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The Incandescent
Emily Tesh
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A book about over- and understimulation.
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Summer 2026 Readalong
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The Stranger
Albert Camus
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Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Merlin Sheldrake
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Six of Crows
Leigh Bardugo
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Tempest
Victoria Aveyard
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âThey had loved to talk about her skin at the House of Exotics. It was like coffee with sweet milk. It was like burnished caramel. It was like satin. She welcomed every cut of the knife and the scars it left behind.â
god i love this bit. (maybe love is the wrong word given the subject matter. i love how itâs handled?) given how much the real world fetishizes poc womenâs skin (foundation shades for darker folks are called espresso, mocha, caramel, etc), i think itâs really cool that bardugo worked criticism of that exoticization into her ya novel. itâs just subtle enough that when i read it as a teen, i didnât notice the real-world connection, but insisting on inejâs right to be seen as a human being rather than a trope or an idealized object is so so important. darker womenâs skin is so frequently described as consumable in a way that reflects how ingrained societal biases feel a right both to female and non-white bodies, and itâs something that takes active work to undo. i went back, and bardugo doesnât just leave the criticism in inejâs pov, her skin is âbronzeâ or âbrownâ in other characterâs povs: still described as beautiful while following through on this commitment to removing undue sexualization/edible imagery. itâs lovely to see that bardugo is consistent in writing her poc characters in a way that doesnât capitalize on vague exoticization (iâm looking at you, acotar and fourth wing) but instead strives to write poc identity consciously.
(note that i am whiter than a sheet of paper, and happy to take criticism/disagreement/commentary from people with lived experience that differs from mine đĽ°)
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