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I went into this completely blind. The writing is brilliant but I have no idea wtf I am reading 🥴

This is one of few YA books that left a lasting impression on me. Let's see if it holds up 5 years later 🤞🏻

(English title: Humankind. A hopeful history)
I'm a misanthrope who believes that the majority of humans are inherently selfish, cruel, and devoid of compassion. Some individuals are born kind, sure, but they are the exception. A good friend challenged me to read this book thinking it would change my mind, as it did hers. I'm curious to learn what the author has to offer.

bummed to say that this is super boring so far. The characters are dull, the love interests have zero chemistry, the chapters are much too wordy with almost no content, and the audio narrator doesn't help either with his performance being stilted and characterless

I picked up this book bc I thought it was queer, what with the titular character being queer. But so far it's mainly about the people around Vivek, his parents, aunt and uncle, his mother's friend circle and their children, all of whom are straight. Ergo this book is like all the other straight books: selfish toxic men, abusive cheating husbands, emotionally unavailable absent fathers. I'm sick of all of this.

3/3 AND STILL women allow those kinds of men around their children. WHY!!!???!?!!! Fuck men! You don't need them! They only bring you sorrow and pain, abuse and trauma, and for what?? Get a good vibrator and save yourself the useless violent meatsack attached to the dick you seem to crave so much!

2/3 while my kokum and mum yelled for him to stop. "Boys don't" - smack - "dance with" - smack - "boys" - smack. The sound of his leather belt slapping against the bare skin of my ass crackled throughout the house."

1/3 "When I got home and excitedly told my kokum what had happened, she laughed and patted me on the arm, and my mum reacted in much the same fashion. But Roger, overhearing our excitement, unbuckled his belt, pulled it out of his loops, and doubled it over in his hands like a bullwhip. He grabbed me by the back of my shirt collar, bent me over the table, pulled down my underwear, and gave me one hell of a lickin.

very literary and not very enjoyable

Kicking off Pride reading with this one 🌈🤗

This random collection of anecdotes is not only choppy and disconnected, but also utterly uninteresting

The only thing standing between Constantine getting everything he wants – his dream job and his dream guy – is his mother, and isn’t that a sad thing. Aren’t parents supposed to cheer you on when you try to achieve your goals instead of stand in the way and actively being the biggest hurdle to overcome?

Isn’t it sad that both Con and Julian have to lead their relationships in secret bc of their controlling mother. They can't have anything for themselves without her breathing down their necks with her unsolicited opinions about every aspect of their lives. It's infuriating that these grown men can’t have any privacy unless they hide entire parts of their lives from everyone so she will leave them in f*ing peace.

I hate Con’s mother. Parents are supposed to help their children grow, not stunt their growth by guilt-tripping them for a DECADE for a teenage mistake. She is actively preventing him from becoming an independent self-actualised adult just bc she enjoys having power over him, exploiting his obedience which he thinks he owes her. It’s sick and I wish her sons would stop moulding their entire lives around her tyranny.

This is decent but I'm not feeling it. Not a fan of the unnecessarily verbose language Hulda uses, I don't perceive it as charming or smart but as a waste of time and space; also, it comes across as affected, trying too hard, not authentic at all

Boring; too wordy and drawn-out, lots of unnecessary verbiage, trite and formulaic writing

Joyce Carol Oates calls this "a near-perfect work of art." Sure, if boring your readers to death is an artform.

The affection between these guys is so beautiful and moving, I am swooning my way through this book ❤️

For once in an m/m book I want a female best friend who can be the bigger person; is not ruled by her feelings; can put her own problems second when someone else is in worse pain; and does NOT MAKE EVERYTHING ABOUT HERSELF. Jesus fuck, you'd think that all these female authors who write m/m could produce one single good female character who isn't a needy, selfish crybaby.

Bella's behaviour is inappropriate and straight-out disgusting. If a man were groping a woman like that without invitation/consent, everyone whould cry sexual assault (rightfully so). She grosses me out. This is not funny and not cool.

I can't believe the author forgot her protagonist's name 🙈 His name is Drams, but she constantly calls him Dram. Also, the dumpling place Arthur and Martin like to visit after the library on Saturdays suddenly is a noodle place... Maybe Soto should have re-read His Quiet Agent before writing the sequel, just saying