AmarisSkye
Ash [they/them] | 38 yo disabled nonbinary queer content creator with an avid love of reading & doing so critically | just getting back into the habit post concussive brain injury
5638 points
AmarisSkye commented on a post
Post from the Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1) forum
AmarisSkye commented on a post
I'm curious if y'all have any thoughts/theories on why they chose all women for this expedition.
"All of us were women this time, chosen as part of the complex set of variables that governed sending the expeditions."
16AmarisSkye commented on a post
AmarisSkye commented on AmarisSkye's update
AmarisSkye is interested in reading...
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Angela Y. Davis
0AmarisSkye TBR'd a book
Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement
Ejeris Dixon
0AmarisSkye commented on notbillnye's review of Camouflage: The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women
In the many ways we hope for good representation, Camouflage is exhaustingly outdated, highly offensive in the inaccurate use of history and language, and an overall embarrassment to the autistic community. Please do not read this, don't even check it out from your library.
Marketed as entry-level, less than 50 pages, and a graphic novel, Dr. Sarah Bargiela—a so-called psychology professional with background in autism and women studies—complete negates any medical schooling by the first few pages, though the rest aren't any better. What should be a hopeful intro to autism, it's history of being men-focused, and how neurodiverse women and non-binary folks have been hidden from the conversation and understanding of autism is so immediately painted by the generalization of Hans Aspergers (a Nazi), high and low functioning terminology, and the exclusionary and overuse of the words female and male.
In an attempt to be conversational and communal, the author leans on having 4 different autistic women tell their perspective and experiences with their diagnosis. This representation is supposed to welcome the reader, give some form of expert-like voice, and yet when they continuously self-identify with Asperger's Syndrome, all it did was make me question Dr. Bargiela's understanding and intersectionality of autism. So so much of what is discussed is heavily gender-stereotyped and emphasized, just the opposite of what autistic men experience, and zero to little discussion of why—because didn't you know? Autism isn't a spectrum, it's a fucking Venn Diagram.
I don't care that this was published over 5 years ago, it's still deeply upsetting something like this, something inviting, hopeful, educational, is full of harmful and offensive inaccurate rhetoric that an allistic (i.e., neurotypical) person may use to form their understanding of the people around them, or newly diagnosed autism women may use this as a basis for their own understanding of themselves.
I understand some autistic folks may feel more comfort using the language they were given at their original diagnosis. I'm empathetic that discomfort to change and/or lack of knowledge on the history of Asperger's may be a deep cause for this book. Yet, I expect more from our medical professionals who insert themselves into the conversation, but also from the neurodivergent community too. Whether they knew the harm they were continuing or not, that's its own thing. The autistic community, autistic women and non-binary people specifically, are constantly being bombarded with how to act, how to be, how to exist... but when we are trying to be inclusive and education, facts are fucking important, language has connotations, and history is never not intersectional. We deserve better than this absolute trash of representation.
27AmarisSkye TBR'd a book
Camouflage: The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women
Sarah Bargiela
0
AmarisSkye finished a book
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
Mikki Kendall
0AmarisSkye started reading...
Small Gods (Discworld, #13)
Terry Pratchett
0AmarisSkye commented on a post
Have a recommendation for this quest?? I wanna hear them all!! But please read this first!
As I mentioned in the Welcome & Introductions post - I'm keeping the specific criteria for this quest close to my chest until other similar quests drop and I don't want to potentially ruin the surprise! However, I will say this quest is multi-genre, so don't worry about trying to stay in a specific niche. If it feels like a fever dream (surreal, absurd, dreamlike), I would to know about it so I can consider it! Please be patient with me as I make my way through the recommendations!
You can suggest as many books as you like, but please submit one book per comment so other Boundlings can upvote the books they'd love to see on this quest tooo! Your comment should include the book title, author, and a link (or just the url) to the book's page on Pagebound so I know exactly which book to check out!
278AmarisSkye commented on a post
We have officially started our July buddy reads for Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, Lobster by Guillaume Lecasble, and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke!! If you are just now seeing this and want to join in - it's not too late! I believe all three groups are unstructured in the buddy reads, so anytime you want to join this month, we would love to have you!!
September Buddy Read Requests
Is there a book in the quest you want to read soon and would love to have some friends read it with you?? Just fill out the quick google form linked here!!
If you have already made a request, but it hasn't been picked yet, you don't have to fill out the form again (I have a spreadsheet with a running list of requests), but if you fill it out again, it just lets me know you are still interested in it!
Quest Updates
To make recommendations a little easier for everyone, I made a public shelf that has all of the recommendations received (up until about 2 days ago) on it so you don't have to dig through the comments on the Quest Recommendation post linked here. Note: I am only going through the recommendations post 1-2 times per month so I can keep my organization system clean, so if you don't get an acknowledgment from me right away - don't panic! Once I have your recommendation in my system, I'll leave you a reply comment so you know it's been received!!
Link to the public shelf linked here
August 2026 Buddy Reads!
Quick note: Since we fill out fresh forms each month, but I keep track of the previous months requests, in theory, we will eventually repeat books, so if August doesn't work for you, you aren't missing out on the only opportunity! I would encourage you to fill the form out again though so it gets another vote in the future!
The top 3 buddy read requests (in alphabetical order) for August 2026 are:
- House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
- IQ84 by Haruki Murakami (No one volunteered to coordinate yet, if you are willing to help coordinate, just let me know in your comment!)
- The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (No one volunteered to coordinate yet, if you are willing to help coordinate, just let me know in your comment!)
If you want to sign up for any of these buddy reads, find the pinned comment below and reply to that comment so the coordinator (if there is one) can easily find your interest and remind you about the group buddy read right before it starts!
Coordinators & What Happen If There Isn't One?
Coordinators role: There can be multiple coordinators on a book, but there are two key tasks: Reminding people from the comments below before the buddy read is about to begin that it's happening the best way I have seen that done is to comment on each participant's most recent library update with the reminder. You only need to do this once. Make a post in the book's forum about the buddy read Once you have the details set (if you are picking a different start date than 8/1/26 or if you want to read a certain number of chapters/pages per week, etc). and direct them to this post (direct URL to this post to make copy and pasting easier: https://pagebound.co/posts/481290)
Coordinators - If there is only one of you and you want me to help with one of the tasks, just let me know!! After giving everyone a reminder - you do not need to do anything else! You can definitely help facilitate conversations in the forum if you want to, but there is no expectation to!
What if there isn't a coordinator? The buddy read will so go on as planned starting on 8/1/26, you just may not get a reminder about it. I will try to remind everyone via the quest forum, though!
Informational Links
Link to original buddy reads matching post for background information linked here Link to FAQ about buddy reads linked here
If you have any other questions though, don't hesitate to ask!
18AmarisSkye commented on a post
Hi all! Via the Fever Dreams and Strange Realities quest, we’re doing a buddy read of this book soon!
Here’s a link to the post in the quest about it
I think I’m gonna just say July 1st as an easy start date so folks can see the post, finish current reads, and get the book.
If you’re interested in joining, leave a comment here or on the quest post and I’ll jot down your username. When we’re close to July 1st I’ll post reminders for everyone and we’ll go from there! Very much looking forward to it.
32AmarisSkye commented on a post
Some people in the Fever Dreams & Strange Realities Quest are reading Lobster as one of the group buddy reads this month (July 2026)! Just wanted to put a note in here in case anyone wants to join! It's very flexible, so you can join at any point in the month, the goal is just to have a more active forum since a bunch of people are reading it! Happy Reading!!
7AmarisSkye commented on a post
This chapter is a great introduction to the importance of intersectionality. It covers how feminism for white women is about getting the same privileges as white men. Many of us fight the fight for issues that concern us but when we arrive at a place of comfort, where we can overcome or ignore the issues we once fought for, we don’t look back and help the people who don’t have the same privileges. Kendall says:
“There’s nothing feminist about having so many resources at your fingertips and choosing to be ignorant. Nothing empowering or enlightening in deciding that intent trumps impact. Especially when the consequences aren’t going to be experienced by you, but will instead be experienced by someone from a marginalized community.”
We have to be able to know when to shut up and listen to marginalized people, to accept that we are wrong and be able to grown instead of deflect🌱
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