layawaydragon
About By Any Means Necessary:
IMHO: By Any Means Necessary
Trigger Warning: Homophobic uncle & community, police encounter, talk of murder by police,
Here's the thing. I loved every single part of this in a way I'm finding hard to express. I'm literally tearing up right now just thinking about this again. I don't want to sell it short or turn anyone off. I really truly think all ya'll need to read this NOW.
It's just...beautiful. So.
Here's a non-exhaustive list of all the things I loved about it:
- Quickly swept up & away
- Didn’t want to put it down.
- Genuinely sweet & funny moments
- Didn’t have any issues keeping up with the narrative, flash backs, transitions. (This has been an issue in other books lately)
- Torrey’s VOICE. Holy Forking Shirtballs!
- Love the straight roommate that doesn’t make it weird having a gay roommate, it just is! Just a big ol’ teddy bear.
- Love CAKE, collectively and individually, with or without Torrey
- All the bee facts sprinkled throughout
- Aunt Lisa
- Fuck you Theo.
- Good for you Torrey!
- Torrey drinks for the first time
- Protesting
- the Collective
- I sees you literary references!! re: Lilly Anderson and Amal Unbound
- London!
- Gabriel!
- That glorious mane gets a whole line to itself
- And so does all the dancing
- And all the little things Torrey loves about him & describes so wonderfully.
- The breaking the fourth wall like moments re: white readers & privilege.
- That cop interaction left me cold and sweating when reading, and every time I think about it afterwards *shudder*
- Afro-latinx characters rep!
- BLACK AF
- Black woman love and recognition!!
- I love how there’s no sympathizing with the slimy fuckers, never, not once. Not after Torrey retaliates. There’s no moralizing or hand wringing about what he did. Just caring about Torrey and how the consequences will affect him.
- Really handles so many intersections and issues so well, in an organic everyday way. It’s fucking hard to live it, and to write it.
- There’s no one way or right way to juggle things personally and it doesn’t fall into the trap of presenting itself as the only correct way
- Tender and careful about the delicate way these factors all weave together, without pulling how hard those punches land.
- Totally want more of this crew, maybe a bit of that queer CAKE next?
Stop making me cry and just go read it already, damn.
FYI: Here's a helpful tip I found on the internet long ago to remember how to spell necessary: one collar, two sleeves.
Some Favorite Quotes:
Up yours sign. You’re written in Comic Sans, nobody likes you anyway.
Which isn’t a sentiment I’m opposed to, so much as the train it arrives on.
He presses into me and his lips meet mine, and I become a whisper of a boy.
“Your lies only hurt me because they are so poorly crafted.”
Obligations isn’t so bad when you choose it for yourself.
Two masc dudes kiss to express feelings that homophobia tried to rob them of. Write that tell-all.
The city hasn’t taught them that Black and brown people get fined for expressing emotions at a volume white people find to be too much.
“Nothing beats a failure but a try.”
He would be the most beautiful Icarus, I think. Dancing a little too closely to the sun all his life.
About the Author:
Giveaway:
Prize: Win a copy of By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery (US/CAN Only)
Starts: October 8th 2019
Ends: October 22nd 2019
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Tour Schedule:
This review was originally posted on The Layaway Dragon