Fav book of all time fr.

Slow first half, not as much character development as I had expected based on the hype

Men who choose the terrain of reason, as opposed to emotion, place themselves in a position of authority. Only someone in a position of dominance can permit himself to be calm and reasonable in any circumstance, because he is not the one who is suffering.

It’s when men are allowed to get together among themselves that they develop their worst characteristics.

This is a good start for anyone interested in learning about misandry and some common misconceptions about what it is and how it could be useful. Nothing exists in a vacuum and misandry is no exception. Why do we worry so much about sparing men’s feelings? In what other context does it make sense to protect the feelings of the oppressor? This is fairly surface level as it’s an essay rather than a full book (I think there’s more to be said in terms of intersectionality), but I still enjoyed it as a stepping stone.

I’m finding this hard to even rate. I feel like I have so much to say, but also I’m speechless? I’m a pretty fast reader and nothing usually phases me much, but I had to stop reading this several times because I was so sick to my stomach. This is such a brutal novel, but a necessary story. Some aspects that really struck me were how well the complexity and reach of these issues were depicted and the discussion around victimhood and agency.

This book has Divine Rivals vibes in that there is an epistolary element where the two main characters are exchanging anonymous letters, though DR is more lyrical as a whole. This book is spunky and I definitely enjoyed reading it- I will say it perhaps could’ve been 50-100 pages shorter. Nonetheless, I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a cozy yet macabre, sweet fantasy romance.

It’s an objectively good book, but I just didn’t connect with the story the way I thought I would.

It’s wild to think this was written pre-Covid. I really enjoyed the social commentary.

Needed a palette cleanser and this was v cute. Public humiliation does stress me tf out though

Good palette cleanser.

How do we examine the legacy of colonization when the basic facts of its construction are disputed in the minds of its beneficiaries?

How can we engage, discuss, even think through a post-colonial lens, when there’s no shared base of knowledge? When even the simplest accounting of events - as preserved in the country’s own archives- wobbles suspect as tin-foil-hat conspiracies in the minds of its educated citizens?

But what it takes to get there isn’t what you need once you’ve arrived.

I feel. Of course I do. I have emotions. But I try to consider events as if they're happening to someone else. Some other entity. There's the thinking, rationalizing I (me). And the doing, the experiencing, her. I look at her kindly. From a distance. To protect myself, I detach.

These directives: listen, be quiet, do this, don’t do that. When does it end? And where has it got me? More, and more of the same. I am everything they told me to become. Not enough. A physical destruction, now, to match the mental. Dissect, poison, destroy this new malignant part of me. But there’s always something else: the next demand, the next criticism. This endless complying, attaining, exceeding – why?

It’s evident now, obvious in retrospect as the proof of root-two’s irrationality, that these world superpowers are neither infallible, nor superior. They’re nothing, not without a brutally enforced relativity. An organized, systematic brutality that their soft and sagging children can scarcely stomach- won’t even acknowledge. Yet cling to as truth. There was never any absolute, no decree from God. Just vicious, random chance. And then, compounding.

Why subject myself to their reductive gaze? To this crushing objecthood. Why endure my own dehumanization?

Considering its short length, this is a razor-sharp reflection of what it means to navigate a predominantly white, imperialist culture as a black person. Racism is so embedded in our society and language that people turn a blind eye to the subtleties and how they add up to a brutal total. She talks about the ways that black bodies and the idea of diversity have been commodified to further the status quo. She talks about the erasure of black experiences and identity in the pursuit of “assimilation” aka disappearance; The way that black people are forced to be complicit in their own dehumanization. There were so many quotes that were so precise that I was in awe. Do yourself a favor and pick this up.