Girls Can Kiss Now

I am the target audience...and consider it reached. As a lesbian millennial, the exploration of cultural themes felt all too relatable. Gutowitz has a striking voice that verges on funny while also exploring fear, anger, and hopelessness, and somehow she manages to encapsulate the 2000s vibe (sprinkle in a little 90s and onward) in a stunning collection of essays. Few parts fell flat, but on the whole I loved this book which made my lesbian heart happy.

DNF at 60%. There are some moments of pretty solid insight and a handful of quotable lines in there but there's also a lot of rather banal takes and fluff and I found myself putting it down every few pages. Also, there's nothing more boring to me than a member of the LGBTQ community clinging with the energy of despair to making Harry Potter references so that didn't help my interest level here.

No rating.

this is like lesbianism watered down for your favorite twitter feminist woke bi girl in a het relationship. im homophobic now thank you dnf @ 6%

“But nothing I've worked on in my career nor in my life has been as rewarding, as fulfilling, or has made me feel even a fraction as good as it feels to be in love with Emma. Maybe I love my stupid little life, and I just want a house and kids and a vegetable garden and pets named after fictional characters and to learn how to pickle and to crochet and to be love. Maybe I don't need to be special anymore. Maybe I can let that go.”

**Jill Gutowitz, you have gutted me! As someone who self-identifies as both queer and annoyingly into pop culture, you have seen, heard, and affirmed me in ways colorful, comedic, and concise. I want to be your friend, I want to *be you, I want to follow you on every single publication and platform from this point forward. Thank you for this! Thank you for all of this!

(Oh, and this book is officially instated into the lesbian canon starting now!)

1.5 stars.

tw: rape, sexual assault, homophobia, internalised homophobia

somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. honestly some parts really hit home and some parts just didn't resonate with me at all because it's not my corner of queer/gay culture but it's nice that this book exists.