I have to advocate real quick: as a (queer) Black man and author, it is really important for me to highlight a bias of this thesis because overall I do feel the topic in question is a bit of the issue men having read and reviewed this have had themselves: the role of Black women as fodder to Black boys learning. It is all well and good for Black boys to have the opportunity to grow and learn. However, as illustrated in this story, this typically takes the form of the ways Black girls are invalidated, compartmentalized, diminishes, ignored, trivialized, sexualized, adultified and used for their labour. They are then ignored when it comes time to have sympathy for their pain, their flaws, their mistakes as seen in this narrative. And not to make a point but to make a plot. I am usually in agreement on takes that discuss how and what ways Publishing doesnt allow Black men to exist in fiction or fantasy with our flaws, but i also negotiate that with what would the most marginalized of my already marginalized group feel about things or what is being said about them. Inclusion of Black men should not be a case for why it is cool to grow and learn off the suffering of another. This is also an issue in how this book discusses not Black Queer sexuality, but Black Queer relationships -- a domestic violence situation is side shrugged as just something going on. They treat it as an ornament for how flippant a bisexual man is about sexuality. This is not a thing to feel is light with how rampant that is or how this sort of frame a character whose role in the book is essential just representation. And sadly a very...iffy depiction of the iwa Baron Samedi and ADRs (African Descended Religion) arguing this is acceptable is a part of the problem people who engage Black boyhood to distance from misogyny and non-male aggression would have. The excuse of boys can be boys.
@@dontfretreadbooks Thanks for the space! I haven't done my own personal review or analysis of this book after reading it because it sometimes gets weird to review another author's work with the racialized aspects to how Black people (and men) in literature is received, but it just felt important from my approach to Black men and masculinity to approach.
@@Blaqueword I can imagine there would be some tension there. After this channel started growing I decided I wouldn’t finish my book cause I didn’t wanna be reviewing other authors as an author. And yeah I appreciate you speaking on this. I’m not immune to being a patriarchal asshole and I miss shit.
@dontfretreadbooks unnecessary update: after weeks of the author looking at reviews and encouraging someones harassment of reviewers calling out the books misogyny, i finally spoke up about why that is irresponsible. Then, I released a micro review. This culminated in me being implied as a race traitor and being called two faced with my name posted in a thread to his fanbase. So, while I still recommended this book while personally not liking jt and having issues with the rep, i will no longer be doing that. I posted my full, honest review on a substack and that's my last bit of presence with this book.
The author never encouraged anyone to be attacked. You Steven Underwood have been foaming at the mouth running to every critical or negative review gleefully to spread hate against this book and author, calling up other Black YA authors to trash him, writing negative reviews that are basically dissertations on why you're jealous of this man's success while also putting them behind a paywall, encouraging other people who haven't even read the book to attack him, spreading misinformation about the book including citing things out of context. Instead of spreading lies and hate you should focus on your book that's slated to come out next year. But instead you're upset because he called you out for sliding into his DMs one day begging for attention and the next day writing a 14 page essay accusing him of plagiarism, homophobia, misogyny, etc without being able to actually cite anything from the text to back up your points. Running here to spin tales for sympathy while Black writers in in both the publishing and film industry are warning others not to trust you.
Personally was pretty disappointed with this book. I'm a constant reader of fantasy but burned out on ya a long while back. But magical HBCU?! But the aave was... too put on? Like the author doubted we'd get it unless it was especially layed on thick. I'm black and felt pandered to. And a lot of it felt.... Like a gen x black guy trying real hard lol World building was thin, the college was not believable (seriously hbcu's in my experience are simultaneously bougie and grindstone so the classes being kinda basic was weird. Especially a Black World History course? Those are multidisciplinary and hard as hell where's the essay stress and the crunch readings). Magic was.... extremely hand waving with constant "cuz reasons" as a explaination. Not a ton of actual demonstrated practices of Root or Hoodoo or Voodun in there which was mind boggling since they were cited so much. While i prefer more detailed magic i at least want it grounded in cultural practices that crop up in the book. And yeah the main character was generic and boring. Believable though, true to a jaded black child with a trunk of trauma. Just not exactly compelling as a personality. In fact all the characters were flat, with women/femmes having little to add outside of being cutouts for the plot. The queer characters were a little embrassing (maybe biased as a queer trans reader in a straight protags pov) but naming the bi black guy DL? Come on now. And the politics/ related plot were milquetoast and stale. But can't say more without spoilers but i got the impression the author hasn't spoken to a young black activist, especially one in a leadership role. That was embarrassing. Invented a whole word with magical negroes but **spoiler in paragraph** but not doing anything against systemic racism or writing in nuanced history of how conflict effected history is just kinda lazy or at least a missed opportunity. Glad it exists though and want it's success. Honestly black mediocrity is still a win in the genre cuz the YA genre is still lacking in diverse authors, in spite of what publishers say in their marketing (seriously the numbers are sad). Get authors in the door. Keeping it to a few breakouts who struggle uphil isn't going to change anything. if this was published in the 00s/90s with say high schoolers it would have worked better for what it is.
Said it in the discord and I'll say it again: the book community is cool w/ morally grey characters when they're murderers or assassins but the second a 17 year old boy in a contemporary book shows biases it's the end of the world for some reason. Even though the point of books is character arcs and growth.
Yeah not in "book tube" or tiktok but that's been a frustration with fandom for a while. Honestly a kinda low average (ie socially "normal" or expected) misogynist whose ignorant about queer people is pretty real for a 17 year old young guy in his first year.😅 The book didn't develop any of that or have characters react to those thoughts with ignorant actions but that's a very different critique and honestly? To me it's a meh not outrage. Next to books in genre having relational violence often go unquestioned or genocide & slavery in the fantasy genre for the edginess and not actual part of the plot. Let first books be mid.
@@mellowthm566 for real like this is a debut and happens over the course of like a month? Life takes time! If the future books don’t address that then sure that’s something to address but this book was the Beginning of an arc not the end of one! I think there is definitely change in Malik over the course of this book but, the first book in a series does not need to have a character fix every single flaw. Flaws drive conflict. They drive story. How many romantasies actively idealize toxic character traits? 🫠 so long as we’re not excusing biases (and I don’t think they were in this book, I think the biases took a back seat bc there is frankly too much going on in 400 pages) you can’t make a definitive claim that a book is being problematic. The protagonist felt like a real person rather than an idealized self insert and a lot of white women (this is generalizing I realize) don’t like that.
@@Kat-ge7nn this reminds me of The Taking of Jake Livingston. I think that’s the name of it. 17 year old gay African American and it’s a CONTROVERSIAL book, but the controversy was specifically not HIM, but the shoot pew-pew and how they examined him. People couldn’t understand that because the guy who did the pew pew had a bad life, that it wasn’t an EXCUSE, but an explanation for why the pew-pew happened. The book is also YA, came out in 2021 I think.
Glad to hear your review, I'm not a romantasy fan in the least bit and try to avoid toxic relationships that are portrayed as romantic, it sounds like this book understands toxic relationships aren't healthy and isn't trying to gaslight the reader, which is refreshing. Still I haven't been hearing the best reviews for this book (even after ignoring the Beckys), so I'mma keep it on my TBR but it's less of a priority.
Although this book advertised itself as very progressive (and missed the mark), ACOTAR is written like it's about feminism too and majorly misses the mark. I think since most readers are women, they are more eager to jump on a book written from a male perspective (particularly a black man) while problems from a female perspective like in FW get overlooked. I think it's also a little silly how deeply people are analyzing a basic ass YA book from a political just because the protag is black. How often do other YA books get this treatment? I just hope this doesn't discourage the industry from putting out stuff for young men to encourage them to read more
My thing is so many of the things people are complaining about in this book they're eating up in white books especially white YA. It's not misogynistic for a man to think a woman is attractive. I see some really creepy descriptions of barely legal boys in YA books all the time along the lines of he's a boy but looks like a grown man. We can say Malik is thirsty but most guys that age are and if you listen to the way some of these college students talk (which I've been doing as a part of research for a writing project ) a lot of stuff in this book tracks. And I truly think since we don't read a lot of books in YA written by men for boys it's jarring for some people.
@@MsWOCReader yeah the character actions and thoughts were more in line with a college first year, thirsty, ignorant and immature.... Like a teenager. Definitely sexist overtones but in an average uninformed way. Realistically if he was a feminist or more aware I'd be interested in that since sex ed can be frowned on (at least the consent informed and queer friendly kind) and there could be interesting social friction from him learning it. That'd be a different young black teen tho not Malik.He's also a foster kid .... (Which they ficused on the family angle and a little on how he felt compared to his bougie peers. Kinda wanted more of that). Most of the more credible sexism to me is meta textual, with the cardboard thin development of women but that was a problem for all the characters honestly. There's a plot element where the femme characters have little personal details outside the plot or Malik. It's a first book and in the context of the YA genre it's shenanigans it's fine. The politics are not just centrist and insipid but, not a ya reader so may be wrong, but that's not unusual and are people even critiquing that?. In a wider lens it's mediocre. Which sure I'm disappointed but that's not egregious. It certainly clears the bar in comparison to a lot of things that have been on the best seller's list. Let it be mid and basic 👍🏾 not "problematic". Preferred over dnf-ing a book with a love triangle between a coercive woobie who violated human rights and "the less exciting" guy.
Another peak intro my man! I should have time stamped that part but when you started talking about Malik not knowing much about queer people, it made me remember when my Aunt got a rude awakening that a lot of her friends at Church are in fact gay; meanwhile I knew for YEARS. But then one of her old ex friends (lol) made a comment that made me realize why people like this exist; They aren't trusted so no one tells them so they live in this make believe bubble where all their friends and loved ones are totally straight and nothing is out of the ordinary in their lives. My Aunt is close to 60 btw so when I heard you talk about Malik; I was like "Yeah he just wasn't trusted by the people around him for that info lol"
I was excited for this. So excited. I haven’t been so disappointed since Black Bull. I saw three negative reviews on goodreads and they were all black people, one of them a Black man. I would deeply agree with the assessments in those reviews. Part of the reason I disliked this book is because I grew up in the Bronx in the 90s. I was fostered and adopted by black people. It very much felt like an outsider looking in because of how vehemently the stereotypes are flung at you. Even in the prologue, with listing quintessential Black nicknames for neighbors and family. It just felt like something a suburban kid would imagine.
That bit about an outsider looking in makes sense. I’m from Vancouver and I am pretty suburban. Tbh a lot of the prologue I wasn’t super interested and was waiting for something interesting to happen.
@@dontfretreadbooks I do like your point that not everything is for everyone. I think when I first heard about this book I was expecting something like Virgil from Static Shock goes to college. This wasn’t that, but it has definitely resonated with a lot of people.
In response to 11:30, I think those qualities are appreciated from a women’s perspective cause then it becomes a women’s (or feminine, some feminine boys like this power fantasy too) power fantasy of taking a wild, horrible man (some of these romantic interests are straight up monsters) and bending him to your will emotionally. He can physically hurt you but you can emotionally hurt him is what I see in it. The reason it doesn’t work here is it’s not a female power fantasy, it’s just the toxic traits with out the payoff of a women absorbing that power as her own by making him fall in love with her. So to try and simplify, toxic masculine traits are appreciated by women only when the female blank slate character (think Bella swan, no personality sole purpose is for the reader to pretend to be her) tames him. It’s not healthy or good and I don’t personally like it but I hope that makes sense. Loved the video can’t wait to watch more.
The intro in this video 👏🏾👏🏾 thank you for addressing the things a lot of people are talking about. This book isn’t perfect but I agree with everything you said. There’s nuance that’s missing in a lot of these conversations.
I think more people of colour should review this but the first voices you see are white woman, which skews a book that's possibly good the wrong side of the review section....
Tae isn't cured from diabetes. I thought the book was gonna go there but it actually didn't. He's given bone broth which is said to increase the effects of insulin but there's some mixed convo about if it's helpful or hurtful to diabetics.
Yeah you right I shouldn’t have said cure it was more of a magical remedy. Cause there’s that bit about him wanting to be a chef and open up a restaurant that caters to people with diabetes.
Hi there! I’m glad I gave you the opportunity to explain your stance of this book. I have some similar thoughts and am interested in the 2nd book. The language, even though I speak like him when talking to friends, it was a challenge to see certain words spelled out, but Act III helped me enjoy. Still got smoke for Alexis but very interested in what’s next with these characters 😊
I think when you have a character be kinda shit, but it's the first book in a series, it's a little premature to make definitive claims about bias cuz you only have one piece of the puzzle. But when the whole series is done? That's fair game imo. I've only seen Listen2Kristen's review of this book (i think) so my opinions on it are kinda just "hmm... dunno how to feel about that."
This!!! Also I hate when ppl confuse characters with bad views / behavior = bad character development. Like assholish ppl exist in the world hello and it’s good to show characters reflect that bias
My only issue with that is the series isnt a single book, so ppl can make criticisms of this book in particular without having to read the rest of the series if they're frustrated. Some ppl don't want to sign up for that journey, and that's fine.
@@colleen6644 Well they can still criticize it. But I wouldn't make claims like "this is misogynistic/homophobic/etc as a whole" because you haven't finished the whole story. Not that I've seen that with this particular book/series, but I have seen it with plenty of other stories. It's like when people started claiming ATLA was misogynistic because one of the mcs had an arc about unlearning sexism.
I enjoyed the book in part because the author is playing with some magical school tropes and I thought it was interesting. If a person hasn’t read magical school books, I can see that they would enjoy it less. Also I was encouraged to see Malik have flaws because that makes me want to read the next books and see how he develops. I can see how some people were disappointed because their hopes were so high for a black boy magical school book.
I think i can still read this book in the future. I feel like it'd be a "your mileage may vary" situation. These reviews at least prepare me for ehat to expect.
Internalized homophobia exists tho!!! It’s good for kids to read it and realize they have it and then learn they can work on it the way Malik hopefully will
I love school and do well at it but I don't want to read about in a book. Singing about boots seems a great way to mesh those hobbies. Do more. (But we still wanna read your stories...)
😂 i stan for black mediocrity. Seriously if drivel is allowed in the best sellers list then non white (in this case black) authors deserve the same consideration. A lot of the critiques aren't exactly wrong but compared to other popular books yeah no nowhere near the gross troupes of the genre. Bout the homophobia/misogynoir yeah it's there at "socially status quo" level but it's more other characters don't comment on it since it's in his head (barring some dialogue). A lot of insecure young man thoughts in there but there's no commentary or development on it. Yeah the romance being codependent and fast as all hell but didn't feel inauthentic. These kids likely didn't get sex ed, let alone consent ed... In the South public ed? In this day of book bans? The books flaw is there's little character development with those character flaws or even real commentary. Yeah the pacing is waaay too fast in general. Still would have liked stumbling across it when i was a teen, would have criticized it all hell but liked that I found it on the shelves.
Hmm to me it seems like the author was not intentionally making malik “morally grey” so will he grow in that regard? not if the author never found the homophobia snd sexism to be something to challenge in the story lol. this is just what ive gathered from listening to the author and others who have read the book tho
I can understand why so many ppl are saying this book is problematic. But also, I thinks it's BS to hold Black men to a higher standard, like "he should've know better." We need to stop making BIPOC ppl work twice as hard to earn the same respect as a white person on easy mode. Especially since this takes place in the American South, where systemic rcsm is the just the system. It's great that a lot of people are able to identify the rcsm and misogyny within the story, but again, even BIPOC ppl need to unlearn internalized rcsm and men, internalized misogyny. This might not be the case for the author, but it seems to be for the mc. Yes, overcoming internalized misogyny and rcsm could've been a stronger part of his character arc, but it doesn't need to be just bc he's Black. In other female led romantasy stories, you almost never have the fmc overcome internalized misogyny and realize her existence doesn't need to revolve around male attention, or recognize the unfair and harmful privilege of her white skin. So, stop it, Becky
@@dontfretreadbooks I would love to hear your thoughts because I haven't heard a lot of people talk about it in general but since it did not get much promo I haven't seen any reviews from Black men.
Dresden has one of the most misoginist protags but ppl love that book. Malik could easily grow over the other books so why isn’t he allowed to have flaws?? Cuz he’s black?! Sounds like he comes from the kinda trauma bg that warrants bad behavior Yarros is way worse on so many levels
the people who have been criticizing malik are not at all the same people who praise the dresden files like... c'mon. i personally am not saying that a teenage protagonist in the first entry of a ya series can't grow and learn, but people can be critical of multiple characters at once for the same reasons in equal measure.
@@naomi9354 it was an example. I’m not saying that specific people say specific things. But There are many examples of black writers and characters being held to higher moral standards for things white writers and characters are more easily forgoven for
The Spiderverse movies are the only Spider Man movies I have watched, and I do not endeavour to change that. I dunno but Marvel has never grabbed me when it was in its prime and now there are like a million movies and I‘m like nope.
I have to advocate real quick: as a (queer) Black man and author, it is really important for me to highlight a bias of this thesis because overall I do feel the topic in question is a bit of the issue men having read and reviewed this have had themselves: the role of Black women as fodder to Black boys learning. It is all well and good for Black boys to have the opportunity to grow and learn. However, as illustrated in this story, this typically takes the form of the ways Black girls are invalidated, compartmentalized, diminishes, ignored, trivialized, sexualized, adultified and used for their labour. They are then ignored when it comes time to have sympathy for their pain, their flaws, their mistakes as seen in this narrative. And not to make a point but to make a plot. I am usually in agreement on takes that discuss how and what ways Publishing doesnt allow Black men to exist in fiction or fantasy with our flaws, but i also negotiate that with what would the most marginalized of my already marginalized group feel about things or what is being said about them. Inclusion of Black men should not be a case for why it is cool to grow and learn off the suffering of another. This is also an issue in how this book discusses not Black Queer sexuality, but Black Queer relationships -- a domestic violence situation is side shrugged as just something going on. They treat it as an ornament for how flippant a bisexual man is about sexuality. This is not a thing to feel is light with how rampant that is or how this sort of frame a character whose role in the book is essential just representation. And sadly a very...iffy depiction of the iwa Baron Samedi and ADRs (African Descended Religion) arguing this is acceptable is a part of the problem people who engage Black boyhood to distance from misogyny and non-male aggression would have. The excuse of boys can be boys.
Thank you for sharing and calling me out on my bullshit. Appreciate the time it took to craft this comment.
@@dontfretreadbooks Thanks for the space! I haven't done my own personal review or analysis of this book after reading it because it sometimes gets weird to review another author's work with the racialized aspects to how Black people (and men) in literature is received, but it just felt important from my approach to Black men and masculinity to approach.
@@Blaqueword I can imagine there would be some tension there. After this channel started growing I decided I wouldn’t finish my book cause I didn’t wanna be reviewing other authors as an author. And yeah I appreciate you speaking on this. I’m not immune to being a patriarchal asshole and I miss shit.
@dontfretreadbooks unnecessary update: after weeks of the author looking at reviews and encouraging someones harassment of reviewers calling out the books misogyny, i finally spoke up about why that is irresponsible. Then, I released a micro review. This culminated in me being implied as a race traitor and being called two faced with my name posted in a thread to his fanbase. So, while I still recommended this book while personally not liking jt and having issues with the rep, i will no longer be doing that. I posted my full, honest review on a substack and that's my last bit of presence with this book.
The author never encouraged anyone to be attacked. You Steven Underwood have been foaming at the mouth running to every critical or negative review gleefully to spread hate against this book and author, calling up other Black YA authors to trash him, writing negative reviews that are basically dissertations on why you're jealous of this man's success while also putting them behind a paywall, encouraging other people who haven't even read the book to attack him, spreading misinformation about the book including citing things out of context. Instead of spreading lies and hate you should focus on your book that's slated to come out next year. But instead you're upset because he called you out for sliding into his DMs one day begging for attention and the next day writing a 14 page essay accusing him of plagiarism, homophobia, misogyny, etc without being able to actually cite anything from the text to back up your points. Running here to spin tales for sympathy while Black writers in in both the publishing and film industry are warning others not to trust you.
Personally was pretty disappointed with this book. I'm a constant reader of fantasy but burned out on ya a long while back. But magical HBCU?! But the aave was... too put on? Like the author doubted we'd get it unless it was especially layed on thick. I'm black and felt pandered to. And a lot of it felt.... Like a gen x black guy trying real hard lol
World building was thin, the college was not believable (seriously hbcu's in my experience are simultaneously bougie and grindstone so the classes being kinda basic was weird. Especially a Black World History course? Those are multidisciplinary and hard as hell where's the essay stress and the crunch readings). Magic was.... extremely hand waving with constant "cuz reasons" as a explaination. Not a ton of actual demonstrated practices of Root or Hoodoo or Voodun in there which was mind boggling since they were cited so much. While i prefer more detailed magic i at least want it grounded in cultural practices that crop up in the book.
And yeah the main character was generic and boring. Believable though, true to a jaded black child with a trunk of trauma. Just not exactly compelling as a personality. In fact all the characters were flat, with women/femmes having little to add outside of being cutouts for the plot. The queer characters were a little embrassing (maybe biased as a queer trans reader in a straight protags pov) but naming the bi black guy DL? Come on now.
And the politics/ related plot were milquetoast and stale. But can't say more without spoilers but i got the impression the author hasn't spoken to a young black activist, especially one in a leadership role. That was embarrassing. Invented a whole word with magical negroes but **spoiler in paragraph** but not doing anything against systemic racism or writing in nuanced history of how conflict effected history is just kinda lazy or at least a missed opportunity.
Glad it exists though and want it's success. Honestly black mediocrity is still a win in the genre cuz the YA genre is still lacking in diverse authors, in spite of what publishers say in their marketing (seriously the numbers are sad). Get authors in the door. Keeping it to a few breakouts who struggle uphil isn't going to change anything. if this was published in the 00s/90s with say high schoolers it would have worked better for what it is.
That bit about never talking to a young Black activist is a bar 🔥
I love your comment so much. It explains exactly how I felt about it. And the line about black mediocrity 💯
Said it in the discord and I'll say it again: the book community is cool w/ morally grey characters when they're murderers or assassins but the second a 17 year old boy in a contemporary book shows biases it's the end of the world for some reason. Even though the point of books is character arcs and growth.
Yeah not in "book tube" or tiktok but that's been a frustration with fandom for a while. Honestly a kinda low average (ie socially "normal" or expected) misogynist whose ignorant about queer people is pretty real for a 17 year old young guy in his first year.😅 The book didn't develop any of that or have characters react to those thoughts with ignorant actions but that's a very different critique and honestly? To me it's a meh not outrage. Next to books in genre having relational violence often go unquestioned or genocide & slavery in the fantasy genre for the edginess and not actual part of the plot. Let first books be mid.
@@mellowthm566 for real like this is a debut and happens over the course of like a month? Life takes time! If the future books don’t address that then sure that’s something to address but this book was the Beginning of an arc not the end of one! I think there is definitely change in Malik over the course of this book but, the first book in a series does not need to have a character fix every single flaw. Flaws drive conflict. They drive story. How many romantasies actively idealize toxic character traits? 🫠 so long as we’re not excusing biases (and I don’t think they were in this book, I think the biases took a back seat bc there is frankly too much going on in 400 pages) you can’t make a definitive claim that a book is being problematic. The protagonist felt like a real person rather than an idealized self insert and a lot of white women (this is generalizing I realize) don’t like that.
200%
@@Kat-ge7nn this reminds me of The Taking of Jake Livingston.
I think that’s the name of it.
17 year old gay African American and it’s a CONTROVERSIAL book, but the controversy was specifically not HIM, but the shoot pew-pew and how they examined him.
People couldn’t understand that because the guy who did the pew pew had a bad life, that it wasn’t an EXCUSE, but an explanation for why the pew-pew happened.
The book is also YA, came out in 2021 I think.
Glad to hear your review, I'm not a romantasy fan in the least bit and try to avoid toxic relationships that are portrayed as romantic, it sounds like this book understands toxic relationships aren't healthy and isn't trying to gaslight the reader, which is refreshing. Still I haven't been hearing the best reviews for this book (even after ignoring the Beckys), so I'mma keep it on my TBR but it's less of a priority.
I dunno who Becky is but I’ll steer clear
THE INTRO THOOOOO LETS GO
Just wait till I think of a reason to use my keyboard
I love the music at the start of your videos now ❤ Im so glad youre able to incorporate it even so casually sometimes
MUSIC INTROOOOOOO
Yeah I feel like this bit is getting out of hand 😅
Noooo it’s so good
Although this book advertised itself as very progressive (and missed the mark), ACOTAR is written like it's about feminism too and majorly misses the mark. I think since most readers are women, they are more eager to jump on a book written from a male perspective (particularly a black man) while problems from a female perspective like in FW get overlooked. I think it's also a little silly how deeply people are analyzing a basic ass YA book from a political just because the protag is black. How often do other YA books get this treatment? I just hope this doesn't discourage the industry from putting out stuff for young men to encourage them to read more
My thing is so many of the things people are complaining about in this book they're eating up in white books especially white YA. It's not misogynistic for a man to think a woman is attractive. I see some really creepy descriptions of barely legal boys in YA books all the time along the lines of he's a boy but looks like a grown man. We can say Malik is thirsty but most guys that age are and if you listen to the way some of these college students talk (which I've been doing as a part of research for a writing project ) a lot of stuff in this book tracks. And I truly think since we don't read a lot of books in YA written by men for boys it's jarring for some people.
@@MsWOCReader yeah the character actions and thoughts were more in line with a college first year, thirsty, ignorant and immature.... Like a teenager. Definitely sexist overtones but in an average uninformed way. Realistically if he was a feminist or more aware I'd be interested in that since sex ed can be frowned on (at least the consent informed and queer friendly kind) and there could be interesting social friction from him learning it. That'd be a different young black teen tho not Malik.He's also a foster kid .... (Which they ficused on the family angle and a little on how he felt compared to his bougie peers. Kinda wanted more of that).
Most of the more credible sexism to me is meta textual, with the cardboard thin development of women but that was a problem for all the characters honestly. There's a plot element where the femme characters have little personal details outside the plot or Malik. It's a first book and in the context of the YA genre it's shenanigans it's fine. The politics are not just centrist and insipid but, not a ya reader so may be wrong, but that's not unusual and are people even critiquing that?. In a wider lens it's mediocre.
Which sure I'm disappointed but that's not egregious. It certainly clears the bar in comparison to a lot of things that have been on the best seller's list. Let it be mid and basic 👍🏾 not "problematic". Preferred over dnf-ing a book with a love triangle between a coercive woobie who violated human rights and "the less exciting" guy.
This is the first I’m hearing you sing, my god you have the voice of an angel 🥹🤩😍
That’s the nicest comment I’ve gotten in a long time thank you
The music intro AND outro??? Truly spoiling us!
I think you’re the only person to who watched to the end 😅😂
Another peak intro my man! I should have time stamped that part but when you started talking about Malik not knowing much about queer people, it made me remember when my Aunt got a rude awakening that a lot of her friends at Church are in fact gay; meanwhile I knew for YEARS. But then one of her old ex friends (lol) made a comment that made me realize why people like this exist; They aren't trusted so no one tells them so they live in this make believe bubble where all their friends and loved ones are totally straight and nothing is out of the ordinary in their lives. My Aunt is close to 60 btw so when I heard you talk about Malik; I was like "Yeah he just wasn't trusted by the people around him for that info lol"
I was excited for this. So excited. I haven’t been so disappointed since Black Bull. I saw three negative reviews on goodreads and they were all black people, one of them a Black man. I would deeply agree with the assessments in those reviews. Part of the reason I disliked this book is because I grew up in the Bronx in the 90s. I was fostered and adopted by black people. It very much felt like an outsider looking in because of how vehemently the stereotypes are flung at you. Even in the prologue, with listing quintessential Black nicknames for neighbors and family. It just felt like something a suburban kid would imagine.
That bit about an outsider looking in makes sense. I’m from Vancouver and I am pretty suburban. Tbh a lot of the prologue I wasn’t super interested and was waiting for something interesting to happen.
@@dontfretreadbooks I do like your point that not everything is for everyone. I think when I first heard about this book I was expecting something like Virgil from Static Shock goes to college. This wasn’t that, but it has definitely resonated with a lot of people.
@wander.1ost ngl: Virgil Hawkins goes to college would’ve been better and now I’m sad 😭
In response to 11:30, I think those qualities are appreciated from a women’s perspective cause then it becomes a women’s (or feminine, some feminine boys like this power fantasy too) power fantasy of taking a wild, horrible man (some of these romantic interests are straight up monsters) and bending him to your will emotionally. He can physically hurt you but you can emotionally hurt him is what I see in it. The reason it doesn’t work here is it’s not a female power fantasy, it’s just the toxic traits with out the payoff of a women absorbing that power as her own by making him fall in love with her. So to try and simplify, toxic masculine traits are appreciated by women only when the female blank slate character (think Bella swan, no personality sole purpose is for the reader to pretend to be her) tames him. It’s not healthy or good and I don’t personally like it but I hope that makes sense. Loved the video can’t wait to watch more.
The intro in this video 👏🏾👏🏾 thank you for addressing the things a lot of people are talking about. This book isn’t perfect but I agree with everything you said. There’s nuance that’s missing in a lot of these conversations.
Thank you so much for watching!
I think more people of colour should review this but the first voices you see are white woman, which skews a book that's possibly good the wrong side of the review section....
Tae isn't cured from diabetes. I thought the book was gonna go there but it actually didn't. He's given bone broth which is said to increase the effects of insulin but there's some mixed convo about if it's helpful or hurtful to diabetics.
Yeah you right I shouldn’t have said cure it was more of a magical remedy. Cause there’s that bit about him wanting to be a chef and open up a restaurant that caters to people with diabetes.
Hi there!
I’m glad I gave you the opportunity to explain your stance of this book. I have some similar thoughts and am interested in the 2nd book. The language, even though I speak like him when talking to friends, it was a challenge to see certain words spelled out, but Act III helped me enjoy. Still got smoke for Alexis but very interested in what’s next with these characters 😊
I think when you have a character be kinda shit, but it's the first book in a series, it's a little premature to make definitive claims about bias cuz you only have one piece of the puzzle.
But when the whole series is done? That's fair game imo.
I've only seen Listen2Kristen's review of this book (i think) so my opinions on it are kinda just "hmm... dunno how to feel about that."
This!!! Also I hate when ppl confuse characters with bad views / behavior = bad character development. Like assholish ppl exist in the world hello and it’s good to show characters reflect that bias
My only issue with that is the series isnt a single book, so ppl can make criticisms of this book in particular without having to read the rest of the series if they're frustrated. Some ppl don't want to sign up for that journey, and that's fine.
@@colleen6644 Well they can still criticize it. But I wouldn't make claims like "this is misogynistic/homophobic/etc as a whole" because you haven't finished the whole story. Not that I've seen that with this particular book/series, but I have seen it with plenty of other stories.
It's like when people started claiming ATLA was misogynistic because one of the mcs had an arc about unlearning sexism.
Intros just keep getting better
Thank you I’m glad people are enjoying them
I enjoyed the book in part because the author is playing with some magical school tropes and I thought it was interesting. If a person hasn’t read magical school books, I can see that they would enjoy it less. Also I was encouraged to see Malik have flaws because that makes me want to read the next books and see how he develops.
I can see how some people were disappointed because their hopes were so high for a black boy magical school book.
20:56 was a read on the Empyrium series. Specifically with the main character and her love interest 😂
I think i can still read this book in the future. I feel like it'd be a "your mileage may vary" situation. These reviews at least prepare me for ehat to expect.
That’s the benefit from mixed reviews I think.
the song… you’re kinda my king
I dunno about all that 😅 I’d be a bad king
Internalized homophobia exists tho!!! It’s good for kids to read it and realize they have it and then learn they can work on it the way Malik hopefully will
Hopefully. I know if the next book is more of the same I probably won’t stick with it.
I love school and do well at it but I don't want to read about in a book. Singing about boots seems a great way to mesh those hobbies. Do more. (But we still wanna read your stories...)
I think you’re the only one who wants to read something I write
@@dontfretreadbooks nah, I'm just the only one saying anything. 😄 But I'll stay quiet until you slip up next time, okay? LOL
@@76kilosofshade81 ight deal 🫱🏻🫲🏾
@@dontfretreadbooks ✌
Yoo your singing in the outro and into is fire
This music intros have been awesome!!! Nice job
Thank you 🙏🏽 i thought it was just gonna be a dumb one off bit. but it’s nice to hear people roll with it.
😂 i stan for black mediocrity. Seriously if drivel is allowed in the best sellers list then non white (in this case black) authors deserve the same consideration. A lot of the critiques aren't exactly wrong but compared to other popular books yeah no nowhere near the gross troupes of the genre.
Bout the homophobia/misogynoir yeah it's there at "socially status quo" level but it's more other characters don't comment on it since it's in his head (barring some dialogue). A lot of insecure young man thoughts in there but there's no commentary or development on it. Yeah the romance being codependent and fast as all hell but didn't feel inauthentic. These kids likely didn't get sex ed, let alone consent ed... In the South public ed? In this day of book bans? The books flaw is there's little character development with those character flaws or even real commentary.
Yeah the pacing is waaay too fast in general. Still would have liked stumbling across it when i was a teen, would have criticized it all hell but liked that I found it on the shelves.
Unrelated: your pfp is incredible
"I like this book but I wanted to love it" --yup, that sums my feelings up exactly
Thanks for your hard work- i think im gonna add this to my to read list after your review!
Thank you for the support :)
Hmm to me it seems like the author was not intentionally making malik “morally grey” so will he grow in that regard? not if the author never found the homophobia snd sexism to be something to challenge in the story lol. this is just what ive gathered from listening to the author and others who have read the book tho
Dang if the author didn’t mean for the character to be flawed that’s disconcerting.
MUSIC INTRO LETS GOOOO
I can understand why so many ppl are saying this book is problematic. But also, I thinks it's BS to hold Black men to a higher standard, like "he should've know better." We need to stop making BIPOC ppl work twice as hard to earn the same respect as a white person on easy mode. Especially since this takes place in the American South, where systemic rcsm is the just the system.
It's great that a lot of people are able to identify the rcsm and misogyny within the story, but again, even BIPOC ppl need to unlearn internalized rcsm and men, internalized misogyny. This might not be the case for the author, but it seems to be for the mc. Yes, overcoming internalized misogyny and rcsm could've been a stronger part of his character arc, but it doesn't need to be just bc he's Black.
In other female led romantasy stories, you almost never have the fmc overcome internalized misogyny and realize her existence doesn't need to revolve around male attention, or recognize the unfair and harmful privilege of her white skin. So, stop it, Becky
I really enjoyed your video!
Thanks for watching!!
What you said about this book making you want to write something. That's the same feeling I had.
Have you read Legends and Lattes?
Yes I have
If you're still reading Black man fantasies I would love to hear your thoughts on Neverwraith by Shakir Rashaan it hasn't been getting much love.
I looked it up and this sounds dope. Definitely on the list now! Thank you for sharing.
@@dontfretreadbooks I would love to hear your thoughts because I haven't heard a lot of people talk about it in general but since it did not get much promo I haven't seen any reviews from Black men.
Dresden has one of the most misoginist protags but ppl love that book. Malik could easily grow over the other books so why isn’t he allowed to have flaws?? Cuz he’s black?! Sounds like he comes from the kinda trauma bg that warrants bad behavior
Yarros is way worse on so many levels
the people who have been criticizing malik are not at all the same people who praise the dresden files like... c'mon. i personally am not saying that a teenage protagonist in the first entry of a ya series can't grow and learn, but people can be critical of multiple characters at once for the same reasons in equal measure.
I dunno this series but it’s come up a lot when I’ve talked about this book.
Yeah that’s fair. I was speaking pretty generally. it would be pretty wild to think each individual person held a double standard.
@@naomi9354 it was an example. I’m not saying that specific people say specific things. But There are many examples of black writers and characters being held to higher moral standards for things white writers and characters are more easily forgoven for
34:54 i think so?? The only superhero movies i like are the spiderverse movies. Im so tired of marvel and superheros lol.
The Spiderverse movies are the only Spider Man movies I have watched, and I do not endeavour to change that. I dunno but Marvel has never grabbed me when it was in its prime and now there are like a million movies and I‘m like nope.
@internetsuchtixd747 spiderverse is hype