Haunt
Contains spoilers
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.
Dnf @ 67%
This could have been pretty decent, but instead, he rapes her 65% through the book, and instead of him experiencing any meaningful consequences whatsoever, they immediately get married and all their friends (who are fully aware that he's just raped her) act like nothing happened.
Fuck. That.
Side note: it is completely fucking bonkers how many of the reviews for this book don't mention the problems with the male MC at all and instead exclusively complain about the female MC's personality.
4.5 stars
A lot of the negative reviews for this book seem to have somehow vastly missed the point. This is (as is made quite clear) the diary of the author, written at age 11, showing her childhood perspectives on and experiences of severe anorexia. Nothing more, nothing less, except for a brief concluding reflection written by the author as an adult. If you're expecting an adult-written memoir or a treatise on the causes and effects of eating disorders in Western societies, this is not the book you're searching for, although it certainly spotlights some leading contributing factors in no uncertain terms. That said, to me—someone who had similar experiences with childhood mental health issues, including an ED—this account absolutely rings familiar and true. If you're looking to learn about the development/mechanics/internal experience of an eating disorder, this is a good book to get you started.
A/N: Again, wanted to emphasize the fact that the writer is ELEVEN years old. Yes, the book presents a very black and white, sometimes simplistic depiction of things—her disorder, the cultural underpinnings and how she interpreted them, her family members, her treatment team and their care strategies—because that's how children, particularly mentally ill children, think and see the world. She does not go into much detail at all about actual treatments provided, other than dietary rules in the hospital, which means her account of her recovery might come across to some people as sudden or “just deciding to get better”. A little critical reading should make the reasons for this gap in coverage pretty obvious: she was an 11-year-old girl who didn't want to be there, didn't care about the therapies being promoted, and was writing a personal journal about the experiences she found memorable. This is a little girl's diary, not an academic exposition on how eating disorders work.
TL;DR: A child wrote this, and it's absurd to expect anything other than a child's—in this case, also a frequently unreliable narrator's—point of view.
I once commented on a friend's review that, having already read my One True Alice Retelling (TM), all other Alices and Wonderlands are forever ruined for me. Frankly, I've since assumed that this would also be the case for other retellings—that there can only be room for One in my brain.
This little book, and the fact that it coexists [rent-free in my mind] with Heather Walter's Malice duology, disproves that theory.
In my opinion, Thornhedge is the perfect standalone novella, so much so that I would even give it more than 5 out of 5 stars. With excellent writing, characters, and attention to detail, it successfully transformed the tale of Sleeping Beauty into a unique and enchanting new story that will definitely be in my thoughts for quite some time.
4.5 stars. I loved the concepts and the writing, although the ending felt somewhat abrupt. I would've liked to know even just a bit more about Annae's work and life during the time lapse. Still, as is, the ending does come full circle in its way. I expect I'll be mulling over the pieces for a while yet.
“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.
Somewhere in the 3.5- to 4-star range for me.
The illustrations are very pretty, and the phrases that make up the text are compelling and succinct, with important and universal messages to share. My two complaints with this book are that (a) the text is just that, disjointed phrases rather than an actual story; and (b) the cursive font used by seemingly every published edition, while attractive and probably meaningful (I assume it's the author's handwriting), is just a little bit more difficult to read/adjust to than I'd prefer. Nothing insurmountable, but a bit irritating at first, at least for me.
I'm curious about the movie adaptation of this book, specifically whether or not it adds enough links between the phrases of the original text to create some flow/a story.
4.5 stars - I accidentally bought this journal supplement instead of the original book of the same name, but ended up glad I got it anyway. For my purposes, which were primarily to better understand the personal perspective of an alcoholic on addiction and recovery and secondarily to assess the clinical value of the material for someone close to me going through the process, both the text and the exercises seemed clearly written and useful.
2 stars is really the best I can do for my personal reading of this book—but it would probably be great for kids!! Beautiful illustrations and unique (albeit difficult/annoying to read) layout on the “collage” style pages. No sources for information used whatsoever. In many places, the folklore presented was too vague, left out pieces of key related information, etc. For a child, aka “reading for fun and/or to enjoy the illustrations”, I think this would be an excellent choice.
