Subtle Lessons in Ms. Marvel, Vol. 3: Crushed

There’s this moment in Crushed where the villain’s lackey legit says to Kamala that it’s her own fault she was kidnapped because she got in the car with him, and everyone saw her and wouldn’t think less of him but of her. And it’s so absurd and ridiculous that I started yelling at the page. But, for a moment, Kamala starts to second guess herself and think that she should have been smarter and known better. And it’s like, “Yes, Kamala, you should have known that the boy who you trusted and who offered you a ride to school would instead DRIVE YOU STRAIGHT TO THE VILLAIN’S LAIR.” Because that is a reasonable expectation to have.

So, anyway, if even one teenager/young person reads this book and is struck by how dumb the lackey’s logic is and how of course it’s not Kamala’s fault that this guy she trusted completely violated that trust and then tried to make her out to be the bad guy, and that teenager/young person then connects it to the way society likes to blame women/girls for the terrible things that happen to them because they should have known better and realizes it’s just as absurd, then this book is the best book ever.

A+++ for showing how a predator operates also.

Kamala continues to be pretty great (LOVE HER). I am frequently concerned about her costume, though. I just know one day a bad guy is going to step on her scarf and strangle her to death. Or she’ll get it caught in an escalator (there have been no escalators in the series thus far). That’s just how my brain operates, I guess.