This week’s mini review round-up includes 1 novella, 2 graphic novels, and 1 manga!
Some the reviews below are the shortened version of my review, but the “goodreads” link buttons will take you to the full review. Enjoy!
TITLE: We Should All Be Feminists
AUTHOR: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
RELEASED: July 29th, 2014
GENRE: Nonfic
AGE RANGE: Adult
We Should All Be Feminists does a lot of things right. It’s a quick, easy read that offers some great insight into the basic gist of why feminism is important.
That said, this novella has a lot of problems, with the worst of those being heteronormativity and trans-erasure. Adichie goes to great lengths to completely ignore the mere existence of queer and/or trans individuals, with endless gendered language and assumptions. She revisits the “women are biologically inferior” argument many times (which she is essentially in favor of – yikes). She literally even says at one point that she wondered while writing this if women have specific genes to improve their domestic capabilities, like cooking. I’ve face-palmed so many times in the last twenty minutes.
I wish I was exaggerating, but this entire novella left me speechless. I’m genuinely not sure why it’s being lauded as some flawless piece of feminist work, when it is riddled with issues from start to finish. I thought I would have a new favorite author, and instead, I’m just pissed off.
TITLE: Waves
AUTHOR: Ingrid Chabbert
RELEASES: May 7th, 2019
GENRE: Nonfic
AGE RANGE: AdultSYNOPSIS:
Based on the author’s personal experiences with her partner, Waves follows a couple trying to have a baby, and the ways they are forced to find healing afterwards.
Content warnings for miscarriage, loss of child, infertility, depression
I don’t know what I was thinking requesting an eARC of this graphic novel.
It was beautiful, and tragic, and so honest, and well-done… and one of the most miserable things I’ve ever read. I couldn’t stop sobbing. Waves is brutal and, despite how great of a graphic novel it is, I wouldn’t even know who to recommend this to because it’s so sad. That said, it easily deserves the 5-star rating I’m giving it. I especially loved the snippets with the woman in the boat, and the way her progress paralleled with her healing journey.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go hug my little rainbow baby and cry some more. I genuinely hope that Ingrid Chabbert and her partner have found peace and healing. ♥
Thank you so much to BOOM! Studios for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
TITLE: MPD Psycho, Vol. 1
AUTHOR: Eiji Otsuka & Sho-u Tajima
RELEASED: July 1997
GENRE: Horror
AGE RANGE: AdultSYNOPSIS:
Police detective Kobayashi Yousuke’s life is changed forever after a serial killer notices something “special” about him. That same killer mutilates Kobayashi’s wife and kick-starts a “multiple personality battle” within Kobayashi that pushes him into a complex tempest of interconnected deviants and evil forces.
This was so bizarre and uniquely its own, and graphic, but I honestly loved it a lot. I can safely say I’ve never read anything quite like MPD Psycho and I can’t wait to continue the series. Fair warning, when I say this manga is graphic, I mean it is graphic; there’s a ton of nudity, violence, and body horror that even made me shudder once or twice (which is pretty hard to do!). The storyline is super intriguing, though if you’re a reader who isn’t fond of stories revolving around DID/”multiple personality disorder”, you’ll want to steer clear as that’s the bulk of the story’s theme here.
The artwork is also beautifully done, and truly, I can’t say anything else besides that this is easily my new favorite horror manga and I highly encourage picking it up!
TITLE: Spill Zone
AUTHOR: Scott Westerfeld
RELEASED: May 2nd, 2017
GENRE: Sci-fi/Horror
AGE RANGE: YASYNOPSIS:
Spill Zone follows a teen who’s forced to enter the “Spill Zone” to take photos of an area that has been destroyed by a radiation spill, so that she can sell her photos for the money required to raise her younger sister on her own.
I don’t know exactly how I feel about this graphic novel. On the one hand, I want to know more about what happened, and what all of these things and people in the Spill Zone are. I feel lost and like I was dumped right into the action with no explanation, which I enjoy sometimes, but didn’t love in this instance. On top of that, the characters felt very simplistic and I absolutely hated the art style.
Negatives aside, though, I’m endlessly fascinated by Lexa’s terrifying little doll friend, and the ending actually felt more horror than sci-fi, which was fun, so I’ll probably continue the series if my library system has the next volume.
Hexen Librarian
January 26, 2019oh wow, it never occurred to me that Adichi’s essay was so problematic. I read it like 2 years ago and definitely was not as informed or aware as I am now.
Hexen Librarian
January 26, 2019UPDATE it’ll be 3 years since I read it so I was absolutely ignorant then
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
January 28, 2019I think that’s the big thing, is that a lot of people read it years ago and have grown since then but didn’t revisit it after learning to do better RE: their intersectionality, if that makes sense? Like a ton of my friends have it as 5 stars on GR but most of their reviews are years old so I always wonder if they’d feel differently now.
Hexen Librarian
January 28, 2019Maybe Someday (TM) i’ll give it a reread, but there are so many other things that aren’t so problematic i’d rather spend my time on. i did go in and remove my star rating on gr to xD
kindkonfetti
January 26, 2019I could feel the sadness of ‘Waves’ in your review. It sounds heartbreaking </3
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
January 28, 2019It’s a tough read, but I’m glad I read it… I think. <3
Rachel @ Typed Truths
January 28, 2019i’m so glad i wasn’t the only one that was bothered by we should all be feminists! the heteronormative language really bothered me and while i guess it’s a good intro to the concept of feminism,, it got the point where i wouldn’t even recommend it for that because it was so exclusionary ??
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
January 28, 2019Oh gosh, right? 🙁 It’s honestly SO exclusionary and it made me so sad.
Sarah
January 28, 2019It’s sooo disappointing to hear that about We Should All Be Feminists. I was really looking forward to a good read about intersectional feminism until I saw your review on Goodreads. Now I guess I’ll have to turn elsewhere!
I also got an eARC of Waves but haven’t read it yet. I’m excited but anxious to dig into it! I’ll probably do it some weekend when I know I can curl up with a nice comedy show after to balance out its emotional impact.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
January 28, 2019I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news! Yeah, it was so painfully exclusionary and just… gross, honestly. And then a ton of people on GR and Twitter told me she’s been called out for being a TERF many times and always just doubles down and chews people out for saying anything. EW.
Yessss, good thinking. Waves is really good but SO heavy.