A bold title, a VERY bold title indeed. “The Year of the What?” is a powerful statement into itself, given that it is aimed to shock the reader into curiosity and awareness, something that it does effectively.
THANKFULLY, we at Scribble’s Worth are pro-shock, pro-women, pro-indie, pro-diversity and inclusion of all and are not hindered by profanity, no matter the amount of it in a book, as long as it doesn’t affect the quality of the writing, and although erotica/smut is a little bit off for us, we dared to give a try on this book to see if it would deliver the shock-value that the title implies, and it paid-off because this is one of the best books of the year, and it shows.
So, off we start and for first impressions, we give it a 10/10 because it’s funny, as the title page, goes like: “Year of the what? – A true story… kinda” ha! Now we know that we’ll get humour from Jennifer Lieberman, and not long after that we get a “Who da fuck is Candice?” and we love it already! Not because there’s profanity per say, but because the author has the guts to use it liberally and off the start of the book.
Why are we valuing that? You ask?
Because, if you are going to tell the truth, or something of value, you have to be willing to ruffle feathers, and rock boats, even if that means being misunderstood, and Jennifer Lieberman starts off her book with surfing waves and right off the batch, which means that, we assume, she wanted to separate her readers right away and here’s how: if you are the type of person that gets easily offended and can’t handle simple words such as “fuck”, “slut”, or “pussy”, then this book is not the book for you and you shouldn’t waste your time reading it. IF, however, you are open-minded enough to actually read these words often and are the type of reader that is receptive to the open themes such as sexuality and profanity, then this book will suit you. Therefore, we applaud not only the courage Jennifer Lieberman had to do this, but also the example she set to the rest of us writers. Well done!
YES! Things ONLY get better, because we get the confirmation that this book HAS NO FILTERS, as Kelly enters the door to rescue her friend. She is straightforward, unapologetic and blunt! Just how we love it.
Now, a thought before we move on. You, dear reader, know that the we here on Scribble’s Worth despise clichés of all sorts. Ok. With that in mind, I will personally confess that it seems that in this day and age, many romances romance things too much. This isn’t one of those books, THANK GOD, and here’s why: many readers, hide themselves in romantic books that teach them nothing and feed illusions of a “rich guy” or “the perfect” guy that always keeps the girl. It gets tiresome, really. This is a breath of fresh air to read. Jennifer Lieberman DOES NOT beat around the bush, nor does Kelly! Really! There are no hopes to be fed here, no illusions, just things how they are and THAT’s WHY this is AWESOME!
THAT’S the great thing about this book!! It talks SO openly about sex, orgasms, masturbation and bisexuality as if they were the most natural things in the world, and guess what? THEY ARE! I love it! I love it. I love it! WE need more books like this. So unabashed, and straight-forward, so quick in its pace and full of humour.
Another thing that we loved about “The year of the what?” is that is clearly shows the mental manipulations and “moves” that men usually pull in order to guilt-trip women into sex, and also it shows our main character putting limits and enforcing herself not to take advantage of, even though she is comfortable with her ex. The author also makes a tremendously good display of insecurities of women and the mental reasoning women pull out to convince themselves to stay in abusive, unfulfilling relationships, just because they are comfortable or want to be comfortable. This is a very good point on the book and it adds lots of value to it. Great job by the Jennifer Lieberman.
Dana, our main character, is not “hot” or “beautiful”, and she is not ugly either, she is normal and with flaws and insecurities. Not the “I’m ugly beautiful girl”, you know, the type of character that actually is gorgeous and pretends that she is ugly, for some weird reason. She has flaws, just like everyone and she feels insecure about them, just like most people. Now, this might be considered cliché under the circumstances that it was put, BUT, we get it why the author did this: because that’s the whole point of the book! To invite normal, shy women to be more adventurous on terms of their own sexuality! WE NEED THIS!
We need more books like this because you cannot fathom the amount of judgment women suffer for having sexual urges, as if they were some kind of alien species that reproduced by cellular fission. It’s bonkers, and I clap towards this POSITIVE statement and this enlightening guide for women AND men that are somewhat afraid to see sex as it is: A form of natural expression needed for the healthy living of every human being.
Now, before you take conclusions about our above statements, I will clear this up: We, just like the author, are not advocating mindless sex without respect for oneself or others as if we were savage, uncivilized animals that cannot control their urges and must have sex every time they want to with anyone they want to, wherever they are, regardless of the consequences. No. We are however, acknowledging the function, the beauty and the necessity of sex as human beings and we are promoting the understanding and explorations of sexual desires and agendas of women without judgment as third parties.
We are talking about women here a lot, and the advantages of women reading this, but is there value here for male readers? YES , BY THE BOATLOADS.
This serves also as a guide of complaints from women to men. Meaning, male readers will learn where to improve and how to improve their behaviours towards women in many ways. The scene of Russell and our main character is a BIG hint of that, and the words of Kelly should be taken as dogmas to live by if you as a man want to satisfy any woman.
The biggest complain here is, in general, that, as always, most men, STILL see women as objects of pleasure, and not partners of pleasure, or better yet, as living deities to which we as men should please, at least sexually, to the fullest extent, and give THE BEST, most intimate, affectionate and devotional experiences every time we have the chance to give. Just my personal opinion though XD.
So yes, men, DO grab this book, and DO take notes if you want to improve your sex-game. XD
Another thing that this is useful for men, is in showing those little, subtle things that women do, that they don’t speak about and men don’t notice, because we men usually are straight with each other when it comes to things and women are more indirect. The author reveals those things that are eye-openers to us men in a BIG way. So, if you are a guy, DO check this book, do buy this book in order to sharpen those instincts. Oh, and don’t be a Russell.
There are GREAT examples of sexual limits and how to stop harassment and being taken advantage of in this book. This is SO necessary for all women in the world. I think that EVERY women should read this book, no matter what they think, because they will SURELY relate. SURELY. Awesome stuff.
It’s also VERY nice to see an example of a woman following her chosen career, fighting her way up and standing by her dreams all the way even with all the peer-pressure to settle down and accept womanhood/motherhood, as if it was the only choice women had, and would make every women happy. Dana may not be the fierce female character, but she surely is an example to follow, and I thank Jennifer Lieberman for making SUCH a powerful statement on this book, to remind women that they too have a choice, and they should please themselves first and not conform to standards imposed by society in general, both by the characters of Kelly and Dana. *claps*
There are mentions and total acceptance and support for the gay community, and we do cheer books like this, as we are cheering for this great piece of literature in here, for it’s always nice to see this wonderful community of awesome people be included in literature of all sorts. We need more writers like this.
There is also the subject of rape in here, and it’s something that the Jennifer Lieberman did portrait well, did show the behavioural patterns of rapists and men that usually take advantage of women through drugs into drinks and other means, something that is not talked about enough on literature, and it’s sometimes romanced over, which thankfully this isn’t the case. It speaks VOLUMES about the writer’s intentions with this book.
A note though before we proceed: we get it that “in the west”, alcohol comes before sex with strangers, and it has been so endorsed in books and movies that it’s seen as standard, and we do get that everyone is responsible for their actions and free to choose, but we do warn against it. It’s just a review, but given that we are supporting this amazing book, we want to put some warnings as well. As we said before, everyone is responsible for their actions, but please be safe out there as anything can happen.
This book has SO Much, but SO much that we cannot cover into a review, so DO GET YOUR BOOK. This book is a MUST READ! We need this, not only for the amazing sexual education it has, but for the sheer quality of this writing. AMAZING!
So, to wrap up this review, I’ll leave you with this advice: Go have fun, be free, enjoy sex and live , – and fuck – as much as you need to, and please, do use condoms while you are humping. Be safe and read this very cool book, and maybe, just maybe, that way, we will all, one day, stop pretending we don’t see porn 😉
Pros:
- Inspirational and powerful pro-choice, pro-sex and pro-women, messages throughout the book
- HIV, Homosexual and sexually educative book that is a total open-minder for those who are still hiding themselves
- Simple characters that are totally relatable
- A very intelligent main character, Kelly, she is also very slutty, on the good way
- A give-no-shits narrative from the author, that is very cool to read
- A very nice, light, blunt and humorous type storytelling
- VERY nice paste, the pace of the book is very cool and allows you to quickly engage to it
- Unabashed usage of words, which is always a plus with us
- A very clear and illusion-shattering approach to facts
- A no-beating-around-the-bush air to the book. What needs to be told is told and that’s the end of it
Cons:
- – There is a slight, indirect and unintentional endorsement on the usage of alcohol and drugs, but we say slight because the author uses it to make a point and to show somethings that needs to be shown and talked about, which is quite understandable.
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