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nuraitheodora's reviews
506 reviews
The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Thank you to FSG and NetGalley for providing a free review copy!
This book contains six essays that discuss sex and the way it relates to gender roles and norms in our society - Amia Srinivasan discusses topics such as the MeToo movement, incels, rape culture, student-professor relationships, sex work, and pornography. It is an outstanding collection that both relates familiar feminist issues and expands upon them. Each essay was laid out carefully: first elaborating on the background and history of the issue within previous feminist waves before using solid sources to provide some new arguments, and perhaps, some solutions. I particularly thought “On Not Sleeping With Your Students” and the last essay, “Sex, Carceralism and Capitalism” were excellent. They both brought up some excellent points that I hadn’t realised or thought of myself as well as formulating some thoughts I had thought myself but not as eloquently. I thought the collection was quite nuanced and inclusive, and like Srinivasan was open for discussion. I will definitely seek out anything she writes next!
This book contains six essays that discuss sex and the way it relates to gender roles and norms in our society - Amia Srinivasan discusses topics such as the MeToo movement, incels, rape culture, student-professor relationships, sex work, and pornography. It is an outstanding collection that both relates familiar feminist issues and expands upon them. Each essay was laid out carefully: first elaborating on the background and history of the issue within previous feminist waves before using solid sources to provide some new arguments, and perhaps, some solutions. I particularly thought “On Not Sleeping With Your Students” and the last essay, “Sex, Carceralism and Capitalism” were excellent. They both brought up some excellent points that I hadn’t realised or thought of myself as well as formulating some thoughts I had thought myself but not as eloquently. I thought the collection was quite nuanced and inclusive, and like Srinivasan was open for discussion. I will definitely seek out anything she writes next!
Nowhere girl by Magali Le Huche
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
This was such a cute and lovely story about a young girl using her love for the Beatles to deal with her anxiety around school and socialising. The art style worked really well with the story, and I loved the use of black and white along with the vibrant colour palette. A very relatable story about social anxiety, though it didn't go very deep.
The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This “workplace novel of the 22nd century” consists of statements from the employees of the Six-Thousand Ship. They are either human or humanoid, though it’s not specified with each statement which one they are.
After some objects from a foreign planet come aboard, humans and humanoids alike start to react to them. As the novel progresses, the feeling of unease and tension grows.The book raises some interesting questions about what it means to be human, especially if you can’t really tell who is and who isn’t. Ravn also questions what role work plays in life in a capitalist society, what life starts to look like when work is your life and everyone you know is classified as co-worker first and foremost. The disorientation I felt at the beginning of this novel felt very fitting to the tone and setting; the statements are somewhat in order but you don’t get to read each one, and the reader only reads the answers of the employee, not the questions of the supposed employer. The way the story is structured works well for the unfolding events, and I thought it had a strong ending.
After some objects from a foreign planet come aboard, humans and humanoids alike start to react to them. As the novel progresses, the feeling of unease and tension grows.The book raises some interesting questions about what it means to be human, especially if you can’t really tell who is and who isn’t. Ravn also questions what role work plays in life in a capitalist society, what life starts to look like when work is your life and everyone you know is classified as co-worker first and foremost. The disorientation I felt at the beginning of this novel felt very fitting to the tone and setting; the statements are somewhat in order but you don’t get to read each one, and the reader only reads the answers of the employee, not the questions of the supposed employer. The way the story is structured works well for the unfolding events, and I thought it had a strong ending.
More Lies by Richard James Allen
2.0
I honestly could not tell you what this was about. At first, I was quite intrigued by the title and the writing. The story starts with a femme fatale, a gun to the head, and a narrator who is told to start typing - the result of this typing is the story. The title, "More Lies," immediately invites the reader to mistrust the narrator, and the narrator makes it obvious he’s unreliable - a story that starts out sounding fantastical becomes improbable and then unrealistic. In theory, I like what the author is trying to do: put the reader off-balance through unreliable narration and a strange story and have the narrator talk to the reader as if they’re talking back. But the writing feels a bit much, and none of the narrative tricks he’s trying really work because they have no space to breathe, and there’s too little time and space for the reader to orient themselves in the story. Ultimately, this left me feeling confused and a bit frustrated. I think it would have benefited from being a bit longer and also trying to do a little bit less.
Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
“Whenever I’m on the subway or walking in the street alone, there’s a constant feeling of being on display. It’s a feeling I’ve never felt so strongly anywhere else. It’s so tiring, and sometimes I lie in bed not wanting to leave the house because of it. Simply appearing in public means that at any moment someone is free to come up to me, call out to me, graze me.”
Happy Hour follows Isa and her best friend Gala, two twenty-one-year-old girls who have moved to New York City with very little money, no visa, and a suitcase full of clothes. They try to find work - that pays in cash - where they can, and make the most of being twenty one and in the city that never sleeps. The story is narrated in a close third perspective from Isa’s point of view, and I found her tone difficult to get used to - I thought the tone (especially in the beginning) was inconsistent: it would be purposefully ironic one sentence and then weirdly sincere and sentimental in the next, which felt confusing and made me question what i was supposed to feel as a reader. Maybe Isa’s supposed to read as sincere and apathetic at the same time, and I did get used to this after a while but still felt the writing wasn’t always very strong because of that.
I think Marlowe Granados is really good at describing specific situations and personality traits, and this is one of the things that makes Isa a fun and enjoyable and sympathetic character.
The vibes of the book were very Melancholic, which I really liked: “I once read that “one does not mourn in public,” and maybe that is why I prefer to be outside. I do not like coming home because it is the only place I am unsure of myself. Outside, I know the way to walk across a thoroughfare, feeling practised in my stride. Being alone with myself is being alone with my memories.”
Ultimately, I enjoyed the story and the characters, and most of the writing - and I really look forward to reading what Marlowe Granados writes next.
Happy Hour follows Isa and her best friend Gala, two twenty-one-year-old girls who have moved to New York City with very little money, no visa, and a suitcase full of clothes. They try to find work - that pays in cash - where they can, and make the most of being twenty one and in the city that never sleeps. The story is narrated in a close third perspective from Isa’s point of view, and I found her tone difficult to get used to - I thought the tone (especially in the beginning) was inconsistent: it would be purposefully ironic one sentence and then weirdly sincere and sentimental in the next, which felt confusing and made me question what i was supposed to feel as a reader. Maybe Isa’s supposed to read as sincere and apathetic at the same time, and I did get used to this after a while but still felt the writing wasn’t always very strong because of that.
I think Marlowe Granados is really good at describing specific situations and personality traits, and this is one of the things that makes Isa a fun and enjoyable and sympathetic character.
The vibes of the book were very Melancholic, which I really liked: “I once read that “one does not mourn in public,” and maybe that is why I prefer to be outside. I do not like coming home because it is the only place I am unsure of myself. Outside, I know the way to walk across a thoroughfare, feeling practised in my stride. Being alone with myself is being alone with my memories.”
Ultimately, I enjoyed the story and the characters, and most of the writing - and I really look forward to reading what Marlowe Granados writes next.
Persephone's Children: A Life in Fragments by Rowan McCandless
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Rowan McCandless writes about being in an abusive relationship and the damage and trauma this has caused, even long after she has decided to leave. The structure of this memoir is so interesting and unlike anything I'd read before: each chapter is written in a different format. One chapter takes the form of a contract; one is a crossword puzzle; one details a diagnosis of her vocal chords and the damage the relationship caused to her voice. My favourite (though this sounds strange to say about a book that deals with such difficult topics) was the chapter that took the form of a screenplay: she and her then-husband played fictionalised versions of themselves, and the director and writer kept trying to fit their story into different genres. The way McCandless writes about her experiences is so vulnerable and sincere. She talks about growing up in a mixed-race household and the complexities this brings; she discusses being sexually assaulted as a teenager and how the shame and guilt she felt influenced other events later in her life. She writes about writing and how this played a big part in her recovery after leaving her abusive husband. Though I don't think the format of the memoir always worked perfectly, I really loved the parts where it did and really admire McCandless for trying something so different. I enjoyed her writing and look forward to seeing what she writes next.
Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Women in Pop Culture by Zeba Blay
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I love essays about pop culture, especially when they comment on the way pop culture reflects larger systems in our society. Zeba Blay is excellent at this, interweaving pop culture with the issues that white supremacy and racism and misogyny have eroded in our society. Each essay stands on its own, but they also form a coherent narrative — each essay discusses different Black woman stereotypes, using instances or prominent figures in pop culture (women such as Lizzo, Cardi B, Serena Williams) to dismantle the stereotype and examine the harm these stereotypes do to Black women by reducing and forcing them into certain characteristics. Essays I particularly loved were “She’s A Freak”, where she discusses the contrasting stereotypes of Black women as simultaneously overtly sexual and “easy”, and at the same time having no desire at all; “Man, This Shit is Draining”, talking about the ‘Angry Black Woman’, discussing how Black women have so many legitimate reasons to be angry but they are immediately discredited, ridiculed or portrayed as aggressive when they express even a little of it, using examples of Maxine Waters and Serena Williams at the U.S. Open; “Strong Black Lead”, examining the problematic “strong Black woman” stereotype, how it creates the idea that Black women were in some way made to deal with all the traumatic hardships they have to face, while at the same time denying them the space to feel anything but strong. Every essay explores topics I was familiar with, but I got something out of every one - Blay’s writing and perspective is very nuanced and careful, if not carefree.