crybabybea's reviews
251 reviews

The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks

challenging hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

Deeply nuanced and personal, as expected from bell hooks. She is such a great thinker, I'm always impressed by the different perspectives she brings to her writing. She connects quotes from her own personal reading to mass media to socialization to religion to politics. Because of this, she can sometimes veer off into things that seem like far stretches or conclusions that were jumped to, but as someone who doesn't believe in the phrase "It's not that deep", I always enjoy her analyses on unexpected topics.

I appreciated the way she broke down masculinity, and how she lays out the way patriarchy damages men, which in turn damages women. It's a sort of top-down approach that usually gets missed; every feminist knows the patriarchy damages women, but most people don't think about how it damages men as well. It's also clearly written with so much love, for men and women, and in that way, bell hooks lives up to practicing what she preaches.

Despite all the good I think it offers, I felt like it only scratched the surface of masculinity, but hooks gives us a great starting point, a new lens to apply when talking and thinking about masculinity. It is a product of its time though and therefore lacks a more diverse perspective regarding gender identity and sexuality; trans men, gay men, lesbians, and gender non-conforming men are all interesting pieces of the puzzle when talking about masculinity and patriarchy.

How to Turn Into a Bird by María José Ferrada

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emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

A fairytale-esque little coming-of-age story. The book addresses some heavier themes, such as classism, the societal pressure to conform and fit in, and chosen family. The story comes across as almost whimsical, viewed through the rose-colored perspective of childhood. The choice to tell the story from a child's point-of-view added a great tone to the story and left a lot up to the reader to interpret.

Although told from the perspective of twelve-year-old Miguel, the story's center of gravity is his uncle, Ramón, an eccentric man who lives according to his own whims, much to the dismay of his family and the community around him. Ramón is almost like a character in a fable; hazy rumors surround him and his quirky one-line philosophical musings stay with those he interacts with.

Of course, not everyone is accepting of a hermit who lives in a billboard, so when the rumor mill turns increasingly hateful, Ramón makes an easy scapegoat to pin everything on. With the perspective of a child who doesn't quite understand the depth of social politics (he, like any other kid, only goes to the housing council meetings for the free sandwiches), it leaves room for the reader to reflect on the consequences of choosing to go against the grain.

María José Ferrada's writing is lyrical, poetic, and the translation by Elizabeth Bryer is done with love and care. It's the kind of book I'm so grateful was translated, but also the kind of book I'm so sad that I will never be able to read and absorb in its mother tongue.

Obviously, the symbolism of birds are sprinkled throughout in thoughtful ways that only add to the contemplative tone.

I found the pair of main characters to be incredibly fun, and it made the story easy-going and quick, though the actual events of the story are actually quite tragic.

Content Warnings

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.

Saur boring, it's like reading a Wikipedia article. The time period is interesting, and while I appreciate the historical facts, there's very little characterization, and the writing is lackluster.

Blood on the Tracks, Vol. 17 by Shuzo Oshimi

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

Well, I’m not exactly sure what to say about this. It’s the first manga I’ve ever read, so I’m not sure how to rate it, I have nothing to compare it to and I’m not very familiar with the tropes that are common in manga. So, I guess I’ll just list some pros and cons that I thought about while reading.

What I liked:

The art was gorgeous, even the depictions of the horror moments were so beautiful and detailed, I stopped to admire them plenty of times. It was really impressive to me how the artist was able to capture so many different emotions in the panels. It was also super impressive how the tension moved between different scenes. It allowed for there to be a sort of claustrophobic feeling of tension throughout the story, even when nothing “bad” was happening, it felt unsettling and something felt off the entire time. There was probably a lot of intentional symbolism that went over my head, the artist was very careful to include recurring details and imagery.
I couldn’t put it down. I kept wanting to read more and lost sleep over it. The story was super intriguing. Volumes 10-14 were especially good, the way the artist depicted Seiichi’s mind shattering was so spooky. The different scenes with Seiichi, Seiko, and Shigeru switching places were so mind-bendy and fun to experience.
I appreciated the themes explored, such as generational trauma, how you reconcile when your abuser is somebody you adored, and how you move forward in a life that never felt like your own.
The full circle ending was well-done. I especially liked the mirror effect of Seiichi seeing Fukiishi.
I liked how the story felt unreliable, many scenes were distorted so the understanding of whose perspective the story is coming from gets blurred. It made the psychological aspect more thrilling.

What I didn’t like:

Sometimes the pacing could have been tighter, especially near the later volumes. I think the author’s intention was to leave space for reflection as Seiichi processes his life and we approach the end, but it was such an abrupt change of pace from the horror-thriller ride of the previous volumes that it was a bit jarring. I think it was a realistic ending but it wasn’t what I expected after the previous volumes’ extremeness.
I could’ve done without sexual scenes involving minors, but I know that Japan and manga has a different culture around stuff like that so idk really

Honestly, I can’t pinpoint if there were things I didn’t like, exactly, but overall the series just felt average to me, and the underwhelming ending didn't help. The things that worked for me worked well but weren’t so incredible that it made this a top read or anything. I’m excited to try more manga, and maybe it will put this one into better perspective.

Content Warnings