RaveThe Women\'s Review of BooksBurke narrates this journey to healing so that each chapter—although they do build upon each other—can stand alone as its own meditation on a subject or an emotion or a focal moment...The result is that her voice as an activist now, post-Me Too, sounds no more or less fierce than any of her other voices, and it is clear that she holds each of these multitudes, these truths, within her still ... Since hers is an emotional journey, the events are not always recalled chronologically; healing requires practice and will not always be linear. She is, thus, a master of pacing ... the emotional present of each moment wells from the page ... She is grateful and proud and loving and celebratory and funny. She speaks deep wisdom plainly and easily. She doesn’t mince words or try to make excuses ... Burke’s honesty reinforces #metoo as the work of a movement, not just a moment.
Angela Chen
RaveWomen\'s Review of BooksPart memoir and history, part reporting and research, part cultural analysis and call-to-action, Ace paints a more specific picture of asexuality as \'an umbrella that covers different, diverse, and sometimes inconsistent experiences\' ... \'Us\' denotes different perspectives at different moments throughout the book, and although it can become complex, Chen also does not allow us to forget her positionality within this conversation about asexuality’s implications and revelations for society. By counting herself among a more collective \'we\' in these ways, she emphasizes the multifaceted and intersectional and necessary complexities of thinking about desire. In a series of succinct, thought-provokingstatements, Chen invites us to embrace this complexity, because misconceptions about sexual behavior must be addressed directly if we are to move towards a level of precision that is truly just ... eyes. Through her vulnerable and vivid discourse, Chen models this mindful scrutiny that true change necessitates ... consent. Chen, in her skillful blend of academic research, detailed reporting, and personal reflection, interrogates all of the assumptions that prevent ace liberation and, by extension, she argues, sexual and romantic liberation for everyone ... imperative. In her penetrating yet wittily kind voice, she describes many different visions of a sexually liberated society, if we could all just pay closer attention.
