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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
I DON'T EVEN HAVE THE WORDS FOR HOW MUCH I LOVED THIS BOOK. LIKE MAYBE I CAN'T TRY BUT IT WON'T REACH HOW I FEEL.
Basically, the premise of the book is when Alex Craft's older sister is raped and murdered, Alex kills her murderer and sets off on a path of vengeance for everyone who's been hurt like her sister. And JESUS FUCK THIS BOOK IS GOOD.
It's burning, it's wild, it doesn't fall into girl vs. girl tropes. It's brilliant and hard and cutting. I loved it. 5/5
Basically, the premise of the book is when Alex Craft's older sister is raped and murdered, Alex kills her murderer and sets off on a path of vengeance for everyone who's been hurt like her sister. And JESUS FUCK THIS BOOK IS GOOD.
It's burning, it's wild, it doesn't fall into girl vs. girl tropes. It's brilliant and hard and cutting. I loved it. 5/5
4.75 stars! (Rating this book is kind of a struggle hahaha)
Fuhhh... Okay, wow.
At the back of my copy of The Female of the Species, there's a blurb written by New York Times Book Review that says, "Your heart may still be pounding after you've finished this book."
That is like the most accurate thing a blurb can say to me at the moment. I think I almost hyperventilated when I reached the last page.
Firstly, this book is terrifying. It gives an honest slap of reality surrounding the lifestyle of teens in the US that people don't usually point out. Rape culture, drug addiction and drinking problems among teens. When I read this, I couldn't believe what I was reading. But that's just it. That kind of lifestyle exists but people are getting too used to it.
The characters are very flawed, reflecting the issue that I was talking about. And this makes it all the more believable.
The only problem that I have with this book is the romance, which is kind of instalove and the absence of the authorities all throughout the book. Yes, there's Officer Nolan, but he appears in only a couple of chapters and nothing else. I would have loved to see more involvement from the cops, maybe during investigations of the murders.
But then, maybe that's what Mindy McGinnis was subtly pointing out. A system that is flawed and absent. (They don't even do anything even though they know the high school kids are drinking and taking drugs).
with no explanation on what's going to happen to the guy who is responsible for Alex's death and about Alex's mother who loses two daughters in only a couple of years.
P/s: Reading this kind of saddens me a little because at the moment, I'm doing an assignment surrounding HIV. Yup, I learnt what are the risk factors for transmission and etc. And after reading this and remembering what my lecturer said in our last class, I can see the correlation.
She said, "US reports a higher number of people living with HIV than other Western countries."
Fuhhh... Okay, wow.
At the back of my copy of The Female of the Species, there's a blurb written by New York Times Book Review that says, "Your heart may still be pounding after you've finished this book."
That is like the most accurate thing a blurb can say to me at the moment. I think I almost hyperventilated when I reached the last page.
Firstly, this book is terrifying. It gives an honest slap of reality surrounding the lifestyle of teens in the US that people don't usually point out. Rape culture, drug addiction and drinking problems among teens. When I read this, I couldn't believe what I was reading. But that's just it. That kind of lifestyle exists but people are getting too used to it.
The characters are very flawed, reflecting the issue that I was talking about. And this makes it all the more believable.
The only problem that I have with this book is the romance, which is kind of instalove and the absence of the authorities all throughout the book. Yes, there's Officer Nolan, but he appears in only a couple of chapters and nothing else. I would have loved to see more involvement from the cops, maybe during investigations of the murders.
But then, maybe that's what Mindy McGinnis was subtly pointing out. A system that is flawed and absent. (They don't even do anything even though they know the high school kids are drinking and taking drugs).
Spoiler
The ending was kind of abrupt,with no explanation on what's going to happen to the guy who is responsible for Alex's death and about Alex's mother who loses two daughters in only a couple of years.
P/s: Reading this kind of saddens me a little because at the moment, I'm doing an assignment surrounding HIV. Yup, I learnt what are the risk factors for transmission and etc. And after reading this and remembering what my lecturer said in our last class, I can see the correlation.
She said, "US reports a higher number of people living with HIV than other Western countries."
Painful, powerful, and timely. Still one of my fav YA authors.
I loved this story. It’s not like any YA novel I’ve read and it was great. The boy character was a little annoying, but I think it’s only because that’s about how annoying high school boys really are. It was hard to take in at times, but it’s worth pushing through.
I thought this book was going to be bad but it was real good. It hade nice plot twists and I like how there were different narrators.
4/5
Where do I begin? This book was so astoundingly engaging and fantastic and beyond breathtaking that I read this entire book from front to finish in one sitting.
I won’t get into the details of how utterly amazing this book was other than to say that I think that everyone should read this regardless of perspective or gender but... here are a few things I rlly appreciated.
First of all Alex was a fantastic character and her viewpoint at first rlly did remind me of SADIE which ok there are quite a few parallels but it still remains different. I really truly did enjoy the struggle that she felt and the humanity that she gained and opened up more about as the book went on, and showcased this really well. I also think the condemnation that the audience is forced to feel because Alex is quite obviously still murdering people but still remains a person with humanity who has a reason for her actions kind of thing? I also absolutely adored the character of Peekay (Claire) and I thought that not only was she an excellent person to explore and delve into the humanity of Claire but she also had some extremely funny moments and added to a book that I actually did find funny at times in a kind of sadistic humour way. Jack was really interesting and like quite clearly him being an absolute dick for a lot of this book was a good addition and I did really enjoy the character development that they gave him, as it was clear to see that even by the end of the book he struggled between being the guy that he wanted to be who was “good” for Alex and the dick guy that he used to be. Also I’m so so damn glad that he was understandably shaken by what Alex had done instead of simply letting it go.
I thought that the movement of the plot was superb, I was never not completely engaged with the story and the writing was so well done to suit each character’s voice. The way that this book handled issues like rape, sexism and misogyny, prejudice etc was brilliant and I really appreciated seeing that slut shaming and all of these girl hate on girl things took place within people who the audience liked such as peekay, shining a light on how prevalent and ingrained it is in society, also the takedown so perfectly summised by Alex in which she points out the ridiculousness of slut shaming.
Overall this book was fantastic and so so so good and I can’t process much right now.
Where do I begin? This book was so astoundingly engaging and fantastic and beyond breathtaking that I read this entire book from front to finish in one sitting.
I won’t get into the details of how utterly amazing this book was other than to say that I think that everyone should read this regardless of perspective or gender but... here are a few things I rlly appreciated.
First of all Alex was a fantastic character and her viewpoint at first rlly did remind me of SADIE which ok there are quite a few parallels but it still remains different. I really truly did enjoy the struggle that she felt and the humanity that she gained and opened up more about as the book went on, and showcased this really well. I also think the condemnation that the audience is forced to feel because Alex is quite obviously still murdering people but still remains a person with humanity who has a reason for her actions kind of thing? I also absolutely adored the character of Peekay (Claire) and I thought that not only was she an excellent person to explore and delve into the humanity of Claire but she also had some extremely funny moments and added to a book that I actually did find funny at times in a kind of sadistic humour way. Jack was really interesting and like quite clearly him being an absolute dick for a lot of this book was a good addition and I did really enjoy the character development that they gave him, as it was clear to see that even by the end of the book he struggled between being the guy that he wanted to be who was “good” for Alex and the dick guy that he used to be. Also I’m so so damn glad that he was understandably shaken by what Alex had done instead of simply letting it go.
I thought that the movement of the plot was superb, I was never not completely engaged with the story and the writing was so well done to suit each character’s voice. The way that this book handled issues like rape, sexism and misogyny, prejudice etc was brilliant and I really appreciated seeing that slut shaming and all of these girl hate on girl things took place within people who the audience liked such as peekay, shining a light on how prevalent and ingrained it is in society, also the takedown so perfectly summised by Alex in which she points out the ridiculousness of slut shaming.
Overall this book was fantastic and so so so good and I can’t process much right now.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I never expected that this would be the book to get me out of my reading slump, but The Female of the Species was so amazing, it got me out of my reading slump. I read this in one sitting in a five hour car ride, and oh, damn. That was unexpectedly good. I honestly had no idea what to expect going into this book, just some few impressions from non-spoiler reviews, but, wow, I was impressed.
This book was brutal. I've read books (read: one book aka [b:A Little Life|22822858|A Little Life|Hanya Yanagihara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446469353l/22822858._SY75_.jpg|42375710]) that go in depth with violence, but as this is YA, it does not go too in depth into the details, but you sure as hell will know what's happening, to put it lightly. There's animal abuse, sexual assault, murder, and torture all in The Female of the Species, but that doesn't get in the way of the message that it gives.
I think the reason why I enjoyed reading this book so much was the portrayal of sexual assault. It's stark and, for lack of a better word, brutally honest in its descriptions and revelations, something I found to be the most impactful way of spreading and getting a message across. It was not romanticized (as many things are nowadays, and I'm not like to point fingers even though I'd love to right now), but so real and so heart-wrenching that it got me mad and choked up while reading it.
However, if I had to be critical of one thing, it would be the ending, but that I will leave for you to read and judge for yourself. It just seemed so abrupt and unnecessary to me, and I'm so confused to why that specific ending was needed (if you read the book, you know what I mean).
But other than that, I loved The Female of the Species. Read it, revel in it, maybe even learn some things if you can. But I really liked this book, and I'm hoping that more people will read it, too.
This book was brutal. I've read books (read: one book aka [b:A Little Life|22822858|A Little Life|Hanya Yanagihara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446469353l/22822858._SY75_.jpg|42375710]) that go in depth with violence, but as this is YA, it does not go too in depth into the details, but you sure as hell will know what's happening, to put it lightly. There's animal abuse, sexual assault, murder, and torture all in The Female of the Species, but that doesn't get in the way of the message that it gives.
I think the reason why I enjoyed reading this book so much was the portrayal of sexual assault. It's stark and, for lack of a better word, brutally honest in its descriptions and revelations, something I found to be the most impactful way of spreading and getting a message across. It was not romanticized (as many things are nowadays, and I'm not like to point fingers even though I'd love to right now), but so real and so heart-wrenching that it got me mad and choked up while reading it.
However, if I had to be critical of one thing, it would be the ending, but that I will leave for you to read and judge for yourself. It just seemed so abrupt and unnecessary to me, and I'm so confused to why that specific ending was needed (if you read the book, you know what I mean).
Spoiler
if there was a metaphorical reason to her death, please let me know, because I certainly can't think of it. I just wanted a happy ending for everyone, goddammit.But other than that, I loved The Female of the Species. Read it, revel in it, maybe even learn some things if you can. But I really liked this book, and I'm hoping that more people will read it, too.