Review: Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Alice had her whole summer planned. Non-stop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting--working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual). Alice is done with dating--no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.

But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).

When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn, and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood. 

I. Love. This. Book. As the description said, Let's Talk About Love is a book about an asexual, black, teenage girl. On the surface this is just another love story. The writing isn't super complex. I would have read this book in one sitting if I didn't have to stop for my book club. There are even some (I'm looking at you Kirkus) who think this is just another generic love story with a small twist.

YOU'RE WRONG.

Alice was not only asexual, she was black. Alice spent her entire life explaining and defending her right to exist in the world exactly as she was. There's a section in the book where someone mentions her new hairstyle, and she's immediately defensive because she's had so many people make back handed comments about her hair and touch it like it's a lost dog on the street (my words not hers fyi. lol). She had a "friend" who claimed that she wouldn't win a contest (a dumb contest at that) for attracting the most online dating messages because she was black and black women and Asian men are the least desired. She was also cornered by a guy who had "never been with a black girl before" and she was "Cute for a black girl". She had spent and will continue to spend the rest of her life existing as "the black girl" why in the world should she want to exist as the asexual girl too. A branch of sexuality that people don't really understand. So, for most of this book, to many people in her life, Alice is very deep in the closet.

Claire Kann has managed to write a book (and her first one at that) where the characters "blackness" doesn't completely engulf them. As a black girl, Alice has to deal with certain crap that other girl don't. Kann didn't ignore those things, as other authors might, but they didn't overshadow the story, because Alice's issue wasn't that she was black, it was that she was asexual, and her parents wanted her to be a lawyer but she didn't want to, and her best friend started to act like a jerk, and she felt abandoned and misunderstood, and her body was doing new and unusual things that she wasn't prepared for. Alice was a simply written, yet well rounded character.

I don't know Claire Kann's sexual orientation, and I don't want to know, it's none of my business. But she did a great job of showing that Alice was loving and able to love without wanting to make love. She did a great job of showing (she didn't have to tell, she showed us) readers that even though a person doesn't want to have sex, doesn't mean they aren't physically affectionate. Alice loved hugs, and snuggles, and kisses, and spooning (I don't think they spooned but I'm sure she would have), and holding hands, and  literally EVERY THING ELSE. The problem is, when you cuddle, and kiss, and hold hand, and hug, that always leads to sex. Ugh.

Clearly there are a lot of my own feeling mixed up with this review. Alice and I are the same human.

I think if I had to pick one gripe, it would be the bff, Feenie. I can't even go into it. She was so wrong. I think the way Feenie treated Alice was wrong. I almost wish Alice hadn't let Feenie get away with it, but...

(SMALL SPOILER)

 
Also, I seriously don't know if it's possible for an sexual person to date anyone who isn't asexual. But who wants a book to end in sadness. 




I really like this book. It's not perfect, but it's very good. This was the first book I've read with a black asexual woman. For all I know, it's the only one in the world. Honestly I don't think I've ever read any books with asexual characters. No matter what their race. I'm so glad this book exists.

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#LetsDiscuss2018 : Is it wrong to judge books that we haven't read?

Is it wrong of us to judge (judge is the key word here) books that we haven't read? I go through a lot of books, both for my own enjoyment and also as a Youth Librarian. In addition to talking to librarians about book, non-librarian readers about books, and following bloggers, publishers, authors, and readers on Twitter... things can get a little out of control. It's like, we spend half of our time screaming about the perils of judging people, and at the same time, people hear the words YA Books and you see them rolling their eyes before you've finished your sentence.

Don't get me wrong, I'm guilty of this too. I wouldn't pick up a Sarah Dessen book if you paid me. I'm judging, I know I'm judging. I'm a little mad at myself for judging, but at the same time, I don't have to read a Sarah Dessen book to suggest it to a patron. I've also never said her book were bad, or poorly written, or racists, or anything else dramatic. Although I did make a comment about how all of her books are about sad blonds on the beach. Judgy, but at least not mean. lol.


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When someone says "Ugh Divergent is so dumb another girl convinced she's the only one who can save the world." You ask them, "Did you read it?" and they say "No, but I've seen enough to know." KILL ME. There are plenty of reasons not to like Divergent (personally I thought it was pretty okay until book 3), but to judge a book that you haven't read is so ignorant. Literally. Ignorant mean "lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about something in particular."

People who hate Dystopian books who've read less than 5 books in that genre statistically don't know what they're talking about. There are hundreds of Dystopian novels, just because you don't like the look of the ones that have been turned into movies, Divergent, Maze Runner (which is great btw), and Hunger Games, doesn't mean that the entire genre "sucks". The judgement drives me up the wall.


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Now don't get me wrong. A lot of people have genres that they gravitate toward. There are people who prefer contemporary books, those who prefer fantasy, those who prefer horror, and that's great. It means you know yourself and you know what you like, but to cast judgement on the integrity, or the "goodness" of a genre or age bracket of books, is unacceptable to me.

Listen. I have no desire to read Carve the mark by Veronica Roth, but the shear quantity of people who trashed that book before they'd read it was out of this world. Is it racist? Isn't it racist? I don't know. I'm not going to read it because there are a million more books that I'm interested in, but I'm certainly not going to trash talk it, bring it down, or criticize it on my blog or Twitter account. I just going to say "I don't want to read it."

I like to thing that I'm an eclectic reader. I'll read just about any genre, although I don't tend to pick up historical fiction, and I know that part of the reason I don't is because I always thought History was boring and confusing, and I'm working on that. Salt to the Sea and Hattie Big Sky were freaking awesome Historical Fiction books. I know that everyone isn't going to like everything, but I just get so tired of people mocking books they haven't read, saying they don't read Young Adult books when they haven't touched one since 2001, or anything else that fall into the "being a jerk for no reason" category, it makes me want to pull my hair out.


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Just because you "don't like YA" doesn't mean you wont really love I'll Give You the Sun, just because you don't like "problem books" doesn't mean you wont find a love and beauty in All the Bright Places,  and just because you think "all fairy tale retellings are the same", doesn't mean you wont like Ash.

I think people really should be more open to different kinds of books the same way we open ourselves to different cultures and understanding different sexual orientations. If we aren't doing that, what exactly are we doing??!!

I understand that reading is an escape for so many people, myself included, and you don't have to read anything you don't want to, just don't blindly judge it.

How do other people feel about this? I fully acknowledge that as a librarian, I read differently. I don't just read for myself, I read for my community. I'm sure that has a lot of do with my reading ideals.

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2018 Book Blog Discussion Challenge

This year I have a lot of reading to do. The problem is, sometimes the books I have to read, don't correspond with the diversity message that I'm trying to promote through my blog. This is what happens when you turn your passion into your profession. You can lose control a little bit.

Oh well. This year, I have signed up for, and plan to actively participate in the 2018 Book Blog Discussion Challenge Hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight. 

I hope to discover some new blogs, chat about the importance of diversity in YA books (but I don't preach, preaching is exhausting to do and listen to. lol), and hopefully make some new friends. I'm actually pretty excited. Now that I've finally finished grad school I'm got A TON of time... which I usually use to sleep. lol. But I can also use to blog!

There are levels that we can strive to hit with this reading challenge.

The Levels:

1-10 – Discussion Dabbler
11-20 – Creative Conversationalist
21-30 – Chatty Kathy
31-40 – Terrifically Talkative
41+ – Gift of the Gab

Clearly my planner is going to be a very important part of this process. lol. I'm going to go for Creative Conversationalist... we'll see.

Wish me luck!!

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