shane_the_reading_rat's Reviews (1.21k)

found this to be pretty meh. that may partially be due to the fact that i can’t relate to a lot of what grace perry says/haven’t watched any of the shows she discusses (im very firmly in the middle of gen z lmao), but also to me some of the analysis felt kinda surface-level? this maybe should have been marketed as mainly a memoir rather than mainly an essay collection, to me it doesn’t really straddle the middle of that line very well.
(i also do not get good vibes from this author using the term “woke” derogatorily and saying how she believed the gaylor conspiracies and was disappointed when it turned out taylor swift is straight. just felt pretty weird honestly)

this book destroyed me !!!! whimsy and love and hope while facing darkness and awful people and grief but ultimately love and joy triumph!!!! i am such a sucker for rugged optimism (and kelly barnhill’s writing)

so corporate it’s physically nauseating.
i’d really hoped that this would be a great resource, but what it is is a toothless guide for companies on how to get more money from/because of disabled people, with no mention of how capitalism affects disabled people or any mention of bad things companies have done to disabled people except for a couple quickly brushed off, vague mentions of workplace discrimination.
this is also the most america-focused book i have ever seen (specifically corporate america).
i’d truly not recommend this to read (unless you’re super interested in it to start with, i cant stop you, this is all just my own opinion), there are much better discussions of disability out there. i’d much sooner suggest either of Alice Wong’s anthologies or Judy Heumann’s memoir.

i have so many words in my head for this and none of them are fully translating to the written form, so i shall just say: great memoir👍👍i relate pretty hard to how fern describes experiencing autism (it is so good that im planning on getting an assessment)

feeling the urge to skim the rest of this book, so it’s just time to dnf. i feel zero chemistry between the two main characters, i dont care much at all about either of them, and i feel incredibly meh on the worldbuilding

banger essay collection. first half wasn’t really my thing, but i adored the second half.
personal favorite essay was (i wish i remembered the title) the one about the Pulse shooting, as i still vividly remember the news coverage of it at the time (i was ten, and it’s one of the first major events that i really remember)

absolutely fantastic, and really gives insight into how fucking awful family vlogging is. devoured this in 24 hours

[this is quite the low review. i know it can be controversial to give star ratings to memoirs, so disclaimer: i am not rating/reviewing akwaeke emezi’s life and experiences. i am reviewing the way those were communicated and the book itself. i have nothing against akwaeke emezi themself]

i’ve never really had a memoir turn me off of reading an author’s other books before??
akwaeke emezi comes off (unfortunately) as highly egotistical in this memoir. it was fine for a while, but became exhausting by the time i finished.
i also found this to have flowery enough writing that it was difficult to grasp the meaning of anything in it, what was metaphorical and what wasn’t, etc. (this is pretty subjective though, as i’m not really a flowery-writing kind of guy, so take that critique with several grains of salt if you want to read this book).

(also, i don’t know if i fully agree with reviews i’ve seen of Dear Senthuran saying it “glorifies suicidality”, but i do believe that some sections of this book were too intense and leaning towards glorifying it to be included. just in general maybe this book should have stayed as private letters)

i immensely dislike this main character (she feels way too immature for what she has been through), and the plot is just not interesting to me. won’t be returning to this one.