Haunt

4.5 stars

So much absurdly unnecessary drama, and Travis out there looking real obsessive and abusive and psychologically unfit for any relationship, makes it a hell no for me.

“Some people ask, ‘Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?' Because that would be dishonest...to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. [...] It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women. That the problem was not about being human, but specifically about being a female human.” (p. 41)

This also strikes me as a phenomenal explanation of why “all lives matter” is not an acceptable modification of “Black lives matter”. The problem is the targeting of Black lives, and to try to broaden the scope of the issue (for certain people's comfort, as Adichie implies) results in erasure of the actual problem, sweeping it under the rug rather than highlighting the concern so that it must be directly seen and confronted.

As a whole, this essay is an excellent primer or refresher course on the basics of feminism: what it is, why it is needed, how people respond to the concept. It is largely basic information, but it is written clearly and engagingly, and even those of us well-familiar with the topic may benefit from this work as a quick refresher, or find new, compelling explanations or phrasings of concepts. Adichie also includes many examples and anecdotes from her own experiences in Nigeria, which may provide a novel and important intersectional perspective for many white/Western feminists.

I'm so...confused?

The more I think about this book, the less I like it. Maybe it's one of those “great idea, not-great execution” sort of things, because I love (a) retellings and (b) strong heroines and (c) lgbtq+ representation and (d) ya, but I did not love (e) this book. The romance is extremely minimal and 2-dimensional, which simply cannot be the case in a retelling of a fairy tale focused on a romance (or in this case, TWO romances). Kaisa is barely even a character—she doesn't even get any personality traits beyond “gentle”, let alone any actual development, which, combined with the absolutely glacial pace of the alleged romance, culminates in the reader feeling like they spent all that time reading about Ash falling in love with a cardboard cutout. Similarly, the other romance/love triangle is resolved extremely quickly and almost carelessly, even though Sidhean actually feels (slightly) more fleshed out as a character than Kaisa. To me, the book as a whole feels much more like a coming-of-age story than a fairy tale/romance/anything else, except there's also...not really that much notable MC development either.

P.S. The “slow burn” here is so slow you'll die of natural causes before you feel anything.

P.P.S. I'm so frustrated about this book I can't even look at it. It's going straight into the used bookstore trade-in box. Dear Malinda Lo, I am so so sorry.

3.5 stars