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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
One of the best novels I've read these two years. Very radical and fun. Love how Ffitch shows different minds and relationships between human and other creatures with out-of-genre languages and bittersweet frictions.
I had such high hopes but this shit was all over the place.
I'm not sure how I'm meant to feel about this book!! Not enough lessons learned to feel good walking away from this story,,,
Really, really enjoyed this one.
Stay and Fight follows the story of three women. The first we are introduced to is Helen, who moves to rural Appalachia with her boyfriend and buys a plot of land, but her boyfriend soon leaves her. She meets Lily and Karen, a lesbian couple with a child on the way, and they give her some pointers on how to live off the land. When Lily gives birth to a boy, her and Helen stand to lose their home in the Women's Land Trust, so Helen offers for them to move in with her.
It doesn't sound like much, but it was a great story. It's just hard to pinpoint what I liked so much about it. I think, first of all, the characters felt so real and complex. I liked that we got each of their points of view and saw what they thought about each other. Each POV felt very distinctive in that way.
As much as I could never be someone to live off the land the way they were doing, reading about it was so interesting. I think the setting of rural Appalachia is really cool. I read Demon Copperhead recently and there are some definite similarities between the books even though they deal with separate subject matter. The land is so central to the story in a really interesting way.
I also really liked the critique of the system that was present here. These characters make sure their beliefs are known, and they're very outspoken about the things that are wrong with the world. While I didn't agree with all of it (I love indoor plumbing), I really liked the points they made about how poor people are treated by the legal system. I also liked the commentary around oil and pipelines.
Overall a great book. Hope ffitch continues to write because I'm excited to see what she does next!
Stay and Fight follows the story of three women. The first we are introduced to is Helen, who moves to rural Appalachia with her boyfriend and buys a plot of land, but her boyfriend soon leaves her. She meets Lily and Karen, a lesbian couple with a child on the way, and they give her some pointers on how to live off the land. When Lily gives birth to a boy, her and Helen stand to lose their home in the Women's Land Trust, so Helen offers for them to move in with her.
It doesn't sound like much, but it was a great story. It's just hard to pinpoint what I liked so much about it. I think, first of all, the characters felt so real and complex. I liked that we got each of their points of view and saw what they thought about each other. Each POV felt very distinctive in that way.
As much as I could never be someone to live off the land the way they were doing, reading about it was so interesting. I think the setting of rural Appalachia is really cool. I read Demon Copperhead recently and there are some definite similarities between the books even though they deal with separate subject matter. The land is so central to the story in a really interesting way.
I also really liked the critique of the system that was present here. These characters make sure their beliefs are known, and they're very outspoken about the things that are wrong with the world. While I didn't agree with all of it (I love indoor plumbing), I really liked the points they made about how poor people are treated by the legal system. I also liked the commentary around oil and pipelines.
Overall a great book. Hope ffitch continues to write because I'm excited to see what she does next!
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was interested the whole way through but the story ends just before everything's about to actually happen, I hate it when they do that
I really enjoyed this book, and it definitely made me think! It reminded me of Educated by Tara Westover in that it explored living on the margins of acceptability and working around instead of necessarily within the system. Ffitch expertly traverses themes of chosen family and queer parenthood in a way that’s both tender and funny. If you’ve ever had a fantasy of quitting your job and going off grid to live off the land, you’ll probably enjoy this book! 3.75 rounded up