Renata Sancken
ugh I was excited to read this but it wasn't quite for me. I am interested in MLMs/scams/cults and ofc have been on the receiving end of some “hey hun” messages myself, so I was interested in this. UNFORTCH I think I like...already knew too much. I also kind of felt like the author maybe just learned about white supremacy and white privilege in 2020, which I mean of course better late than never, but the way she talked about race in this book felt really awkward and tacked on and I was like....maybe you are not the best person to address this. I think I might have preferred if it was just a straight-up memoir about her own experiences in an MLM rather than also trying to be an all-encompassing history of MLMs and also of like, race in America? ANd I know...if she hadn't addressed race at all it probably also would have been uncomfortable but ... there must be another way here.
I think this might be of most interest to people who have themselves been in (or are currently in) MLMs, and/or family members trying to understand a loved one's intense MLM situation. And also honestly to Nice White Ladies who are new to the concept of white privilege I guess. (Not to say that I have a perfect understanding or whatever but this is a little 101 for me.)
My main recommendation is just to listen to The Dream podcast.
OK when I picked this up I had assumed it was just a straight (ha I mean like, literal...obviously still queer)-up graphic adaptation of the OG Carmilla but actually it's its own thing. But I like...I don't know, I wish there were more of it? It's also interesting to me to have something that's playing off a relatively-less-known story...like I got it because I read it right after reading Carmilla. But it's different than a Dracula retelling where that character is so familiar.
ANYWAY I felt like this maybe bit (ha) off a little more than it could chew for its length? But the art was beautiful and it was like, fine.
What a weird little treat! As the survivor of multiple Vegas Bachelorette weekends parts of this felt SO relatable to me but then Lubchanksy also adds in another layer of gender identity and transitioning and how hard that would make things, and then plus also the sci-fi/fantasy metaphor of it all. Just really firing on all cylinders.
this is my summer of Reading Books That Everyone Said Were Great Five Years Ago. and guess what: it's great! It took me a long time to read it (not counting the 5+ years it took me to start reading it) because I wanted to really savor the language of it. The writing is so lovely and then the skillfulness of Kimmerer's science communication is so strong, like truly combining the botany with the indigenous storytelling and making this beautiful beautiful book. Really inspiring.
I'll also say PART of the reason why I delayed picking this up was bc I was like “WELLLL I already care about the environment and I already care about indigenous land rights” so I was kind of like “I don't need to be persuaded?” But I think that made this lovelier to read. IDK. Whatever, I'm glad this book came to me in 2023, it will stay with me.
hm on one hand I'm like “MG and YA books are getting too long, we need more short ones” but then I'm like “this one is maybe too short for all the concepts it wants to pack in here!” I loved all the individual pieces of it and I think there's a lot of great info in here but then I think some of the character/relationship development suffered a bit for it. I've seen it listed as a modern companion to [b:Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret 37732 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388356524l/37732.SY75.jpg 4121] (I've listed it that way myself before I read it) and I think...that's maybe not quite right, despite the obvious connection of periods. You're SO in Margaret's head and she's such a full character in a way that Eden isn't quite to me. But still: a lot to like here.
I really enjoyed this but when I went to review it I wanted to double-check that it was marketed as YA because I think this could have worked better as an adult novel. I think the intergenerational aspects would be more compelling to older readers. But still, the characters are compelling and the history (thinly fictionalized) of Black Hollywood is interesting, so I do think teens with an interest in film/TV would still get a lot out of this.
Merged review:
I really enjoyed this but when I went to review it I wanted to double-check that it was marketed as YA because I think this could have worked better as an adult novel. I think the intergenerational aspects would be more compelling to older readers. But still, the characters are compelling and the history (thinly fictionalized) of Black Hollywood is interesting, so I do think teens with an interest in film/TV would still get a lot out of this.
wow like 5 years ago when everyone was like “Pachinko is great” I was like “ok I'll get around to it someday but IDK looks kinda long” anyway I am here in 2023 to say yeah, Pachinko is great. Really rich and compelling, loved the historical detail and the epic nature of it. I'm glad I made time for this (but also glad I waited until I was in the right mood for this kind of read!)
ok so like: good for Elliot Page! Sincerely so brave, went through SO much bullshit in Hollywood. So happy for him to be living his best life now.
In terms of the memoir...maybe could have used a lil ghostie writer help! Kinda all over the place! Jumps around a lot chronologically but not even in a way where like...idk, “this part is about my career and this part is about my family and this part is about dating” but just like “here's everything that's happened to me in the order that it occurs to me to tell you.” Which like you could spend some time telling all that to a ghostwriter and they could reorganize it for you.
Also MUCH has been made in the media of a few random short excerpts that make it seem like he's giving a ton of juicy Hollywood gossip here and like honestly not so much.
anyway again good for Elliot and I imagine this book would mean a lot more to trans readers or maybe to people who were more curious about ~a trans experience~ or something idk but for me it just didn't really hit as a book overall.
lol I think I've read too many books about cults because this one for me was pretty basic.
Also as a graphic novel it was confusing because some of her word bubbles seemed to be going right to left but it wasn't FULLY right to left like a manga, it was just like....sometimes conversations were really weird until I tried again. I don't think it was meant to be a purposeful disorientation (like if it only happened when cult leaders were speaking or something like that....)
I also felt like time was compressed in a weird way here but I'm not sure. Eh!
I thought this was fine. It's giving Dollar Store Jodi Picoult. It would be great for a book club of nice white ladies to discuss in the summer of 2020. The conceit of splitting narrative between Black and white narrators and being co-written by a Black and white author is interesting but I think for me it still doesn't quite land. The bestieship between the two main characters felt more Told than Shown and it made it hard to understand what Riley was getting out of this friendship in the first place.
But the drama did keep me reading.
This is a book where I must have read a pre-release review of it, then put a hold on it, and then when it came in I was like “what's this?” I must have read about the Broadway subplot and decided to request it, but then when the cover was like “TikTok sensation!” I was like, “uh oh” bc it seems that I don't usually agree with BookTok's favs.
But I checked it out and for me, this was perfectly cromulent. I liked all the theater kid backstory stuff but I never got too invested in the romance plot. To me it felt like it was a fanfiction AU but I didn't know the characters. Like if I had already been invested in these characters I'd be like “hell yeah he's a director and she's an actress? Can't wait to see how this turns out” but like, I wasn't.
But I did read the whole thing because it was a pretty easy read and because I wanted to see how thins turned out for Riveted! the Broadway musical based on Rosie the Riveter.
Also the cover of the book has a cat on it and the cat is like BARELY in it.
hmm I will say this was a liiittle bit of a letdown after [b:The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows 46041449 The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows (Feminine Pursuits, #2) Olivia Waite https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582192213l/46041449.SY75.jpg 70946037], which is technically the 2nd book in this series but I had randomly picked it up bc a) I know romance “Series” don't usually need to be read in order and b) I was more interested in beekeeping than astronomy? Anywayyy this was still very sweet and I appreciate shining a light on the under-recognized contributions of women but also I think the other book just hit me better.
ok ok I'm not SUPER informed on the Duggars, I never watched their show or anything, but I watched the Shiny Happy People documentary and saw this book and decided to check it out, and it was a little jarring bc Jinger here wants to speak out against Gothard but NOT her family (and barely addresses the Josh sexual assault situation and over and over says how great and supportive her parents were, which..........)
ANYWAY so for me, looking to kind of rubberneck at their situation, this wasn't really the book for me and I ended up skimming a lot of it, because a lot of it is just like...Bible study. I think folks who are Christians and maybe specifically grew up with the Basic Life Principles thing, would get more out of this.
this was a wild ride and a pretty quick read, I read the whole thing in the waiting room at the car shop (which granted I was there for like 4 hours with my problem child). I had not read the magazine article that this was expanded from and I think tbh you could just read the article, or wait for the Netflix documentary that the end of the book says is coming. But Johnson (and the private detective Nicoletta Kotsianas who was separately investigating this) did a lot of research and it's pretty compelling.
I think the insertion of Johnson's family history was a bit less compelling TBH but, whatever.
mannnnnnnn “what if Elizabeth Holmes were a vampire” is such a killer concept to me and this book was like...not rly what I was looking for. I felt like the book I wanted was constantly happening off-page. I didn't love the choice of the dirtbag nepo baby narrator. I wish it had been Olivia's POV or at least 3rd person omniscient? Like why are we following around this vanity record label project when there is a VAMPIRE SCAMMER PSEUDO-SCIENTIST doing shit in the vicinity??? HELLO???
As a kid this wasn't my fav JB book–I didn't relate to Margaret's desire for boobs and her period at alllllllll but I still found other parts of Margaret's character to be very relatable. Judy Blume is an icon for a reason, she is SO great at creating these very honest, vulnerable voices. And re-reading it as an adult I found I picked up on more nuances, especially among the parent/grandparent dynamics.
MANY more thoughts on the podcast:
https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-220-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret/