werepsyche's reviews
158 reviews

had to return it to the library

there were certainly pieces i liked, but then they were flipped on their head by the titles that are placed at the bottom of every last stanza.

"it's giving patrick bateman"

was probably the worst offender. may also have to give a shout out to

"i would die for y — oh, j/k lol"

i think kaur is a wonderful poet, i think her experiences and the way she writes about them really give power to the words she writes, but lord. some of these poems just weren't it. they felt like statements, rehashed slogans and phrases i've heard over and over again with no unique take. poetry doesn't to be unique, and poetry can certainly look like this, but i suppose it wasn't really for me.

there were gems in what i considered most of this to be rather uninspired writing wise, though, some poems that i liked, but the numbers are small and quickly dwindled in frequency as the book carried on.

used to stay up most nights going through this book with my brother over and over again when we should have been sleeping. bought it at a scholastic book fair. it's barely keeping itself together now, falling apart with the pages coming right off of the spine LOL

pretty sure i started reading this sometimes in 9th or 10th grade and it was just so boring. don't even remember how far i got into it.

every time i hear about this book i am full of rage. just full of it. never in my life will i ever come near touching this book and the bullshit that is written in this. just read literally any other james dean biography! please, literally any other one! because this one is purely bullshit! surviving james dean by william bast is a beautiful account of bast's relationship with dean and i would much rather everyone go and read that book rather than this one! i am BEGGING YOU. JUSTPLEASE. PL

SURVIVING JAMES DEAN IS AVAILABLE ON ARCHIVE.ORG YOU CAN CHECK IT OUT LIKE A LIBRARY BOOK AND THERE ARE SEVERAL SECONDHAND COPIES ONLINE. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK AND STOP PASSING IT OFF AS TRUTH THANK YOU

it's cute!

this was a really informative book and helped me better grasp the concept of antisemitism and how it still strongly prevails in our society. the parts about zionism versus anti-zionism and the current war between Israel and Palestine was definitely something I needed to desperately learn more about, and it's good to hear it from the perspective of someone who considers themself a staunch zionist (to know what the other side thinks, as I am not a zionist personally) even though there were some things I disagreed with, or wished there was further elaboration on.

edit thinking about it more, this book is good for understanding a little more on antisemitism, but i would not advise reading this if you are looking for information on the israeli-palestinian conflict. especially considering tishby fails to go into detail on the things done to the palestinian people, while explaining she is pro-palestine. like girly please show that, you are reading as very insensitive to the other side of the conflict! also acho really does not dive deeper or ask way more questions and really investigate tishby's words as much as i would have liked. it was still interesting to read, but not enough! not enough!