yunsq's reviews
147 reviews

Finished this in the afternoon on a day-off, tucked under my sheets and accompanied by my favourite Taylor swift album...........what more can I ask for

I listened to this on the Libby app and I am glad I did. Accompanied by her narration and a very distinct (and soothing) voice, this book is easy to listen to - almost like an hours-long podcast series. Reviews point towards the need for ruthless editing - but I think brevity is overrated. This book is Aja and that is more than enough for me.

There are two lines that are ingrained in my brain:
We really need to weigh the impact of an action/system over the intention. Intention doesn’t matter when there is harm being done. On "well-meaning" clothing donations
and
A brand's CSR is only as effective as the most marginalised member of their supply chain says it is. On criticising brands' virtue signalling and CSR policies as merely a distraction/PR strategy for brands to continue with status quo

I loved this essay collection. I took a while, by a while I actually mean over a year, to finish these essays. Some of them has completely changed and reframed the way I perceive lives and bodies outside of my own. I will be recommending it to everyone I meet and know and will never shut up about it.

ahhhh i loved the way this book is written. love is an understatement! this book had my heart wrenched and my gut-punched and my stomach twisted throughout. I've learnt so much about Nigeria and Nigerian food and textiles through Adunni, and I appreciated her story a lot. I've got nothing bad to say about the book but maybe that's why it's not a 5 star read??

adunni's words.. 

Emily has a very visceral voice that brings you into experiencing what she’s writing, with her. Don’t read this book for groundbreaking political and feminist theory — it really isn’t that much of a stretch for a beautiful woman to speak depth about the model & fashion industry — let’s normalise that?? We should all be writing stories and have people read them!! But read this book to understand the thoughts, ideas and emotions of a woman (one with extreme privilege), and what she has to say about living in her body. What I took away from the book: Emily, despite the riches and fame she’s obtained from the monetisation of her body and the appearance of working the system in her favour remains to suffer from the true lack of bodily autonomy and independence of the male gaze and the patriarchy. What does this say, about the rest of us, who are not as privileged as Emily? Bodies are suffering and in pain, “model-y” or not. This system will continue to exploit women’s/wxmen’s bodies for pleasure, entertainment and profit. 

Some essays were more hard-hitting than others. The most memorable ones, for me, are Blurred Lines, K-Spa, Pamela and Releases. In fact, I’d be thinking about Releases for a while. 

An easy, lighthearted read that I craved for and delivered!! A YA win for me 🔆🔆

I really want to like this book!! The fact that everything just worked out and fell into place... sits a bit uneasy with me. Idk I need to think about it for awhile but for now it’s a mediocre 3 stars. Lotsa content warnings though please be warned if you’re going to pick it up. 

Lots on my mind. It was a good reading (listening) experience thanks to its captivating second-person narrative and way of storytelling - Blythe (MC) writing to Fox (partner & father to Violet and Sam). 

But the plot twist is imo not that unexpected and I didn’t feel the same harrowing haunted-ness as most people did. I do think that this might’ve been different if I had read the physical book. 

The story itself—has my heart. Not a mother and never would be, but I feel for Blythe. And all mothers. This is a story about how toxic positivity, neglect for mental health & wellbeing and inter-generational trauma can fester into evilness. It’s not as uncommon as we think.

The writing in this book made me feel all types of way. I was grieving, high, anxious and in pain with the characters of the book. The writing style took me a while to get use to (the audiobook really helped and I highly recommend it) but once I did I was fully immersed in Woodson’s storytelling. 

I’m going to be thinking about Iris for a while longer now.