i don’t need a signed hardcover copy i don’t need a signed hardcover copy i don’t need a signed hardcover copy
you are right, past me, you don't need ai don’t need a signed hardcover copy i don’t need a signed hardcover copy i don’t need a signed hardcover copy
you are right, past me, you don't need a signed hardcover copy.
... on the other hand there's a cool skeleton on it.....
started of very silly and did keep being silly but i just don't like Landy's convoluted story telling anymore. didn't hate the experience though which is surprising. 3 stars of indifference....more
excitedly running over to my boyfriend to tell him about the morally corrupt blond man who’s my new favourite fictional character (it’s the fifth moraexcitedly running over to my boyfriend to tell him about the morally corrupt blond man who’s my new favourite fictional character (it’s the fifth morally corrupt blond man this week. my boyfriend is worried about me)...more
"In one memory, I would tell her, I am four years old. I know this because I'm at my aunt Shirley's house in Florida and she only lived in that house "In one memory, I would tell her, I am four years old. I know this because I'm at my aunt Shirley's house in Florida and she only lived in that house the year I was four. There are hibiscus flowers and saw palmettos in the yard and I am running barefoot across the rough, scratchy Florida grass, playing a game like tag with my cousin Kenny and the two girls who live next door. When they catch him, the girls cover Kenny in kisses, something they don't do when they catch me. I understand for the first time, that I am not a boy. I didn't quite know it before and now I do. It is not a happy awakening. I go running to the other side of the house, where I sit on the steps and cry. When my aunt appears in the doorway and asks what's wrong, I know enough to say: Nothing.
The Nothing stays inside me, accumulating shame, taking the shape of impossible longing. Years go by. I learn how to leave my body. I forget what I know about myself. Now and then, quietly, it makes itself felt."
the bold paragraph is so relatable but that's none of your business.
as far as coming of age stories go, this is probably one of the better ones i have ever read. i think it captures the confused longing for something you don't even understand yet of trans youth very well.
it was also one of my better reading experiences this year but a. i just ... don't like reading about children, b. some of the thematic choices of the 2019 chapters made me feel kinda ugh, like i think we had more pressing problems in 2019 than the infighting between trans elder and trans youth and i cringe thinking about some of the scenes between max and the social worker assigned to him, and c. i kinda wish there was more exploration of his relationships to his family members. like how did his mum get over saying "I'd rather kill you than let you become trans/gay/whatever" to idk ... acceptance? resignation?
what’s the point of romance books when spending a single second with my boyfriend gives me more fuzzy feelings than words on page ever could
low-key bwhat’s the point of romance books when spending a single second with my boyfriend gives me more fuzzy feelings than words on page ever could
low-key boring. they were cute sometimes but what’s the point. i have already forgotten their names.
also, authors: it’s actually very easy to not mention works by terfs in your books. tbh it takes more effort to put a terf reference in your books than not doing so. actually not mentioning them takes no effort at all. just fyi. ...more
best book i've read this year (it's really not going well for me reading wise, i mean i'm reading non-fiction, NONFICTION, mr. fancy pants rich mcgee best book i've read this year (it's really not going well for me reading wise, i mean i'm reading non-fiction, NONFICTION, mr. fancy pants rich mcgee over here, jesus)
very eye-opening stuff and PRK definitely knows how to tell a story. crazy to think that one family (more or less, there's other pharma companies involved of course but the sacklers really put the work into it) caused an entire opioid epidemic and killed millions just because they were like "we don't make enough money from selling pain meds to cancer patients what if we sold the same pain meds to literally everyone for any pain imaginable, no don't worry, they are not addicting, addiction is a MINDSET anyway" #capitalism4ever
and to this day they have not faced any criminal charges cause when have rich people ever faced any consequences for their actions ever, this is abhorent and the more i think about it the angrier i get.
TL;DR: 10/10 everyone should read this. also, have i spent the last month consuming every piece of media relating to the opioid crisis/the sackler family history and neglecting everything else? maybe.
pretty good depiction of how straight men live longer IN relationships while straight women have a better life expectancy W/O a relationship
could havpretty good depiction of how straight men live longer IN relationships while straight women have a better life expectancy W/O a relationship
could have done without andy’s pov tbh. insufferable man. jen’s pov really saved this book.
also do yourself a favour and don’t listen to the audiobook because it’s one of the worst audios i’ve ever heard. the narrator would sometimes just randomly pause for a couple seconds after every other sentence?? like i’m already listening at 2x speed and those pauses were still multiple seconds long i don’t even want to know what this would be like in 1x speed. ...more
messy and at times unreadable but describes growing up as a closeted/unaware gay transmasc person so goddamn well that it made me feel uncomfortably smessy and at times unreadable but describes growing up as a closeted/unaware gay transmasc person so goddamn well that it made me feel uncomfortably seen. truly no original experiences in this world. 2.5 stars...more
rolled my eyes, sighed, and added to my tbr, because i’m hopeless and everything about this appealing to me even though i knosurprise! it sucked!
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rolled my eyes, sighed, and added to my tbr, because i’m hopeless and everything about this appealing to me even though i know it will most definitely suck...more
“For boys this issue of control begins with the mother’s response to his penis; usually she does not like it and she does not know what to do with it.“For boys this issue of control begins with the mother’s response to his penis; usually she does not like it and she does not know what to do with it. Her discomfort with his penis communicates that there is something inherently wrong with it.”
this was such an out of nowhere statement to make and it was said with such casualness like i as a reader am supposed to nod along because it is as factually correct and carries the same amount of truth as saying "water is wet" does but i have been sitting with this for twelve hours now and i am still bewildered. can i interview some mothers, i literally only have this one research question, someone give me funding.
while i'm sure that men getting harmed by patriarchy was a revolutionary observation and statement to make in 2003, this whole book did kinda fall flat for me in the year of our lord 2024. should have read it twenty years ago, jesus fucking christ, what was six year old me even doing.
it did have its moments but ultimately it was too repetitive and generalized to carry any depth i would have found meaningful.
we should consider for a moment that i might not be the target audience for this but then again what is a target audience really. also i don't want to be like "you have to include trans and nonbinary people in your books about feminism/gender" because i don't really care that much tbh. you can write a book solely focused on cis people, in this case cis men, it's whatever but - while reading there were just a lot of instances where i was like "there is a lot of perspective missing"
there is a part where the author argues that boys get a lot more punished for falling out of line when it comes to fulfilling their gender roles and have far less room to express themselves while girls can more or less do what they want and society is more forgiving, and in my head i was like "well, that's not true? society is very punishing when you don't perform and deny certain aspects of girlhood.... oh... might be just be trans experience.. my bad" and as a trans person it's like .. well, you say these things like they are universal truth but... they simply are not. i don't even think they are for cis people.
so to end this review that was going nowhere in the first place with a silly little joke: i did spend some time wondering where *i* (main character of the world) am in all this until there came a part where the author was like "men don't talk about their emotions with their colleagues, they make jokes and jests, but they don't reveal any truths about themselves" (or something along those lines) and i have realized, that i am a man cause wtf who talks to their colleagues about their feelings??? i would literally rather die??
TL;DR: this has fulfilled my yearly quota for nonfiction books (which is zero so we are already wayyy out of line). only mindnumbingly stupid books from now on! no learning! i want a book where i will know LESS after reading it, delete those braincells!...more
She once asked him if this was real. 'Does any of it not feel real?' he'd answered. 'No.' 'So why ask?' 'Because we need to ask, because we need to knShe once asked him if this was real. 'Does any of it not feel real?' he'd answered. 'No.' 'So why ask?' 'Because we need to ask, because we need to know, because I fear the worst.' 'If you're going to England, I want to be on the same plane with you. If you're ever on a boat, I want to sail on it. If you're crossing the street even, I'll walk with you.'
had me in the first half and delivered on the final gut punch, but sadly lost me in the middle. overall, a very weird story. i mean, not really, but i think sometimes the guy just talked in circles without really saying anything and while i love my litfic to be plotless and just vibes - i kinda want it to still make sense most of the time?
also, it wasn't gay. which is my fault for assuming, but i really wanted it to be gay....more