Status Updates From Hunting Julian (Gatherers, #1)

"Asia was frankly surprised to hear such a gracious concession from a member of the implacable Ampliphi. It immediately served to soften her opinion of the others. Just because there was one bad egg in the bunch didn't mean they were all bad." (326) oh BOY. and this with a woman-of-color sister named Kenya who previously lived in the United States of America with its police

"He took the gesture of comfort for what it was, her need to hold him to her heart bringing sharp tears to his eyes.
'I love you,' they said." (322) what, his eyes?

"'I'm never really going to need you. You understand that, right? I mean, I'm not the needy sort. I don't need rescuing and I don't need handholding or any of that weak girly crap.'" (314) ah, just in case we were worried the heroine had grown out of her internalized misogyny

"[Kenya] was wearing a very elegant, delicately embroidered shawl draped gently over her head and hair, the deep maroon color of it positively breathtaking against the smooth mocha warmth of her mulatto coloring." (264) WHOA THERE. I mean, I guess this book was published in *checks* THE YEAR OF OUR LORD TWO THOUSAND AND TEN? WTF?

"Their mother had been something of a free spirit, traveling the globe where the will and the wind took her. A matter-of-fact kind of woman, she'd named her children for the country or continent they'd been conceived in." (264) So Kenya...and "Asia", because who could choose a country that sounds like a name from that continent. At least it wasn't the reverse, with Africa being the continent (or, worse, "country")

"'Sometimes I wish Earth functioned more in black and white and spent less time wading around in the muck of the forever gray. There are many injustices in my world because of that.'" (251) COOL. definitely need more absolutist thinking in the world. super.

"'Rare and precious as they are to us, as reverently as we treat them, they would throw it all back in our faces? They are somehow unsatisfied to the point that they commit treachery for some reason? What is it we don't give them that they could possibly want, what is it that measures as enough reason to betray that status among their people?'" (151) how dare they reject our pedestal

"'To us the female body is a temple where we are blessed with the opportunity to worship, and the woman herself a goddess bestowing wondrous favors of passion, brilliance, and energy. Your sex is our salvation and our satiation, the ultimate prize we can earn if we are dutifully respectful and honorable enough to earn her attention and favor.'" (150) weird way to spell 'we trap women on a pedestal'

if I lived in a culture where women criminals were punished by being sent to brothels where they were forced to have sex with whoever paid for them I would simply not go pay and force them to have sex with me

"'It cannot be called rape or forced when the person who is committing the treachery is aware of the penalty they are flirting with. ... You have no comprehension how distasteful it is to the men of this world to treat a woman with anything less than the most gracious and honorable respect!'" (150) this is...truly disgusting

"It was almost creepy, how many of the qualities that made a king could also be attributed to the psychopathic mind. To be fair to herself, it wasn't often you found royalty bouncing at a long chain of clubs." (128-129) wasn't it though

"The man she had been stalking was nothing she had thought him to be. He was a king, for heaven's sake! She had thought him a low-life piece of murdering scum. How could she have been so wrong?'" (128) I mean. you just referenced Richard the Lionheart in the previous paragraph, so you do know history. c'mon, woman.

"'Now,' he whispered softly as he touched dry, gentle lips against hers, 'let me show you how you are so special compared to all of the other women.'" (106) stop making the subtext text, Julian!

"'The human women who agree to come here are like angels to us. Saviors. ... As for breeding, we would prefer that be put off a while, actually. Pregnant women have a much distorted sex drive, and the sharing of energy from them must cease at the end of the first trimester to protect the growing child and the mother it will make demands on.'" (105) yes ew how dare women get pregnant and not have the sex drive we want

"'You see, our women were, like the women of your own world, the more vibrant and positively emotional sex. They stimulated us in ways that produce things like passion, love, enjoyment, frustration, determination...the list goes on and on.'" (97) ah yes, that girly crap

"'If you are kind to one another'" (45) I realize this word is supposed to have different meaning in the context of this story (and I was already reading it as such by this point) but out of context...is this author just Mr. Rogersing us all?

"'I know many believe the kind to be a myth, but anything written about so much cannot be make-believe.'" (44) since when

"There was an act in this society where one person forcibly used another for physical sex. A deviant act they called rape. This did not exist in his world." having finished this book at this point, false. "In truth, there were much worse things than such an extreme violation to be found within his world." (37) true but that doesn't make it better

"'Relax,' he whispered to her softly as her body arched and contorted in a combination of resistance and starting pleasure. 'You cannot fight this, Asia. Humans do not have the power at first. Your psyche is strong, your will is a thing of sheer beauty. You could sate the appetites of a thousand needy souls.'" (35) I'm sorry what

"It was better when it was voluntary. It was so much more beautiful when the Chosen was open and willing, relaxed and ready to feel the pleasure transition could bring." (35) rape. you're describing rape.

"At least she though it was blood.
It was pink.
Not a thin or light red, but red of any variety or shade, but a brilliant carnation pink bordering on fluorescence. ... she finally understood just why the drug had not and would never work on Julian Sawyer.
He wasn't human." (33) huge leap over Occam's razor right there

"His fingertips dipped into her panties below the waistband and it was all she could do to keep from freaking out as thick male fingers skimmed over her denuded mound and dove with intimacy between her nether lips.
'Warm. Damp, to be certain,' he observed, 'but in no way bearing the heat or wetness of a woman longing for sex.'" (30) wtf