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raes_library's reviews
150 reviews
Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg
5.0
Housemates feels like it was written specifically for me, in this moment of my life. And maybe it feels especially personal because I am a fat queer person who lives in Philadelphia, but I think that the heart of this book also transcends those identity markers. The representation is incredible, yes, and you can’t extricate the queerness or fatness from these characters, but I really think this book will affect many others in the way it has affected me. The writing is gorgeous, the characters feel so fleshed-out and real, the story is both nostalgic and fresh. I truly foresee this becoming a classic queer novel, one that perfectly captures the feeling of a specific period of time. Housemates is a marvel in its simplicity and tenderness, and I will be recommending it to every single person I encounter for the foreseeable future. Thank you to Random House for the ARC and the chance to meet Leah and Bernie early and spend a little extra time with them. <3
Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates
3.0
DNF @ 88% because i have absolutely no motivation to finish the last hour and i keep spending my commutes in silence rather than pick this back up lmao.
obviously i think this is an important topic to talk about, and was really excited about it at the beginning, but it started to feel very repetitive and i found it difficult to focus on towards the end. my biggest problem with it though is that it isn't /saying/ anything, in my opinion. the author never truly acknowledges the fertile breeding ground of misogyny that gives these groups life. it reminded me a lot of how women who are into true crime will focus on serial killers instead of acknowledging the fact that the majority of women who are victims of homicide are killed by intimate partners. like, yes, serial killers do exist, but they arent who women should be afraid of. yes, incels and mras exist, but most women who are victims of violent crime/discrimination/harrassment will not be hurt by extremists, they will be hurt by the men they know. The men who hate women are all men, not just extremist groups. Western society has misogyny so deeply ingrained into it that you cannot act as if these extremist groups crop up out of nowhere, or that they are the sole drivers of misogyny in society. I don't want to dog on this book too much because I do think that these groups should be seen in the same category as extreme alt-right/neo-nazi/white supremacy groups and i think that this could be a more eyeopening read for someone with less of a preexisting knowledge of their existence, but it just wasn't for me.
obviously i think this is an important topic to talk about, and was really excited about it at the beginning, but it started to feel very repetitive and i found it difficult to focus on towards the end. my biggest problem with it though is that it isn't /saying/ anything, in my opinion. the author never truly acknowledges the fertile breeding ground of misogyny that gives these groups life. it reminded me a lot of how women who are into true crime will focus on serial killers instead of acknowledging the fact that the majority of women who are victims of homicide are killed by intimate partners. like, yes, serial killers do exist, but they arent who women should be afraid of. yes, incels and mras exist, but most women who are victims of violent crime/discrimination/harrassment will not be hurt by extremists, they will be hurt by the men they know. The men who hate women are all men, not just extremist groups. Western society has misogyny so deeply ingrained into it that you cannot act as if these extremist groups crop up out of nowhere, or that they are the sole drivers of misogyny in society. I don't want to dog on this book too much because I do think that these groups should be seen in the same category as extreme alt-right/neo-nazi/white supremacy groups and i think that this could be a more eyeopening read for someone with less of a preexisting knowledge of their existence, but it just wasn't for me.