What the author has succeeded to do is write a book of two halves. The second half succeeds in the message….. but you have to get through a very problematic, nay HARMFUL first half to get the message. And by then it’s lost. This is not the queer affirming book it claims to be. This is a book doused in queer stereotypes and harmful language. As a bisexual woman I found it littered with biphobia and severe problems around identity, femininity, masculinity and many issues catered towards our non binary siblings too. Women Don’t Owe You Pretty was a concise, witty, compassionate guide to navigating feminism. Did it achieve what you wanted it to? My friends have never spoken to me about their weight. We openly talk about sex we have, we openly talk about masturbation, and we’re very honest about our feelings with one another. We say no when we want to. But it is also because my friends are queer or they’re bisexual.

The only part of this book that felt genuine was Eartha's experiences with the darker side of social media. The pain that Florence clearly went through at the hands of theslumflower's followers was awful to read through Eartha's experience (let's all agree not to comment/message people on social media and tell them to k*** themselves? maybe?). The hardest thing for me is to extrapolate who I would even be without the internet. Social media is my gateway to the world and to making connections with people. When it comes to the physical boundaries I have with my phone: it’s never in my bedroom, it’s always charging in the kitchen. And when it comes to what you share online, I always take a beat. This book was a mess. On paper, it should have been really compelling. Using modern social media as a way to explore the Jekyll and Hyde themes of duality, public life vs. private life, and addiction while also talking about what it's like to come into bisexuality "later" in life, like on paper this should have been a great story.Use italics (lyric) and bold (lyric) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part

It was messy, the text message formatting in the book frustrated me and was hard to read. Every now and then there was "Directors Notes" sections which was so strange and added absolutely nothing to the book other than making it feel like a weird half script half book. What did I just read? I am so confused. What a bizarre story…and then the ending? Now I feel like I’m going crazy and don’t know what is real or not. And what was with the director parts? She then went on to say: "GIRLCRUSH is all about women, our obsession with each other and what happens when we’re crushed and reduced into the screens of our phonesI understand that some books include the above references to prove a point. To show that these words, phrases and stereotypes are wrong. This book has not done that. And for that I will never forgive it. The main character Eartha is in her mid 20s in 2030 and somehow a VOICE OF A GENERATION for drunkenly announcing that she is bisexual on social media (wow?). She's been friends with Rose (a non binary lesbian who has slept with every woman in the city) since high school. They didn't even need to come out as gay or non-binary because "the way they would recline into chairs with their legs wide open did that for them". I actually don't have words for how much I hate this line and how detrimental it is for non-binary people who aren't androgynous looking people who take up space like men so I'm just going to leave it there for you to reflect on. There are parts of this book that were so ridiculous that it made me angry (why had she never heard of an INCEL? I know that biphobia is a thing but why are people acting like it's so ALIEN?). In diesem Roman geht es um Eartha. Sie ist eine bisexuelle Künstlerin, wohnt in einer grottigen Wohnung und hat gerade ihren Freund rausgeschmissen, weil er sie mit einer anderen Frau betrogen hat und dieser Frau auch noch ihr Lieblingsshirt geschenkt hat, das sie selbst designt hat. Jetzt, wo er endlich weg ist (die Trennung war lange überfällig, da sind Eartha und ich uns einig) schafft Eartha es, sich endlich als bi zu outen - und ihr Outing geht viral. Ganz Wonderland (DIE Social-Media-Seite in Earthas Welt) hat dieses Video gesehen und plötzlich wird Eartha als die Stimme ihrer Generation gesehen. Alle kennen sie, alle lieben sie, alle beobachten sie. Und Eartha muss am eigenen Leib erfahren, wie schnell sich Liebe in Hass und positiver Zuspruch in einen Shitstorm verwandeln kann. Also, as someone who has gone viral on the internet many times myself, the statistics in this book are all wrong. Why does Eartha get sooooo many followers overnight in comparison to how many views and likes she gets on her video. It’s completely out of proportion and in reality, if anyone posted a sloppy drunken video being like “I hate men, I think I’m gay”, it would just be scrolled past. It isn’t inspirational, it’s normal, and wouldn’t garner anywhere near as much attention as Florence claims it would in this book.

Girlcrush is a book about the obsession women have with one another, the good, the bad and the outright complicated." Kleine Anmerkung gleich zu Beginn: Vielleicht wäre es hier angebracht gewesen, Triggerwarnungen im Buch zu platzieren. Das hier ist keine einfache, keine lustige Lektüre, zumindest über weite Teile nicht. Es geht hier um Gewalt in der Beziehung, um Depressionen und Missbrauch und Biphobie bzw. Bi-erasure und Queerphobia generell. Bi-erasure bezeichnet die Tendenz von Menschen und Medien, Bisexualität zu verdrängen und als nicht-existent darzustellen. Hier geschieht das zum Beispiel, wenn Eartha es wagt, einen Mann zu küssen. Denn wenn sie einen Mann küsst, dann bezeichnet sie sich offensichtlich ja nur als bi, um Aufmerksamkeit zu bekommen, oder? Also hat sie dafür wohl einen ordentlichen Shitstorm verdient, oder? Nein, Leute, deswegen hier ein kleiner Reminder, auch wenn ich nicht glaube, dass jemand von euch den wirklich braucht: Bisexuell bedeutet, dass eine Person nicht nur ein Geschlecht anziehend findet. Es bedeutet nicht, dass eine Person nie in einer Beziehung sein wird, die hetero auf die Außenwelt wirkt. Eine bi-Person kann daten, wen er:sie:they will und diese Person wird trotzdem bi bleiben. Außer, wenn diese Person entscheidet, dass sie sich nicht mehr als bi bezeichnen möchte. Sexuality is fluid und für manche Menschen ändert sich das im Laufe ihres Lebens. Das bedeutet dann aber nicht unbedingt, dass das vorherige Label falsch oder nur ein Übergangslabel war, sondern nur, dass dieses Label in dem Lebensabschnitt, in dem sich diese Person befindet, grade nicht mehr passt. Is there really anything else to say? Florence Given introduced Florence Given into Florence Given’s literary universe. The final act of girlbossification. AND SHE CALLED HERSELF “COOL”. Basically, Florence uses the “F” slur far too comfortably throughout the novel, when it wasn’t ever a word for queer women to reclaim. Phrases like “d**e daddy” and “a random butch in leather” have pissed people off, too. The general consensus seems to be that Florence – a bisexual woman – has massively reduced her lesbian characters down to stereotypes.I’ve been asked if I’d like to go into politics. No! I’d be awful at it. I know my strengths. I’m a writer, I’m an artist. And I’m good at talking. But I don’t want to be a politician. I want to write books for the rest of my life. Touted as a modern retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde, the book focuses on Eartha's internal struggle finding her true self, and makes for a dark and thrilling read you won't be able to put down. Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe.