inkerly's reviews
457 reviews

Stunning.

I had so many thoughts on everything that Candace said, and wanted to make sure I could capture them somewhere so here are my "notes": https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BZRX5MUQBOLoKbhDuP0rMyPB5HxObBwcpbJa-olzpG0/edit#heading=h.763jc8q1pssy

This was my attempt at reading a book outside of my liberal bubble. I wanted to give Owens grace and understand why she is a Black Conservative and believes other black Americans should be too. All this book really tells me though is: "Democrat-bad; Republican-better" with no substantive proof.

The problem with this book is it is intellectually dishonest. Candace Owens wants you to think that black people vote Democrat because we have a sheep mentality and have been "brainwashed" into relying on welfare and handouts to get by (literally her words). The reality is most Black people vote Democrat because there is no other viable option.

U.S. Republicans have made it clear they do not care about black people or minorities. They want Project 2025 to go into full effect, and Donald Trump is their ticket to making that happen. And unfortunately, the 2-party system in America makes voting for Independent or 3rd-party candidates who actually WANT change (RFK, then-Bernie Sanders, etc.) difficult. So, the Democrat vote it is.

If this book had that nuance, this would've been a much more substantive read. Instead she slaps together a slanted history of the Democrat and Republican party, a few cherry-picked statistics about black issues, and a series of random quotes from The Bible, Confucius & Plato (yes the philosophers), MLK and Merriam-Webster (yes, the dictionary). All of the points she's made have been refuted by black college-educated media reps so it's not even worth discussing. But it makes you wonder the little effort that went into using facts and stats-based evidence on her part.

Had she just talked about her upbringing and how it shaped her conservative morals and "free-thinker" mentality, I would've respected that a lot more. She does advocate for black people to do the same.  But the pendulum swing from "Democrat plantation - devil" to "Republican plantation - angel" is so laughably try-hard and grifter-like, it's not worth reading. 

Wow. This was a beautiful collection of poems about the Chicago Race Riots during 1919. The poems felt like a window into time, and marvelously juxtaposed 1919 Chicago to 1968. Northern racism was really something. And the Emmett Till poem at the end… gutting . “Countless Schemes” and “I saw Emmett Till at the Grocery Store”…

Such a raw and painful but needed set of poems. I hope to read more by Ewing.

This is so cool! I’d forgotten long ago why I added this to my TBR but this is Black Superhero perfection! It really pulled me in and the graphics are SO WELL CRAFTED. Only thing is, I would’ve LIKED for there to be more diverse characters. Naomi is the titular protagonist and is the only black person and POC character (that is alive) in this story. In a post-Black Panther and Miles Morale world, we can do  better to add black people (plural! 😂) and  other diverse groups in comics  . But I’d definitely want to read Naomi 2

I was put onto Tierra Cox by my favorite author Smauggy. The cover is cute, and the story has promise. On a good note, there’s lots of fantasy, action and polyamorous sex . Personally though the execution and  writing style was not for me.

Some things off the bat: I was so mad when I found out the scene where Lia and Jin meet was just a flashback. Then it cuts to 3-4 years later and we’re  told that they are already in love …!! Like what?😩 A demon-witch bond is probably the most interesting plot this book had to offer, I felt  cheated of a good forbidden romance 😭😭😭
But nevertheless because we are introduced to Boy Toy #2, a gargoyle named Yin. Her men’s names are Yin and Jin .  I know they’re both Asian so for not wanting to sound insensitive I wish she’d just chosen names that didn’t rhyme.
And the romance subplot concept of a  gargoyle-demon-witch triangle is PERFECT. But again I just didn’t think the execution was great. Yins character was flat to me, and because of the fast forwarding of Lia/Jin’s relationship I didn’t see the big deal in them adding a 3rd to their relationship (SHOW that you’re lovers!)

On the fantasy side, I think there was way too much going on . There’s like 3 different side plots that go unresolved . I would’ve liked at least one to be resolved in this Book so that I could be left with some understanding . Still confused about the mystery of Lia’s mom and grand aunt.  The Babineaux witches ( Why is Lia’s Magick is all powerful?) And the vampires/First.  Felt like so much  lore was crammed in but it didn’t feel organic. Had this book been 300+ pages I think it would’ve been better because it would have had time to flesh out its world and  characters . I still found it a very interesting read.

This was one of the most disturbing graphic novels I’ve read. (SEE CONTENT WARNINGS) But I’m so intrigued by it. 

I think what is hauntingly grotesque about it is the contrast of beautiful Nigerian culture and life with the garish Nigerian monster & Chioma’s appearance after the incident.

As a graphic novel, the art style complemented the goriness of the story, but the different font sizes and small but long blocks of text on different pages made it unpleasant to read. Also some aspects of the novel were kept strangely vague. To a nonWest African what are “West African  features” in the context of this story ?(especially when the visuals don’t align?) What is “European style”? What are “Mumou”? Things like this could have been explained in a better way.

I’m not gonna lie and say that I even understood what the ending meant or the moral of the story but this was a neat graphic novel, so I might entertain more visuals by Nnedi. Apparently it’s based on her book “On the Road”, I might give that a read too.

A very respectable and honorable dedication to RBG and her impact on the U.S Supreme Court Justice system. I just found the audiobook in general hard to follow partially due to the narrative/interview switching and partially due to the complexity of the topics. RBG does a great job articulating her positions but I still had to pause and look up things for clarity. 

The book also touched on how she would or has approached SC decisions. TBH some of her answers disappointed me. Regarding the overturning of Roe v Wade, she basically said that it was valid for the decision to be that way and said that ultimately there will always be safe abortion access because there will always be states and civilians that will not go “back” to the barbaric days of deleting a fetus. Which completely misses the point of why the ruling was so divisive in the first place. It’s not enough that “there will always be states who protect those rights”  . It’s the fact that abortion is not regarded as a form of healthcare and a universal right for women to decide for themselves on. Plus this ruling will only make it so those who live in states that ban it will result to those dire measures.
So that I didn’t agree with . 

Other times I did agree with her stances and understood her positions. But Roe v Wade was important to me. 
I think this book did what it set out to do but I still have more questions.

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
So this was surprisingly cute! I'm glad the author Smauggy put me on to Eve Vaughn. I can definitely see where one was inspired by the other, Dalos, Maddox and Serena remind me of Luc, Gabriel and Brianna from Screw an Angel, Love a Demon.

For 96 pages, the story, sex, and characters were great. I'm curious if the story behind the secret Elve/supernatural society in Somnia Terra will be explored (Elves running a sex shop in an island unknown to humans? Interesting)

Five million stars out of 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️🤩🤩

Oh my gosh when I say this book is so sexy, sweet, cute, and sexy-sweet-cute I mean it. Had me laughing and crying. I relate to Momo so much. And I think PG does things to me…

Recommend for the sapphic lovers, and straight girlies who love great love stories. This was beautiful and finally, a graphic novel with Adult tones (I hardly see college aged characters,  so this was nice and made for realistic drama !)

3.9ish?

I was recommended this book by a favorite Authortuber of mine and am glad I finally finished it. This book has a very light conversationalist tone while sharing gems about how story structure works. I found the tone at times to be too unserious but I liked that the ideas shared were a mix of well known concepts (The Hero’s Journey, The 3 Act structure) and new concepts that the author has ideated in simple terms . In my head I drew comparisons to Save The Cat, Hero’s Journey, and other structures I’ve studied.
Bonus for providing worksheet templates, and drawing references to modern movies to support their evidence.

I think a lot of the advice was very useful but I think a drawback could be that some concepts that the author ideated himself are hard to put into practice. For example why does the protagonist need to have both masculine and feminine traits to be “complete”? What logic is there behind that? Would’ve liked more on that. Plus some minor typos in this book. But I think this didn’t detract too much from the overall message. The one thing I’ll take away is in order to become one of the Greats, you need to focus on telling a Good Story, not just writing “well”. And all Good Stories have structure no matter what the likes of Stephen King or other pantsers say. I’d recommend this book to any writer after reading the classic story structure books.