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riversnowdrop's reviews
288 reviews
Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton
2.0
Waaay too much reliance on dialogue to tell the story; so many indistinguishable characters constantly introduced so I couldn’t connect with them; the “flashback” format is a complete miss and just muddles the story rather than enhancing it; and, like other reviewers have already pointed out, it feels as though I was mis-sold on the premise of the book. I just didn’t care about any of the characters or the plot and really had to force myself to finish, skim-reading to get through. I would say around page 200 it picked up just enough for me to keep going but that first 200 pages are a complete slog.
(Also: the graphic rape scene that was just uncomfortable to read and felt unnecessarily explicit; it seemed to fall more on the side of voyeuristic trauma porn than actually adding anything to the character’s backstory/eliciting empathy etc.)
(Also also, can’t help but compare this to ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison, which I read recently, and was fantastic. Felt like this book was trying somewhat to be that and didn’t make it.)
Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change & Consumerism by Aja Barber
2.5
Untamed: Stop Pleasing, Start Living by Glennon Doyle
1.5
Okay look, this book sucks. Repetitive and could have been an Instagram post. I can’t believe I read it all honestly. I wrote some thoughts along the way; be braced for a bit of a rant.
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Cisnormative first wave white feminism bullshit. Takes original ideas and twists them up to fit her cisnormative first wave white feminism bullshit. Very girl boss. Any good I got from this book has been said better and deeper by other people.
Additionally, every “recollection” of dialogue in this is trying to force profundity, so it all comes across as inauthentic. I would not trust this woman to tell me how to live my life and I’d caution anyone reading this to be wary of her prophetic belief in herself: just because you have come to know yourself, does not automatically mean you have knowledge to give to others about themselves. I don’t buy that Glennon is an enlightened, almighty being, and you shouldn’t either.
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The feminism chapter:
I was hesitant about this one but did end up respecting her acknowledgment that boys suffer under the patriarchy too. However, her argument was somewhat contradictory: on the one hand she’s saying we shouldn’t shame boys for being sensitive and should encourage them to express themselves (agree!). But on the other, she’s encouraging girls to *be more like boys* (“bossy” etc). We don’t need more women CEOs, we need more women (people in general) to stop buying into capitalism and carceral feminism. What Glennon’s missing (or at least what she fails to conclude) is this: switching the roles of girls and boys only feeds the cycle. There is not something inherent about women that means if they are in power then the world will be a better place. We should be dismantling power structures, not telling young girls they must participate in them. It’s the same rhetoric rolled out from feminism in the 2010s. It is limiting; it isn’t transformative at all, and it keeps us stuck.
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There’s a lot more I could probably say (we haven’t even got into the Christianity of it all) but I’ve truly given all the energy I can to this book now, more than it deserves, and I’m done.
C+nto & Othered Poems by Joelle Taylor
4.0
The best section by far was ‘C+nto’, wow I will be going back to that over and over! Not sure I enjoyed ‘O, Maryville’ as much, it just lost me a little on structure, particularly the use of slashes, and it felt quite dense. Definitely just a preference thing though, still very much enjoyed this collection.