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A review by rennegade
Unslut: A Diary and a Memoir by Emily Lindin
5.0
4.5 rounded up.
This was a really important read for me. Before I talk too much about the book, I am going to talk a bit about myself. I tried keeping a hand-written diary when I was in middle school, but after it went missing and mysteriously showed up in my parents' closet, I refused to put anything on paper. I turned to the internet - an unknown wilderness to my parents. I felt way more secure putting my deepest, darkest thoughts online, so I signed up for an online journal. (I went through several sites before finally settling on LiveJournal, and I will even admit that I've written in it as recently December of last year.)
UnSlut was very timely for me, as I recently reread my old online journals and cringed at teenage me. Seriously, I was awful. I was embarrassingly guilty of slut-shaming. To be clear, I was not a bully. I did not treat people the way Emily Lindin was treated. I did, however, use my online journal as a place to vent about people, mainly my female friends, by calling them sluts and whores. When I read it now, I get so upset and ashamed. I wanted to delete it (because, amazingly, I still remember the login information for nearly all of my online stuff despite it being there for over 15 years), but I decided instead to change the privacy so only I could see it and use it as an important reminder of how I have grown and developed as a person.
This book struck a chord with me on several levels. Because my middle school journals are still currently fresh in my mind, I saw a lot of myself in her. I thankfully did not experience the sexual bullying that she did, but I still feel as though middle school me could have related to middle school her. Lindin is only a year or so older than I am, so all of the references definitely took me right on back to middle school (though I admit that my musical tastes greatly differed back then). Also, the names she used for her friends (the diary is real, but she explains in the foreword that all names have been changed) were pretty much the names of all of my friends, so it was kind of trippy to read. There were a few lines from her diary moaning about friends that probably exist verbatim in mine.
I appreciate that she put notes along the side of the diary throughout writing as adult Emily reflecting on middle school Emily. When I would get upset about something and almost feel the need to respond to it (for example, ), I would see that Emily added a note in there saying pretty much the very same thing. It is crucial for young people reading this to see that so many things that were said and done were flat out wrong, and I am glad that Emily addresses it. She acknowledged that she said and did some pretty terrible things (such as using 'gay' and 'retarded' as slurs) and explained that she realized later in life how wrong it was to do so. I am almost tempted to edit my online journal entries with the same sort of self-aware notes. I like that, other than changing identifying information of the people in her diary, it was kept intact. I would be SO tempted to edit the crap out of mine if I ever tried to publish it, so it is good that she put it all out there.
This book is not going to be for everyone. It is literally the diary of a middle school girl. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, you may not want to delve into it. I do believe, though, that this book should be on the shelf of every single middle school library in the county. Teachers should assign it as the first book of sixth grade as a sort of cautionary tale. This is a story that needs to be told. People need to stop calling women sluts and shaming them for their sexuality. In order to do that, you really need to nip it in the bud when it starts. Middle school is that critical period of sexual, emotional, and societal development, and it is far too easy for slut-shaming to become an ingrained habit by the age of 11 or 12. Education is key, and I think speaking to preteens in their own language is the way to do it.
After reading this, I realized that I would be interested in reading other memoirs in this style. It almost seems slightly invasive, but since I was the beginning of the online journal generation (which involved allowing my online friends access to my deepest, darkest thoughts), I guess it makes since that I am naturally drawn to it.
Like I said - not for everyone, but it is important and I will be recommending it!
This was a really important read for me. Before I talk too much about the book, I am going to talk a bit about myself. I tried keeping a hand-written diary when I was in middle school, but after it went missing and mysteriously showed up in my parents' closet, I refused to put anything on paper. I turned to the internet - an unknown wilderness to my parents. I felt way more secure putting my deepest, darkest thoughts online, so I signed up for an online journal. (I went through several sites before finally settling on LiveJournal, and I will even admit that I've written in it as recently December of last year.)
UnSlut was very timely for me, as I recently reread my old online journals and cringed at teenage me. Seriously, I was awful. I was embarrassingly guilty of slut-shaming. To be clear, I was not a bully. I did not treat people the way Emily Lindin was treated. I did, however, use my online journal as a place to vent about people, mainly my female friends, by calling them sluts and whores. When I read it now, I get so upset and ashamed. I wanted to delete it (because, amazingly, I still remember the login information for nearly all of my online stuff despite it being there for over 15 years), but I decided instead to change the privacy so only I could see it and use it as an important reminder of how I have grown and developed as a person.
This book struck a chord with me on several levels. Because my middle school journals are still currently fresh in my mind, I saw a lot of myself in her. I thankfully did not experience the sexual bullying that she did, but I still feel as though middle school me could have related to middle school her. Lindin is only a year or so older than I am, so all of the references definitely took me right on back to middle school (though I admit that my musical tastes greatly differed back then). Also, the names she used for her friends (the diary is real, but she explains in the foreword that all names have been changed) were pretty much the names of all of my friends, so it was kind of trippy to read. There were a few lines from her diary moaning about friends that probably exist verbatim in mine.
I appreciate that she put notes along the side of the diary throughout writing as adult Emily reflecting on middle school Emily. When I would get upset about something and almost feel the need to respond to it (for example,
Spoiler
when she was sexually assault by Chris, I wanted to scream, "YOU DIDN'T CHEAT ON YOUR BOYFRIEND! YOU WERE ASSAULTED!"This book is not going to be for everyone. It is literally the diary of a middle school girl. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, you may not want to delve into it. I do believe, though, that this book should be on the shelf of every single middle school library in the county. Teachers should assign it as the first book of sixth grade as a sort of cautionary tale. This is a story that needs to be told. People need to stop calling women sluts and shaming them for their sexuality. In order to do that, you really need to nip it in the bud when it starts. Middle school is that critical period of sexual, emotional, and societal development, and it is far too easy for slut-shaming to become an ingrained habit by the age of 11 or 12. Education is key, and I think speaking to preteens in their own language is the way to do it.
After reading this, I realized that I would be interested in reading other memoirs in this style. It almost seems slightly invasive, but since I was the beginning of the online journal generation (which involved allowing my online friends access to my deepest, darkest thoughts), I guess it makes since that I am naturally drawn to it.
Like I said - not for everyone, but it is important and I will be recommending it!