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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I loved these essays. They made me think and I wanted to discuss each one of them with someone. Since it's a book of essays, some information about the author is mentioned repeatedly in many essays to provide context. This became annoying, but I understand that the essays could be read individually.
Lots of good essays in this collection. The one about Mad Max: Fury Road made me want to rewatch it over and over again. Hurley is frank and self-aware and speaks from so much experience. She owns her mistakes and learns from them and uses those lessons to teach others which is honestly the best thing a person can do. So much respect.
I really loved the beginning and the end of this book (the intro and the Hugo winning essay). The blog posts in the middle were a bit hit and miss for me. I think this was mostly due to the tone and style. However, all the entries touched on good topics worthy of discussion and I found myself wanting to talk about them with other people. I enjoyed and learned from the "Revolution" section the most. I am glad this book it out there, and I'd love to read more on these topics.
A collection of firey essays, some of which verge on rants, about feminist, science-fiction, representation in popular media, race and writing. This was my first introduction to Hurley's work and I'd definitely read more.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical trauma
There are some really powerful essays in this collection, and it definitely made me think a lot about the narratives I have accepted and the ways in which I have power to shape the world. I would definitely recommend this book to others based on the strength of some of its ideas, but as an overall reading experience I felt it came up a little short. It did feel like I was reading a collection of blog posts and parts were repetitive.
I loved the first one hundred pages of this, but then I started getting annoyed and bored. It amazes me that she has Type One Diabetes (which I also have), but didn't mention disability as a minority group when she talked about SFF and diversity. Also, the US method of treating diabetes confuses me greatly? Honestly, I had more thoughts about that than the whole second half of this book.
Well I was a little disappointed by that collection of essays to be honest. I guess I was expecting something more. I really liked the idea of this book, the title, the sections and thought it was going to be riveting... But I felt like most of the essays did not dig deep enough. I actually was surprised more than once when I realized the essay I was reading was finished, because I felt we had not touched on the heart of the matter. It also felt like a lot of "I see that problem that exist" but not a lot of "I have that idea for what we could do about it". I'm not saying we have to have all the answers, but most people that have a good understanding of what is shitty in our world have at least one or two ideas of how to go to a better place....
Maybe I also was a little put off but the fact that most of the essays are about writing. Even when it talks about issues, most of the time, it's about issues related with writing. Sexism and writing.... Bullying/trolling and writing... Changing the world and writing... And it felt like it was not about the "real world" but mostly about the bloggosphere and and the closed world of writers. Which is not a bad thing per se, but I was expecting the book to be a little more about everyone, not just writers.
Still I did agree a lot with Kameron Hurley (except maybe about what she said about having the same backlash about being fat at 220 and being fat at 290, because I have been both and this is not the same life at all, envethough yeah, we still are being called fat at 220). I thought she was a good writer and really enjoyed some of the essays (mostly in the first section of the collection for some reason). I did not know her work before reading that book and it made me want to try her fiction, so I guess I'll see if she goes a little deeper in her usual work or not at some point.
Maybe I also was a little put off but the fact that most of the essays are about writing. Even when it talks about issues, most of the time, it's about issues related with writing. Sexism and writing.... Bullying/trolling and writing... Changing the world and writing... And it felt like it was not about the "real world" but mostly about the bloggosphere and and the closed world of writers. Which is not a bad thing per se, but I was expecting the book to be a little more about everyone, not just writers.
Still I did agree a lot with Kameron Hurley (except maybe about what she said about having the same backlash about being fat at 220 and being fat at 290, because I have been both and this is not the same life at all, envethough yeah, we still are being called fat at 220). I thought she was a good writer and really enjoyed some of the essays (mostly in the first section of the collection for some reason). I did not know her work before reading that book and it made me want to try her fiction, so I guess I'll see if she goes a little deeper in her usual work or not at some point.