Naima > Recent Status Updates

i'm just gonna go ahead n call the author a hypocrite for "but she didn't mind seeing women fail either if they weren't using [their minds or tits] effectively" which is. what this book is arguing for. like every time levy calls a woman a bimbo she... isn't delighting in a woman "failing" to do w her body or mind that she wants her to

there's just. so much bullshit in this that i literally have to start tracking it on GR holy shit. 89-96 antisemitism as author levy insinuates that jewish woman/director nevins is an exception to the glass ceiling because she's jewish. countless countless accounts of slutshaming even as she tries to denounce raunch culture..... by blaming the women who are persuaded into it.

honestly am i reading this book or is this book reading me. i'm personally attacked re: 'drinking halal wine for the sophistication of being an adult but not doing someting haram'

"Nasima in the UK says that the internet means it is 'so much easier to access information. For example, if I have a question I can email a mufti." GO OFF OMG

"When asked why they identify as Muslims and how they justify their beliefs and practices, they have gone in search of answers that can satisfy their interrogators as well as their own questions. [...] They work hard to challenge assumptions that they unthinkingly follow traditions of yore. They bristle at the idea that they are Muslim by conditioning, or as a result of being lazy and ignorant." Well, That Hurt.

there are ?? so many ?? characters???
cailey = cutter's brother
lance = Pool Savior, hits on Jency, still married to estranged wife
everett = married bryte, secretly still in love w jency
zell = old woman that takes in cailey
bryte = jency's old best friend, married everett

is it bad that i legit can't remember any of these characters. that there's so. little that actually happened that i can't scrounge up Meaningful Memories about them. time to suffer, i guess

GOD last final of this semester and then i can finally power-read again

this is highkey the slowest book i've ever read.

why is this so dry.... if i wanted to hear abt disillusioned north carolinians i would talk to my extended family

HOLY SHIT THIS TAKES PLACE IN MATTHEWS??????? I LIVE??? JUST OUTSIDE OF MATTHEWS????

(read: i'm gonna be hella critical of how the setting is conveyed)

hahaha holy shit i can not read another word

me, five percent ago; i am maha
me now: I AM MAHAS OLDER SISTER AND I WILL PUNCH WALIDS TEETH OUT

MAHA IS ONLY ONE YEAR YOUNGER THAN ME I WAS WONDERING WHY I WAS RELATING TO HER SO BAD

7% AND IM ALREADY CRYING CMON

ngl the One Thing the book does badly is that it acts like women wearing makeup is Terrible and its better when girls are natural faced like...... calm down if i wanna have winged eyeliner let me Fly

k so holy shit:
deconstruction of 'not like other girls' trope (the 'bitchy shallow blonde' is fleshed out and given human characteristics, the Edgy Girl comes from a bad background, the Preacher's Kid has her own struggles)
refutes every argument against rape culture Ever. the whole "it's really rape but we'll use different language to hide it" is a Theme. So Good
goddamn wouldn't mind alex killing me

this is a long ass book too...... man i'm gonna b exhausted by the time i finish it

I CAN'T BELIEVE THE 'I'M NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS' SHIT STARTED ON 1% ..... WHAT IS THIS

hm.

ahsjdjdh andrew makes me so sad .... vic is awful to him but z is the Worst

pros: neurodivergent MC, good writing, decent plot

cons: abusive relationship that spawned from cheating, internalized misogyny out of the wazoo, Not Like Other Girls trope, everyone is white, all girls are competition for Z, rushed and random attraction, similar set up to twilight's insta-love ("i can't read you" bs)

i'm laughing she's losing it over the fact that he chews juicy fruit what is this

only 4% into this book and already the "all other girls are Shallow and competition" cmon. i'm so tired

zeus is raised by amalthea, whose skin he later uses as a shield. he goes to his cousin metis (known for her wisdom) who says "hey, disguise yourself as cronus' servant and poison him. that'll work out".

cronus then throws up all of his siblings

cronus marries his sister rhea, then ever year for five years, when rhea had a child, he'd literally. eat it immediately. which i guess makes sense given to how he overthrew his own father.
bc gaia is The Best, when rhea was like "hey mom how do i stop him from gobbling up my children", she sends her to Crete to birth Zeus, and having cronus Eat A Rock

after cronus cut his father's dick off, everyone trapped in gaia's womb was freed and gaia's kids stuck in hell were freed. hooray! but then cronus kicks the 100 handed ones and the cyclopes back into hell again (boooo)

after all of that gaia REMAINED pissed, so she birthed typhon, a monster w 100 snake heads that spoke different voices, wings, and was so big his arm-span stretched from 'west to east'.
he actually kicked zeus' ass and ripped his tendons out, and the only reason zeus got them back was bc of pan and hermes- and bc typhon ate mortal food. typhon either became a volcano or got thrown in tartarus