Rose’s Reviews > Girl, Woman, Other > Status Update

Well, for the first time in a long while, I'm giving up on finishing a book! This book has been kind of frustrating for me and has been a bit of a chore to pick up (although it's not so bad I actively dislike reading it). There's just not enough drawing me in and there's a new book to read for the book club so it's time to give up and move on.

We had our book club meeting today! I was nervous to begin with but actually everyone was friendly and nice and I was able to calm down and open up a bit which was good. Even though this book hasn't particularly clicked with me, I'm going to keep joining in. :)

I feel like this chapter is trying to say that all the men are at fault and true worth is found from bootstrapping but I wish LaTisha took greater responsibility for her own actions. Her upset and hurt as a teen are pretty understandable but after the first unplanned pregnancy..? I can't understand the mindset of just leaving the responsibility to the men or wanting sex enough not to care. A frustrating chapter!

With my first book club meeting next week, I'm back to reading this!

Bummi's chapter had her finding happiness by moving past traditional views. Not a bad message but it gets a little muddied when a key part of her transformation is prostituting herself to finance a start-up business.

The end of the chapter reveals Bummi to be another queer woman into open relationships. Maybe it's just me but... really?

This was a dark chapter. Following her rape as a girl, Caroline desperately works to remove herself from her lot. She ends up successfully gaining access to an upper middle class lifestyle but ends up changing herself to fit in with rich whites in the process. It is implied her constant aspiration is a distraction but ultimately I think it ends on a hopeful note. Still, uncomfortable reading, that.

Honestly, I expected rape would end up featuring in a book like this. Expecting it didn't make it any easier to read though and I ended up skimming the scene and feeling a bit sick afterwards. It's one thing I really struggle with in media. Just... urgh.

Dominique's chapter was surprisingly engaging. Now I understand why the reveal of her leaving was left out of Amma's chapter - it has far more impact as the starting point of Dominique's own tale. It was harrowing to see her manipulated and relieving to see her move on and find strength again. I think the more traditional story set-up helped to make this a stronger chapter compared to the previous chapters.

Despite some of the cringey language used in this section, I am enjoying Yazz's story far more than Amma's. Amusingly, this is more because of her 3 friends than Yazz herself but the characters are overall far more interesting than the "looney left" caricatures that Amma dealt with. You still have to suspend your disbelief with them but at least they're interesting.

While the writing goes to great pains to make Yazz cringeworthy, the content of her complaint about the future isn't exactly wrong. You can't lay the state of the world solely down to boomers but the future does look bleak for younger generations and framing it this way to make the argument look bratty and childish is questionable at best.

It's a little infuriating, to be honest.

Gosh, only page 26 and that's a lot of elements introduced to the protagonist! It's so fast it seems hard to accept, although that could be an issue with me. Maybe it's the polyamory - it just seems like a bit much.

Amma's recollections are all tied strongly to Dominique. The story has skirted round the issue of her leaving - a reveal in the making, perhaps?