Reviews

I'm Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya

alainajreads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

4.25

This was a short but impactful part-memoir, part-examination of how misogyny and patriarchy impacted the author, Vivek Shraya, in her earlier years as a boy and after she came out as a trans woman. The jump from first to second-person POV in the section where Shraya recounts her experiences with men was an unusual choice and on audio the anecdotes flowed together so it took me some time to realize she wasn’t just describing the same man in different paragraphs. But overall, this made me think and left me with much to consider about the intersection of femininity, transness, and racialized identity and my own idea of a “good man” and relationship with gender. In fact, I wished it were longer!

k_ko's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

livruther's review

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emotional fast-paced

4.0

i think i would have had a better reading experience if i went with the physical book or ebook instead of the audio :/ but the writing was good. hard to read, but i think its supposed to be

monstergirlreading's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

drownbyocean's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

3.75

iridescentjemz's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

A fascinating, brave, raw, honest and intimate memoir.

Vivek navigates through her experiences of misogyny, transphobia, homophobia and racism and how it shapes her gender expression and sexuality through the various stages of her life and how it impacted on her life and her relationships with the people around her whether they were romantic partners, family, friends or strangers. 

Also an interesting perspective on how low the bar is for men and the standards expected of them and the myth of the “good man”. I don’t usually like memoirs but I really enjoyed this. 

kriste_reading_journey's review

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

dancingbibliophile's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

fionak's review against another edition

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3.0

I feel like the entire book was the author trying to figure out what to say and the last two pages might have made a good start to a more interesting book. Shraya's choice to use second person narration and create emotional distance really ruins the tone; there's hardly any real sharing here.

why_erin's review against another edition

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informative reflective fast-paced

5.0