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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES by Mindy McGinnis is dark and painful to read, but oh, the writing! Gorgeous!
was originally gonna give 4 or 5 stars but i just.. really did not like the ending and that brought it down to a three :/
Wow. This book. I need to discuss. I also am torn about wanting to 5 star this because I love how dark and different and important this book is. Alex Craft is a badass and we need more YA with such complex characters. The ending/romance just left me wanting something a little different or more nuanced. Read this book!!!
I really struggled to rate this book. I loved the characters and that the author addressed rape culture, especially in high school. But I'm beyond bored with (and moving towards angry about) the focus on the main character's relationship with the "good", "cool" guy. She is strong enough of a character to carry the story on her own. It felt as if the relationship was being used to prove the main character's worth or "soft side."
Brutal, compelling, revealing, shocking and funny and terrifying. Mindy McGinness is the real deal.
3.25 stars
I honestly don't know how to feel about this book. On one hand this is a story about a kick-butt heroine, but there are so many things wrong about what happened.
The Female of the Species is a novel that follows a two girls and a boy. Alex Craft murders people. Ever since she was a a young girl there was a great violence in her. Now instead of hitting people, she murders them. Peekay, the PK aka Preacher’s Kid, is falling apart. Her boyfriend left her for the hottest whore in town, Branley. She finds refuge in helping Alex at the pet center. Jack Fisher is irrevocably in love with Alex. But does someone he didn't talk to at the beginning of the year love him too? As their paths meet, everything falls upside down… Will they be able to turn it back around before it is beyond repair?
Despite what at I said at the very beginning of this review, I did enjoy this book. It will get anyone out of a reading slump. It is definitely not boring. I'd like to recommend it to people that like teen-drama styled books… And quite a little bit of violence.
Unpopular opinion coming: I didn't like Jack Fisher. Peekay is all like, what he and Alex have is true love. Puhleez! To be honest, I did think that they were supposed to be together for half of the book. He looked only at her, he was so in love with her . I thought it was love. It wasn't. I cannot believe that this character fooled me into liking him so easily!
Other than that, I just didn't know what to expect in this novel. In others that might be. a good thing, but here, knowing something about the plot would really help while starting the novel. I went into it expecting something totally different and even though it was a good different, it was not the type of different that I was in the mood for.
Even though I think that Jack Fisher is an effing idiot, Alex Carter is one of my favorite characters of all times right now. Looking past her weird compulsion to kill people, she is a strong feministic person. She helped animals in the shelter out of love for them, not obligation. When she and Peekay became friends, they were friends for life and nothing could separate them. On a way, Alex is the perfect role model for girls to follow.
The plot in general was very interesting. It had twists and turns in the least expected places. That is why I said that it can get literally anyone out of a reading slump.
To conclude, the novel was not what I expected, but it was heart pounding and wrenching either way. A must read.
I honestly don't know how to feel about this book. On one hand this is a story about a kick-butt heroine, but there are so many things wrong about what happened.
The Female of the Species is a novel that follows a two girls and a boy. Alex Craft murders people. Ever since she was a a young girl there was a great violence in her. Now instead of hitting people, she murders them. Peekay, the PK aka Preacher’s Kid, is falling apart. Her boyfriend left her for the hottest whore in town, Branley. She finds refuge in helping Alex at the pet center. Jack Fisher is irrevocably in love with Alex. But does someone he didn't talk to at the beginning of the year love him too? As their paths meet, everything falls upside down… Will they be able to turn it back around before it is beyond repair?
Despite what at I said at the very beginning of this review, I did enjoy this book. It will get anyone out of a reading slump. It is definitely not boring. I'd like to recommend it to people that like teen-drama styled books… And quite a little bit of violence.
Unpopular opinion coming: I didn't like Jack Fisher. Peekay is all like, what he and Alex have is true love. Puhleez! To be honest, I did think that they were supposed to be together for half of the book. He looked only at her
Spoiler
but then again didn't tell her about Branley still sending him nudesSpoiler
but in the end he shut her out when she needed him mostSpoiler
Jack wanted to give into Brantley, because he “follows his dick” blah, blah, and Alex would never know. What the f? Are you kidding me? If that is “true love”? Ahhh, hell no.Other than that, I just didn't know what to expect in this novel. In others that might be. a good thing, but here, knowing something about the plot would really help while starting the novel. I went into it expecting something totally different and even though it was a good different, it was not the type of different that I was in the mood for.
Even though I think that Jack Fisher is an effing idiot, Alex Carter is one of my favorite characters of all times right now. Looking past her weird compulsion to kill people, she is a strong feministic person. She helped animals in the shelter out of love for them, not obligation. When she and Peekay became friends, they were friends for life and nothing could separate them. On a way, Alex is the perfect role model for girls to follow.
The plot in general was very interesting. It had twists and turns in the least expected places. That is why I said that it can get literally anyone out of a reading slump.
To conclude, the novel was not what I expected, but it was heart pounding and wrenching either way. A must read.
Trigger Warning for the Review: discussion of rape and sexual assault.
If you are a girl or woman, no matter your age, there's probably a huge chance there has been a time in your life when a man has made you uncomfortable. Mostly likely you can name multiple times. Whether it was a seemingly innocuous comment made by a friend or a coworker, or it was a vulgar comment thrown at you by a passerby, maybe that man demanded your attention after you ignored his "compliment", or a man followed you without saying anything, or a man grabbed you without your permission... or maybe you're a survivor of something much worse, a sexual assault or rape.
I've had boys men throw vulgar comments at me, I've had a man follow me, I've had someone call me in the middle of a day pretending to be a friend and then imply they're masturbating, I've had coworkers saying something that to them seemed like a joke, but to me suddenly made them less trustworthy. I've had friends who have experienced much worse. In fact, if you are a woman, there's probably been a time when you sat with a couple of your friends and one of you recounts something upsetting that happened, and suddenly you're all recounting the times that you felt fear every woman learns to live with.
Another thing we learn to do is brush these incidents off. At least, the ones that don't seem "so bad". Why? Because they happen so often that it would quite literally be impossible to live if we let every one of them get to us. But all those incidents do get filled in the back of our heads and each one of them makes us trust men a little less.
At this time, I would like to acknowledge a simple fact that some men and boys go through this too. Men experience sexual assault - not as frequently, but they do too. And I'm not doing this to distract from the topic of male aggression toward women. But as a simple act of solidarity.
This book is everything I've described above. It throws everything I've talked about in your face and forces you to confront it. It shows you just how ugly rape culture is and it's quite merciless about it. There's one scene especially which shows how ugly our world can be when a girl is nearly raped and the witnesses have a more visceral reaction to the main character attacks and hurts the rapist and call her crazy while the girl he nearly raped - their classmate - is laying on the ground unconscious. It's an uncensored discussion of teenage life, the drugs, the sex, the alcohol, the language, the sexting.
Our main character, Alex, does not brush incidents of male sexual violence off when they happen. She confronts them, often violently, sometimes by analyzing it and forcing the reader to think about what they would do in the situation. And at another time, she kills the offender.
What I really liked about this book, however, was the relationships between girls and parents with their kids. I loved the scene where the cop gives his speech about drinking and drugs and sexual assault and when the parents talk to the girls and explain why that speech was so important even if it scared them. I loved the solidarity between the girls the best, when they stick up for each other, when they decide to support each other instead of tearing each other down, when they stop each other from doing stupid things.
I'm not sure about how this book ends. It was honestly so unexpected and shocking that I ugly cried for five minutes with the snot and all. Maybe it was meant to happen that way. Maybe there was no other ending for Alex because of things that she'd done. Maybe it was her punishment... or maybe reward for taking justice into her own hands.
This book has definitely made me think and it will definitely haunt me for awhile.
If you wish to read it, there are some serious potential triggers:
Discussion of implied violent rape and murder of a woman, two attempted rapes, discussion of sexual assault, and mention of child molestation. And possibly: slaughter house and mention of abuse of animal.
If you are a girl or woman, no matter your age, there's probably a huge chance there has been a time in your life when a man has made you uncomfortable. Mostly likely you can name multiple times. Whether it was a seemingly innocuous comment made by a friend or a coworker, or it was a vulgar comment thrown at you by a passerby, maybe that man demanded your attention after you ignored his "compliment", or a man followed you without saying anything, or a man grabbed you without your permission... or maybe you're a survivor of something much worse, a sexual assault or rape.
I've had boys men throw vulgar comments at me, I've had a man follow me, I've had someone call me in the middle of a day pretending to be a friend and then imply they're masturbating, I've had coworkers saying something that to them seemed like a joke, but to me suddenly made them less trustworthy. I've had friends who have experienced much worse. In fact, if you are a woman, there's probably been a time when you sat with a couple of your friends and one of you recounts something upsetting that happened, and suddenly you're all recounting the times that you felt fear every woman learns to live with.
Another thing we learn to do is brush these incidents off. At least, the ones that don't seem "so bad". Why? Because they happen so often that it would quite literally be impossible to live if we let every one of them get to us. But all those incidents do get filled in the back of our heads and each one of them makes us trust men a little less.
At this time, I would like to acknowledge a simple fact that some men and boys go through this too. Men experience sexual assault - not as frequently, but they do too. And I'm not doing this to distract from the topic of male aggression toward women. But as a simple act of solidarity.
This book is everything I've described above. It throws everything I've talked about in your face and forces you to confront it. It shows you just how ugly rape culture is and it's quite merciless about it. There's one scene especially which shows how ugly our world can be when a girl is nearly raped and the witnesses have a more visceral reaction to the main character attacks and hurts the rapist and call her crazy while the girl he nearly raped - their classmate - is laying on the ground unconscious. It's an uncensored discussion of teenage life, the drugs, the sex, the alcohol, the language, the sexting.
Our main character, Alex, does not brush incidents of male sexual violence off when they happen. She confronts them, often violently, sometimes by analyzing it and forcing the reader to think about what they would do in the situation. And at another time, she kills the offender.
What I really liked about this book, however, was the relationships between girls and parents with their kids. I loved the scene where the cop gives his speech about drinking and drugs and sexual assault and when the parents talk to the girls and explain why that speech was so important even if it scared them. I loved the solidarity between the girls the best, when they stick up for each other, when they decide to support each other instead of tearing each other down, when they stop each other from doing stupid things.
I'm not sure about how this book ends. It was honestly so unexpected and shocking that I ugly cried for five minutes with the snot and all. Maybe it was meant to happen that way. Maybe there was no other ending for Alex because of things that she'd done. Maybe it was her punishment... or maybe reward for taking justice into her own hands.
This book has definitely made me think and it will definitely haunt me for awhile.
If you wish to read it, there are some serious potential triggers:
Discussion of implied violent rape and murder of a woman, two attempted rapes, discussion of sexual assault, and mention of child molestation. And possibly: slaughter house and mention of abuse of animal.
Every middle American highschool has the same sterotypes. Add in a teenage vigilante, and you get the premise behind "The Female of the Species" in a town where everyone knows everyone and secrets aren't hidden well and everyone is waiting to leave for college.