Welcome to Litsy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, LITTENS!
I know I barely post on here nowadays but that‘s gonna change this new year (hopefully 😅)!
In 2022, I read a total of 15 books (29 if you add a bunch of old short stories I read) It was a great reading year. I enjoyed almost every book, mostly very underground stuff. I can‘t wait to see what my reading journey will look like this year. Will make another post showing all the books in a grid 🥰

How are you guys??

I‘m sorry I don‘t post on here as often as I‘d like. @WJCintron must have superpowers or something. Moving has been insane, but we‘re making a lot of progress and should be done soon😁
Anyways here is my best read of the month! (Very easy to choose because I could only read 2 books this month 🥰) Also I zoomed in on the bracket because my inner Virgo won‘t let the book covers look so small in the graph 🤠.

What‘s your read of the month?? 🥰

Fuck.
That‘s my review.
(In all seriousness, yes I agree that this is her best book. It passed Be Not Far From Me by a hair with that ending. This whole thing was like an A24 movie with a beautiful yet disturbing message against rape. Alex and Peekay are gonna stay with me for a while. I‘m not okay so please reach out if you‘ve read this because I need to spoiler rant like crazy despite the 451 character rule)

damn

Mindy McGinnis is the most quotable author I swear. Prepare for some intense quote sharing as I read. 16% in. So far Peekay is by far my fav character. Not so sure about Jack at the moment but he‘s kind of relatable with his massive crush on Alex.
#mindymcginnis #femaleofthespecies

So good. Kind of dark. Great writing. Excellent narration. I would definitely read more by this author.

This book was glorious and brutal and thrilling and heartbreaking and wrong. But SO right. You can always count on McGinnis to emotionally destroy you. If you need to cry, she‘s your girl. If you need a lift and some strength, she‘s your girl, too. Officially crushing on this author. (Is it wrong that I plan to use this book as my defense in court if I ever go on a rampage?)

Just realized how color-coordinated this stack is!

This is a hard one to review because it's REALLY dark and I don't think that I was in the right frame of mind for that right now. The premise of examining rape culture and sisterly vigilantism appealed to me more than how it was executed. I do think that Mindy McGinnis is a go-to for moodier, brutal YA though. (3⭐️)

(❗️TW for rape and animal cruelty)

BOOK TAGS⇣
⤏ DARK & PROPULSIVE YA
⤏ SOMETHING TO GET YOUR SECRET VIGILANTE HEART PUMPING
⤏ LOVE & STUFF
⤏ RAPE CULTURE
⤏ A COLLISION COURSE OF WTF
Who knew behind this innocuous-looking cover there was hiding such a profoundly dark story. Even the title doesn't really suggest what lies in these pages.

see my review here⇢ https://leahsbookishobsession2.blogspot.com/2020/04/review-female-of-species.htm...

Yes, I am totally on a Mindy McGinnis kick. The Female of the Species is a contemporary realistic YA novel that alternates between the perspectives of three teenagers in a small town. Alex is the younger sister of Anna, notorious because of her rape and murder at the hands of a middle-aged local man found dead after he was questioned and released by the police. ⬇️

Three years ago Alex's sister was raped and murdered by a man who went free.

Three years ago Alex killed that man.

I expected this to hurt, but didn't expect it to hit me as hard as it did. Alex is a complicated heroine. Yes, she has violent tendencies. Yes, she flat out murdered a man. But I still spent the entire book cheering for her. In the end, I was left crying in the work bathroom, and this book will probably haunt me for a long time.

Today we are introducing a new feature called "Stocking the Stacks" in which we will be sharing the books we have acquired recently (be they physical, ebooks; ARCs or Backlist).

https://stuckinthestacks.com/2019/11/17/stocking-the-stacks-my-recent-book-haul/

Check out what Haley picked up recently and let us know about your own book hauls!

#bookhaul #newbooks #stackingtheshelves

This was good in some ways, weak in others. I liked Alex‘s take-no-prisoners reaction to sexism - like wow, this girl is intense. Too intense to be believable, sometimes. I also liked how the girls in the book and some of the boys got woke to everyday sexism and misogyny, and banded together against it. But ultimately I found the characters shallow, and the motivations unbelievable, especially Alex. Worth a read but not outstanding.

No, no, nope. This book is aimless and disturbingly ridiculous, and the “examination of rape culture” doesn‘t offer anything useful. There‘s a lot of love for this book, but I just don‘t get it. 🤷🏼‍♀️

#downphoto Endless possibilities of fun downtime messages with this. 😹

What an incredible book broaching subjects often talked about under the cover of darkness, or in a light that points fingers in all the wrong directions. This book is dark and scary but also so real because this is the world teenagers live in. To speak up or not speak up vigilante justice because technicalities or influence mean more than you as a person do.

Boys will be boys. 😡

This one was a gut punch, but in many ways it was exactly what I needed.

Wow!!! I‘m not saying another word, bc it‘s best to go into this book not knowing anything. Powerful, highly recommend!

Starting this today💪🏽

This is between a pick and a so-so for me. It's a book about a girl that deals with men who are involved in rape culture. It was a bit slow to start out but the middle to end really takes off and is a good read. My opinion seems to be a little outside of the norm as this book is absolutely beloved on Litsy and GR.
✔: #pop19: Author with the same letter for first & last name

Tonight I'm choosing to read and be lazy instead of cleaning up my daughter's mess. For such a highly rated book on GR I'll admit I'm having a BIT of a tough time getting into this.

I've only just opened this book and the acknowledgments page has already hit so hard.

While I'm in Ohio I wanted to find a book that takes place here so VIOLA! This book is amazing and I hope everyone gets a chance to read it.
#book #books #halfpricebooks #ohio

Major book mail today! A couple going out as gifts, a couple for my #booked2019 and #pop19 challenge!

Hi Group C! I‘m so excited to do this and see all the exciting books we share with each other. Here are a few I was thinking of for mine? Have you read any of these or do any stand out? I want to pick something that we all haven‘t read and want to read 😊 (I am very adaptable - so I can go back to the drawing board if we don‘t like these ones!) #lmpbc

How was my book? GREAT. Fantastic writing. Compelling characters. I loved it. Picked out up without knowing anything about it cause I liked the title & cover...I was totally drawn to it. And it payed off!!

This book was my first by Mindy McGinnis and I was blown away. I finished in 2 days! I like be how gritty and real the characters spoke and interacted, it wasn‘t forced or overwritten.
There were some pretty gruesome parts and at some points I had to physically put down the book to digest my feelings but isn‘t that what a great literary work does to you?
The message this books sends out about female sexualization at all ages is so important!

Dear lord, this book.

Not only was it incredibly thought-provoking, witty, and well-written, it was a total takedown of the way our society is built around stereotypes and sexism.

Me to Alex throughout the whole book: PREACH. 🙌 YES GIRL. UR AMAZING. UR MY ANTI-HERO I LOVE YOU.

I loved this book.
I wanted to fricking cry at the end. T_T
Totally would recommend.

#thefemaleofthespecies #ya #mindymcginnis #contemporary #girlpower #theFEELS

Alex‘s sister Anna was murdered years ago. She deals with this in an…unusual fashion. She also doesn‘t relate well to others until she is befriended by Claire and catches the eye of Jack. This is a dark, brutal novel that does not shy away from violence, murder, and sexual assault. It‘s riveting.

This is an intense YA book. I didn‘t expect all of the gruesome graphic details that are in this revenge thriller. It‘s well-written minus a few times it switched tenses inexplicably. The book will make you question justice and vengeance, but it‘s also a story with a powerful friendship storyline. The relationship between Claire and Alex is one of my favorite aspects of this book.
Trigger warning: sexual abuse, murder

I didn't do so badly for May! 10 full books read (forgot to write down The Serpent's Secret), two finished, AND I've started (but not finished): The Crown of Embers, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Rat Queens! My favorite for May was definitely the tagged book! Such a moving atory about rape culture and a tormented sociopathic-leaning young girl. It was amazing!

I wanted to share a shot of a box of goodies i got, that i now took a picture of. Of a exchange way back in decemeber 😅

5🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟This is how a YA book should actually 🤔nah-scratch that how a book 📖 should be written! This was a powerhouse of a novel & a feminist one at that. The Author‘s male & female dynamics were so on point. I was very much impressed and inspired throughout. I was shouting Yes! That‘s how it‘s done! Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally! Throughout this novel that‘s how impressive it was. 🙌🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼😻

Every middle American highschool has the same sterotypes. Add in a teenage vigilante, and you get the premise behind "The Female of the Species" in a town where everyone knows everyone and secrets aren't hidden well and everyone is waiting to leave for college.

Evening plans. I got the glass from the Library of Congress gift shop. I got the beer from the gas station. I got the book from the library. And, just so I include everyone: table is IKEA. Lol.

Here's my haul from the #OhioanaBookFestival. The stack on the left is what I brought from home (and got signed!), and the three on the right are what I bought today. What a fun event!

#OhioMeetup

Incredibly unusual and dark as all hell.

Trigger warnings for mentions of rape and assault and lots of murder.

Here we go! Book one of my library book haul!!! So excited!

#thefemaleofthespecies #mindymcginnis

Wow. I was drawn into this fast and hard, and it was great. It‘s about rape culture, and while it‘s about high school students it‘s definitely not YA. It‘s brutal. It‘s a gut punch. It‘s going to take a while to process. I would recommend it, with the obvious trigger warnings. There is also some animal death, in a farm setting.