A really interesting collection of essays.

Thank you to the publisher for letting me read and review!

The Resistance, the book and the movements/activists, was and still are crucial and needed in the fight for democracy, basic human rights and more. I love the different stories from the contributors and their personal experiences. It's educational but also personal that it resonates in readers and connects each other. It's a spark of hope in a dire world and a stark reminder to give thanks and appreciation to the hardworking folks out there using their voice and doing the work to create a better and equitable country and overall world. I hope it inspires and motivates folks to speak up and fight for what's right.

This is a collection of essays and poems and stories about political resistance. It is about resisting bigotry and racism and the patriarchy and the current repressive political environment.

The collection has a broad variety of American voices and features a mixture of poetry and prose in clever formats to express the emotions following the 2016 US Presidential Election. Many of the featured voices are the voices of black or Muslim Americans and former or current migrants.

Many of the submissions begin on November 8th and contemplate the future as a world in total chaos and pain. Most of the submissions end on some note of hope or aspiration. On the whole, I didn't gain much inspiration or even much insight from this; I did not learn a single thing I didn't know before. The collection felt a little too homogenous in its considerations, despite the breadth of voices included. I think the contributors became too caught up in the drama of the Trump win, ruminating too much on the tears and sadness of that moment, and neglecting (aside from a few really great essays) to go deeper and contemplate more.

I feel so bad for typing this review but I will always review honestly, so...

I expected lots of powerful, sad, emotional, moving (you name it) poetry and interesting essays with this. I didn't get what I expected. I wasn't really moved, but that may be a personal thing.

And it's not like everything in this book is bad, it's just... I can get a lot of texts like this for free on the internet. A lot of those texts will be even way better. So... why pay for it?

Don't lynch me now! I'm just speaking from a not rich reader's pov. The Resistance is currently on German Amazon for 2,99€ for the e-book and 8,05€ for the paperback. According to Goodreads it's under 160 pages. Like I said, I can get better stuff for my money.

And yes, I do know that the description on NG says, that "100% of proceeds are being donated to ACLU". I don't know anything about that organisation, but... I could give them my money directly and read stuff online for free.

I have dreaded writing this review so much. But like I said in the beginning, I'm all for honest reviews. Had I bought this book I would have been really, really disappointed, so...At first I had the feeling like I needed to be all positive about this book because it's about social things and the like, but... no. I won't give a good rating to something I did not like simply because it's theme is important.

A collection of varying pieces, from essays to poems to free form works, The Resistance utilizes personal experience to detail feelings of hope, of fear, of worry. There are pieces that may mean more to some people than to others, but the collection as a whole showed a solidarity among these authors to lend their voices to a collection that, I feel, needs to be shared.

For Who? by Danielle Allen was the piece that stood out the most to me as the one that summed up the collection best, the one that needs to be shared the most. It spoke about how the current administration (45) preaches about "make America great again", but asks the important question: for who? The Natives who've been murdered, whose descendants were/are forced off their land? Those of African descent who were seen as 3/5 of a person? For women, told that sexual assault is their fault, paid less because of their gender regardless of their abilities? For Who? is best summed up by this excerpt:

"Instead of the current administration holding on to the reigns of discrimination and oppression to “make America great again” for only one very specific group (wealthy, heterosexual, Christian, white men), all of us, regardless of race, class , gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc., need to step up so we can make America great (for all of us) for the first time."

The poem that felt the most personal to my person was Do You See Me? Because I See You by Danielle Allen. It spoke to the hypocrisy of people that proclaim to support their friends and family of targeted genders/sexualities/etc., but at the same time shout out their support for the oppositional administration.

"When you say that we’re friends and that you love me Do you not think of that when you blindly agree With the hateful words and derogatory tone Of an administration whose intentions were known?"

I have family and friends that I simply cannot understand that would benefit from reading this collection, especially Danielle Allen's poem. A position such as this is not only hypocritical, but it's dangerous because it makes them blind to not only what happens to their friends & family, but to the millions of other citizens in this country.

I was saddened when I read Your Son by Amalie Silver and it was almost more personal than Do You See Me? because while that poem spoke to me, this essay spoke to my experience with my son. He's a special needs child and I recognized him in this story. He was born as a child that I loved, but that others recognized needed help. Because of them, he's been learning things I could never have taught him on my own because I'm too close to him. This essay understood that, but it also made me realize how very real the fear is that the programs that help him could and very well may disappear with the current Secretary of Education. A woman who doesn't believe that children like my son deserves help, that money is more important than helping him and children like him. How horrifying, that reality.

As a whole, this collection had an 85-90% rate of success with the content. There were some pieces that I thought either didn't fit or were not edited as well as I would have liked, regardless of content. Regardless of the minimal disappointments, this collection was important. While the pieces did lean toward a certain liberal mindedness, there were many authors that reminded us that we should be there for each other. We have to protect one another and work toward a safe environment despite what the current administration is trying to do to us, to our friends and families. Remember, that for all our differences, we still have in common our humanity.

A powerful, passionate and heartfelt book. It is clearly evident from reading this book that emotions are high and people are not just going sit down and let it happen. The voices are powerful, they are strong, they are united by hope and love.

Comes across like a vanity publication rather than contributing to the actual conversation on resistance. I did not find words that had not already been expressed better by others. Very disappointing!

This is such an interesting and heart-wrenching read that shows how much more work society needs to do in order to make everyone feel like they're living in an equal world. It nearly bought me to tears to read about how racist this world can be.

The collection of essays focuses on the state of affairs in the US in 2017. It’s….fine. The essays are well written and cover a variety of important topics related to life and the aftermath of the election and the poor policies quickly rammed through thus far under the new administration.

I tend to be very plugged into politics and the subsequent fallout, so I’m not sure I was the ideal reader for this. Most of the essays accurately tap into the frustration of many of Americans voters today, but I’m not sure there’s anything new here. If you’re someone that doesn’t follow politics or its backlash closely, or even somewhat closely, you may find this more gripping that I personally did. If you’re regularly tapped into politics and political commentary, particular opinion pieces, you probably won’t much new here.

It’s a solid collection and one worth reading, especially if you’re newish to the world of political action or activism.

I read this book in a couple hour long single sitting. This book was too necessary and too pertinent to ignore. I could not stop myself once I began and it was for very good reason.

The essays and poems in this collection took every argument I ever had against the current POTUS and condensed it all into a beautiful neat little book. The authors that contributed to this story outlined my fears, tugged at my heartstrings, and raised me up in my hopes. For the sake of equality, our rights as a human being, and for the plea for compassion, I beg of you please read this book.

There were stories that broke me. Poems that gave me chills. People that came together in order to speak out about the wrongdoings that have prevailed in our country since November 9th, and let’s all face it for years and years prior when we immagrated to America and tortured and killed Native Americans to stake claim on a land that was never meant to be ours.
America is a country built by the hands of imagrants. That is a fact that I feel many purposely forget. Our country needs to remember its roots and to think about why it is not something we should ever want to go back to. Our culture was built across the heated backs of slaves. Our children born by mothers that had no say. Our rights fought for by suffragists and civil rights groups that knew that what was happening every single day was not ok and must be fought against.

When our President says Make America Great Again, I ask when was America truly great. What point in our history should we go back to? I cannot stand back and see our world crumble back to a time where any human could be physically attacked just for there color of skin. I cannot stand down when our country reverts back to a time where people died because they were different from ourselves and that made us afraid. I cannot let this go and so I implore you to take a look at this book and read its words and think to yourself weather or not you truly believe that the man that is standing in our highest office today, is truly the type of man we want running our country.

Will you stand down or will you rise up and resist?
A huge thank you to the writers of The Resistance United in Love: Danielle Allen, Dylan Allen, JC Andrijeski, Megan Benjamin Evans, Elizabeth Burgess, Deborah Cunningham Burst, Emme Burton, M.C. Cerny, Selene Chardou, S. Simone Chavous, T. Thorn Coyle, Sarah M. Cradit, Ella Dominguez, Nicole Falls, John Gregory Hancock, Bayli Lane, Robin Lee, Olivia Linden, Grant Miller, Harper Miller, Morgan Jane Mitchell, C. Ricketts, Katherine Rhodes, Kimberly Rose, Amalie Silver, M. Stratton, Leslie Claire Walker, and Zoe York.

Your words give me hope.

This book is a great material for those who want to understand how americans feel now, only a few months after Donald Trump's election. Each author talks a bit about their families and experiences. They also share opinions and real facts, showing how scary it is to live in a world where this kind of behavior is still accepted, where history repeats itself and the mistakes keep coming.

People are sad and scared. They can't even understand how this nightmare is happening in real life. In times like these, we always ask ourselves what we can do to help. These authors said, "We can write. We can send a message out there. We can find more people who are willing to do something too."

I hope lots of people read this book and reflect on it.