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gar42's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
An alternate timeline when Al Gore won the election against Bush and pursued a war on climate rather than a war on terror. The premise explores the ways in which white supremacy and greed are baked into America, regardless of the prevailing political ideal of a given time.
I found the conceit of the book interesting, and many parts of the book exciting and fun to read. But this book is filled with white tears, white guilt, over-explanation of political ideology, and in-your-face critiques of America that are founded, but written without the nuance or craft that I would hope for in a work of satire or literary fiction.
I look to books like Chain Gang All Stars or Our Missing Hearts as models of how a dystopian, alternate timeline book can point back to the flaws of present-day America without hitting the reader over the head. When a dystopian plot is too similar to the plot of reality, it can feel more like an uncanny valley reflection than an effective piece of probing political commentary.
For what it is, though, a fun and exciting read!
I found the conceit of the book interesting, and many parts of the book exciting and fun to read. But this book is filled with white tears, white guilt, over-explanation of political ideology, and in-your-face critiques of America that are founded, but written without the nuance or craft that I would hope for in a work of satire or literary fiction.
I look to books like Chain Gang All Stars or Our Missing Hearts as models of how a dystopian, alternate timeline book can point back to the flaws of present-day America without hitting the reader over the head. When a dystopian plot is too similar to the plot of reality, it can feel more like an uncanny valley reflection than an effective piece of probing political commentary.
For what it is, though, a fun and exciting read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Death, Drug abuse, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: War, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, and Grief
joannalouise's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Suicide attempt
julialeigh's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense
fast-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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Transphobia, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Sexual assault and War
bugle's review against another edition
inspiring
tense
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Police brutality, and Transphobia
Moderate: Grief, Gaslighting, Addiction, Deadnaming, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Suicide attempt, and Sexual violence
Minor: Antisemitism
alsoapples's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Classism, Racism, Toxic relationship, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Violence, Transphobia, Death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Addiction
savvylit's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The concept of the Free People's Village? Amazing. I love the idea of autonomous zones, especially ones that crop up in protest. Some of the aspects of the Village - including group meals, art builds, and horizontal organization - warmed my leftist heart to see illustrated on the page. I also really appreciated many of the anti-authoritarian & abolitionist sentiments shared by the character of Gestas. He reminded me of people I know & love in real life.
Beyond the aspects mentioned above, though, I did not enjoy this book. I tried to write a thorough review explaining all of the reasons why but I ran into the Instagram character limit. Thus, I present to you a list of qualms:
1. Maddie is irritatingly spineless and naive. She has nearly zero personality beyond being in love & being afraid.
2. Maddie constantly demands the emotional labor of people of color to assuage her fears and extreme naivete.
3. The love interest, Red, is sexy but super toxic. It seemed we were supposed to be rooting for xim & Maddie. I couldn't.
4. The structure of this book is uneven and jumbled. It's a journal but the jumps in time are often abrupt.
5. Everything in this novel is heavy-handed and over-explained. All of part 1, in which the characters are introduced in unnecessarily repetitive detail, could have been eliminated & the story would have been better for it.
6. Relatedly to the above, this is a New Adult story that relies on constantly telling versus showing. I know that Kern has a background in teaching, but I didn't enjoy feeling like one of their students.
7. Parallels & meta nods to our real-world timeline were made. They were cheesy and awkward.
Beyond the aspects mentioned above, though, I did not enjoy this book. I tried to write a thorough review explaining all of the reasons why but I ran into the Instagram character limit. Thus, I present to you a list of qualms:
1. Maddie is irritatingly spineless and naive. She has nearly zero personality beyond being in love & being afraid.
2. Maddie constantly demands the emotional labor of people of color to assuage her fears and extreme naivete.
3. The love interest, Red, is sexy but super toxic. It seemed we were supposed to be rooting for xim & Maddie. I couldn't.
4. The structure of this book is uneven and jumbled. It's a journal but the jumps in time are often abrupt.
5. Everything in this novel is heavy-handed and over-explained. All of part 1, in which the characters are introduced in unnecessarily repetitive detail, could have been eliminated & the story would have been better for it.
6. Relatedly to the above, this is a New Adult story that relies on constantly telling versus showing. I know that Kern has a background in teaching, but I didn't enjoy feeling like one of their students.
7. Parallels & meta nods to our real-world timeline were made. They were cheesy and awkward.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Rape, Suicide attempt, Police brutality, Death, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, and Grief
misha_ali's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
5.0
TL;DR: The opposite of a white saviour book.
This is an electric, nuanced book about revolutions, intersectionality, and fighting the good fight. I was initially side-eyeing the choice to make the POV character a cis white girl but this works out really well as an audience surrogate for learning and growing as a character as she interacts and falls in love with this group of people trying to make the world a better place.
It feels almost incidental to have the setting be an alt-history world where Al Gore wins the election in 2000 and launches a war on climate change. The result is depressingly similar: the prison complex to incarcerate people of colour and profit from their labour, the carbon tax loopholes used by the wealthy white people to make more money, the gentrifications of run-down neighbourhoods so that the residents are priced out and then the affluent take over the trendy new area. It's all depressingly similar to the world we face today.
Maddie is such an interesting and deeply flawed character. She is cognizant of her privilege and the fact that she is risking less than others by simply being white, cis and female in a protest alongside people of colour and various queer presentations. She's likeable despite (or perhaps because of?) having relatable flaws such as guilt for profiting from a system that the people she loves are trapped by, railing in her own small ways against the injustice of the system, and trying to take that one step to support her comrades. Her journey from feeling selfish to contributing to the fight is engaging and relatable.
The cast of characters around her are fiery, engaging, and knowledgeable, and also sometimes assholes. I appreciate the nuance. This is not your historical text about people being larger than life, but a story about a collection of humans who are tired, beaten down and worn out by the world they exist in, but continue to fight to make it better.
If you're ever tired and worn down by the good fight in whatever way you contribute to it, this book will make you laugh, deeply sad, invigorated, and eventually hopeful.
This is an electric, nuanced book about revolutions, intersectionality, and fighting the good fight. I was initially side-eyeing the choice to make the POV character a cis white girl but this works out really well as an audience surrogate for learning and growing as a character as she interacts and falls in love with this group of people trying to make the world a better place.
It feels almost incidental to have the setting be an alt-history world where Al Gore wins the election in 2000 and launches a war on climate change. The result is depressingly similar: the prison complex to incarcerate people of colour and profit from their labour, the carbon tax loopholes used by the wealthy white people to make more money, the gentrifications of run-down neighbourhoods so that the residents are priced out and then the affluent take over the trendy new area. It's all depressingly similar to the world we face today.
Maddie is such an interesting and deeply flawed character. She is cognizant of her privilege and the fact that she is risking less than others by simply being white, cis and female in a protest alongside people of colour and various queer presentations. She's likeable despite (or perhaps because of?) having relatable flaws such as guilt for profiting from a system that the people she loves are trapped by, railing in her own small ways against the injustice of the system, and trying to take that one step to support her comrades. Her journey from feeling selfish to contributing to the fight is engaging and relatable.
The cast of characters around her are fiery, engaging, and knowledgeable, and also sometimes assholes. I appreciate the nuance. This is not your historical text about people being larger than life, but a story about a collection of humans who are tired, beaten down and worn out by the world they exist in, but continue to fight to make it better.
If you're ever tired and worn down by the good fight in whatever way you contribute to it, this book will make you laugh, deeply sad, invigorated, and eventually hopeful.
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Transphobia
roaming_enn's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
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? Yes
4.5
This book tells the story of a queer punk band that gets an eviction notice one day, and they decide to occupy the warehouse that their band plays in. But the occupation turns into something bigger, with more causes for which to fight, and even goes national and international. The POV character is Maddie Ryan, a white cishet young woman that grows up middle-class and finds herself, by chance really, in the middle of the protests and demonstrations because of her circumstances. Through her participation, she learns and grows into a person that is eventually willing to fight for what she believes in.
I loved this book! I saw some reviews on here (the Storygraph) about how people thought all the major characters were unlikeable, and I was a bit worried that I might feel the same way. But I didn't! Yes, they all have flaws that may feel unbearable for some readers. Maddie, for instance, is a white cis woman who never had to deal with racism or transphobia or violence, and so she's clueless about a lot of the things and constantly questioning her motives and actions. I think I related to her a little bit, which is why I didn't find her absolutely unbearable. I feel like her thoughts were very much understandable for someone in her situation.
My favorite character was Red, though, and I'm not quite sure why. Every time xe appears on the page, probably from the very first page, I just wanted to keep reading!And when I learned of xir fate , I wanted to curse the author for eternity! Sure, Red was a drunk that when not doing demonstrations just wanted to numb xirself by getting blackout drunk or doing drugs. And that just made me worried for xim... For me, it was seeing someone being in such emotional turmoil that they would harm themself that made me connect with xim.
I'm not a big romance reader, especially where books that aren't advertised as being romance but where a romance plays a major role in the story. But I loved Maddie's and Red's relationship, and I rooted for them from the beginning.
A poignant metaphor in the end of the book is used by Shayna to describe huge demonstrations vs. the small actions that demonstrators must take everyday. One of the participants asked what the point of their weekly meetings was if only 6 of them attended. Shayna compares the large demonstrations to a mushroom, and the weekly meetings as the mycelium of the mushroom, the things underground that feed and nurture the mushroom. The mushroom can then shoot spores that spread throughout the landscape to give birth to even more mushrooms. Things like the weekly meetings serve to nurture the global need for change, so that once a large demonstration is bound to happen, people will be ready. It's such a good metaphor to describe how large protests can happen seemingly out of nowhere, almost organically, but it is due in part to the everyday work done behind the scenes.
So much of the book is so applicable today. And this is why everyone should be reading it. Anyway, thanks for coming to my rambling TED talk.
I loved this book! I saw some reviews on here (the Storygraph) about how people thought all the major characters were unlikeable, and I was a bit worried that I might feel the same way. But I didn't! Yes, they all have flaws that may feel unbearable for some readers. Maddie, for instance, is a white cis woman who never had to deal with racism or transphobia or violence, and so she's clueless about a lot of the things and constantly questioning her motives and actions. I think I related to her a little bit, which is why I didn't find her absolutely unbearable. I feel like her thoughts were very much understandable for someone in her situation.
My favorite character was Red, though, and I'm not quite sure why. Every time xe appears on the page, probably from the very first page, I just wanted to keep reading!
I'm not a big romance reader, especially where books that aren't advertised as being romance but where a romance plays a major role in the story. But I loved Maddie's and Red's relationship, and I rooted for them from the beginning.
A poignant metaphor in the end of the book is used by Shayna to describe huge demonstrations vs. the small actions that demonstrators must take everyday. One of the participants asked what the point of their weekly meetings was if only 6 of them attended. Shayna compares the large demonstrations to a mushroom, and the weekly meetings as the mycelium of the mushroom, the things underground that feed and nurture the mushroom. The mushroom can then shoot spores that spread throughout the landscape to give birth to even more mushrooms. Things like the weekly meetings serve to nurture the global need for change, so that once a large demonstration is bound to happen, people will be ready. It's such a good metaphor to describe how large protests can happen seemingly out of nowhere, almost organically, but it is due in part to the everyday work done behind the scenes.
So much of the book is so applicable today. And this is why everyone should be reading it. Anyway, thanks for coming to my rambling TED talk.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts
catsteaandabook's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
It was cool to read such a brazenly leftist book, though it did kind of read as “this is what leftism is” at times which was just not what I wanted. I can understand its value though. The prose also was not my favorite, though it wasn’t bad.
Also, this is a very small portion of the book, but I kind of didn’t appreciate how Christianity was portrayed, like I believe we can understand and condemn all of the terror that has been inflicted using Christianity as a front and all the oppression still perpetrated by Christian leaders and organizations, while also recognizing that they do not define the religion as a whole. The book basically calls Christianity inherently evil, using European Christian conquests and white Christian nationalism as reasoning, which I just think is belittling to progressive and non-European Christians. (Christianity literally started in Palestine.) Also not all preachers are rich? Like? Most aren’t?
Anyway, I appreciated a lot of what this book had to say. I loved the concept and I think it did an excellent job showing how democrats won’t save us. I also appreciated seeing different opinions within leftism. And neopronoun rep! I loved its portrayal of white guilt and how, while it’s well meaning, it frequently ends up hurting people of color. Liberal white guilt runs deep and I’m still in the process of unlearning it. It’s admittedly only recently that I learned about the harm it can cause.
This book wasn’t perfect, and honestly I think part of my feelings are just it not really being my style, but I still am glad I read it and I would like to read more from Sim Kern.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Transphobia, and Suicidal thoughts
hmknerr's review against another edition
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Rape, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Addiction