The Female of the Species

i support women's rights but more important i support women's wrongs

light reading + reflective thoughts + epic ending = Masterpiece

Alex Craft era una chica normal, hasta que un día su hermana desaparece y es encontrada muerta en el bosque, o lo que queda de ella.
Entonces algo dentro de Alex se rompe y decide tomar la justicia en sus manos.
Matar está mal, pero y si las víctimas se lo merecen porque son violadores y asesinos?
Una historia sobre lo que es correcto o no, sobre la muerte y la ira que desencadena, unido a las inseguridades de los adolescentes. Contada a 3 voces: Alex, Jack y PK.

He disfrutado mucho la lectura, a pesar de haberlo leído en inglés. Es muy ágil, narrada en tiempo presente, con capítulos cortos, que te hacen reflexionar sobre un montón de cosas y un final que no me esperaba

3.5

it would of been a 4.5 star rating but something felt off. I can't explain it.
Anyways, huge trigger warning for every type of crime.
Rape, murder, bullying, harassment, drugs, etc. Definitely one of the darkest books I've read

really torn between 4 and 5 stars on this one!
likes:
- a girl taking gross rape-y guys into her own hands?? sign me up
- cute female friendship
- such good commentary on things like rape culture & slut shaming
- feminist shit!!

dislikes:
- I would have liked more focus on Alex than her relationship with Jack which I felt took over a little towards the end; Alex's character was who was most interesting to me

I don't know how to put my thoughts into words

This was a dark, tough read for me. It tapped into a lot of raw anger, and it was definitely different to read a young female protagonist so full of rage, especially outside of a dystopian context. It's a book designed to provoke thought about sexual violence. It does less to offer an single conclusive argument, instead acting more as an observation of just how much rape culture sucks for pretty much everyone. There are certainly less graphically violent texts that explore this issue, but I think McGinnis set out to hold no punches, and one of the ways she did that is by speaking through someone like Alex.

Wow...this was awesome. I am able to comfortably qualify much of what I read as “not for the faint of heart,” and this book was no different. This book WAS different in the ways it peeled back my expectation—of an interesting murder mystery—and left me with a dark and honest view of love, teen anxt, and rape. The best part was that my expectations were met and I wasnt left resenting the result despite the plot deviating from my expectations. Maybe that doesn't make sense but I read it and you (probably) haven't yet. Read it, then let me know what you thought.

Well done, Mindy. I believe I will need to track down some of your other work.

Solid writing, empathetic characters even though Alex makes some extreme choices. I enjoyed when McGinnis let herself ruminate on rape culture; it was very moving.

I really quite liked this this book — it's brilliant and unsettling, in a way that makes my skin crawl. (Which, I'm sure, was entirely the point.)

However, I did have a few issues with it. First of all, the characters (or more importantly, the relationships between the characters) — I felt as if Jack and Alex's relationship progressed too fast. Alex has a lot of baggage (re: her father, her mother & her dead sister + Comstock) and so does Jack, but the author doesn't really address these issues, aside from giving us this little tidbit:

“I hold my phone tightly, too aware that the present is all we have if I can't mention the past and she won't talk about the future.”

And while Alex does end up telling Jack parts of her story, they never really open up to one another, even towards the end of the book.

Secondly, I definitely had issues with how Branley was portrayed. Yes, Alex and Claire do stand up for Branley —

“You shouldn't be that way about her,” Alex says. “I hear what people say and I bet half of it isn't even true. And even if it is - fine. She's no different from you and me; she wants to have sex. So let her...She likes boys, and she can get them. You were hurt by that, but it wasn't Branley who hurt you. It was Adam.”

nuanced

might

The Female of the Species

a lot

I rushed home to finish this book because, oh my geez, THIS BOOK, people!!! It's like a punch in the gut you know is coming and yet you still get stunned in shock when it happens. Locker room talk, yeah that's all it is. All men do it, no biggie. Read this book and hopefully you'll understand/empathize why even just that kind of talk can do some real damage and how the female of the species really is more deadly than the male.
#2 favorite for 2016