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2/5 cw: queerphobia, sexual abuse, racismBumped this up on my to-read list because of some happenings in a local community and library with challenges, “hide the pride,” etc. Asked my partner, “Am I too radicalized and gay already?”, but that's not the core of my lukewarm feelings. There's valuable commentary in this book, particularly for young folk (and especially for young, queer, Black boys), in the realm of finding people who care about you in the way that the author's family and line brothers cared for and respected them. I studied these theories in college. The young adults at whom this book is directed may be interacting with its content for the first time.The work itself isn't outstanding, though. The writing is... fine. Johnson's journey is about becoming comfortable with being an “effeminate” queer Black boy and defining their own masculinity. It alludes to struggles and traumas, but doesn't write about them in a compelling manner. No one is required to share their coming out story, but in a “memoir-manifesto” in which the narrator struggles with coming out, and shares multiple times that they officially came out to their parents over the phone at 25, I was waiting for that scene the entire time. The books ends before it happens. I couldn't identify a call-to-action. The last handful of chapters is more a shill for the author's fraternity than anything.Then there is the explicit content for which this book (alongside the being gay, of course) is challenged. There are two chapters in which the author describes in step-by-step detail their sexual encounters. I think the author, in writing something so deeply personal, needed to write those details for their own catharsis, particularly in the case of the sexual abuse. I don't think the encounters needed to be shared in as much intimate detail to make a point. The author insists within the text that they didn't have appropriate sexual education, and were willing to risk their own embarrassment to educate others like them, but alluding to sexual practices (be that oral, anal, bottoming, topping, whatever) is just as useful as relating the minutiae of particular instances.I don't have an opinion on the topic of “young adult memoirs” just yet. Memoirs in general are hit-or-miss for me; I'm not a fan of the interconnected essay format, but I did miss Trevor Noah's [b:Born A Crime 29780253 Born a Crime Stories From a South African Childhood Trevor Noah https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1473867911l/29780253.SY75.jpg 50150838] while reading this. I do find myself wanting to promote more memoirs to the young adult audience, though, if only so they have more people to see themselves through.
[cw: Spoilerfatphobia, bullying, emotional child abuse, animal abuse]4/5Funny coincidence to see another [b:Starfish 40611543 Starfish Akemi Dawn Bowman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529682481l/40611543.SY75.jpg 49731957] featuring an emotionally abusive relationship with a mother. I have a soft spot for Bowman's novel and a poor relationship with my own mother (involving fatphobia, too), and that's what colors my feelings here: I love 75% of this book, but the conclusion felt unfulfilling. Ellie's vulnerability and journey to empowerment are beautiful. She starts off shy and drowning, and through sessions with a rad therapist and the support of a small in-group, learns to love herself and make room to breathe. Her bullies include generic school bullies, strangers, siblings, but most prominently her own mother. That is the relationship with the most tension in the book: it's heartbreaking whenever Ellie highlights things her mother says or does to her, but worst and most emotional is when Ellie admits Spoilerthat her mother doesn't love her, and that's what moms are supposed to do. This is why the conclusion falls flat: SpoilerEllie stands up for herself and confronts her mother, and her mother apologizes, but what changes will she actually be putting into place? What therapies will the mother go through to address her fatphobia and how she has been hurting her daughter for so long without realizing it? What about their other children? Both parents have been aware of that bullying and didn't do much to stop it aside from one scene in the book where Ellie's brother is grounded for a month, a thread that is not brought up again - and the brother mocks her after it.Also unsatisfying is the tacked on nature of the final confrontation with the school bullies, who straight up kidnap Ellie's dog and face no repercussions for this. Where are the parents or authorities here?This is a good debut. I'm glad I listened to the audiobook, which had a sweet and vulnerable portrayal. The verse served it well.
2/5
This is not a final draft.
SpoilerThe first chapter may be, and starts off strong with the image of Emyr's wings pierced, but the latter half of the book simply isn't finished. There are so many things that the author wants to do here, but with each addition the story grows more complicated and frustrating and less believable or thoughtful.
There's Twilight-style imprinting (which our protagonist is told is to urge reproduction, but cannot be because there are other couples in the book who either can't or won't have children).
There's a blood contract based on that imprinting (which is resolved so weirdly and suddenly that I had to read the passage over and over again).
There's blackmailing that doesn't appear to have stakes because of how blas?? Wyatt is about it sometimes, and how anxious others (Derek exists as a caricature, a Darkling-lite, and I didn't care for the Darkling, either).
There's a clumsy pile of secrets that, when revealed, turns characters into one-dimensional ideas (e.g., Clarke).
There's an entire secret society of magical beings which functions only vaguely (why do they have US currency at all? If they're technologically-averse, how do Briar and Wyatt charge and use their phones so easily? Where do they get the wealth with which to travel first class, and how did the fae kingdoms separate and keep in contact so long ago?)
There's immersion-breaking moments where characters who have lived outside of the human world all their lives speak like they've spent years on tumblr (and let me make clear that I have no problem with characters like Wyatt speaking in tumblr-esque queerspeak and found it funny, but when Wade says ???Absolutely ridiculous. This timeline is completely fucked. I hate it here.???, that... took me out).
Many issues could be resolved through simple communication; why, for example, didn't Wyatt tell Emyr about Derek threatening him as soon as he felt comfortable with Emyr again?
And through it all there's no sense of urgency or real tension. There's friction, there's an anti-witch coalition, there's protests and secret groups and contracts and an upcoming marriage, there's a friendship that suffers and begins to heal again within a handful of pages, and overall it just feels like Wyatt is sort of... fucking around the whole time.
The Witch King celebrates queer culture and friendship and love. But it also seems to promote an aesthetic in its cover and marketing that is not yet present inside - one of adventure or something tidy and grand. There's a lot to work with, but it needed to spend more time with an editor, to have cut some elements and expanded on others, to create a likeable, believable world and to feel more complete.
ETA: Apparently this is the book which was switched into the Nominee list instead of The List of Things That Will Not Change. I was made to read this book because of homophobia!
1.5/5 stars
This is a Golden Sower Chapter Book Nominee for 2022-23, which is why I picked it up as I'm not typically into books with animal narrators. Read attentively up to 65%, skimmed the rest; I would have left it without a star rating, but I grew impatient with the handling of language in this book and would like to leave a note about that in particular. I know this book is not really for me.
Stella is narrated in first-person present-tense from the perspective of a dog. Stella doesn't understand human language aside from certain phrases, like her name, commands, and foods. She mostly makes sense of what humans and other animals are saying through body language, smells, tone of voice, etc. But human dialogue is rendered in plain English - not, for example, italicized, or left indirect - so a reader will frequently have situations where they 1) read and understand what a human character is saying, 2) have it reinforced in the prose with Stella's reading of sight and sounds, and then 3) have Stella misunderstand the situation and react at odds. There is dramatic irony and then there is cognitive disconnect. Basic communication problems as a plot device are for sure a pet peeve of mine, but I really wonder at the editor's choice here, especially since Stella frequently talks about how human communication is weird to her, and she wishes she could understand them or speak with them, and there's even a moment where she tried. To top it off near the end of the book Spoilerher old trainer, Connie, appears in a metaphysical haze and speaks to Stella which not only broke my immersion but exasperated my major complaint to another degree.
2.5/5
Had to drag myself to the end for this one. I've never seen You've Got Mail so I'm not sure if context would help, but I found there to be simultaneously too much going on and nothing happening at all. Sad because I'm always down for a good rivals-to-lovers, but with how busy the plotlines were the relationships here had little chemistry.
But yo the dulhan with the rifle tho.
2.5/5
[cw: homophobia, abusive parents]
SpoilerI wasn't sure whether it was the right time for me to read this book due to my personal experience with parents' reactions to my wanting to move and chosen partner, but I kept going because it felt therapeutic to have my poor experience with toxicity in South Asian/Muslim culture validated. Rukhsana's increasing emptiness at her parents' insane actions was heartbreakingly familiar, and I was proud of her when she recognized that her parents' actions were not okay.
Which is why I was so disappointed when, in the last fifty or so pages of the book, after recognizing that she was abused and what her mother was doing was plainly evil, Rukhsana forgives and continues living with them, instead of breaking the generational cycle of abuse the book illustrates through her grandmother's diary (to those interested, children of abuse are often emotionally manipulated to forgive their parents by “flying monkeys” - those who encourage them to give their abusers a tenth chance).
A healed relationship with her parents isn't forbidden, but it requires time and space to heal. Rukhsana was abused, trafficked, and traumatized. She was lied to, had her privacy violated, locked in a room, drugged, and more. Her school counselor, a mandated reporter, would in reality have had to report this to the authorities, not ask her whether that's something she wanted (her saying no doesn't bother me - that is painfully real and speaks to the level of shame South Asian women are made to internalize). Rukhsana's parents were enshrined in the idea of her gayness being absolutely unthinkable, and the instant switch in their behaviors, not because of seeing how much pain and trauma they are putting upon their daughter, but because of witnessing the pain on another family because of their gay son's death, is uncomfortable. That's not what it should take. That's not Rukhsana's pain, that's not Sohail's pain. That's the fear of their own pain.
And there was room for healing! There was room for something really good. Aunty Meena looking for a “good Bengali lesbian” is cute! Taking them to an LQBTQ+ support group was nice! And if done more dexterously, I would've been all over it.
But dexterity is not this book's strong point. Honestly, I don't think I would have continued reading if not for how much I related. The writing is about what one expects from a teen novel, but mostly Rukhsana is a lesbian that just doesn't read like one. I have no idea why she's into Ariana, or even what Ariana's personality is, but I do know how much Rukhsana likes spending time with Sohail, and what he's like. Weird.
But! It's good to have people putting out books like this and normalizing the conversation.