mesy_mark's reviews
738 reviews

What is gender? Arai learns he has none but presents as male.  Learning how he has gone and about explored areas of his life with his male partner, I liked many of the stories of his life.  And it's life from an elder. A nice change up from usually reading about the younger years of the community the hard part about it in this volume is that the pacing is slow and characters' images seem to similar to know who is who.  As well as being unable to follow  each chapter due to planning 

 

Gay vampires. It's a nice combo and this take on vampirism leaves our fanged new Doctor in search of blood and tumbling down the social ladder. Then he meets Justin, who wants to be turned, who protects his vampires away from the pharmaceutical company that locks vamps in cages slowly starving them to death.

I like how our main couple's love developed over time. It wasn't an instant love but it grew into love. The world blinding of vampires being treated less than others is a new change. I listened to this book and enjoyed the narrator. I enjoyed the rep for the Ace spectrum. I like the gay rep as well. The pacing of the book is okay. A little longer as it nears the end but overall no real thoughts of mine saying this needs to pick up in pace.

 

 

This is a very short, 40 pages, of gender and the fact that it is not black and white. The text itself is more for adults due to its academic-like text. As for illustration, I liked the way it was displayed in the book. As for the text in the digital format, the spacing in some words isn't there so two words look like one word.

 

 This is the book that has romantic tropes that one could easily pick out. And Insta love on top of that. While I did like the fast pace of the book, I thought that Dylan had a goal throughout the book and Theo was just there to be the love interest and throw money on everything.

I liked the joy Dylan had over being a chef. He wants to help his Aunt as she had taken hin in when his mom died. I liked how Theo explained the culture of the rich to Dylan without getting exasperated. And the moment the line drew from fake to spark.

I would have just wanted a little more time in the book for the romance to feel more fleshed out and not instant. 

The monster the four quads had was more than just a shared dx of schizophrenia, which manifested differently in each of the four.  The monster was their parents, one who wanted them identical in everything including schooling so if one failed a year, they all repeated the year.  A father whose mental/emotional abuse and controlling behavior made the four only have each other instead of including a framework of outside support, to each of the men who sexually assaulted the quad who unfortunately all experienced it in various amounts and times.  The madness of the 50s where nothing is spoken of, racism is high, and domination over women is peeked as well the quad had many environmental factors to trigger mental illness.  The doctors who studied them only cared about the biological reasoning for the four.  And maybe since that was all that cared also limited some of the quads from living a fulfilling life.  

There is a talk of the times in the 50s highlighting racism which is a good context for the time but seems misplaced in the book due to the skin color of the studied quad.  A history of psychiatry and the dominance to prove bio factors is appropriate.  I liked how each quad SZ was discussed in terms of being different from each other showing that even in identicals, the presentation of SZ is still different from person to person in what I believe is a biological predisposition being triggered by environmental experiences.  

Overall i feel sad for the quad even if one said their lives were not tragic.  A couple of the quad was able to get a little experience of normalcy.  it was an interesting learning point of how psychiatry evolved.

 An excellent book on trauma. I enjoyed the studies and look into the trauma that I have never looked into. Acidemic, yet personal for those who read you'll find factual times of the history of trauma as well vintages of those who have been affected and healed from the trauma inflicted wounds.

A little bulky and chunky to read at times it takes time to really digest this book. It makes one think and is sure to give sympathy and empathy to those who deal with trauma symptoms, not just PTSD or the unofficial cPTSD disorders that exist.

Overall I liked the format. The facts and history are given as well as the diagrams and images provided. Great work to the author. 

Bedlam covers the lack of care for those with SMI, serious mental illnesses, and how the courts and streets are becoming home to those with mental illnesses.

The book was not marked with heavy jargon nor was it difficult to read in the context of grasping the who framework of systems that mental illnesses are being tossed into.

I really liked it and would recommend it to anyone who wants to get since this is where the mental health system really is.  Unlucky for many, deadly for some, and most of all broken.

This is a YA on a cheerleader and the new football quarterback- here is the catch the quarterback is a girl.   And she kicks ass on the field but no one cares except Amber, our cheerleader, who can't risk supporting QB cause she wants to be the captain.  Amber is dating Miguel, her gay best friend for cover but as the team of footballers and cheerleaders intense their anger at the new girl, will Amber try to stop it?

This is a heavy book even though at times there is the light-hearted cute aspect of it.  There is homophobia and myology dripped on many pages, not in grand examples but more the microaggression, and yes microaggression also comes through.  The characters are memorable and we can see the connection between our MCs.  And seeing our MCs going about in the homophobic cluster they are in was me rallying for them, sad for them, and angry at the couch who saw all of it and did nothing.

 This is a book mainly for the allies or would-be allies of the trans community. As a trans person reading this book, I see where this would be a good resource for a cis person to read. Covering from the basics of trans 101 to intersecting identities and how that adds layers to the human(s) this book is the book I'd like to give curious cis folk when wanting to know what is in my pants. Even though I have stated that the reader target group seems to be the cis population, I also see where trans folk can learn to stand more ground in the constant rude and inappropriate questions and how to guide the conversation to be more productive when dealing with minority groups. Overall well done as a 101 guide for cis community understanding the trans community.