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451 reviews by:
reads2cope
Read thanks to the #TransRightsReadathon!
Support trans rights: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14OhlkilIFRJVcEWEzqOeIw9eHACbfU94uxAKixNtzxM/edit
The Passing Playbook stars teenager Spencer Harris, a great big brother, inspiring nerd, and aspiring football/soccer player. Spencer is also transgender, and was bullied for that at his old school. He was able to transfer, and is passing at his new private school. However, administration has kept him from playing on his soccer team. This book follows his decision to come out to his coach and new school, or to stay on the bench. Isaac Fitzsimons carefully handles many hard topics that make this book inspiring. More than anything, this book is about love in all it's forms - friendship, family, and romantic. The pace that Spencer and Justice found each other was perfect, and I really felt the butterflies of a crush developing into something more. This was a comforting read without falling int on obvious plot or sticking too closely to common YA tropes. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a protagonist to cheer on.
The Passing Playbook stars teenager Spencer Harris, a great big brother, inspiring nerd, and aspiring football/soccer player. Spencer is also transgender, and was bullied for that at his old school. He was able to transfer, and is passing at his new private school. However, administration has kept him from playing on his soccer team. This book follows his decision to come out to his coach and new school, or to stay on the bench. Isaac Fitzsimons carefully handles many hard topics that make this book inspiring. More than anything, this book is about love in all it's forms - friendship, family, and romantic. The pace that Spencer and Justice found each other was perfect, and I really felt the butterflies of a crush developing into something more. This was a comforting read without falling int on obvious plot or sticking too closely to common YA tropes. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a protagonist to cheer on.
Read thanks to the #TransRightsReadathon!
Support trans rights: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14OhlkilIFRJVcEWEzqOeIw9eHACbfU94uxAKixNtzxM/edit
Adding to my ever-growing list of beautiful books in a post-Internet world.
Haunting and beautiful, I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
Support trans rights: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14OhlkilIFRJVcEWEzqOeIw9eHACbfU94uxAKixNtzxM/edit
#TransRightsReadathon
Born from murdered African women who were thrown from slave ships, the children have evolved into mermaids who find their past too traumatic to remember, and so leave their collective memories to The Historian holds their collective memory who is tasked with sharing the story once a year. This novella has stayed in my head since I finished it. Evocative, haunting, and beautiful. The writing was so detailed, it felt like an age-old myth while exploring very timely and important topics. Beyond the weight of history, the importance of ancestral knowledge, and the duty to community, The Deep also says a lot about gender, sexuality, and other identity without losing the gripping setting, lecturing, or disrupting the flowing pace.
Through the whole story, I felt like I was floating in the deep. Balancing the weight of knowing all of the trauma of your ancestors with the pain of that knowledge being lost was so moving. The characters were also well developed and understandable. A poetic and important book.
#TransRightsReadathon
Born from murdered African women who were thrown from slave ships, the children have evolved into mermaids who find their past too traumatic to remember, and so leave their collective memories to The Historian holds their collective memory who is tasked with sharing the story once a year. This novella has stayed in my head since I finished it. Evocative, haunting, and beautiful. The writing was so detailed, it felt like an age-old myth while exploring very timely and important topics. Beyond the weight of history, the importance of ancestral knowledge, and the duty to community, The Deep also says a lot about gender, sexuality, and other identity without losing the gripping setting, lecturing, or disrupting the flowing pace.
Through the whole story, I felt like I was floating in the deep. Balancing the weight of knowing all of the trauma of your ancestors with the pain of that knowledge being lost was so moving. The characters were also well developed and understandable. A poetic and important book.
Beautiful memoir, so engaging and thought-provoking. Read thanks to Roxane Gay's Audacious Book Club list and in time for the #TransRightsReadathon.
Support trans rights: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14OhlkilIFRJVcEWEzqOeIw9eHACbfU94uxAKixNtzxM/edit
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
No likable characters, zero character growth, fatphobia, rampant sexism, pregnant people are “crazy,” constant sexual harassment, and the story line was predictable. Some of the plots didn’t make sense, Giorgio could have been cut entirely and the story wouldn’t have changed. If you like reading the main love interest say “I have something important to tell you” only to be interrupted once every chapter, and then have the same character lie and lie by omission multiple times despite having opportunities to explain, this is the book for you I guess.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment
Spreading TB across the globe for months and then complaining about quarantine was hard to stomach in our ongoing pandemic… The ending felt like it needed more time, it would have been great to see Hira grow up and become less selfish, a wish I have of many adults in my community so I guess she’s realistic.
I had a hard time with the jumps in time listening to the audiobook, this probably would have been easier to follow if I’d read it.
Overall, a book that’s hard to rate, caused severe secondhand embarrassment, was hard to put down, and I’m excited to read more from Dur e Aziz Amna.
I had a hard time with the jumps in time listening to the audiobook, this probably would have been easier to follow if I’d read it.
Overall, a book that’s hard to rate, caused severe secondhand embarrassment, was hard to put down, and I’m excited to read more from Dur e Aziz Amna.
Begging for the Dara/Zaynab/Aqisa alternative epilogue to become a whole trilogy please
Incredibly beautiful. I will undoubtedly be reading this again, and I can wait to get my hands on more of Joukhadars work. The story worked because the writing was so engaging, but I did have to work to suspend my disbelief at some points, there were just too many coincidences to make it a believable plot. Ilyas finding Laila in the forest, Nadir finding Laila’s journal, Nadir suddenly coming across Teta’s/Laila’s locket/his teta being Laila’s lover at all, Nadir and Qamar just happening to find Laila’s study of G. simurghus in Qamar’s jido’s book, discovering the box the very morning of the demolition, and if Nadir read all of Laila’s book then why doesn’t he know she didn’t finish the Simurghus painting? Nadir discovering Laila worked out too perfectly, the book could have been just as good if readers still got Laila’s chapters but Nadir never found the notebook, or if, through the community, Nadir still met Laila at the end and she or her family filled in some of the mysteries. All that said, this was a stunning book and it’ll stay in my heart.
