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How wonderful is it to read a graphic novel that celebrates Black women! How we all come in all shapes and sizes. The beauty of our hair and the love and care is put in to make sure they poppin'. I loved how it showed Black women from all walks of life. This shows Black queer women, Black women that struggle with mental health, Black women walking away from what could be a toxic relationship, and Black women putting themselves first before any man!!! We absolutely love to see it.

Ripe is definitely a captivating and thought-provoking read that manages to depict Cassie's deep sense of emptiness. The author's engaging and bold prose truly brings the story to life, showcasing the unique format of the book that skillfully alternates between Cassie's present and past experiences. However, what truly adds to the poignancy of the narrative is how the ever-present black hole consistently mirrors Cassie's emotions in every passing moment. It's a hauntingly beautiful, yet undeniably sad and somewhat discomforting journey.

CW: suicide, infidelity, statutory rape, violence, and bullying.

Wow, this book was really good and beautifully written. I would absolutely recommend it to everyone to read. It is such an important read for anyone that is struggling through life. The author takes the subject matter and writes about it with care. Especially when reading the author's note at the end.

I knew the plot twist from the beginning but honestly, it didn't take away from the experience. I was actually hoping that I was right. Eto Mori made me really care for the main character's life and well-being. And I haven't felt like this in a while.

This will definitely be a story that will stick with me for a long time.

tw: sexism, misogyny, sexual harassment, depression, mentions of suicide and miscarriage.

this book is definitely a new favorite. it is one i would love to purchase a physical copy, reread, and annotate. i would recommend this book to everyone to read. it's such a beautiful and powerful novel. i got so frustrated and infuriated at some of the situations that happened that i almost threw my kindle across the room.

this is a story about misogyny in the workplace, gender roles in a family, and forced motherhood. i really felt for jiyoung having to give up so much to live a “normal” life for a woman. women have always had to give up so much for these gender roles that are passed down from generations. between not getting a good positions in the workplace, having to give up your life and dreams for a child, or being seen as an object to men. damn we can't ever win.

jiyoung's story is one that we could all relate to someway or another. it shows us how far we've come but also how much work we still need to do to be seen as equals.

not me staying up at 2 am thinking this book would keep getting better..... call the circus they missed a clown.

cw: death, fatphobic comments, ableism and ablest terminology.

i was promised a eerie horror/thriller and what i got was a weirdly paced literary trying to be mysterious. i love short books but damn i wish this was longer and went in depth in the “thriller-y” aspects. i would continue ranting but i'm tired and want to be free from this book lmao.

honestly if you're intrigued by this pick it up, you might like it. but it just wasn't for me.

Thank you Oni press and net galley for an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Transphobia, Sexual Harassment, and Fatphobic remarks.

This was so cute! I really enjoyed my time reading this. It was so nice to see a plus sized main character that is athletic and doesn't give af. I loved Annie and BeBe so much. I loved the way their friendship blossomed into a relationship. And how they always had each other's backs to peoples hateful remarks towards the other. I also really liked how this showed that all bodies are healthy and can be active.

But i feel like it was too short and most of the problems they were presented with were resolved too quickly. Some of the cheerleaders made some transphobic comments and microaggressions and we never got to see them apologizing. We can just see that they do grow from that and learn to truly accept BeBe. I just wish we could've seen more.

Overall, I definitely recommend this graphic novel its wholesome, has great representation, and has a great message.

Arc provided by Netgalley!

This was so EPIC! This was a story of Racism, Slavery, and Injustices towards people of color with a Harry Potter twist. It was funny and action packed while also being some what educational.

Pros

— The art style reminded me of the old manga i used to read when I was younger.
— The characters, Tom and Lindsay were so RAD! But my fave has to be Tom's Crow.... JIM. He came in clutch a lot.
— The humor!! I L A U G H ED by butt off while reading this. The little bit of sarcasm sprinkled in by Tom were truly hilarious.
— The action scenes WERE SO RAD YOOOOO!
— I loved the historical twist it had, come on it had Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas whoopin' some KKK butt!!

Cons

— I personally wished we would've gotten more of the back story and more world building. It felt like it was volume 2 in a series. It didn't explain the world much at all. I loved the action scenes but I wished we would've gotten more time in the school. This would've been better if it was a bit longer to build the story up a bit more. Which is why I'm settling on giving this a 3.5/5 stars. A great a solid story over all.

Final Thoughts

All in all I really enjoyed my time reading this and I will be making my siblings read it too lol. I think its a fun way to teach a kids/teens about how awful racism is. Also for black kids to see themselves as the hero of a story which is SUPER important.

I have some negative opinions about this book. So if this is your favorite book I'm sorry but its my opinion. And if you're going to get butt hurt please don't read it.

This review does contain spoilers!!!

Well... where do I start?

I didn't like ACOTAR... I have my reasons why I didn't, but that doesn't mean I hated it. I really like the way Sarah J Maas built this world. I really enjoyed reading about this world. But that is basically all I liked about this book. I as an intellectual cant get past the fact that there is a lot of problematic things about this book. It romanticizes physical and mental abuse.
Lets talk about the characters in depth

Feyre:

ONE OF THE MOST AGGRAVATING AND BLAND CHARACTERS I'VE EVER READ IN A BOOK!!!
This girl is so hardheaded and so frustrating uggghhhhh I'm getting so mad just thinking about it.
Let me give you some examples:
-She is constantly being told not to do certain things but no its like to her “Don't do this, Its dangerous” means “Yes go ahead, you're not risking your life at all”.
-She fell in love with the guy who took her away from her family to get a curse broken, lied to her about the treaty, and ABUSED HER.
-Yes everyone Tamlin kissing her neck and trapping her when she said no! MORE THAN ONCE! is abuse. I don't care if Feyre was confused, he was not himself or whatever. Her initial reaction to him grabbing her on the day of the Calanmai was “let me go”. (I will talk more about this when I talk about Tamlin)

I get that she doesn't know how to read and isn't very smart but why is she so boring? Like really all she does is Hunt and Paint.... the only characteristic i can think of to describe her is that shes hardheaded, that's it.

Tamlin:

Oh boy... I personally didn't like Tamlin since the beginning. I don't get how people liked him at first when he is SO PROBLEMATIC

One word... Calanmai...

He abused Fey, i explained this.. yes but after he did she had to slap him for him to let her go. And you know what he did when she tried to defend herself............ HE CHUCKLED... I'm done..

After Calanmai when they were eating and everything is all gucci and back to normal. Feyre said to Lucien “He bit me” and do y'all know what this tricka said “So if feyre cant be bothered to listen to orders I CANT HE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE CONSEQUENCES” WHAT THE HECK!!!! HE abused her after SHE said NO more than once. And he blames her... This is why most women that get r*ped and abused are afraid to say anything because things like this. People always blame the victim...

I just don't like him... end of story.

Lucien

A precious smol bean that deserved better 😦

And then we have the infamous Rhysand....

I went into this book expecting to love this character. I mean with all the damn hype I don't know who wouldn't. But now that I finished the book I can tell y'all that I don't like him at all. He's too arrogant and just like Tamlin he abused Feyre. NOT just mentally, oh no.. HE PHYSICALLY ABUSED HER TOO...

In Under the Mountain after the first challange he makes an offer to Fey that in exchange of him healing her she would have to come live with him for two weeks. She deny's at first and instead of walking away and taking the no. YOU KNOW WHAT HE DOES... HE TWISTS HER ALREADY BROKEN BONE AND TWISTS IT.... I just don't get how after the second book and a couple of apologies can he be let off the hook and forgiven for this.
Lets not forget that he drugs her multiple times..
I don't know I'm done with him, I'm done with this. bye

It baffles me how people can like him so much. I understand that he gets better in the next book. BUT IT STILL DOES NOT JUSTIFY WHAT HE DID!!!

I'm just going to end with this.

If you stand for women rights and are against men abusing women. Then why do you love Rhysand so much? all he is, is an arrogant abuser that got away with abuse and drugging a woman. And before anyone tries to come at me saying that “its just a book” or “its fiction, it's not real” It doesn't matter, books, movies, songs, TV shows they usually inspire people in all kinds of ways. Some good and some bad. Someone can read this series and see how easily TWO men got away with abuse and think that they can do the same. And most of the times they do get away with it. Fictional or not, abuse is abuse.

Abuse shouldn't be romanticized.

Ps: Why does everyone click their tongue so much? It was so annoying!

talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before.

listen this may or may not be my new favorite book.

thank you to algonquin books and colored pages book tours for an arc copy of this beauty.

This was an absolute masterpiece. Yamile truly has such a way with words!!! i'm obsessed. I'm going to need a day to truly come up with words to explain my feelings towards this book. so full review to come. 

tw: racism, deportation, graphic mentions of animal slaughter, vomit, microaggressions, the mention of the r-word.

i loved this book so much. I adored the writing and getting to see the world through the eyes of Deming. Deming wasn't a perfect character he's far from it. His life was a whole theme park of roller coasters. His mom disappears one day with no warning nothing but his memories of her. He ends up resenting her as his life moves forward without her as he's adopted by a white couple. This books follows him and his mom throughout the span of 20 ish year in an nonlinear timeline.

I loved that this was a character study of two shitty and morally gray characters. Deming and Polly are both lowkey selfish and they don't change much by the end of the story. I actually like that this left off with a kind of open ending with enough of a happy-ish ending. This was just all around a great book and wow i'm so glad that i was right in my high rating predictions. I cant wait to read whatever else Lisa Ko releases.

*4.25/5☆

“But home isn't where you land; home is where you launch. You can't pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land.”

Writing: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Enjoyment: 4.5/5

My heart wasn't ready for this. This book was phenomenal, I can understand why Oprah picked this as her book club pick. This book is so raw and full of emotion. Tayari Jones did such a great job in making you feel every emotion the characters where going through. I loved that this wasn't just a love story between partners but between family too. I may or may not have cried more than once while reading this. This book was so unique to me because it wasn't the type of love story that you'd think. Its complicated and difficult to explain without completely spoiling the book for y'all. I was rooting for all of the characters especially Celestial she was my favorite but, both her and Roy deserve eternal happiness. Roy annoyed me at times if I'm being honest. I lowkey fell in love with Andre, he was so cute I just wanted to hug him at times. Y'all just need to read this beauty of a book!!!

Y'ALL TELL ME THAT I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT THINKS THIS BUT MICHAEL B JORDAN WOULD BE AN AMAZING ROY IF THIS EVER BECOMES A MOVIE!!!

CW: themes of depression

I picked up this book because i kept hearing about it in different youtube videos. All I knew about it was that it was about a yellow wallpaper and commentary on depression. But wow it's so much more than that. It succeeds on explaining the feeling that comes with depression. And the dread of having people ignore it and say to just sleep it off. We see the narrator slowly descend into madness due to not getting the help she needs.

I honestly don't know what to rate it lol.

tw: death of parent, car accident, death, murder, microaggressions, racism, ptsd and anxiety

this is hands down a new favorite book. i love it so much. it was so nice to see a kickass queer black girl in the forefront of a fantasy novel. i saw pieces of myself in this. this is why we need more diverse fantasy books where people like me can feel like we can be heroes and not just backup or side characters.

i'm personally not a huge fan of romance in books but y'all