Beautiful People

This was a very nice book on disability.

Melissa writes candidly with a lot of honesty and passion, and I found it quite a heartfelt memoir-disability book.

This book is great for people with disabilities, but also people who are allies and want to learn more about disability studies and social justice.

It also had some interesting takes on social media, and I liked how Blake broke the book up into 13 pieces telling truths about disability.

I enjoyed this book a lot and found it enlightening.

3.8/5

A heartfelt memoir about living with a disability, her experience going viral and calling out all the ableist trolls on the internet who didn't think she deserved to be happy or proud of sharing some selfies.

This is a great look at all the sorts of things people with disabilities have to deal with, from self-hate, spaces not made to accommodate needs, challenges in love, work and more. Included are stories about other groundbreaking disability activists. Good on audio read by the author and perfect for fans of authors like Keah Brown or Alice Wong.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

"Beautiful People" is a fantastic book for people to learn how to be the best ally for disabled people. Blake breaks down what is most helpful, what is least helpful, and why. She uses her personal experience to make these suggestions, and she also shares the many joys, sorrows, and things she's learned throughout her life. The epilogue is a letter to her younger self, which I found very unique. Her writing is excellent, and I can see how she gained such a big following. I'm interested in reading several of the pieces she talked about in this book. I recommend this book to everyone.

With everything that is going on in the world today and people's propensity for being cruel for cruel's sake, this book is a MUST READ. Without being preachy or judgy, Melissa Blake lays out her thirteen truths about disability and being disabled [and what that has meant to her and what it means now] that every single person can learn from, even those who are allies to the disabled world. She talks about what disability is [including the hidden/invisible disabilities], why we MUST call it what it is [disability], how abelism permeates everything disabled people come in contact with [and often is something even disabled people struggle with] and how she uses what trolls online have said [and continue to say unfortunately] to fan a spark of outrage into a flame and helps her continue the work [all while acknowledging just how awful some of them really are] that will forever [it seems] need to be done.

You will be filled with awe [though she would not want that, but in all honesty, I find it difficult to not see how amazing she is and what she does. NOT because of her disability, but because of her strength and want for a better world and her willingness to take on the bully], happiness and anger while reading this book. I cannot tell you how many times my anger flared when she was telling a story of something someone said, or how she was treated OR what people have said to her online. We all just need to be better [even those of us that are allies]. We ALL can improve, myself included.

I was granted an audiobook ARC for this book and it was really interesting to listen to Melissa tell her own story in her own voice. It made it much more real for me to hear her tell her story and I highly recommend experiencing this book that way.

Thank you to NetGalley, Melissa Blake, Hachette Books/Hachette Go and Hachette Go Audio for providing both the eBook and audiobook ARC's in exchange for an honest review.