The Red Word

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In this tale, I wonder if the feminists take things too far to make a point, but then the despicable behaviour by the frat boys rape culture is accepted as the norm by society ā€¦so how else can these behaviours be changed?

An incredibly thought provoking tale, that reminded me of Fay Weldon‘s books a little. This is going to stay with me for a long time ā€¦for me this is a must read and a favourite for 2019ā€¦.

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BooksForEmpathy

The Red Word | Sarah Henstra

Close up of our favorite earl grey crepe cake š¨°! It‘s our last day in Shanghai and we are doing a ā€tour of favoritesā€¯ as we say goodbye to this city. We are starting off at our favorite cafe for tea and cake and espresso (called Drops!) and some reading before heading off to sesame noodles for breakfast/brunch!

Soubhiville Oh wow, that looks amazing! 6y

mcipher That cake looks awesome! Have a great last day - sounds like a fabulous trip. š 6y

Texreader I love that idea! The tour of favorites! Have a ball! 6y

Kalalalatja Omg that cake looks sooooo goooood š¤¤š¤¤š¤¤š¤¤ 6y

84 likes4 comments

BooksForEmpathy

The Red Word | Sarah Henstra

Ian snuck out for this picture and I‘m glad he did! A wonderful spot by the open window this afternoon for reading and matcha mint tea ā€ļø¸š¨µ. It‘s warm today and we have plans to go visit the Shanghai Tower later (second tallest building in the world!).

The tagged book is so good! College and Greek mythology and women and feminism and Greek life. I wish I had read it before I rushed a sorority in college - I deactivated two years in.

Cinfhen Great photo!!! So vibrant!!!!! 6y

Heideschrampf š¨ 6y

saresmoore Lovely! 6y

71 likes2 stack adds3 comments

BooksForEmpathy

The Red Word | Sarah Henstra

Hello!! Here‘s my dinner and my new #bookmail! Thanks for the rec @mauveandrosysky ššš.

mauveandrosysky I‘m reallllllly itching to talk about this one. Can‘t wait to hear what you think. 7y

80 likes1 comment

mauveandrosysky

The Red Word | Sarah Henstra

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The Red Word is like The Secret History if it were about campus rape culture in the 1990s. Rooted in Greek mythology, it is itself a modern myth, as it pits the Gamma Beta Chi fraternity and a group of radical feminists against one another in an epic battle. I found this book utterly captivating, but with some caveats. See my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2196747804?book_show_action=false&from_rev...

saresmoore I hear you on the greater responsibility issue. I wonder if contemporary authors are playing with fire when they venture into the realm of speculation without prescience, especially in feminist lit. 7y

mauveandrosysky @saresmoore part of me wants to be able to read fiction without assigning it that level of responsibility, but it‘s harder and harder for me to do that. 7y

saresmoore The times they are a-changin‘. I think about The Handmaid‘s Tale and how much it‘s meaning has changed in the short years since it‘s been published. Or even classic authors, whose work wasn‘t deemed feminist until many years post-publication. I think it‘s okay for fiction not to be enduring, but because of the intensity of our present reality, we as readers are craving that responsibility in fiction, as in all areas of life. 7y

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batsy

The Red Word | Sarah Henstra

pan

The more I think about it, the more I dislike it. Set in a 90s US college campus, this is marketed as a complex novel about rape culture that pits a fraternity against a radical feminist group. Woven into the narrative are allusions to Greek tragedies & myth. In the end, I felt that it exonerated men for not knowing better & made out feminists to be the "extremist" villains. Hard to sum up in 451 characters; a longer review: https://goo.gl/Xw15XL

Redwritinghood Interesting. I downloaded this from Hoopla, but haven‘t read it yet. Maybe this is a pass. There‘s lots of other great stuff out there to read. 7y

Jess_Read_This Wow. Sounds like one I need to avoid. Great review! 7y

batsy @Redwritinghood This surprised me, because I thought it will be a pick. But I grew increasingly uncomfortable with how certain things were presented. Also, the heavy-handed Greek tragedy aesthetic should have been totally omitted by a very strict editor š¬ 7y

See All 34 Comments

batsy @Jess_Read_This Thank you! I don't want to put you off it if the concept interests you but yeah, I found it disappointing... 7y

Jess_Read_This @batsy I think there is too many off putting components for this one to be enjoyable for me. Your GR review was fantastic in explaining the book in depth. I had heard about the book but nothing in depth about it. 7y

OSChamberlain I was gonna say at least it has a pretty cover but the red banner annoys me. Lol. 7y

Kalalalatja I hadn‘t heard about it before, but I doubt I will pick it up now, even though I‘m usually down with everything related to rape culture. But this just sounds ugh... š 7y

erzascarletbookgasm Ugh! Great review over at GR. Rape culture is a trigger for me, so staying away. 7y

batsy @OSChamberlain š† 7y

batsy @Jess_Read_This @Kalalalatja Yes, I found myself getting angry. I think when writing about something like this you need to have a sense of responsibility (keeping in mind survivors), and I don't really sense that in this book. 7y

batsy @erzascarletbookgasm Thank you. And yes, in that case, I definitely recommend not reading this one. 7y

Ms_T Great review as always š‘¸š¸» 7y

batsy @Ms_T Thank you :) 7y

twohectobooks Your goodreads review on this is A+ 7y

saresmoore I was just having a discussion with my husband about how men are exonerated for their behavior and women are lumped into extremism. Every. Time. Then, my family was telling me how crazy I sound calling myself a feminist because they associate the term with radicalism! !!! I‘m vicariously frustrated by this book and, you know, culture, the world, humanity. 7y

Leftcoastzen Wow I admire your review and your ability to to stick with it ,sounds like my review would be ā€fā€”- this and fling,oh , wait,no fling since it is on a device.š€š¬ 7y

batsy @twohectobooks Thank you! I felt bad for a bit because it's her debut adult novel, so I felt like I had to explain my issues at length š… 7y

readordierachel Nope! I was looking forward to this one based on the description. Glad to read your review, as now I will avoid. So frustrating, and maybe irresponsible if the authors point was to call out rape culture but ended up demonizing feminists instead? 7y

batsy @saresmoore Oh, I commiserate about the state of culture, the world, and humanity š£ Just the other day someone in my family made a disparaging comment about feminism, too š�š� And this book. The author claims that it came out of the kind of discussions she had with her academic colleagues about feminism. But Sara, I don't know what's the point of making feminists appear awful in this book. The real world already exists to scapegoat feminism. 7y

sloanghost Amazing review--and I don't hate to say pretentious, so I'll say it sounds pretentious as heck! A quick note not to be nitpicky but I believe the most up to date parlance is "trans women" with a space--as "trans" is a neutral attribute of a woman rather than a different "species" of woman, much like you wouldn't refer to "blondewomen" or "gaywomen" or what have you. 7y

batsy @Leftcoastzen Hahaha, yeah I have to guard my device with my life, no flinging of ebooks š‚ It was an ARC so I felt I had to see it through, and I was also hoping that getting to the end will help me understand (it didn't). 7y

batsy @ReadOrDieRachel Exactly! I don't get it. I was similarly looking forward to it based on all the blurbs. 7y

batsy @sloanghost Oh no, not nitpicky at all! Thank you for that, I shall go back and edit it. 7y

RohitSawant Loved your GR review! Thorough & satisfyingly scathing š”�š”�š‘¸š¸¼š‘¸š¸¼ There's enough real-world demonizaton & distortion of feminism & a toxic 'boys will be boys' culture as it is without any attempt, regardless of the author's intention, to normalize it in fiction, and that too in a poor, pretentious way. If that's what you want all you have to do is open Twitter. 7y

batsy @rohit-sawant Thank you! And yes to everything you said, you put it so much better than I could. That's exactly it. It's driving me up the wall because it's just everything that you already see in real lifeā€”feminists are unstable and illogical and frat boys can do no wrong, even when they do. 7y

Reggie Wow, great GR review!!! Most of what you wrote is how I feel about the book, The Answers. It‘s also written by a female and I wonder sometimes what was the point of it? I get angry just thinking about it. Was she just saying, this is how it is, are you mad? You should be. Anyways, whenever your first book hits, I‘ll buy it. Reading this review was one of the best things I‘ve read in a while. Such passion, such vim, @batsy. 7y

readinginthedark š• 7y

batsy Oh wow, @Reggie thank you! That is the nicest thing to say š’ I have The Answers on my TBR; now I'm not sure if I'll ever get to it š™ I wondered what was the point of this book, too. The unconscious (or not) rape apologism and feminist-bashingā€”as Rohit points out I can get that by opening Twitter or reading any random thing online. 7y

ValerieAndBooks That is a very good review, @batsy. Right now the book I‘m currently reading has one plot thread that involves a gang rape (not really a spoiler) and the guys involved are blaming the girl for being drunk, etc š�. The men are definitely painted as unsympathetic characters, however. 7y

Centique @batsy I‘m going to go read your GR review as soon as I‘m finished picking up kids from school but I had to say that comment from @Reggie ā€Such passion, such vimā€¯ should be in your bio! That‘s a brilliant, beautiful epithet. š’• 7y

Centique Ok I‘ve read the review now. SO GOOD! @batsy I loved ā€muddying the waters about what is a very clear issueā€¯ That made me think a bit - it seems that‘s a behaviour apologists slip into often. (Some knowingly, some not I guess) Really thought provoking review, well done! 7y

batsy @ValerieAndBooks Thank you! That would make a huge difference, how the book chooses to depict that. 7y

batsy Oh shucks @Centique you and @Reggie are making me blush āŗļø¸ā¯¤ļø¸ā¯¤ļø¸ Reggie does have a beautiful way with words! As for the book, that is a great point about the kind of behaviour apologists slip into. There is so much toxic discourse about rape that I guess all of us have absorbed it, whether we want to or not, and it's interesting how much a novel about this subject can reveal, sometimes unintentionally. 7y

RaimeyGallant Yuck. 7y

90 likes34 comments

Liberty

The Red Word | Sarah Henstra

Morning reading. š“•š“š–¨šˇā¯—ļø¸

131 likes5 stack adds

Penny_LiteraryHoarders

The Red Word | Sarah Henstra

I‘ve been seeing/hearing about this book everywhere! Described as a campus book like no other, I just HAD to buy it when I saw it in the Campus Bookstore. š #canlit

30 likes1 stack add

Michellesibs

The Red Word | Sarah Henstra

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This book explores rape culture, feminism, Helen of Troy and Greek mythology and it‘s extremely interesting. This would be a good book for a book club discussion as there‘s so many parts to this story and great discussion points. Contains a few difficult and disturbing scenes so be warned. But a good read, written very well and nicely researched.

11 likes1 stack add

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