This essay collection desperately needed condensation, there was so much overwriting that it was hard to not feel like the reader was being infantilized by the author. There were also too many citations for a lot of what the author was saying to feel like I was reading something "new". The topics of the essays were interesting but I wasn't captivated by the way they unfolded.

Again, I should have loved this. I love essays that form a memoir of growing up, so very much. But this one left be slightly bemused. I read around 40% of the book and kept wondering why these essays in particular were chosen for this book. I never got a feeling for the author and at some point decided to just give up. There are so many essay collections I could be reading instead, so I did.

This is good writing. These are clean sentences. Knapp's exploration of identity was a fun read and an education for me in the art of personal essay writing. I enjoyed it.

While the writing in these essays is stellar, the topics and unfolding did not speak to me. I found myself questioning whether I really wanted to read about the white make experience. Ultimately, the answer for me was, no.