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miss_majuu's review against another edition
2.0
This book is very important and powerful. It presents and discusses a very distinct view of the world, while also pointing out where sexism is internalized in every day life. I would recommend this book to everyone that is interested by the premise and okay with very much of "everywhere is racism/sexism/etc in our everyday life".
Because of these very strongly presented opinions and because I don't agree or like all of them, I'll give this book the middle of the road rating of 2.5🌟. Rounding down because I do dislike more than I like
[long, detailed description to come. that at the top is a good summary of my thoughts if you don't wanna read all of it]
~the good~
-The poems and blog entries or essays. So many powerful, thought provoking quotes and poems that were more creative than anything I have ever done.
-Jasmine and her family dynamic/plot line(!!) This dealt so wonderfully with this heavy topic. I cried and just wanted to hug my parents.
-how incredibly feminist it was. I kinda loved how straightforward/ in-your-face the message was.
-that the main characters got called out when they were doing something negative. Even though both of them were very (very) inclusive they weren't perfect and forgot about things, which sometimes got challenged.
~the bad~
-the love stories. It's almost never for me and again this time I didn't care about the relationships. They got too much focus when I was more interested in literally anything else. Also one of the love interest extremely didn't fit into the world view of our protagonist, which is why I didn't get how this plot line continued for so long.
-Chelsea's character. Even though I liked how "in-your-face" it was, I just got annoyed how she called out everyone in every situation, no matter if it was appropriate or not. She just isn't a character I can connect to because I'm personally very different. Also she made a lot of mistakes as well (her love interest is just one of them) so she really wasn't in a position to be mad at other people.
-for a book that tried to be so incredibly inclusive/diverse and had both main characters have this as a major character trait, queerness and disability was never discussed. and you can't have it both ways
-lastly I didn't like how I got the impression that this tried to paint one specific type of feminism (could be a misunderstanding by my part but it's the overall tone I saw). There's a lot of discussion about how "the princess trope" is bad and it paints a bad picture for girls, which is why you shouldn't have it at all. In addition to that the moms got asked why the stay at home and the answer isn't accepted. They're only doing this because some kind of internalized sexism.
And that's just not the type of feminism I stand by. I'm of the opinion that feminism is about empowering all woman and their choices, even if it is being a stereotypical housewife.
Because of these very strongly presented opinions and because I don't agree or like all of them, I'll give this book the middle of the road rating of 2.5🌟. Rounding down because I do dislike more than I like
[long, detailed description to come. that at the top is a good summary of my thoughts if you don't wanna read all of it]
~the good~
-The poems and blog entries or essays. So many powerful, thought provoking quotes and poems that were more creative than anything I have ever done.
-Jasmine and her family dynamic/plot line(!!) This dealt so wonderfully with this heavy topic. I cried and just wanted to hug my parents.
-how incredibly feminist it was. I kinda loved how straightforward/ in-your-face the message was.
-that the main characters got called out when they were doing something negative. Even though both of them were very (very) inclusive they weren't perfect and forgot about things, which sometimes got challenged.
~the bad~
-the love stories. It's almost never for me and again this time I didn't care about the relationships. They got too much focus when I was more interested in literally anything else. Also one of the love interest extremely didn't fit into the world view of our protagonist, which is why I didn't get how this plot line continued for so long.
-Chelsea's character. Even though I liked how "in-your-face" it was, I just got annoyed how she called out everyone in every situation, no matter if it was appropriate or not. She just isn't a character I can connect to because I'm personally very different. Also she made a lot of mistakes as well (her love interest is just one of them) so she really wasn't in a position to be mad at other people.
-for a book that tried to be so incredibly inclusive/diverse and had both main characters have this as a major character trait, queerness and disability was never discussed. and you can't have it both ways
-lastly I didn't like how I got the impression that this tried to paint one specific type of feminism (could be a misunderstanding by my part but it's the overall tone I saw). There's a lot of discussion about how "the princess trope" is bad and it paints a bad picture for girls, which is why you shouldn't have it at all. In addition to that the moms got asked why the stay at home and the answer isn't accepted. They're only doing this because some kind of internalized sexism.
And that's just not the type of feminism I stand by. I'm of the opinion that feminism is about empowering all woman and their choices, even if it is being a stereotypical housewife.
papertraildiary's review against another edition
3.0
This review was originally posted on The Paper Trail Diary.
I didn’t end up reading a lot of girl power type books last year. Most of the new books that seemed to fall in that category included sexual assault, and I just couldn’t handle that in 2018. I don’t want to diss books like that because they are incredibly important. Watch Us Rise doesn’t start with assault but it does deal with the topic at one point, in a different way. This book is all about girls standing up for themselves, making noise, and not stepping down when faced with being silenced.
Jasmine and Chelsea are angry. Angry at everything. Jasmine’s father is dying of cancer, she can’t stand shopping and the limitations for a fat girl, and she’s being racially pigeon-holed into upsetting roles in her theatre group. Chelsea rages against media’s role in the concept of beauty and how it affects girls, how her poetry club doesn’t seem to take modern poetry seriously, and sexist expectations on the women around her.
Both Jasmine and Chelsea are writers – Jasmine tends to write more free form prose, and Chelsea writes poetry (the author who wrote this character is a poet, so the poetry is actually really good!), but sometimes I got confused on which character I was reading because they could sound quite similar. The girls end up dramatically quitting their clubs at school, and decide to start a new club for feminists with a blog, called Write Like a Girl.
Then for a good chunk of the book the girls are put in a series of situations you know will piss them off, from a gross encounter on the subway to a shopping trip to a family dinner, so in that sense it got a little predictable, but I don’t think it was terrible. Unfortunately these situations are real. It just felt kind of crammed together. Each situation prompts a new post on the blog and then they go viral. But for being at a social justice focused high school (those exist now?), their male principal is considerably far behind, and threatens to cancel the club when he thinks the girls have stepped too far over some invisible boundary. I can understand a school not wanting to be responsible for the actions of some kids rioting against universal issues, but you’d think for a social justice school they’d stand behind their students. A-nope. (Well the teachers do. Yeah teachers!)
It was awesome to see the impact the girls made on their loved ones, classmates, and neighbours. It was also kind of great to see them put in their place sometimes. There’s a moment when Chelsea remarks to her teacher that it’s sexist she needs to go home and make dinner for a man, to which the teacher replies that she actually likes cooking and is in fact married to a woman. Context! This shows that it’s good to be angry but it’s also good to look at things from multiple angles. The times we live in are complicated.
I really felt for Jasmine, and had a bit of a hard time feeling for Chelsea but I think that was kind of intended. Jasmine is precious and hurting, while Chelsea is loud and excitable. But they work together well, and they even teach each other lessons, which I think was one of the best things to show in the book.
I think the authors did a really good job with this idea, and it’ll be an awesome read for teens. I wish I had something like this when I was a teenager. I think if it had a bit more tightening up (it was a lot longer than it could’ve been), it would be stronger, but there is so much strength in there it’s like a month’s worth of protein. Get em, girls!!
I didn’t end up reading a lot of girl power type books last year. Most of the new books that seemed to fall in that category included sexual assault, and I just couldn’t handle that in 2018. I don’t want to diss books like that because they are incredibly important. Watch Us Rise doesn’t start with assault but it does deal with the topic at one point, in a different way. This book is all about girls standing up for themselves, making noise, and not stepping down when faced with being silenced.
Jasmine and Chelsea are angry. Angry at everything. Jasmine’s father is dying of cancer, she can’t stand shopping and the limitations for a fat girl, and she’s being racially pigeon-holed into upsetting roles in her theatre group. Chelsea rages against media’s role in the concept of beauty and how it affects girls, how her poetry club doesn’t seem to take modern poetry seriously, and sexist expectations on the women around her.
Both Jasmine and Chelsea are writers – Jasmine tends to write more free form prose, and Chelsea writes poetry (the author who wrote this character is a poet, so the poetry is actually really good!), but sometimes I got confused on which character I was reading because they could sound quite similar. The girls end up dramatically quitting their clubs at school, and decide to start a new club for feminists with a blog, called Write Like a Girl.
Then for a good chunk of the book the girls are put in a series of situations you know will piss them off, from a gross encounter on the subway to a shopping trip to a family dinner, so in that sense it got a little predictable, but I don’t think it was terrible. Unfortunately these situations are real. It just felt kind of crammed together. Each situation prompts a new post on the blog and then they go viral. But for being at a social justice focused high school (those exist now?), their male principal is considerably far behind, and threatens to cancel the club when he thinks the girls have stepped too far over some invisible boundary. I can understand a school not wanting to be responsible for the actions of some kids rioting against universal issues, but you’d think for a social justice school they’d stand behind their students. A-nope. (Well the teachers do. Yeah teachers!)
It was awesome to see the impact the girls made on their loved ones, classmates, and neighbours. It was also kind of great to see them put in their place sometimes. There’s a moment when Chelsea remarks to her teacher that it’s sexist she needs to go home and make dinner for a man, to which the teacher replies that she actually likes cooking and is in fact married to a woman. Context! This shows that it’s good to be angry but it’s also good to look at things from multiple angles. The times we live in are complicated.
I really felt for Jasmine, and had a bit of a hard time feeling for Chelsea but I think that was kind of intended. Jasmine is precious and hurting, while Chelsea is loud and excitable. But they work together well, and they even teach each other lessons, which I think was one of the best things to show in the book.
I think the authors did a really good job with this idea, and it’ll be an awesome read for teens. I wish I had something like this when I was a teenager. I think if it had a bit more tightening up (it was a lot longer than it could’ve been), it would be stronger, but there is so much strength in there it’s like a month’s worth of protein. Get em, girls!!
caenerys's review against another edition
4.0
I was gifted this ARC through netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Full review to come.
I have a lot to say. Mostly positive, though I do have some grievances with this book. I’m excited to get my thoughts out. Watch this space xox
Full review to come.
I have a lot to say. Mostly positive, though I do have some grievances with this book. I’m excited to get my thoughts out. Watch this space xox
ananya_shah3's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
merx's review against another edition
3.0
This book is definitely conflicting. Having read others' reviews for it, there are many opinions in the one-star ones as well as five-star ones that I agree with.
Did it make me think about feminist issues, did it make me want to be more creative and take more action for the things I care about? - Absolutely.
Was it thought-provoking and caused me to have opinions about it? - Yes, that's why I'm writing this review.
Was Chelsea the most shallow kind of feminist I've known (the Kwanzaa and Hannukah part made me cringe so much + refusing to call Isaac a feminist because he's male? seriously?), focusing only on her problems (not working more to get her schoolmates to join her club etc), judging other women for their own choices, and do I think I would've liked the book more with a different kind of protagonist? - HELL YES.
In my opinion the story would have benefitted if it were to be seen from a perspective of a girl who is into something that is not "traditional for girls to do" - for example STEM. Chelsea herself saying "well yeah girls should be allowed to do whatever they want BUT I REALLY HATE SCIENCE SO I DON'T WANT TO BE MADE TO STUDY IT" was a bit tiring for me and just showed how one-dimensional she is.
Also about the incident with the cells from Henrietta Lacks - I myself study chemistry and during my brief time in my university's biochemistry lab I once could actually work with these cells myself. I absolutely agree that it wasn't ethical to take her cells without her consent. Then again, during the part where they talk about the woman's quote who assisted with her autopsy, I didn't agree with the conclusion they got from that. When I worked with those cells, I at first hadn't heard of the story behind them either. Without that, it was just another see-through liquid in a vial. It wasn't a question of race or gender, it was just difficult to associate something like that with a real life person, whoever they came from. But the poem Jasmine wrote after the incident was beautiful and really could be applied to any hate crime or non-consensual experiment against women of colour as well.
Did it make me think about feminist issues, did it make me want to be more creative and take more action for the things I care about? - Absolutely.
Was it thought-provoking and caused me to have opinions about it? - Yes, that's why I'm writing this review.
Was Chelsea the most shallow kind of feminist I've known (the Kwanzaa and Hannukah part made me cringe so much + refusing to call Isaac a feminist because he's male? seriously?), focusing only on her problems (not working more to get her schoolmates to join her club etc), judging other women for their own choices, and do I think I would've liked the book more with a different kind of protagonist? - HELL YES.
In my opinion the story would have benefitted if it were to be seen from a perspective of a girl who is into something that is not "traditional for girls to do" - for example STEM. Chelsea herself saying "well yeah girls should be allowed to do whatever they want BUT I REALLY HATE SCIENCE SO I DON'T WANT TO BE MADE TO STUDY IT" was a bit tiring for me and just showed how one-dimensional she is.
Also about the incident with the cells from Henrietta Lacks - I myself study chemistry and during my brief time in my university's biochemistry lab I once could actually work with these cells myself. I absolutely agree that it wasn't ethical to take her cells without her consent. Then again, during the part where they talk about the woman's quote who assisted with her autopsy, I didn't agree with the conclusion they got from that. When I worked with those cells, I at first hadn't heard of the story behind them either. Without that, it was just another see-through liquid in a vial. It wasn't a question of race or gender, it was just difficult to associate something like that with a real life person, whoever they came from. But the poem Jasmine wrote after the incident was beautiful and really could be applied to any hate crime or non-consensual experiment against women of colour as well.
mischief_in_the_library's review against another edition
1.0
I was so keen on this book, the blurb sounded excellent. But I just didn't really get it? They go to a school focused on social justice, where even the science class doesn't actually teach science but discusses social justice aspects of science (which would be a mad interesting class, but also like...not sufficient science education). Do these schools exist? And for a school that focusses on social justice, they seemed really prejudiced. Like moreso than average. I get that was the point the book tried to make but...wouldn't a school focused on social justice actually be keen on activism?
I just felt like I was bashed over the head with raging against the patriarchy and really explicit explanations of why it is bad. Do these characters have other interests? I feel like no. I don't see any. I rarely back down from a fight when a fight is necessary but this book exhausted me with the constant rage.
I just felt like I was bashed over the head with raging against the patriarchy and really explicit explanations of why it is bad. Do these characters have other interests? I feel like no. I don't see any. I rarely back down from a fight when a fight is necessary but this book exhausted me with the constant rage.
mbstpw23's review against another edition
2.0
I enjoyed this book due to Jasmine’s POV, and it was an easy/fast read, but that’s about it. Chelsea as one of the protagonists was very annoying and hard to like; she whined about everything and when others pointed out her feminism was not intersectional or that she was selfish/self-centered, instead of reflecting and growing, she became angry and brushed it off. She did not grow as a character what-so-ever.
This book had the potential to be great. Everyone starts somewhere, so the focus of the book could have been Jasmine and Chelsea’s journey as they learned and grew as feminist throughout the book, but unfortunately the focus of the novel was not that.
This book had the potential to be great. Everyone starts somewhere, so the focus of the book could have been Jasmine and Chelsea’s journey as they learned and grew as feminist throughout the book, but unfortunately the focus of the novel was not that.
shannon_white1099's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
caffeineaddict980's review against another edition
4.0
Jasmine's Dad only has four months to live due to his cancer diagnosis and he makes Jasmine and her artistic friends promise they will live life to the fullest.
Jasmine and Chelsea, linked by the interest in women's rights and race along with their backgrounds, decide to start a women's rights club in their high school.
Despite some thoughts from teachers about the fact it won't work, it turns out to be a popular club anyway as the girls use their passions and interests to draw people's attentions.
As the blog causes a spark of interest of different types from the students, events and anger also ramps up and the principal nearly shuts their blog down.
The principal shuts their blog down eventually after the girls get their own back on a student that sexually assualted one of the girls - The principal disturbingly brushes over the assault and doesn't investigate.
I definitely preferred Jasmine's character a lot more than Chelsea. Her articles and poetry especially made me say "wow" everytime that I read the work featured on the blog that she creates.
Chelsea instantly irks me as a character from the way she begins talking about the patriarchy creeping into the names of the lipglosses that her Mum picked out for her in the first time that we meet her - although she touches on important feminist topics and makes decent points, it sometimes feels too forced and like her whole personality is just consumed by feminist views and not many of her personality traits come to light, her character reminds me a lot of what modern day feminism currently is.
Although, the poetry that she writes in the novel is actually quite empowering, I also love the way she deals her situation with James!
This book touches a lot on race and gender, which are quite important themes to write about and the opinons of the characters along with the different aspects that are discussed provide a lot of insight and exploration into those topics, a lot of the things that were discussed had me nodding in agreement at various points.
I love the poetry and art the characters come up with in this novel and found it was a great addition to the story.
However, I did notice that there was a scene of sexual assualt and harrasment that was brushed over and not dealt with properly by the school, although the woman's rights club do get their own back on the guy who did it and it strengthens their club as a whole!!
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and will definitely be re-reading it in the near future!
4.5 stars!
Jasmine and Chelsea, linked by the interest in women's rights and race along with their backgrounds, decide to start a women's rights club in their high school.
Despite some thoughts from teachers about the fact it won't work, it turns out to be a popular club anyway as the girls use their passions and interests to draw people's attentions.
As the blog causes a spark of interest of different types from the students, events and anger also ramps up and the principal nearly shuts their blog down.
The principal shuts their blog down eventually after the girls get their own back on a student that sexually assualted one of the girls - The principal disturbingly brushes over the assault and doesn't investigate.
I definitely preferred Jasmine's character a lot more than Chelsea. Her articles and poetry especially made me say "wow" everytime that I read the work featured on the blog that she creates.
Chelsea instantly irks me as a character from the way she begins talking about the patriarchy creeping into the names of the lipglosses that her Mum picked out for her in the first time that we meet her - although she touches on important feminist topics and makes decent points, it sometimes feels too forced and like her whole personality is just consumed by feminist views and not many of her personality traits come to light, her character reminds me a lot of what modern day feminism currently is.
Although, the poetry that she writes in the novel is actually quite empowering, I also love the way she deals her situation with James!
This book touches a lot on race and gender, which are quite important themes to write about and the opinons of the characters along with the different aspects that are discussed provide a lot of insight and exploration into those topics, a lot of the things that were discussed had me nodding in agreement at various points.
I love the poetry and art the characters come up with in this novel and found it was a great addition to the story.
However, I did notice that there was a scene of sexual assualt and harrasment that was brushed over and not dealt with properly by the school, although the woman's rights club do get their own back on the guy who did it and it strengthens their club as a whole!!
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and will definitely be re-reading it in the near future!
4.5 stars!
mbhoppe13's review against another edition
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0