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letsgolesbians 's review for:
In at the Deep End
by Kate Davies
I really, really wanted to like this. I was hesitant when I saw that the author of another book I didn't like had blurbed this one, but I really enjoyed the first few chapters. The tone was light and fun and felt like a romcom. The protagonist, Julia, got a little annoying when she realized she was gay and thought "I'm a lesbian and I need someone to be a lesbian with" every three seconds, but fine.
Then Julia met Sam and the writing went way downhill for me. We see an abusive relationship, which I do think is important, but ugh. A secondary character is non-binary, and trans people are mentioned throughout the book, but whenever anyone talked about sex or womanhood, it was not inclusive and very cisnormative.
-- Apparently you can only "fuck" with penetration (Julia says she went down on a woman but "didn't fuck her" and as someone who doesn't like being fingered, that's not true at all)
-- All mentions of womanhood mentioned vaginas
-- Sam, the abusive girlfriend, says she wants to try an SM fantasy, and it's a rape fantasy in which she's a Mexican man. Because, you know, we don't have enough white people (hello 45) calling Mexicans rapists and using terrible fucking accents and saying every third word in Spanish
-- Alice, the roommate, tries to say something about how suffragettes weren't inclusive (because they weren't and it's a very good point to bring up), and Cat, THE BLACK WOMAN, tells her she doesn't need to worry about being woke all the time. This is some white bullshit right here, having the one fucking black character tell a white woman not to worry about being woke. Bullshit.
-- Part of the abuse involves Sam never really caring if Julia wants sex or wants a specific sexual act, which I know was part of the story but there should have been a liiiiiiittle more about how that's not okay
Terrible portrayal of my community and I hated it. I should have known when I saw the blurb.
Then Julia met Sam and the writing went way downhill for me. We see an abusive relationship, which I do think is important, but ugh. A secondary character is non-binary, and trans people are mentioned throughout the book, but whenever anyone talked about sex or womanhood, it was not inclusive and very cisnormative.
-- Apparently you can only "fuck" with penetration (Julia says she went down on a woman but "didn't fuck her" and as someone who doesn't like being fingered, that's not true at all)
-- All mentions of womanhood mentioned vaginas
-- Sam, the abusive girlfriend, says she wants to try an SM fantasy, and it's a rape fantasy in which she's a Mexican man. Because, you know, we don't have enough white people (hello 45) calling Mexicans rapists and using terrible fucking accents and saying every third word in Spanish
-- Alice, the roommate, tries to say something about how suffragettes weren't inclusive (because they weren't and it's a very good point to bring up), and Cat, THE BLACK WOMAN, tells her she doesn't need to worry about being woke all the time. This is some white bullshit right here, having the one fucking black character tell a white woman not to worry about being woke. Bullshit.
-- Part of the abuse involves Sam never really caring if Julia wants sex or wants a specific sexual act, which I know was part of the story but there should have been a liiiiiiittle more about how that's not okay
Terrible portrayal of my community and I hated it. I should have known when I saw the blurb.