ugh I read a zombie book!!

Luckily it wasn't really about zombies.

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-26-the-forest-of-hands-and-teeth/

ugh SO PERFECT. obviously OBVIOUSLY I loved Wolverine's cameo here but I also really love Kamala defending and inspiring the poor maligned millenials <3

(read as single issues)

this was kind of... confusing but also the ending was really beautiful??

I don't read a lot of DC stuff so I wasn't sure how confused I was meant to be by this? Like I know it's a new series, and it's a mystery storyline, but also was I supposed to know who any of these people (aside from Bruce Wayne) are? My confusion definitely detracted from my enjoyment of this a little bit. I dunno: I picked this up because people were excited about more girl-led comics, and I can definitely share that excitement! And honestly, I should have loved a comic about girls having ghost/secret society hijinx at a boarding school! I liked it, but didn't love it.

I'm not sure how welcoming this would be to actual MG/YA girls who were looking for some kind of entry point into the DC universe? Is that even the point of this?

I just don't knowww?

I'm really glad this exists! It's a very readable, accessible book for teens about a hugely important event that is often overlooked by American history books. (I mean, I know I read [b:And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic|28212|And the Band Played On Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic|Randy Shilts|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386924077s/28212.jpg|1080309] when I was in high school, but that was extracurricular reading because that's the kind of nerd I was.) It's already--happily--out of date with its talk of gay marriage, but still a great look at just how hard it was to be a gay American in the 60s. (Not that it's a walk in the park now, but.)

There's also a lot of interesting oral history in here, great eyewitness accounts and primary source documents. I already knew a lot of this stuff, but not all of it. (Like, I had never heard about protesters throwing the ashes of AIDS victims on the White House lawn in 1992 and I straight-up cried in the break room at work reading about it. JESUS.)

Recommended for high school students for sure, and interested junior high kids could certainly understand it although there is some ~mature content~.

Hmm. I understand that this is a fictionalized memoir, based on Long's childhood experiences? I feel like its primary audience would be other white people who grew up in the 60s? It assumes a fair amount of knowledge about the civil rights movement--could maybe be paired with some other writing about the black experience in a classroom setting? But on its own might be a little hard for a lot of teens to grasp, despite its ostensible teen/child narrators.

Still: it's a well-done recollection of segregation's effects on a white family (setting aside the question of do we really need more books about white people facing segregation?), and Nate Powell's art is excellent.

This is such a good idea, so poorly done. Like, a retelling of Aladdin where Jafar gets the genie--cool, let's see where that goes! But like, the first 1/4 of the book is just a novelization of the movie, as far as I can tell, with the exact same dialogue and everything.

But then when Jafar gets the lamp, it gets SO DARK? But it's still Disney, so in some ways it's like, not dark ENOUGH? Like, Jafar KILLS IAGO FOR BLOOD MAGIC. What! And then it's interesting to think about the implications of magic/inflation/mind-control etc, and of Jasmine forced to confront the poverty of the Street Rats, but also... like... in the end, when (spoiler) they defeat Jafar and Jasmine becomes the Sultana, she's basically like "Well now I know poverty exists, so I'm gonna fix it." But, the genie lost all his magic so it's unclear how she proposes to do this??

Like in an animated movie I don't really question the anachronisms but here where it's sort of trying to get me to take it more seriously, but I want to take it less seriously?

Also Aladdin seems so preachy, like he thinks he's better than the rest of the thieves?? But he is also a thief???

Also it's weirdly like... I don't know, it has a real weird take on ~Middle Eastern~ culture, which, given, the movie is set in ~generic Middle Eastern country desert land~, but here it's like "Jasmine thought it was unfair that girls couldn't go to school, but whatever she'll totally fix that!" And then they call the Genie a "djinn" as if he like...... has anything to do with actual djinn legends???

ALSO THE FLYING CARPET GETS STRAIGHT-UP MURDERED

IT'S SO WEIRD AND UPSETTING

and I'm not talking in a "my childhood is ruined way" just like

UPSETTING

I'd never actually read this before! I just read a lot of the aftermath. I was surprised by how much I liked it, given how annoyed I am at a lot of the aftermath of it. It's a pretty interesting alternate world and everybody's emotional responses were pretty moving!

Also, the art is really lovely and I enjoyed the bits of in-universe news coverage.

one personal complaint: Gambit is FRONT AND CENTER on the cover of this and he's in it for like 3 panels, very misleading >:(

I loved this when it was called [b:Uglies|24770|Uglies (Uglies, #1)|Scott Westerfeld|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358962036s/24770.jpg|2895388], amirite?!

haha seriously though even though this is set in the future it feels really retro, and like, I wanted it to go further? Like, the concept of this fashion/arts/youth-powered dystopia is... not exactly new, but I'm basically here for it, but then if you're going to do it... like... do it.

Like, we have our 2 alternating narrators--Marla the fashion designer and Ivy the pop star. Great. But Ivy casually mentions that managers like for pop stars to have a few minorities in their entourages because it makes the stars seem more interesting?? Okay??? Implying that all of the pop stars of the future are white I guess??? But if you're going to do that I wish it had gone FURTHER into making some sort of critical point about the way white pop stars often appropriate other cultures while putting actual POCs into the literal background... but nope, Ivy mentions it one time and then moves on. Like what if one of the narrators of the book was one of Ivy's non-white entourage members?

And then there's the fact that Ivy is the "beard" for another pop star who's gay and his manager won't let him come out. Really? In the future-world of a book that came out in 2015? I'd be interested if this was the future-world of a book written in like, 1980 maybe.

And then the fashion designers are all unionizing striking and BRIEFLY REALIZE that everyone working in sweatshops has it way worse than them but never bothers to reach out to any of those workers?

Is this like a really really sharp satire that I'm missing? I feel like it's not but I guess maybe??

IDK, would probably appeal to fans of Uglies and the like, or teens who are interested in fashion/music? Despite my annoyances and wishes that it would take it all FARTHER, it did keep me turning the pages once it got going.

I was inspired to re-read this by Rachel & Miles X-Plain The X-Men. It really does hold up really well as an arc, even as the Phoenix itself has come to be kind of a cliche.