Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Sunday, 29 January 2017
Graphic Novel Review - 'Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!, Volume 1: Hooked On A Feline' by Kate Leth (Writer), Brittney Williams (Artist), Megan Wilson (Colourist)
A cute superhero comic. I'm finding that Marvel is good at meta jokes and making fun of itself and other properties.
As is common with recent comic book reboots that I decide to pick up, I'd never heard of the titular hero beforehand. I only thought, "Hey, it's another female-led superhero comic, might as well see what the fuss is about." 'Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!' does contain references to the backstory and history of Patsy, but reading up everything about them isn't essential. This new adventure of hers is fresh and funny, with OTT moments similar to Marvel's other superheroine solo series, 'The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl' (Squirrel Girl makes a cameo appearance here as well as other heroines, who don't do any crime fighting, sadly, but are Hellcat's friends).
Bonus points for the 'Wicked' reference in the first issue.
Patsy Walker is a fun, lovely redheaded young woman with a hard past (putting it extremely lightly) she wants to leave behind. She will fight crime as Hellcat, and help society in others ways by working to start a temp agency for meta-humans who don't want to become superheroes or villains - just use their gifts for normal office work and such. Young people are counting on her - to believe in them, for a villain from Hellcat's rogues gallery is also recruiting meta-humans, for her own nefarious purposes.
This comic holds a nostalgia value similar to the classic 'Archie' comics, with butt-kicking supers in the mix. The vibrant colours - the cartoony art style- is its biggest highlight. If you like art, action, humour and character dynamics reminiscent of shows like 'Kim Possible', 'Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!' is a must-read.
There are queer characters, who are not in relationships yet, and their sexuality isn't their entire reason for existing. Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk, is here as Patsy's best friend, ex-boss and lawyer. Valkyrie is another really cool heroine in the comic (another cameo is Howard the Duck, unsurprisingly). The main villainess, an Asgardian sorceress named Casiolena, is so over-the-top and silly she's hilarious. She'd fit perfectly in a parody cartoon.
Flaws include the lack of conclusions to side plots, such as the relationship between Tom Hale and Ian Soo leading nowhere (Patsy's own love life is rendered unimportant, thankfully). And did Doctor Strange need to be in this, too? What lasting effect did he have? None, overall. I think he was just included because of the release of his blockbuster movie, like how years ago the Guardians of the Galaxy popped up everywhere in the wake of their movie's release and success. It was for promotional material. Where are the Guardians now, anyway? I wouldn't know since I'm not an avid Marvel reader, but I hope you get my point.
The last issue is super cute and fun. The manga-style artwork pays homage to Rumiko Takahashi, and the characters are chibis. It manages to continue the story somewhat, another plus.
So for something light and energetic, with barely any cat-related puns for an action-packed comedy about a cat-themed superhero, 'Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!, Volume 1: Hooked On A Feline' (okay, that pun is bad) is for you. Abundant with genuinely strong women, including Hellcat herself who believes in the good in people and their capability to change things for the better, this comic is a colourful, highbrow show of friendship.
Final Score: 3.5/5
As is common with recent comic book reboots that I decide to pick up, I'd never heard of the titular hero beforehand. I only thought, "Hey, it's another female-led superhero comic, might as well see what the fuss is about." 'Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!' does contain references to the backstory and history of Patsy, but reading up everything about them isn't essential. This new adventure of hers is fresh and funny, with OTT moments similar to Marvel's other superheroine solo series, 'The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl' (Squirrel Girl makes a cameo appearance here as well as other heroines, who don't do any crime fighting, sadly, but are Hellcat's friends).
Bonus points for the 'Wicked' reference in the first issue.
Patsy Walker is a fun, lovely redheaded young woman with a hard past (putting it extremely lightly) she wants to leave behind. She will fight crime as Hellcat, and help society in others ways by working to start a temp agency for meta-humans who don't want to become superheroes or villains - just use their gifts for normal office work and such. Young people are counting on her - to believe in them, for a villain from Hellcat's rogues gallery is also recruiting meta-humans, for her own nefarious purposes.
This comic holds a nostalgia value similar to the classic 'Archie' comics, with butt-kicking supers in the mix. The vibrant colours - the cartoony art style- is its biggest highlight. If you like art, action, humour and character dynamics reminiscent of shows like 'Kim Possible', 'Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!' is a must-read.
There are queer characters, who are not in relationships yet, and their sexuality isn't their entire reason for existing. Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk, is here as Patsy's best friend, ex-boss and lawyer. Valkyrie is another really cool heroine in the comic (another cameo is Howard the Duck, unsurprisingly). The main villainess, an Asgardian sorceress named Casiolena, is so over-the-top and silly she's hilarious. She'd fit perfectly in a parody cartoon.
Flaws include the lack of conclusions to side plots, such as the relationship between Tom Hale and Ian Soo leading nowhere (Patsy's own love life is rendered unimportant, thankfully). And did Doctor Strange need to be in this, too? What lasting effect did he have? None, overall. I think he was just included because of the release of his blockbuster movie, like how years ago the Guardians of the Galaxy popped up everywhere in the wake of their movie's release and success. It was for promotional material. Where are the Guardians now, anyway? I wouldn't know since I'm not an avid Marvel reader, but I hope you get my point.
The last issue is super cute and fun. The manga-style artwork pays homage to Rumiko Takahashi, and the characters are chibis. It manages to continue the story somewhat, another plus.
So for something light and energetic, with barely any cat-related puns for an action-packed comedy about a cat-themed superhero, 'Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!, Volume 1: Hooked On A Feline' (okay, that pun is bad) is for you. Abundant with genuinely strong women, including Hellcat herself who believes in the good in people and their capability to change things for the better, this comic is a colourful, highbrow show of friendship.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Book Review - 'The Queen of Blood (The Queens of Renthia, #1)' by Sarah Beth Durst
2021 EDIT: Ven is a prick from the first chapter (making ten-year-old Daleina feel guilty for all the death and destruction of her village - she is literally surrounded by the torn corpses of her people, and Ven thoughtlessly mentions right in front of the child that she should have been able to stop the tragedy, which is monstrous), and a trusting idiot. Fara is an example of the mad queen stereotype: of a woman in power - the most powerful ruler, in fact - who cannot handle it, or otherwise will sacrifice the lives of hundreds if not thousands of innocent people for purely selfish reasons, and she is dependent on a man for every kind of support. Why did I say that she was complex and morally grey in my old review? To make matters worse, in her first appearance Fara lies and says the man, Ven, attempted to assault her because she rejected his advances, thus disgracing him and destroying his reputation; all to cover her nefarious tracks. We really should not be encouraging this type of thing in fiction, and I seriously hope I don't need to explain why.
At least there are loads of other powerful, competent and three-dimensional women and girls in this book. Not all of them are male dependent... to an extent. And not all of them are tragic figures with tragic female friendships... again, to an extent.
At least there are loads of other powerful, competent and three-dimensional women and girls in this book. Not all of them are male dependent... to an extent. And not all of them are tragic figures with tragic female friendships... again, to an extent.
Why did I also say that there may be a few friendly spirits in 'The Queen of Blood'? They're all murderous monsters who despise humans and love bloodshed, no exception. It really is as black and white as all that.
And as I said in my original review, in acknowledging a flaw: The romance parts are side elements and add nothing important to the story in the slightest. They're not developed very well (though at least it's established early on that Daleina takes caretaker boys to her bed at the academy occasionally, before she meets her lightly-put "true love"; a subversion of the virginal YA female lead), and are just weird. Queen Fara may be a powerful and beloved queen, but it appears she still needs a man - Ven - to help her do what is right and to act as her conscience.
Still, 'The Queen of Blood' is a well written fantasy, if repetitive in places. There is wonderful worldbuilding, and I appreciate all the hard work and care that the author no doubt put into creating the novel. The ending remains a rare, effective, gut-wrenching tragedy. That part will stay with me, even if the rest of the book will not.
Maybe my knowledge of how poor and dumb the sequel will turn out to be hindered my enjoyment of 'The Queen of Blood' on the second read, as well.
Oh well.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
"Don't trust the fire, it will burn you.
Don't trust the ice, it will freeze you.
Don't trust the water, it will drown you
Don't trust the air, it will choke you.
Don't trust the earth, it will bury you.
Don't trust the trees, they will rip you,
rend you, tear you, kill you dead."
Holy Hera, that ending.
THIS is epic fantasy and how it should be written. For someone new to writing this kind of fantasy, which is tremendously difficult for even the most experienced writers, Sarah Beth Durst did a terrific job introducing us to a new world called Renthia.
Renthia is a dangerous world where nature is key. In 'The Queen of Blood', the first book in this YA fantasy series, the majority of scenes are set in forests, and people live on tops of trees and use charms to protect themselves from vengeful spirits. These spirits of earth, fire, air, water, wood, and ice want to kill humans, but are compelled to obey the women and girls with an "affinity" to sense and communicate with them, to keep people safe from these natural disasters. Yet without the bloodthirsty spirits nature cannot continue its course and humanity will die out. The forest floor is still more deadly than up on the trees.
In 'The Queen of Blood', there are massacres, the destruction of entire villages, boarding school classes, themes of how great power comes great responsibility (and planning, not just for yourself but for helping others), and social, ethical and political intrigues on what is right and what is wrong. But right and wrong are just words; moral grey areas are fearlessly presented in this YA book, and there are no easy answers, only human ones. There is friendship, family, love, betrayal, loss, a wolf animal sidekick, and a villain spirit with a woman's body and an owl's head and feathers.
With great worldbuilding comes great characters also in this epic fantastical hero's journey. Daleina is a young girl whose treehouse village, Greytree, was destroyed by tree spirits when she was ten. She and her parents and her little sister Arin were the only survivors, thanks to her affinity with the dangerous creatures. Years later she enters the Northeast Academy, through trial and error, where she and hundreds of other girls wish to become candidates to trainers called champions, then heirs, and then one woman will be chosen by the spirits as the new queen - when the old one dies - of their country of Aratay in Renthia.
The queen alone controls all the spirits of the area and keeps the peace between the people and the supernatural beings. Daleina, the survivor, the outsider, wants to be queen so that she can prevent another tragedy like what had befallen her home village from happening again. Greytree was a fluke on the current queen Fara's part. Or was it? Is the queen losing power, or is there something else going on in the political front?
Daleina has determination and bravery matched by no other, but is being queen her right and her destiny? Especially since other girls demonstrate more power than her in their years at the academy. But what she lacks in natural talent, she excels in strategy on how to handle spirits. Instead of controlling them, forcing them to obey her, she encourages them to create, to grow, to find another outlet for their killing instincts. Maybe she'll find a few who are friendly towards her, as nothing is as black and white as she'd like to believe.
While Daleina continues to underestimate herself throughout the book, she clearly learns and develops in her abilities in a story about her and her successes and failures. She questions herself constantly, but she keeps going anyway. Academically Daleina is a top student, but when it comes to field work and summoning spirits, no matter how hard she tries, she always needs help. But that will change. She even trains while temporarily blinded, out in the world with its unpredictable forests and spirits. Nothing comes easy for her.
If there ever was a good anti-Mary Sue, Daleina is it.
I love how down-to-earth she is. She's smart, and possesses a moral compass which steers her to protect as many people as possible. Daleina knows all about bloodshed, about loss, and doesn't want others to experience them like she did. She is aware of the consequences of her actions when she is forced to make hard, grey choices for the greater good of her people. It is all part of her path to becoming queen, something Fara knows too well...
Other characters are fantastically-written and memorable. Daleina is the protagonist, but another main key player is Ven, a disgraced champion who still works to save people - he wishes to redeem himself for not making it to Greytree in time to fight the murdering spirits. He met Daleina as a child, and the two will cross paths once again, as destiny would have it. Ven is idealistic but serious, and as stubborn and determined as Daleina. He won't give up doing what is right, even with his personal, human shortcomings which involve his history with the trickster beauty Queen Fara. He has a snarky sense of humour underneath his armour, as well; making him and young Daleina a fitting team.
There are people with multicoloured skin, including green, and quirks, talents. One character, Revi, one of Daleina's female academy friends, is mentioned to have two mothers, a small but vital touch in a YA novel.
Female empowerment is another main theme in 'The Queen of Blood', as well as human empowerment and human tragedy. Daleina doesn't really make any enemies in the all-girls Northeast Academy; in fact, everyone seems to get along fine with each other. There are no "mean girls", just girls. Daleina cares about all her fellow students, even ones she doesn't know well. They all help each other out, comfort one another, go out on adventures together, learn from each other. They are a sisterhood; coming together for full support, in spite of being in competition on the path to becoming queen. The book is a giant middle finger to misogynists who want to claim that women cannot stand to be around each other as much as men do. Women are powerful and rule the world in 'The Queen of Blood'. It is a political fantasy, but it's never boring, and everything has a point to it.
Since nothing is perfect, however, the book has its flaws. The romance parts are side elements and add nothing important to the story in the slightest. They're not developed very well (though at least it's established early on that Daleina takes caretaker boys to her bed at the academy occasionally, before she meets her lightly-put "true love"; a subversion of the virginal YA female lead), and are just weird. Queen Fara may be a powerful and beloved queen, but it appears she still needs a man - Ven - to help her do what is right and to act as her conscience. The book develops Fara enough so the "women are easily corruptible and become crazy when given any power" cliche doesn't really apply here, but it comes close. The conniving owl woman is cool, however.
'The Queen of Blood (The Queens of Renthia, #1)' is unrestricted by its YA label. It contains no bad language, and sex scenes happen off-page and are only implied, but that's it. There is a lot of death here, shockingly so, especially at the end. Themes of power and sacrifice are not watered down: Characters die and the survivors feel every painful moment of it. No one is overlooked or forgotten about, even if certain deaths are not as hard-hitting as they should be for the main characters. The meaning of the story's title, 'The Queen of Blood', will hold more significance at the very end, and it is brilliant. I'm still recovering from it!
Sarah Beth Durst has created a great fantasy with a brave and resourceful heroine, with no two-dimensional or uninteresting characters. Everything about it is fleshed-out. It's a fully-realized world, where women are important and get shit done. With 'The Queen of Blood', Ms Durst has written a tragedy rarely seen with such gravitas in YA fiction. She's made up her own 'Star Wars', 'Hunger Games' (the deadly "survival" contest, and the blood-sister connection between Daleina and Arin, as well as the spiritual sisterhood Daleina shares with her school friends), 'Game of Thrones', and 'Princess Academy'.
Recommended for anyone looking for something exciting, clever and deeply emotional in the fantasy genre - YA, high or epic, it doesn't matter.
Final Score: 4.5/5
And as I said in my original review, in acknowledging a flaw: The romance parts are side elements and add nothing important to the story in the slightest. They're not developed very well (though at least it's established early on that Daleina takes caretaker boys to her bed at the academy occasionally, before she meets her lightly-put "true love"; a subversion of the virginal YA female lead), and are just weird. Queen Fara may be a powerful and beloved queen, but it appears she still needs a man - Ven - to help her do what is right and to act as her conscience.
Still, 'The Queen of Blood' is a well written fantasy, if repetitive in places. There is wonderful worldbuilding, and I appreciate all the hard work and care that the author no doubt put into creating the novel. The ending remains a rare, effective, gut-wrenching tragedy. That part will stay with me, even if the rest of the book will not.
Maybe my knowledge of how poor and dumb the sequel will turn out to be hindered my enjoyment of 'The Queen of Blood' on the second read, as well.
Oh well.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
"Don't trust the fire, it will burn you.
Don't trust the ice, it will freeze you.
Don't trust the water, it will drown you
Don't trust the air, it will choke you.
Don't trust the earth, it will bury you.
Don't trust the trees, they will rip you,
rend you, tear you, kill you dead."
Holy Hera, that ending.
THIS is epic fantasy and how it should be written. For someone new to writing this kind of fantasy, which is tremendously difficult for even the most experienced writers, Sarah Beth Durst did a terrific job introducing us to a new world called Renthia.
Renthia is a dangerous world where nature is key. In 'The Queen of Blood', the first book in this YA fantasy series, the majority of scenes are set in forests, and people live on tops of trees and use charms to protect themselves from vengeful spirits. These spirits of earth, fire, air, water, wood, and ice want to kill humans, but are compelled to obey the women and girls with an "affinity" to sense and communicate with them, to keep people safe from these natural disasters. Yet without the bloodthirsty spirits nature cannot continue its course and humanity will die out. The forest floor is still more deadly than up on the trees.
In 'The Queen of Blood', there are massacres, the destruction of entire villages, boarding school classes, themes of how great power comes great responsibility (and planning, not just for yourself but for helping others), and social, ethical and political intrigues on what is right and what is wrong. But right and wrong are just words; moral grey areas are fearlessly presented in this YA book, and there are no easy answers, only human ones. There is friendship, family, love, betrayal, loss, a wolf animal sidekick, and a villain spirit with a woman's body and an owl's head and feathers.
With great worldbuilding comes great characters also in this epic fantastical hero's journey. Daleina is a young girl whose treehouse village, Greytree, was destroyed by tree spirits when she was ten. She and her parents and her little sister Arin were the only survivors, thanks to her affinity with the dangerous creatures. Years later she enters the Northeast Academy, through trial and error, where she and hundreds of other girls wish to become candidates to trainers called champions, then heirs, and then one woman will be chosen by the spirits as the new queen - when the old one dies - of their country of Aratay in Renthia.
The queen alone controls all the spirits of the area and keeps the peace between the people and the supernatural beings. Daleina, the survivor, the outsider, wants to be queen so that she can prevent another tragedy like what had befallen her home village from happening again. Greytree was a fluke on the current queen Fara's part. Or was it? Is the queen losing power, or is there something else going on in the political front?
Daleina has determination and bravery matched by no other, but is being queen her right and her destiny? Especially since other girls demonstrate more power than her in their years at the academy. But what she lacks in natural talent, she excels in strategy on how to handle spirits. Instead of controlling them, forcing them to obey her, she encourages them to create, to grow, to find another outlet for their killing instincts. Maybe she'll find a few who are friendly towards her, as nothing is as black and white as she'd like to believe.
While Daleina continues to underestimate herself throughout the book, she clearly learns and develops in her abilities in a story about her and her successes and failures. She questions herself constantly, but she keeps going anyway. Academically Daleina is a top student, but when it comes to field work and summoning spirits, no matter how hard she tries, she always needs help. But that will change. She even trains while temporarily blinded, out in the world with its unpredictable forests and spirits. Nothing comes easy for her.
If there ever was a good anti-Mary Sue, Daleina is it.
I love how down-to-earth she is. She's smart, and possesses a moral compass which steers her to protect as many people as possible. Daleina knows all about bloodshed, about loss, and doesn't want others to experience them like she did. She is aware of the consequences of her actions when she is forced to make hard, grey choices for the greater good of her people. It is all part of her path to becoming queen, something Fara knows too well...
Other characters are fantastically-written and memorable. Daleina is the protagonist, but another main key player is Ven, a disgraced champion who still works to save people - he wishes to redeem himself for not making it to Greytree in time to fight the murdering spirits. He met Daleina as a child, and the two will cross paths once again, as destiny would have it. Ven is idealistic but serious, and as stubborn and determined as Daleina. He won't give up doing what is right, even with his personal, human shortcomings which involve his history with the trickster beauty Queen Fara. He has a snarky sense of humour underneath his armour, as well; making him and young Daleina a fitting team.
There are people with multicoloured skin, including green, and quirks, talents. One character, Revi, one of Daleina's female academy friends, is mentioned to have two mothers, a small but vital touch in a YA novel.
Female empowerment is another main theme in 'The Queen of Blood', as well as human empowerment and human tragedy. Daleina doesn't really make any enemies in the all-girls Northeast Academy; in fact, everyone seems to get along fine with each other. There are no "mean girls", just girls. Daleina cares about all her fellow students, even ones she doesn't know well. They all help each other out, comfort one another, go out on adventures together, learn from each other. They are a sisterhood; coming together for full support, in spite of being in competition on the path to becoming queen. The book is a giant middle finger to misogynists who want to claim that women cannot stand to be around each other as much as men do. Women are powerful and rule the world in 'The Queen of Blood'. It is a political fantasy, but it's never boring, and everything has a point to it.
Since nothing is perfect, however, the book has its flaws. The romance parts are side elements and add nothing important to the story in the slightest. They're not developed very well (though at least it's established early on that Daleina takes caretaker boys to her bed at the academy occasionally, before she meets her lightly-put "true love"; a subversion of the virginal YA female lead), and are just weird. Queen Fara may be a powerful and beloved queen, but it appears she still needs a man - Ven - to help her do what is right and to act as her conscience. The book develops Fara enough so the "women are easily corruptible and become crazy when given any power" cliche doesn't really apply here, but it comes close. The conniving owl woman is cool, however.
'The Queen of Blood (The Queens of Renthia, #1)' is unrestricted by its YA label. It contains no bad language, and sex scenes happen off-page and are only implied, but that's it. There is a lot of death here, shockingly so, especially at the end. Themes of power and sacrifice are not watered down: Characters die and the survivors feel every painful moment of it. No one is overlooked or forgotten about, even if certain deaths are not as hard-hitting as they should be for the main characters. The meaning of the story's title, 'The Queen of Blood', will hold more significance at the very end, and it is brilliant. I'm still recovering from it!
Sarah Beth Durst has created a great fantasy with a brave and resourceful heroine, with no two-dimensional or uninteresting characters. Everything about it is fleshed-out. It's a fully-realized world, where women are important and get shit done. With 'The Queen of Blood', Ms Durst has written a tragedy rarely seen with such gravitas in YA fiction. She's made up her own 'Star Wars', 'Hunger Games' (the deadly "survival" contest, and the blood-sister connection between Daleina and Arin, as well as the spiritual sisterhood Daleina shares with her school friends), 'Game of Thrones', and 'Princess Academy'.
Recommended for anyone looking for something exciting, clever and deeply emotional in the fantasy genre - YA, high or epic, it doesn't matter.
Final Score: 4.5/5
Book Review - 'Akata Witch' by Nnedi Okorafor
2021 EDIT: 'Akata Witch''s flaws haven't gone away on rereading. If anything, they're exasperated in my perception. I was quite bored throughout, and I did not care about any of the characters. I felt disconnected from everyone and everything. The worldbuilding, how it's explained, and how the magic (juju) works - and what "free agents" are - are all flimsily written at best. There wasn't much happening, either, plot wise. I even say so in my old review: the story does meander elsewhere a lot, to the point where the overall world-saving plot seems like an afterthought. The ending is rushed, as a result. A few characters and side plots are not resolved or well-thought out.
'Akata Witch' lacks that energy - that spark - in the narrative that's needed in a YA fantasy novel, though I have no doubt that the author wrote it with full passion and research. It is interesting, in its setting, of a unique magical system primarily taking place in Nigeria.
But does the book switch from a third person perspective to a first person in a tiny paragraph once or twice? How did an editor miss that?
For its feminism, the young protagonist of 'Akata Witch', Sunny, is "not like other girls", and seems to hate all other girls, apart from Chichi. She thinks she is sometimes embarrassed to be female, because they titter, giggle and flirt. Arrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!
I deeply dislike the other characters blatantly keeping secrets from Sunny for no good reason. So that's one other cliché I hate that's added in this book.
While I was indifferent or irritated by the majority of the characters, I absolutely hated Sunny's abusive, misogynistic father.
Also, Sunny's blonde hair is said to be envied by many of her African peers in the first chapter... aside from how problematic that sounds, Sunny is presented as a despised outcast because she is albino in a Nigerian school and society, so why would they envy her anything that has to do with her "whiteness"? Or is it only to do with her hair length? It's very vague and unclear. That contradiction stayed with me throughout reading, with how little sense is makes.
And that white teacher in the same chapter needs to get fired, pronto.
Final Score: 3/5
Original Review:
I should criticize any book. I should talk about its flaws, fairly and with an open mind, of course, and discuss them.
But with 'Akata Witch', I don't want to.
I don't really want to thoroughly explain how, despite having a marvellously original backdrop and magic system, the story does meander elsewhere a lot, to the point where the overall world-saving plot seems like an afterthought. The ending is rushed, as a result. A few characters and side plots are not resolved or well-thought out. And the pacing is so fast! You could read this 350-page tome in one day: It flies like a wasp, stings like a wasp, and still it manages to take some time to show off its colours - the characters and setting - like a butterfly. The world building is quick but solid and hums a consistent rhythm like a dragonfly. That might be a disadvantage, however, since readers do need to take in more of the setting and the story in order to become fully immersed in the novel and believe in its magical world. And for a book with such a fast pace, not much happens story-wise.
'Akata Witch' is absorbing, but perhaps the sponge is too small for its own good.
You know what: I don't care. 'Akata Witch' is a triumph in its own right. I love the characters, the magic and how it works, the cultural teachings, the creativity, the spiritual elements, and that it is set entirely in Africa with an all-African cast (with a few African-Americans, as well). To call it "African 'Harry Potter" or "Nigerian 'Harry Potter'" would be patronizing and insulting, even though there are similarities. 'Akata Witch' is more character-driven than anything else, I find, and that is great, for I want to read about how these players I've come to care about are feeling and how they deal with the heavy, difficult obstacles in their life journeys.
The protagonist, Sunny Nwazue, is a twelve-year-old albino girl who was born in New York, and then her family moved back to Nigeria when she was nine. Her mother tries her best, her father ignores and abuses her for being a girl, and her two older brothers couldn't give less of a damn. She is bullied at school because of her skin colour - she is called "akata witch"; akata means "bush animal" - and she never tries to hide how much this angers her. She cannot stand ignorance. She's called a ghost, too, able to sneak up on people.
When Sunny makes two new friends, Orlu and Chichi, she is introduced to a world beyond her wildest imagination. A magical world inhabited by witches known as Leopard People, where non-magic folk are called Lambs (just one of the 'Harry Potter' connections to make here). Magic is performed using juju knives, plus inner spirit masks revealing a person's true self. Leopard currency is called chittim, appearing whenever a Leopard Person learns something new - an earned reward, kind of like in a video game, the more I think about it. A Hogsmeade parallel is called Leopard Knocks. There are deadly spirits (like the Masquerades), magic insects, football games, and a serial killer of children on the loose. Sunny is considered a "free agent", someone with mystical abilities without a clear Leopard bloodline (yeah, she's like a muggle-born, except she's not).
How powerful can Sunny be? Who is she, really? Will she ever find out for sure as her world and everything she ever knew is turned upside down overnight? What ominous secrets is everyone keeping from her?
Sunny is short-tempered, sarcastic, impatient and surly, and I love that about her. She isn't a pushover, or a passive bystander who reacts to the strange things around her with barely any emotional investment. She demands answers, gets justifiably annoyed at certain people, and calls them out on their deplorable actions. She isn't mean or uncaring, far from it, she just has had enough of putting up with a hard life in the normal world. Being a part of the secret Leopard society doesn't exactly make her dreams come true - there is as much prejudice there as anywhere else - but with a new purpose, she is happier, to a degree, and is surprisingly good at keeping on top of so many studies. A sports-girl with a love of classical music and ballet, curious, brave Sunny - unafraid to say what she thinks - is an admirable heroine.
The other female of Sunny's friendship group, Chichi of Nimm, is fantastic. She's a powerful, cocky, impulsive, book-loving witch who lives with her mother in a mud hut, and whose age is deliberately kept a secret throughout the whole novel. Chichi is always encouraging to Sunny, and they occasionally throw budding insults at each other; still a nice female friendship to read about in YA. The two boys, Orlu Ezulike and Sasha Jackson, are okay. Orlu is the level-headed healer of the team, a subversion of traditional fantasy tropes where the kind healer is usually female.
The teachers in 'Akata Witch' are absolutely horrible, it's almost funny. They are so callous in their priority to keep their child students safe from danger, because the world is much bigger than them, so a few casualties and deaths aren't a big loss, apparently. Sugar Cream, the female head mentor and Dumbledore of the book, is probably a better example, though.
(In the beginning there is a racist white teacher in Sunny's Lamb school, who is implied to favour Sunny not just because of her good grades but because she's albino, so the lack of decent authority figures isn't limited to the Leopard world.)
In 'Akata Witch', gender norms are questioned and challenged - Sunny is excellent at football (sorry, I mean soccer, as Americans call it), and an entire chapter is dedicated to showing her skills in a game full of boys.
Like I said, I love this world and its cultural roots. The story may not be anything special, but the rest of it deserves much more attention. The characters feel like real, breathing people, the world building is top-notch for the narrative's quick pace, themes of racism and classism are highlighted, and the magic system is presented as having clear rules, with age restrictions, advantages, disadvantages, and dangers.
'Akata Witch', and the more mature 'Americanah', are two books so far this year that have taught me more and more about African cultures, with authentic voices rarely heard in the West. Own voices matter. Experience matters.
There is true magic to be discovered in 'Akata Witch', in more ways than one.
Final Score: 4/5
'Akata Witch' lacks that energy - that spark - in the narrative that's needed in a YA fantasy novel, though I have no doubt that the author wrote it with full passion and research. It is interesting, in its setting, of a unique magical system primarily taking place in Nigeria.
But does the book switch from a third person perspective to a first person in a tiny paragraph once or twice? How did an editor miss that?
For its feminism, the young protagonist of 'Akata Witch', Sunny, is "not like other girls", and seems to hate all other girls, apart from Chichi. She thinks she is sometimes embarrassed to be female, because they titter, giggle and flirt. Arrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!
I deeply dislike the other characters blatantly keeping secrets from Sunny for no good reason. So that's one other cliché I hate that's added in this book.
While I was indifferent or irritated by the majority of the characters, I absolutely hated Sunny's abusive, misogynistic father.
Also, Sunny's blonde hair is said to be envied by many of her African peers in the first chapter... aside from how problematic that sounds, Sunny is presented as a despised outcast because she is albino in a Nigerian school and society, so why would they envy her anything that has to do with her "whiteness"? Or is it only to do with her hair length? It's very vague and unclear. That contradiction stayed with me throughout reading, with how little sense is makes.
And that white teacher in the same chapter needs to get fired, pronto.
Final Score: 3/5
Original Review:
I should criticize any book. I should talk about its flaws, fairly and with an open mind, of course, and discuss them.
But with 'Akata Witch', I don't want to.
I don't really want to thoroughly explain how, despite having a marvellously original backdrop and magic system, the story does meander elsewhere a lot, to the point where the overall world-saving plot seems like an afterthought. The ending is rushed, as a result. A few characters and side plots are not resolved or well-thought out. And the pacing is so fast! You could read this 350-page tome in one day: It flies like a wasp, stings like a wasp, and still it manages to take some time to show off its colours - the characters and setting - like a butterfly. The world building is quick but solid and hums a consistent rhythm like a dragonfly. That might be a disadvantage, however, since readers do need to take in more of the setting and the story in order to become fully immersed in the novel and believe in its magical world. And for a book with such a fast pace, not much happens story-wise.
'Akata Witch' is absorbing, but perhaps the sponge is too small for its own good.
You know what: I don't care. 'Akata Witch' is a triumph in its own right. I love the characters, the magic and how it works, the cultural teachings, the creativity, the spiritual elements, and that it is set entirely in Africa with an all-African cast (with a few African-Americans, as well). To call it "African 'Harry Potter" or "Nigerian 'Harry Potter'" would be patronizing and insulting, even though there are similarities. 'Akata Witch' is more character-driven than anything else, I find, and that is great, for I want to read about how these players I've come to care about are feeling and how they deal with the heavy, difficult obstacles in their life journeys.
The protagonist, Sunny Nwazue, is a twelve-year-old albino girl who was born in New York, and then her family moved back to Nigeria when she was nine. Her mother tries her best, her father ignores and abuses her for being a girl, and her two older brothers couldn't give less of a damn. She is bullied at school because of her skin colour - she is called "akata witch"; akata means "bush animal" - and she never tries to hide how much this angers her. She cannot stand ignorance. She's called a ghost, too, able to sneak up on people.
When Sunny makes two new friends, Orlu and Chichi, she is introduced to a world beyond her wildest imagination. A magical world inhabited by witches known as Leopard People, where non-magic folk are called Lambs (just one of the 'Harry Potter' connections to make here). Magic is performed using juju knives, plus inner spirit masks revealing a person's true self. Leopard currency is called chittim, appearing whenever a Leopard Person learns something new - an earned reward, kind of like in a video game, the more I think about it. A Hogsmeade parallel is called Leopard Knocks. There are deadly spirits (like the Masquerades), magic insects, football games, and a serial killer of children on the loose. Sunny is considered a "free agent", someone with mystical abilities without a clear Leopard bloodline (yeah, she's like a muggle-born, except she's not).
How powerful can Sunny be? Who is she, really? Will she ever find out for sure as her world and everything she ever knew is turned upside down overnight? What ominous secrets is everyone keeping from her?
Sunny is short-tempered, sarcastic, impatient and surly, and I love that about her. She isn't a pushover, or a passive bystander who reacts to the strange things around her with barely any emotional investment. She demands answers, gets justifiably annoyed at certain people, and calls them out on their deplorable actions. She isn't mean or uncaring, far from it, she just has had enough of putting up with a hard life in the normal world. Being a part of the secret Leopard society doesn't exactly make her dreams come true - there is as much prejudice there as anywhere else - but with a new purpose, she is happier, to a degree, and is surprisingly good at keeping on top of so many studies. A sports-girl with a love of classical music and ballet, curious, brave Sunny - unafraid to say what she thinks - is an admirable heroine.
The other female of Sunny's friendship group, Chichi of Nimm, is fantastic. She's a powerful, cocky, impulsive, book-loving witch who lives with her mother in a mud hut, and whose age is deliberately kept a secret throughout the whole novel. Chichi is always encouraging to Sunny, and they occasionally throw budding insults at each other; still a nice female friendship to read about in YA. The two boys, Orlu Ezulike and Sasha Jackson, are okay. Orlu is the level-headed healer of the team, a subversion of traditional fantasy tropes where the kind healer is usually female.
The teachers in 'Akata Witch' are absolutely horrible, it's almost funny. They are so callous in their priority to keep their child students safe from danger, because the world is much bigger than them, so a few casualties and deaths aren't a big loss, apparently. Sugar Cream, the female head mentor and Dumbledore of the book, is probably a better example, though.
(In the beginning there is a racist white teacher in Sunny's Lamb school, who is implied to favour Sunny not just because of her good grades but because she's albino, so the lack of decent authority figures isn't limited to the Leopard world.)
In 'Akata Witch', gender norms are questioned and challenged - Sunny is excellent at football (sorry, I mean soccer, as Americans call it), and an entire chapter is dedicated to showing her skills in a game full of boys.
Like I said, I love this world and its cultural roots. The story may not be anything special, but the rest of it deserves much more attention. The characters feel like real, breathing people, the world building is top-notch for the narrative's quick pace, themes of racism and classism are highlighted, and the magic system is presented as having clear rules, with age restrictions, advantages, disadvantages, and dangers.
'Akata Witch', and the more mature 'Americanah', are two books so far this year that have taught me more and more about African cultures, with authentic voices rarely heard in the West. Own voices matter. Experience matters.
There is true magic to be discovered in 'Akata Witch', in more ways than one.
Final Score: 4/5
Saturday, 21 January 2017
Book Review - 'Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal' by Erin Gilbert, Abby L Yates, Andrew Shaffer (Author, Editor)
What a fun book!
When I first bought 'Ghosts from Our Past' from a bookshop whilst out of town, the guy at the counter asked if I enjoyed the movie. I said yes, and he said he liked it too, and commented on how a lot of people didn't, and he felt a little left out - "But I like it fine" was the gist of it. I agree, it is unfortunate that people who like the 'Ghostbusters' reboot often feel the need to defend it rather than just praise it. It's not enough to talk about its own merits, they have to defend its very existence, for all-too obvious reasons.
But I'm happy to support good, funny art. Art that says that women can do things. That women can be anything; they can be funny, they can be scientists. And ghostbusters. STEM fields need more women (and less hostile, sexist environments and regulations); a mainstream Hollywood film starring an all-female Ghostbusters team may in fact inspire many little girls to choose a career in science.
This book, more so.
'Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal' (someone ought to shorten that title for another edition) is a movie tie-in/companion piece for 2016's 'Ghostbusters', where said book is also a plot point. While for this "revised edition", the main hook from a marketing standpoint is the humour - it comes from a comedy franchise - it contains very interesting, intellectual anecdotes. It starts with telling the early lives and friendship of the ghostbusters and "authors" Erin Gilbert and Abby Yates ("Our Stories"), then it explores real facts about ghost sightings, categorizing spirits, paranormal studies and the people who have delved in it throughout history ("Our Research"), then into the ghostbusting itself ("Our Methods"). Mathematical and scientific terms and equations are peppered throughout - I've avoided this stuff since school, but here I soaked it all in, the voices used are so engaging and funny.
'Ghosts from Our Past' is immensely readable. It can be enjoyed by anyone in one sitting, as light entertainment that is also educational when looking into the complex subject of the paranormal. Sketches of ghosts and photos of real paranormal investigators included.
Additional inclusions are "updates" from the other ghostbusters, Jillian Holtzmann and Patty Tolan, and an "epitaph" from Kevin the receptionist (does he have a last name?). Surprisingly, they're not as funny as Erin's and Abby's writing, but that's a nitpick I can deal with.
'Ghosts from Our Past' is like a scientific version of 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', the "guide". Like the 'Ghostbusters' franchise, it's a cool case of mixing fantasy and science into an entertaining study and equation. When it comes to inspiring people, more than anything it teaches the message that anyone can be a scientist.
And that women rule. They ain't afraid of no ghosts, or misogynist trolls.
Final Score: 5/5
When I first bought 'Ghosts from Our Past' from a bookshop whilst out of town, the guy at the counter asked if I enjoyed the movie. I said yes, and he said he liked it too, and commented on how a lot of people didn't, and he felt a little left out - "But I like it fine" was the gist of it. I agree, it is unfortunate that people who like the 'Ghostbusters' reboot often feel the need to defend it rather than just praise it. It's not enough to talk about its own merits, they have to defend its very existence, for all-too obvious reasons.
But I'm happy to support good, funny art. Art that says that women can do things. That women can be anything; they can be funny, they can be scientists. And ghostbusters. STEM fields need more women (and less hostile, sexist environments and regulations); a mainstream Hollywood film starring an all-female Ghostbusters team may in fact inspire many little girls to choose a career in science.
This book, more so.
'Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal' (someone ought to shorten that title for another edition) is a movie tie-in/companion piece for 2016's 'Ghostbusters', where said book is also a plot point. While for this "revised edition", the main hook from a marketing standpoint is the humour - it comes from a comedy franchise - it contains very interesting, intellectual anecdotes. It starts with telling the early lives and friendship of the ghostbusters and "authors" Erin Gilbert and Abby Yates ("Our Stories"), then it explores real facts about ghost sightings, categorizing spirits, paranormal studies and the people who have delved in it throughout history ("Our Research"), then into the ghostbusting itself ("Our Methods"). Mathematical and scientific terms and equations are peppered throughout - I've avoided this stuff since school, but here I soaked it all in, the voices used are so engaging and funny.
'Ghosts from Our Past' is immensely readable. It can be enjoyed by anyone in one sitting, as light entertainment that is also educational when looking into the complex subject of the paranormal. Sketches of ghosts and photos of real paranormal investigators included.
Additional inclusions are "updates" from the other ghostbusters, Jillian Holtzmann and Patty Tolan, and an "epitaph" from Kevin the receptionist (does he have a last name?). Surprisingly, they're not as funny as Erin's and Abby's writing, but that's a nitpick I can deal with.
'Ghosts from Our Past' is like a scientific version of 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', the "guide". Like the 'Ghostbusters' franchise, it's a cool case of mixing fantasy and science into an entertaining study and equation. When it comes to inspiring people, more than anything it teaches the message that anyone can be a scientist.
And that women rule. They ain't afraid of no ghosts, or misogynist trolls.
Final Score: 5/5
Non-Fiction Book Review - 'Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman' by Lindy West
“Women matter. Women are half of us. When you raise every woman to believe that we are insignificant, that we are broken, that we are sick, that the only cure is starvation and restraint and smallness; when you pit women against one another, keep us shackled by shame and hunger, obsessing over our flaws rather than our power and potential; when you leverage all of that to sap our money and our time—that moves the rudder of the world. It steers humanity toward conservatism and walls and the narrow interests of men, and it keeps us adrift in waters where women’s safety and humanity are secondary to men’s pleasure and convenience.”
More important feminist non-fiction for today.
'Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman' is more an autobiography than anything else. Lindy West - whom this Brit had never heard of before picking up this book - is an awesome lady who's had a tremendous life full of hardships. She wants to make herself worthwhile - she already is, of course - and help make other people's lives better, because they can be, and everybody deserves an existence free of shame, scorn, hate, prejudice and oppression.
Lindy talks about growing up a fat girl in a world where thinness is not only desirable in women, but essential. It is the only life goal for women, otherwise they are considered disgusting failures who will never be loved. Disney films and other media from childhood gave her only two options of what she could be: mother or monster (though she doesn't mention Merryweather from 'Sleeping Beauty', whom I always thought was a positive example of fat representation). She talks about her comfort in comedy, her abortion (she acknowledges her own white, upper-middle class privilege making abortion more accessible to her), her up-and-down relationships, the hurtful encounters she's had with people because of her weight, travelling when a lot of planes don't bother to properly accommodate for her, the online abuse and rape threats she has received, the death of her father (internet trolls have actually posed as his ghost to harass her), and how these have shaped her into the confident adult she is today. Learning to love herself when the patriarchy and impossible beauty standards are constantly up against her.
Lindy West is a loud and proud feminist. She knows misogyny is the problem, not herself. Misogyny is systematic, socially-acceptable, and encouraged, especially in male-dominated fields, such as comedy, where the lie, "women are not funny", still hasn't quite died yet. It is because of unchecked misogyny that it is dangerous to be a woman, who are time and again turned into easy targets; they are punished for existing.
Lindy touches on more recent examples of the products of rape culture (the Steubenville rape case is one of the highest things on my 'This is Why Humanity is the Fucking Worst' list), and how it defends the perpetrators and criminalizes the victims, plus the products of white male privilege, and shaming as a silencing tactic in the patriarchal world, where every single woman fears rape every day of her life. Women are made sure never to win, no matter what they do.
'Shrill' does have a confusing structure, where the chapters switch from autobiographical to feminist essays in seemingly random places. The autobiographical chapters themselves are not told in linear order. And there were areas where I thought Lindy could have added a bit more to her points when discussing the importance of feminism, like exploring pop culture in general, not just in comedy stand-ups and shows.
But 'Shrill' and its importance cannot be overlooked. It contains so many wonderful quotes that I wish I could reveal them all, for they are each vital in understanding why feminism (equality between all genders and identities) is so essential to the world's survival. But I shall end this review by quoting some quotes, gathered here:
"I say no to misogynists who want to weaponize my body against me. I say no to men who feel entitled to my attention and reverence, who treat everything the light touches as a resource for them to burn. I say no to religious zealots who insist that I am less important than an embryo. I say no to my own instinct to stay quiet. It's a way of kicking down the boundaries that society has set up for women - be compliant, be a caregiver, be quiet - and erecting my own. I will do this; I will not do that. You believe in my subjugation; I don't have to be nice to you. I am busy. My time is not a public commodity.”
“Denying people access to value is an incredibly insidious form of emotional violence, one that our culture wields aggressively and liberally to keep marginalized groups small and quiet.”
“As a woman, my body is scrutinized, policed, and treated as a public commodity. As a fat woman, my body is also lampooned, openly reviled, and associated with moral and intellectual failure. My body limits my job prospects, access to medical care and fair trials, and – the one thing Hollywood movies and Internet trolls most agree on – my ability to be loved. So the subtext, when a thin person asks a fat person, ‘Where do you get your confidence?’ is, ‘You must be some sort of alien because if I looked like you, I would definitely throw myself into the sea.”
“Why, when men hate themselves, it’s women who take the beatings.” (One of my favourite lines)
“Feminism is really just the long slow realization that the things you love hate you.” (Another favourite, because it's so funny and sad and true)
“There is nothing novel or comedic or righteous about men using the threat of sexual violence to control non-compliant women. This is how society has always functioned. Stay indoors, women. Stay safe. Stay quiet. Stay in the kitchen. Stay pregnant. Stay our of the world. IF you want to talk about silencing, censorship, placing limits and consequences on speech, this is what it looks like.” (YES!!!)
“Don’t trust anyone who promises you a new life. Pick-up artists, lifestyle gurus, pyramid-scheme face cream evangelists, Weight Watchers coaches: These people make their living off of your failures.”
"It's easy for Jim and his fans and all the young comedy dudes to pretend like rape culture doesn't exist, because they have the luxury of actively ignoring it. Confronted with a case like Steubenville, he only bothers to look at the parts that reinforce his world view. He brushed it off with a shrug, because he can, and barreled on."
"In my experience, if you call a troll a misogynist, he'll almost invariably say, 'Oh, I don't hate women. I just hate what you're saying and what that other woman is saying and that woman and one for totally unrelated reasons'. So it was satisfying at least to hear him admit that, yeah, he hated women."
“Feminists don’t single out rape jokes because rape is “worse” than other crimes—we single them out because we live in a culture that actively strives to shrink the definition of sexual assault; that casts stalking behaviors as romance; blames victims for wearing the wrong clothes, walking through the wrong neighborhood, or flirting with the wrong person; bends over backwards to excuse boys-will-be-boys misogyny; makes the emotional and social costs of reporting a rape prohibitively high; pretends that false accusations are a more dire problem than actual assaults; elects officials who tell rape victims that their sexual violation was “god’s plan”; and convicts in less than 5 percent of rape cases that go to trial.” (Absolutely, depressingly true)
“A suffocating deluge of violent misogyny was how American comedy fans reacted to a woman suggesting that comedy might have a misogyny problem. They’d attempted to demonstrate that comedy, in general, doesn’t have issues with women by threatening to rape and kill me, telling me I’m just bitter because I’m too fat to get raped, and suggesting that the debate would have been better if it were just Jim raping me. Holy shit, I realized. I won.”
I love being a woman, no matter how much the rest of the world doesn't want me to.
Thank you, Lindy West.
Final Score: 4/5
More important feminist non-fiction for today.
'Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman' is more an autobiography than anything else. Lindy West - whom this Brit had never heard of before picking up this book - is an awesome lady who's had a tremendous life full of hardships. She wants to make herself worthwhile - she already is, of course - and help make other people's lives better, because they can be, and everybody deserves an existence free of shame, scorn, hate, prejudice and oppression.
Lindy talks about growing up a fat girl in a world where thinness is not only desirable in women, but essential. It is the only life goal for women, otherwise they are considered disgusting failures who will never be loved. Disney films and other media from childhood gave her only two options of what she could be: mother or monster (though she doesn't mention Merryweather from 'Sleeping Beauty', whom I always thought was a positive example of fat representation). She talks about her comfort in comedy, her abortion (she acknowledges her own white, upper-middle class privilege making abortion more accessible to her), her up-and-down relationships, the hurtful encounters she's had with people because of her weight, travelling when a lot of planes don't bother to properly accommodate for her, the online abuse and rape threats she has received, the death of her father (internet trolls have actually posed as his ghost to harass her), and how these have shaped her into the confident adult she is today. Learning to love herself when the patriarchy and impossible beauty standards are constantly up against her.
Lindy West is a loud and proud feminist. She knows misogyny is the problem, not herself. Misogyny is systematic, socially-acceptable, and encouraged, especially in male-dominated fields, such as comedy, where the lie, "women are not funny", still hasn't quite died yet. It is because of unchecked misogyny that it is dangerous to be a woman, who are time and again turned into easy targets; they are punished for existing.
Lindy touches on more recent examples of the products of rape culture (the Steubenville rape case is one of the highest things on my 'This is Why Humanity is the Fucking Worst' list), and how it defends the perpetrators and criminalizes the victims, plus the products of white male privilege, and shaming as a silencing tactic in the patriarchal world, where every single woman fears rape every day of her life. Women are made sure never to win, no matter what they do.
'Shrill' does have a confusing structure, where the chapters switch from autobiographical to feminist essays in seemingly random places. The autobiographical chapters themselves are not told in linear order. And there were areas where I thought Lindy could have added a bit more to her points when discussing the importance of feminism, like exploring pop culture in general, not just in comedy stand-ups and shows.
But 'Shrill' and its importance cannot be overlooked. It contains so many wonderful quotes that I wish I could reveal them all, for they are each vital in understanding why feminism (equality between all genders and identities) is so essential to the world's survival. But I shall end this review by quoting some quotes, gathered here:
"I say no to misogynists who want to weaponize my body against me. I say no to men who feel entitled to my attention and reverence, who treat everything the light touches as a resource for them to burn. I say no to religious zealots who insist that I am less important than an embryo. I say no to my own instinct to stay quiet. It's a way of kicking down the boundaries that society has set up for women - be compliant, be a caregiver, be quiet - and erecting my own. I will do this; I will not do that. You believe in my subjugation; I don't have to be nice to you. I am busy. My time is not a public commodity.”
“Denying people access to value is an incredibly insidious form of emotional violence, one that our culture wields aggressively and liberally to keep marginalized groups small and quiet.”
“As a woman, my body is scrutinized, policed, and treated as a public commodity. As a fat woman, my body is also lampooned, openly reviled, and associated with moral and intellectual failure. My body limits my job prospects, access to medical care and fair trials, and – the one thing Hollywood movies and Internet trolls most agree on – my ability to be loved. So the subtext, when a thin person asks a fat person, ‘Where do you get your confidence?’ is, ‘You must be some sort of alien because if I looked like you, I would definitely throw myself into the sea.”
“Why, when men hate themselves, it’s women who take the beatings.” (One of my favourite lines)
“Feminism is really just the long slow realization that the things you love hate you.” (Another favourite, because it's so funny and sad and true)
“There is nothing novel or comedic or righteous about men using the threat of sexual violence to control non-compliant women. This is how society has always functioned. Stay indoors, women. Stay safe. Stay quiet. Stay in the kitchen. Stay pregnant. Stay our of the world. IF you want to talk about silencing, censorship, placing limits and consequences on speech, this is what it looks like.” (YES!!!)
“Don’t trust anyone who promises you a new life. Pick-up artists, lifestyle gurus, pyramid-scheme face cream evangelists, Weight Watchers coaches: These people make their living off of your failures.”
"It's easy for Jim and his fans and all the young comedy dudes to pretend like rape culture doesn't exist, because they have the luxury of actively ignoring it. Confronted with a case like Steubenville, he only bothers to look at the parts that reinforce his world view. He brushed it off with a shrug, because he can, and barreled on."
"In my experience, if you call a troll a misogynist, he'll almost invariably say, 'Oh, I don't hate women. I just hate what you're saying and what that other woman is saying and that woman and one for totally unrelated reasons'. So it was satisfying at least to hear him admit that, yeah, he hated women."
“Feminists don’t single out rape jokes because rape is “worse” than other crimes—we single them out because we live in a culture that actively strives to shrink the definition of sexual assault; that casts stalking behaviors as romance; blames victims for wearing the wrong clothes, walking through the wrong neighborhood, or flirting with the wrong person; bends over backwards to excuse boys-will-be-boys misogyny; makes the emotional and social costs of reporting a rape prohibitively high; pretends that false accusations are a more dire problem than actual assaults; elects officials who tell rape victims that their sexual violation was “god’s plan”; and convicts in less than 5 percent of rape cases that go to trial.” (Absolutely, depressingly true)
“A suffocating deluge of violent misogyny was how American comedy fans reacted to a woman suggesting that comedy might have a misogyny problem. They’d attempted to demonstrate that comedy, in general, doesn’t have issues with women by threatening to rape and kill me, telling me I’m just bitter because I’m too fat to get raped, and suggesting that the debate would have been better if it were just Jim raping me. Holy shit, I realized. I won.”
I love being a woman, no matter how much the rest of the world doesn't want me to.
Thank you, Lindy West.
Final Score: 4/5
Book Review - 'Speak' by Laurie Halse Anderson
2021 EDIT: Content warning for 'Speak': rape, sexual assault, self-harm, light xenophobia, an ableist slur on one page.
A fantastic YA milestone to read in a day. 'Speak' will never stop being relevant, and powerful. 'Speak' and other books like it must be taught in schools.
Read my original review, plus my review of the graphic novel, for more. Also, if you haven't already, see the Kristen Stewart film, by any legal means.
And Melinda, I hope you got to speak to your parents about what happened. If they don't listen, if they're not sympathetic and supportive, well, obviously they don't deserve you.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
Slight spoilers ahead.
One of the earliest literary examples of combating rape culture, way back in 1999.
Ahhh 1999. Remember a time when not everybody had a mobile phone, or a computer, and the internet was just growing its baby teeth? No Twitter and Facebook. I don't want to sound like one of those pretentious, out-of-touch "kids these days" old fogies (though I do find myself thinking, "Wow I feel old", nowadays), but in some ways, being a teen in the nineties could be considered, if not more simple, then at least less stressful. Cyberbullying, online abuse and harassment, and revenge porn didn't quite exist yet, and widespread cultural hate wasn't so easy to generate via the internet.
'Speak', no matter the generation, is still relevant, and it still - ahem - speaks to so many teenage girls. It is about the silent struggles of Melinda Sordino, a high school freshman, as she survives being a pariah among her peers for calling the police at a house party in the summer. She can't tell the reason for why she did so, for who would believe her?
Her friends since preschool no longer want anything to do with her, an incompetent teacher or two unfairly pick on her, and everybody just plain hates her. Except for a few people, although one turns out to be a whiny traitor who never really liked her to begin with, and there is always that one nice, encouraging teacher and the single outcast nerd in these high school stories, aren't there?
All the while Melinda makes snide, snarky remarks in her narration regarding the hostile environment of high school ("This is how terrorists get started, this harmless kind of fun."), and the lies the teachers spout out about always being there for the students, and wanting to listen and help them. This makes the book strangely, darkly funny, and it adds to its fast pace and simple, addictive prose.
We all have a bit of Melinda in our brains and hearts. Like I would think: what was ever the point of being popular in high school, anyway? It's fake and superficial socialism that'll be over in a few years. It's a battleground to prepare for the metaphorical war zone of adult life, in my philosophical opinion.
Melinda soon finds solace in an old janitor's closet where she shuts herself off when she needs to. There she hangs up her art class pieces (she wonders if she will be an artist if she grows up; not when, IF she grows up; the carefully chosen words in this novel are subtle and effective), as well as a poster of Maya Angelou, that she can sometimes communicate all her honesty to, withholding nothing. How I related to that; all those times I spent in a girls' toilet cubicle in school, isolated, alone, just wishing the world would include me and have the heart to listen to me.
Melinda is a victim suffering from PTSD and depression, and hides it with cynicism she keeps only to herself. She bites her lips until they are crusty sores, and she does try not to be bitter when others are bitter and petty to her. To be that young; to go through such a devastating trauma and not be able to speak about it, it is a travesty. Teenagers need to be supported, not treated like immediate failures in a terrible, classist system that sees mental illness and abusive home lives as inconveniences rather than serious issues to be approached with care.
Melinda's parents are certainly no help. They are too busy arguing, keeping up the pretence of a happy marriage, and cornering her about her grades. But otherwise they are completely preoccupied with themselves, never noticing or caring about their daughter's pain. They think her refusal to speak and EVEN CUTTING HERSELF are for attention. Yet another horrible cliché in YA, old before that category was named. Very rarely do I come across teen books with supportive parents who make their kids - teenage girls especially - feel loved and worth existing. Parenting is hard, but so is being female at any age and decade in history.
So that is 'Speak', the famous, essential YA novel. Not much of a plot as merely a sequence of events, but it is how life works. The tree symbolism is effective, too, if a little on-the-nose. The novel reminded me that school is awful - best years of my life, my arse - but also that in all the darkness, the atrocities, little spots of light always find their way to you.
Silence isn't golden anymore; things change first when we speak up about them. Converse, start dialogue going, then act.
'Speak' was a banned book. Of course it was.
'Speak' is a first step.
Final Score: 4/5
A fantastic YA milestone to read in a day. 'Speak' will never stop being relevant, and powerful. 'Speak' and other books like it must be taught in schools.
Read my original review, plus my review of the graphic novel, for more. Also, if you haven't already, see the Kristen Stewart film, by any legal means.
And Melinda, I hope you got to speak to your parents about what happened. If they don't listen, if they're not sympathetic and supportive, well, obviously they don't deserve you.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
Slight spoilers ahead.
One of the earliest literary examples of combating rape culture, way back in 1999.
Ahhh 1999. Remember a time when not everybody had a mobile phone, or a computer, and the internet was just growing its baby teeth? No Twitter and Facebook. I don't want to sound like one of those pretentious, out-of-touch "kids these days" old fogies (though I do find myself thinking, "Wow I feel old", nowadays), but in some ways, being a teen in the nineties could be considered, if not more simple, then at least less stressful. Cyberbullying, online abuse and harassment, and revenge porn didn't quite exist yet, and widespread cultural hate wasn't so easy to generate via the internet.
'Speak', no matter the generation, is still relevant, and it still - ahem - speaks to so many teenage girls. It is about the silent struggles of Melinda Sordino, a high school freshman, as she survives being a pariah among her peers for calling the police at a house party in the summer. She can't tell the reason for why she did so, for who would believe her?
Her friends since preschool no longer want anything to do with her, an incompetent teacher or two unfairly pick on her, and everybody just plain hates her. Except for a few people, although one turns out to be a whiny traitor who never really liked her to begin with, and there is always that one nice, encouraging teacher and the single outcast nerd in these high school stories, aren't there?
All the while Melinda makes snide, snarky remarks in her narration regarding the hostile environment of high school ("This is how terrorists get started, this harmless kind of fun."), and the lies the teachers spout out about always being there for the students, and wanting to listen and help them. This makes the book strangely, darkly funny, and it adds to its fast pace and simple, addictive prose.
We all have a bit of Melinda in our brains and hearts. Like I would think: what was ever the point of being popular in high school, anyway? It's fake and superficial socialism that'll be over in a few years. It's a battleground to prepare for the metaphorical war zone of adult life, in my philosophical opinion.
Melinda soon finds solace in an old janitor's closet where she shuts herself off when she needs to. There she hangs up her art class pieces (she wonders if she will be an artist if she grows up; not when, IF she grows up; the carefully chosen words in this novel are subtle and effective), as well as a poster of Maya Angelou, that she can sometimes communicate all her honesty to, withholding nothing. How I related to that; all those times I spent in a girls' toilet cubicle in school, isolated, alone, just wishing the world would include me and have the heart to listen to me.
Melinda is a victim suffering from PTSD and depression, and hides it with cynicism she keeps only to herself. She bites her lips until they are crusty sores, and she does try not to be bitter when others are bitter and petty to her. To be that young; to go through such a devastating trauma and not be able to speak about it, it is a travesty. Teenagers need to be supported, not treated like immediate failures in a terrible, classist system that sees mental illness and abusive home lives as inconveniences rather than serious issues to be approached with care.
Melinda's parents are certainly no help. They are too busy arguing, keeping up the pretence of a happy marriage, and cornering her about her grades. But otherwise they are completely preoccupied with themselves, never noticing or caring about their daughter's pain. They think her refusal to speak and EVEN CUTTING HERSELF are for attention. Yet another horrible cliché in YA, old before that category was named. Very rarely do I come across teen books with supportive parents who make their kids - teenage girls especially - feel loved and worth existing. Parenting is hard, but so is being female at any age and decade in history.
So that is 'Speak', the famous, essential YA novel. Not much of a plot as merely a sequence of events, but it is how life works. The tree symbolism is effective, too, if a little on-the-nose. The novel reminded me that school is awful - best years of my life, my arse - but also that in all the darkness, the atrocities, little spots of light always find their way to you.
Silence isn't golden anymore; things change first when we speak up about them. Converse, start dialogue going, then act.
'Speak' was a banned book. Of course it was.
'Speak' is a first step.
Final Score: 4/5
Friday, 20 January 2017
Scribble #42
We all have had different sorts of guests in our different homes in our lifetime - family, friends, animals, lovers, interviewers, contractors, solicitors, charity workers, lodgers, neighbours, estate agents, and even ghosts. Just as we've been house guests to others' private and public abode. As anyone (for me, I was a university student). Those people may also have had animals, insects and ghosts visit them. Unlike living humans, they tend to come unexpectedly.
Homes are shelters for anyone to live and feel safe in, for a time. So many guests, I can't decide which to mention specifically. A pleasant guest, not the dead birds and rodents my cat brought in occasionally when she was young and fit. Maybe I'll say the best was my boyfriend, the first time in my house since we got together. He didn't seem to mind that my home since I was a toddler wasn't as clean and tidy as his own (yeah I visited his house as a guest first), so that was nice.
Home sweet home - no matter where, it is yours. Kick out anyone you want! Even the ghosts.
Homes are shelters for anyone to live and feel safe in, for a time. So many guests, I can't decide which to mention specifically. A pleasant guest, not the dead birds and rodents my cat brought in occasionally when she was young and fit. Maybe I'll say the best was my boyfriend, the first time in my house since we got together. He didn't seem to mind that my home since I was a toddler wasn't as clean and tidy as his own (yeah I visited his house as a guest first), so that was nice.
Home sweet home - no matter where, it is yours. Kick out anyone you want! Even the ghosts.
Scribble #41
The only journey I'm really thinking about right now is the one today to Birmingham, to see my mum. I haven't seen her in ages, not even at Christmas, when times were bad and she was working on selling her big old house after my grandfather died. It will be great to catch up again, and not just in the exchange of presents. Patch things up, and hope things will get better this year, when Mum plans to move closer to us. So it's a journey for her as well as for all of us.
Train journeys are peaceful, too. Well, not at the moment, of course.
Train journeys are peaceful, too. Well, not at the moment, of course.
Sunday, 8 January 2017
Book Review - 'Americanah' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2023 EDIT: Part of my 2023 clear-up, of books I no longer like, or am no longer interested in, or remember well as standing out, or find as special anymore, or I otherwise will not miss.
(Also I no longer support Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - see here for more.)
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
A spectacularly-written contemporary love story about race and culture, and how it all is from different perspectives.
'We Should All Be Feminists' introduced me to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her work. 'Americanah' is the first novel I've read of hers.
She is a fascinating person and writer. 'Americanah' is about imperfect people with imperfect lives lived and yet to live. It explores how, no matter where we come from, no matter our privileges, many of us are unsatisfied with our own backgrounds and history, and yearn for something more and better in far-off places of dreams. Rich, exotic dreams.
Except nowhere is perfect, no one is perfect, and yeah, the American dream is a huge fat lie. A trap.
Could we truly be happy then? Even if we are with the people we love, will there always be complications - real world and internal struggles - and unfocused issues in the way of achieving a healthy relationship?
'Americanah' is beautiful in its writing of various settings and introducing a set of colourful, memorable, and tragically human characters. So many characters, and none of them are ever forgotten about. There is a whole spectrum of themes touched upon aside from cross-culture racism (like how nobody African-born is considered black until they enter non-African countries like America and England, plus how African-Americans must see themselves when they live in a racist society). Feminism, corrupt politics and businesses, immigration, travel survival, depression, classism, the societal differences (each problematic in their own way) between countries from the "Third World" and "First World", and hope for a better world that is not really here despite the progress we have made. The way we're going, true equality might never come.
The author looks in on the African main characters' lives and experiences - their names are Ifemelu and Obinze - from an authentic African viewpoint. The "plot" of 'Americanah' is mostly told in flashbacks: the reader is immersed in how the two distant lovers change overtime, from wide-eyed enthusiastic teenagers from Lagos, to beaten-down adults living abroad (Ifemelu in America and Obinze in England and then back to Nigeria) and making the best of their individual situations. Dreams, love, passion; these things wither and die in the face of the worst adversities. Or do they?
Ifemelu is a high-profile race blogger in America - an outsider within - who does not know as much as her writing suggests, and Obinze starts from nothing but becomes a wealthy Nigerian businessman with a family. Despite everything that happens to them, they find that after years of being apart and no longer in contact with each other, their old innocent passion kindles still. How will it end for Ifemelu and Obinze? Though in life there is no ending, only beginnings.
'Americanah' is smart, emotional, funny, heartbreaking, genuine, enticing and addictive. It has incredibly planned-out events; effortless moments of reflective character development as the story goes. This is what I read novels for. And for my first novel of 2017, this year is off to a great start.
It isn't perfect, with naivete and submissiveness being annoying traits in certain characters, and a rushed ending which has the feat of wrapping up everything yet not wrapping up much at the same time. Not satisfying exactly, but such is the way of real life, isn't it?
Like 'Persepolis', the 'Millennium' series, 'Jane Eyre', and the works of Maya Angelou and Jacqueline Woodson. But 'Americanah' is unique in its own right, and deserves to be lauded as such. For any outsider looking in on African culture, American culture, African-American culture, and English culture and society, this is a 477-page learned lesson. A personal quest for everyone to hear.
'Americanah' is not merely to be read, or criticized. It is an experience to be lived through.
Final Score: 4/5
(Also I no longer support Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - see here for more.)
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
A spectacularly-written contemporary love story about race and culture, and how it all is from different perspectives.
'We Should All Be Feminists' introduced me to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her work. 'Americanah' is the first novel I've read of hers.
She is a fascinating person and writer. 'Americanah' is about imperfect people with imperfect lives lived and yet to live. It explores how, no matter where we come from, no matter our privileges, many of us are unsatisfied with our own backgrounds and history, and yearn for something more and better in far-off places of dreams. Rich, exotic dreams.
Except nowhere is perfect, no one is perfect, and yeah, the American dream is a huge fat lie. A trap.
Could we truly be happy then? Even if we are with the people we love, will there always be complications - real world and internal struggles - and unfocused issues in the way of achieving a healthy relationship?
'Americanah' is beautiful in its writing of various settings and introducing a set of colourful, memorable, and tragically human characters. So many characters, and none of them are ever forgotten about. There is a whole spectrum of themes touched upon aside from cross-culture racism (like how nobody African-born is considered black until they enter non-African countries like America and England, plus how African-Americans must see themselves when they live in a racist society). Feminism, corrupt politics and businesses, immigration, travel survival, depression, classism, the societal differences (each problematic in their own way) between countries from the "Third World" and "First World", and hope for a better world that is not really here despite the progress we have made. The way we're going, true equality might never come.
The author looks in on the African main characters' lives and experiences - their names are Ifemelu and Obinze - from an authentic African viewpoint. The "plot" of 'Americanah' is mostly told in flashbacks: the reader is immersed in how the two distant lovers change overtime, from wide-eyed enthusiastic teenagers from Lagos, to beaten-down adults living abroad (Ifemelu in America and Obinze in England and then back to Nigeria) and making the best of their individual situations. Dreams, love, passion; these things wither and die in the face of the worst adversities. Or do they?
Ifemelu is a high-profile race blogger in America - an outsider within - who does not know as much as her writing suggests, and Obinze starts from nothing but becomes a wealthy Nigerian businessman with a family. Despite everything that happens to them, they find that after years of being apart and no longer in contact with each other, their old innocent passion kindles still. How will it end for Ifemelu and Obinze? Though in life there is no ending, only beginnings.
'Americanah' is smart, emotional, funny, heartbreaking, genuine, enticing and addictive. It has incredibly planned-out events; effortless moments of reflective character development as the story goes. This is what I read novels for. And for my first novel of 2017, this year is off to a great start.
It isn't perfect, with naivete and submissiveness being annoying traits in certain characters, and a rushed ending which has the feat of wrapping up everything yet not wrapping up much at the same time. Not satisfying exactly, but such is the way of real life, isn't it?
Like 'Persepolis', the 'Millennium' series, 'Jane Eyre', and the works of Maya Angelou and Jacqueline Woodson. But 'Americanah' is unique in its own right, and deserves to be lauded as such. For any outsider looking in on African culture, American culture, African-American culture, and English culture and society, this is a 477-page learned lesson. A personal quest for everyone to hear.
'Americanah' is not merely to be read, or criticized. It is an experience to be lived through.
Final Score: 4/5
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