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Reviews tagging 'Mass/school shootings'
Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema Avashia
3 reviews
readingpicnic's review against another edition
3.75
I appreciated the overarching dichotomy between having love for your rural small town and its people while also acknowledging the racism and harmful beliefs held by the majority of people in your small town; that you can only be acceptable to them if you "don't get political," while their Facebooks are filled with harmful rhetoric about minoritized communities. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm proud to come from a rural small town (Midwest not Appalachia), but I suppose me constantly reading rural queer books shows some fondness on my part? I do love a short book, but this didn't feel like it had quite enough time to round itself out. Although I enjoyed the book for the most part, I didn't love the narrator of the audiobook. Speaking of, crazy thought, but what if non-Black audiobook narrators didn't read the full n-word out loud even if the non-Black author of the book wrote it in full...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Bullying, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia
carriepond's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Another Appalachia is a memoir of essays in which author Neema Avashia, who is Indian and queer, reflects on growing up in West Virginia.
I really liked this essay collection. I appreciated hearing about Avashia's experiences, which she recounts with equal parts love, respect, and gentle critique. And for all the parts of Avashia's upbringing that were not familiar to me, a white woman married to a man whose religion and culture were very much the dominant culture growing up, Avashia's feelings of simultaneously belonging and not-belonging and the way she grapples with loving a place and a people who do not always love her back (relationships that both "nourished and starved" her) resonated with me nonetheless.
This is a slim essay collection with a lot to like. Recommend for people who like personal essays and especially for those looking for nuanced portrayals of what it means to be Appalachian.
I really liked this essay collection. I appreciated hearing about Avashia's experiences, which she recounts with equal parts love, respect, and gentle critique. And for all the parts of Avashia's upbringing that were not familiar to me, a white woman married to a man whose religion and culture were very much the dominant culture growing up, Avashia's feelings of simultaneously belonging and not-belonging and the way she grapples with loving a place and a people who do not always love her back (relationships that both "nourished and starved" her) resonated with me nonetheless.
This is a slim essay collection with a lot to like. Recommend for people who like personal essays and especially for those looking for nuanced portrayals of what it means to be Appalachian.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Cancer, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings
emmehooks's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Beautiful essays leaving me nostalgic for my piece of Appalachia while bringing the complexities of race and queerness to light in the small, daily ways queerphobia and racism emerge.
Appalachia is not a monolith. This book embodies all that stereotypes that mountain folks defy.
Appalachia is not a monolith. This book embodies all that stereotypes that mountain folks defy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings
Minor: Cancer, Death, Mental illness, and Racial slurs
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