mrfroggy's reviews
276 reviews

Summed up its argument very well towards the very end about the phenomenon of neoliberal virtue marketing and western consumerist guilt and disconnect from their imperialist histories

There was a lot of summaries of the authors personal field work in ecotourism in Tanzania that doesnt suuuuper add much to my preexisting understanding on indigenous land exploitation as an extension of flattening colonial occupation, but ig itd be a good visualization for people new to the concept of ecotourism in particular

Gorgeous concepts and explorations, and i loved hearing from the artists on their thought processes and the little tidbits of their working relationships throughout production! I just wished it was longer and even more detailed, geared for an audience of concept artists and not a general audience of disney fans :(

I think this falls into that YA pitfall of basing the story and characters around conveying a certain idea out of resentment and a sense of superiority from the author rather than any actual theme, message, or question/exploration. In this case it felt a lot like the author wanted to convey the idea of how terribly misogynistic patriarchal society is through a "unique" amalgamated setting (that was just a slapdash attempt at an actual empire built on digital voyeurism at constant war with pathetically weak explorations of how that society is held together or what kinds of people actually inhabit it) and a "power fantasy" female lead that just fell into shallow literary shortcuts instead of building her relationships with her country and friends in the text :/

The "feminist" bend of the story was incredibly shallow and underbaked, with no actual struggle to connect with other female characters inner worlds and instead focusing on how self aware and special Zetian is for somehow being the only woman to notice how unequal her society is with little build up/development of her politics. She wants to somehow liberate girls without ever having talked to any of them shes trying to "save" and she doesnt think any deeper about how they might be fighting back or attempt any form of collective liberation :/

Also the romance was hinging more on the "scandalous" polyamory of itself rather than any deeper developements of each characters' personalities and values and how they all navigated that when trapped in the confines of cisheterosexual relationship standards :/

Very disappointed but i already kinda got that vibe based on how it was advertised :( but i was hoping for a lot more from this new generation of YA scifi :(

There was just this weird overall tone in the story about how all encompassing patriarchy was in society, which it is ofc, but without the realistic complex collective resistances that wouldve emerged in those conditions. It barely explored the potentials of communications technology or the overall infrastructure and cultures of its "chinese inspired scifi setting" and instead resorted to shallow individualist "strong female lead" with underdeveloped values in favor of showing the people in charge who's boss........somehow....

Absolutely crucial for understanding the emergence of antifatness in the west, not only as a beauty and health standard, but as a biological differentiation between white and black bodies predicated on racial superiority, class, religious and moral distinctions, and heterosexiam.

Very well written and easy to read, structured into three segments as antifatness developed through the past 500 years. I loved the historical build up and focus on key figures that pushed these changing tastes as well as the inclusion of perspectives from white women and black publications all throughout. Im gonna be raving about this book in every conversation for a very long time....

I think this was exactly what i was looking for from speculative "apocalyptic" fiction, from the complex perspectives from those most marginalized, the interactions and relationships developed with traumatized people, to the plausible "transition" of the end times in the everyday. While the worldbuilding itself had a lot of disconnects that made it hard to comprehend, like the maintenance of passenger planes, supply chains to walled neighborhoods, and cash currency combined with constant terrorism and slave factories. There were also other aspects of the novel's politics like "redeeming" the US and the absolutist moral positioning of crime and drug addiction that was more a reflection the author's own views than the characters in the story, I think. 

It was really cool seeing how each of the chracters' beliefs developed throughout the story and how their actions were so realistic and believable as relationships deepened and the world around them changed. Though the writing itself is simple and easy to read, the ideas of needing a community (built around empathy and shared beliefs) to survive in a world where the most marginalized rarely survive to middle age are well argued and constructed throughout the plot, without ever making me feel like I was slogging through a political thesis (like with Babel). I was engaged the entire time I was reading, eager to know what would happen next despite (and partly bc of) the horrific brutality the characters experienced. 

The religious aspects of the story and the gendered self awareness of our narrator really sets this book apart and pulled at my discomfort as it reminded me of the inevitablity of navigating existing structures of power and understanding at the end of the world. They were handled very well, if in a way I would never agree with.

Ive been looking for community survival centered apocalypse fiction where the adventuring party has children and disabled people at its core, and this is exactly what I needed to find.....

Theres always some underlying sinophobia and racism when white tech guys who defend things like free speech and data privacy always manage to slip through in every tech "leftist" book/article ive read that just makes their entire analyses incomplete and skewed in favor of american hegemony over true access to information for the entire world

While this book is good primer on the ongoing internet copyright fight between industry gatekeepers and artists and their fans, which i think does a particularly good job at explaining the actual outcomes of copyright legislation, it doesnt do a satisfactory analysis (imo at least) on actionable steps or american imperialism through copyright. I understand this is primarily focused on creative work though, but i wouldve liked to see more about news media and journalism as a means of reality control, since the author seems to care so much about free speech

A great survey of the people who made ACT UP such a powerful and influential political force, ranging from arts and culture to research to public education to public housing to direct action, this is a robust but vividly painted look into ACT UP's history, both within the organization and its influences outside of it.

I picked this up bc of my own activism with Covid-19 and how i wanted to learn how other political orgs and historical resistance have fought against eugenicist health policies during pandemics, and reading this gave me a mirror look into the exact same problems with group cohesion, in group marginalization, white people (derogatory) undermining everyone elses hard work, and ableism that i see within Covid activism today. 

With how similar these diseases operate, i really fear for my and my community's future in this sinking empire, but the tactics used by ACT UP NY are a great starting point for me to base my own actions on <3

Also i really couldnt enjoy the audiobook to the whole extent bc the narrator kept stumbling over some words and pronouncing some sentences stiltedly, which gave me trouble trying to follow along to what she was saying, but i understand that this is a 27hr audiobook :(

I just cant finish this the audiobook narrator has such a stilted way of reading that got on my nerves and the story itself was so boring and predictable and not spooky at all :(