referenced in this text! Very engaging read about how technology made for disabled people isn’t made with their input and how it’s framed as a “fix” or “necessary” to disabled people’s livelihoods, when that is often not true. The chapter about neurodivergence referencing Pokémon as a type of technology space that neurodivergent people can navigate their own way made me happy. Fuck autism speaks!!!

I agree with a lot of the author's perspectives and appreciate her honesty about the pitfalls of the queer community that do not often get talked about. I was especially appreciative about the chapter on cycles of abuse in the queer community and who gets penalized/shunned because I have witnessed similar situations before as an observer and did not react to them as well as I could have at the time with who I supported/isolated. I think my point of view on shaming and isolating people who have caused harm, both online and in person, is always changing, and this book has made me think more critically about this. I also appreciated her focus on healing, understanding, and love throughout the book, as well as the emphasis on addressing early signs of abuse ahead of time instead of only reacting when something tragic and harmful befalls a community member.

The artwork was incredibly pretty, but I don't think the execution or writing was very strong...

Overall, this was a very beautiful, impactful, and vulnerable poetry collection with its explorations of race, lesbianism, mother-daughter relationships, and more. I found the poem about the author writing to her future daughter to be the most memorable and emotional for me. I'm only rating this less than five stars because some of the poems felt less impactful and like they were out of place amongst the rest of the poems, such as the Pac-Man poem, which was kind of silly and faux-deep...

Idk I didn’t really like this one. It put me in a sour mood…