bianca
Right up until that moment it was sweet and funny. Odd couple that they were, they had a real connection. Then he tugged her boot off and kissed the bottom of her bare foot. I could see him doing that kind of thing to his own kid, but she wasn't. She was somebody else's little girl.
— It's controversial, dark, and truly disturbing but I thought it was a really beautiful and compelling book. Ugly and wonderful.
You're okay with asking a girl who was wearing a pretty dress and had nice hair, who went to the dance with her cabin mates, who drank from the same punch bowl as everyone else—you're okay with asking that girl what mistake she made, and you wouldn't think to ask a boy how he would avoid raping someone? Would it be a better story if she had known what she was drinking? If her skirt had been two inches shorter?
— A book dealing with rape and victim blaming. I loved how empowering this was: how the main character refused to let what happened to her define her, and how she had a strong support system (family, friends, etc.).
The thing is, you can get used to anything. You think you can't, you want to die, but you don't. You won't. You just are.
2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge
02. A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent
Human nature is full of inconsistencies.
That's what makes a tragedy a tragedy. There's no rhyme or reason to it, only heartbreak.
— A very engaging story with complex characters and relationships. Plus, it's sex-positive and slams slut-shaming.
Nothing good can ever come from leaving something you love, simply for an asinine notion you're not good enough for it. Or him. Or anyone. Make yourself good enough. I'm saying, you know who you are. You do. The path is in front of you; be brave and take it. Now.
— Takeaway: Our passion doesn't always love us back. But even though we're not good enough for it, that doesn't mean we should stop loving it.
— Huh. Well that was addictive and intriguing, and it kept me guessing until the reveal.
Love is hard, messy and painful. I just... I think that if it's worth it, then you'll deal with all of that because the good parts, are probably really good.
We're constantly changing facts, rewriting history to make things easier, to make them fit in with our preferred version of events. We do it automatically. We invent memories.
— Got predictable towards the end but that doesn't matter to me. This is so good and unputdownable.
So this was how he was presenting what had happened to other people. This was how he was describing the gang rape – as something she'd initiated, group sex she'd wanted because she was “that type of girl.” It was all something she was “asking for,” probably begging for. And the four boys? she wondered. Were the three rapists and their accomplice in his version all shocked innocents who ended up giving in to their “wiring”?
— As affecting and powerful as [b:Speak|439288|Speak|Laurie Halse Anderson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1310121762s/439288.jpg|118521], this book similarly takes a look at rape culture and victim blaming. Timely and relevant.
Maybe because he's already been in my dreams for so long, it feels to me as though we've always been together.
Our lives are made up of choices. Big ones, small ones, strung together by the thin air of good intentions; a line of dominos, ready to fall. Which shirt to wear on a cold winter's morning, what crappy junk food to eat for lunch. It starts out so innocently, you don't even notice: go to this party or that movie, listen to this song, or read that book, and then, somehow, you've chosen your college and career; your boyfriend or wife.
2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge
06. Two books that share the same title (1)
Wherever you go in this big, gorgeous, hideous world, there is a ghost story waiting for you.
Sometimes we think we know what we want, but we don't actually know what we need until we find it.
Only then did I see it clearly: everyone was figuring it out. Everyone except me. I had no passion, no plan, nothing that made me stand out from the crowd. I had absolutely no idea what kind of job I was supposed to get.
— About the hopes, fears, and uncertainties in the transition to adulthood. It was an okay read, though a bit on the privileged side.
Reporters know all sorts of things they never write. Things you can't even imagine. All your heroes, they created them. After a while, they'll tear them down. That's what they do.
— Hmmm I feel kind of cheated. I feel like I was promised a very thrilling story but I wasn't thrilled at all. On the upside, I did like how the book fleshed out media and the construction of reality. I wanted more of that!
You connected with someone, and it might feel like that's because of some otherworldly force, like fate or whatever you want to name it, but you took risks, albeit some really stupid risks, and you opened yourself up to her and, well...that's what makes this life worth living. Connections like that. So you can't now go blame fate and shrug and say I guess it wasn't meant to be. Obstacles arose, as obstacles will. You have to go and hurdle them, because if you leave it all to fate you're ceding control to a force that's made up. You have to believe in the power of your connections.
I can see what he sees. A girl who drinks, who wears short skirts. Who gets dressed up so that people will look at her, think she's pretty. A girl everyone does think is pretty. A girl who likes attention and dark rooms and boys and parties and dumb, flirty conversation.It's my fault he sees me like that—I am like that.But it's not my fault he doesn't see that I'm a person, too.
— An exploration of beauty, self-worth, slut-shaming, and rape culture. It's a relevant read, but the plot was kind of all over the place. I wish it focused more on the issues that mattered.
We are never just one thing. We all have many titles and many labels, but far too often, we get trapped inside a single definition. The Teacher's Pet, the Rule Follower, the Cheerleader, the Athlete, the Princess, the Basket Case, the Criminal ... the Rock Star's Girlfriend. Whether we wrote that definition or whether it was given to us, it somehow becomes our only identity. We get so lost in it that we forget about all the other pieces that make up who we are.
— It was a cute read, but kind of frustrating at times. Great message though about just being yourself.
People hurt each other. It's what they do. Nobody can decide they will never hurt again.