TL;DR: An essential read. I can not recommend this more highly. I wish everyone read this. If you can listen to the audiobook, do, the emotion that Sim reads it with enhanced it even further for me.

Now for my longer reflection/emotional yapping.

This book broke my heart (obviously), but it also healed it. I have been pro-palestine since I first became aware of inconsistencies between what I was told as a evangelical/white/US-raised child and what I was observing as a deconstructed/still-white/Australian adult. That sentiment grew out of a core belief of "genocide bad" that in turn was built from an obsession with holocaust history/stories as a child. I am exactly the person who internalised the wrong (right) message when viewing this content - that genocide is the worst of humans and we have a responsibility to stop it if ever it presents again. Well wasn't I absolutely mindfucked when I realised that those same people that taught me the word genocide were COMMITTING ONE.

Since October 7th I have mostly felt like I am screaming into the void trying to get other people to care, and flip-flopping between feelings of hope and feelings of despair. This book, felt like having every feeling, worry, insecurity, and uncertainty lovingly validated. It provided a perfect balance of research with opinion, and was easy to engage with. One of the biggest barriers can sometimes be feeling like you can't go toe-to-toe with zionists on the facts, and after reading this I feel both more able to do that, and also more confident simply holding the position of "genocide bad". This is exactly how I have always felt, thank you for articulating this so comprehensively and beautifully, Sim Kern.

From the bottom of my heart, Free Free Palestine and fuck empire everywhere, all the time.

Smiley face

At first I was frowny face thinking that this was a long and kind of unnecessary sequel. I appreciated more back story for the bunnies, but I was struggling to see where it was going.

Part two took me by surprise and had me literally cackling with delight smiley face.

I still think it was a bit long frowny face but ultimately I had a great time, thought it was funnier than the first one, and was still completely unhinged.

The audiobook was also a great addition, I’m not sure I will ever see an emoji again without hearing the narrator dramatically say ‘frowny face’, smiley face