Scan barcode
librarydoc's review against another edition
5.0
10 word review:
Four friends find their voices and learn to love themselves.
Doc’s Thoughts
Beautiful, powerful, uplifting. Made me want to jump up and find a cause to fight! Shifting narrative keeps readers engaged in the story. And I’m loving a character who is overweight and loves every part of herself. YES!!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Four friends find their voices and learn to love themselves.
Doc’s Thoughts
Beautiful, powerful, uplifting. Made me want to jump up and find a cause to fight! Shifting narrative keeps readers engaged in the story. And I’m loving a character who is overweight and loves every part of herself. YES!!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
sweetofspring's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to love this book since Piecing Me Together was one of my favorite reads last year. However, I found the themes to be way too heavy handed. I appreciated what they authors were saying and trying to do, but it felt too forced. I did love and appreciate all the references to strong female “artivists.”
jenmangler's review against another edition
4.0
While I was reading this I had the same feeling I had while reading Moxie: teen me would have LOVED this! I so appreciate that it deals with sexism, misogyny, and fatphobia in such a realistic and engaging way. Jasmine, in particular, is a wonderful character and I adored her.
thenextgenlibrarian's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Fight like a girl.
👩🏾🦱
Jasmine just found out her dad is dying of cancer. Needing a distraction, she and her best friend, Chelsea, decide to form a Women’s Rights Club, a topic they’re both very passionate about. They post everything on their blog from their experiences to nonfiction essays to videos of Chelsea performing her poetry. Soon the two go viral and their principal is not pleased. Threatening to shut them down, the girls refuse to be silenced by him or the online trolls targeting them. Both girls risk everything to make sure their voices are heard.
👩🏻
Other than Moxie this might be the most feminist YA book I’ve ever read. @harlemportland and @ellenhagan do a phenomenal job illustrating the struggles that girls and women go through on a daily basis. Everything from fat shaming to racist microaggressions to unwanted touch, stereotypes, the patriarchy and more. I loved the poetry throughout and truly believe this is a novel that will stand the test of time.
CW: cancer, parental death, sexism, misogyny, racism, microaggressions, sexual harassment, fatphobia
👩🏾🦱
Jasmine just found out her dad is dying of cancer. Needing a distraction, she and her best friend, Chelsea, decide to form a Women’s Rights Club, a topic they’re both very passionate about. They post everything on their blog from their experiences to nonfiction essays to videos of Chelsea performing her poetry. Soon the two go viral and their principal is not pleased. Threatening to shut them down, the girls refuse to be silenced by him or the online trolls targeting them. Both girls risk everything to make sure their voices are heard.
👩🏻
Other than Moxie this might be the most feminist YA book I’ve ever read. @harlemportland and @ellenhagan do a phenomenal job illustrating the struggles that girls and women go through on a daily basis. Everything from fat shaming to racist microaggressions to unwanted touch, stereotypes, the patriarchy and more. I loved the poetry throughout and truly believe this is a novel that will stand the test of time.
CW: cancer, parental death, sexism, misogyny, racism, microaggressions, sexual harassment, fatphobia
alyssarester's review against another edition
5.0
i LOVE this book! it is everything i wished i could have read as a high schooler who was making her way through the world. it is such an inspiring story that truly touched my heart. 5 stars for sure!
bibliobrandie's review against another edition
5.0
This book is perfection. It’s the book I wish I could have read as a teen. I wish I had a mentor like Leidy and friends like this group of friends. And I wish I could be more of a Chelsea and just say No every single time someone says something racist &/or sexist (no one gets a pass). I love that the mean girl didn't get a pass with her apology. All of life is here in these pages and there are also some amazing poems and references to great poets and feminists. I want to create a playlist to go along with this book. I want every t-shirt design. I also really appreciate how the author shows the nuances of discovering your feminism at the same time you are having crushes on boys and enjoying fashion. In addition to all the revolutionary work being done, the author also addresses grief and loss in a really beautiful way. I want everyone to read this book.
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