A review by wilduniversechild
Consent: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention by Donna Freitas

3.0

Quality of Writing: 6/10
Pace: 5/10
Plot Development: N/A
Characters: N/A
Enjoyability: 5/10
Insightfulness: 8/10
Ease of Reading: 8/10
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I thought about giving this book four stars. It is quite good. I just couldn't let go of the fact that it dragged after a while, and while I understand this is a memoir, there is only so much introspection I can take. After a while I would start to wish she'd move on to another topic besides her mental state.
Now, I don't want to sound callous. I understand severe anxiety, and trauma. Those are serious. I understand stalking is serious, and it has major lasting effects on a person. But her writing style focused too much on her repetitive thinking, and not enough on moving the story forward. She wrote about her same guilt and shame-ridden thoughts and how that affected her, but I was more interested in hearing what happened next.
Dr. Freitas is a powerful writer, and a powerful feminist. I admire her for that. Sometimes though, I felt her views were a little too forceful. For all the time she spent talking about her experience, she made sure to offset it with how others gave her positive things to remember or attribute with this or that institution. But I didn't feel like it was enough. She talked so forcefully against the Catholic Church, I didn't understand why she would want to be catholic. She spoke out so much against Human Resources people and university policies, that I could fathom why she stayed or why she still teaches on campuses. For all the words she shared, I still don't understand.
Maybe that's because I didn't live it though, and I just cannot understand.
Regardless, I still think the flow of the book was good. The stories were crisp, and the experience was troubling. A fairly good read overall.