Name: Kritika Narula's review of A Quick & Easy Guide to Consent by Isabella Rotman
Item: A Quick & Easy Guide to Consent
Rating: 4
Author: Kritika Narula

Isabella Rotman

A quick, easy and important educational illustrated guide to giving and receiving consent in sex, relationships, and other physical contact. How do you tell someone you want to do stuff with them? How do you ask if they want to do stuff with you? How do you know what stuff you want to do with each other? Enter: Sargeant Yes Means Yes from the Consent Cavalry, a beacon of clarity in a fuzzy minefield of questions. Sarge drops in on a diverse range of folks deciding whether to engage in sexual activity in this short and fun comic guide to communicating what you want, don't want, and how you want it! With wit and charm, Sarge also includes tips on what affirmative consent looks like, advocating for what you want, and setting boundaries that honor your comfort and safety. The result is a positive resource illustrating how easy it really is to respect each other’s bodies and desires. Part of the acclaimed QUICK & EASY GUIDE series from Limerence Press.

A Quick & Easy Guide to Consent

Ariel Himboi

Kritika Narula

This arc was provided by Limerence Press, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
One of the reasons I like reading 'Quick & Easy Guides' on otherwise taboo themes is because within the cultural context of my country, it can be a tricky space to navigate. Such guides are always a handy tool for anyone working on trainings/events where these themes are discussed. 
This one checks all the marks on what I consider to be a good guide. It is thorough, does not leave much space for questions and the scenes set within the explanations aren't too fabricated. 
It touches upon consent in various tangents, including contentious issues like the age of consent and the withdrawal of consent. 
I only wish such books become essential reading in schools in the time to come.

[ thank you to netgalley for providing me with the opportunity to read this book! ]

killing time by reading isabella rotman’s a quick & easy guide to consent on netgalley and i wasn’t expecting to have a realisation five pages in but now i can’t stop realising ahhh

!!!! the standards we have about consent are something that can actually be not as good as we thought they were. there’s this example scenario at the start and it plays out how you’d expect it to, but then the narrative calls one half of our couple the gatekeeper, who has to reject or accept advances etc, and :000 that’s a lot of pressure to have on a person especially if you’re a woman and in a heterosexual relationship with socially encouraged gender dynamics happening. 

this is a very dumb realisation that somehow i’ve never had but now that i’ve thought of it, defining consent as one person asking and another person accepting or not accepting in a situation as it happens, is just. a lot of pressure, since very little people want to be seen as someone who’ll chicken out at the last minute, and also saying no to people as things happen is always hard. and any feelings of ‘i’m kind of ambivalent’ tend to get pushed to ‘i’m not against it’ which ends up meaning the same thing as yes. 

“your strong and solid no makes way for your deep, authentic yes. i was taught this late in life: “no is a complete sentence.” you don’t have to say no apologetically, and you don’t have to explain your no. by practicing your no, you will cultivate a yes that is rooted in having agency, having power, and having respect for your own boundaries.“ 

- adrienne maree brown

final thoughts: the art style is comforting and gets the point across easily, and i appreciate how the narrator explains subjects slowly (it gives me science video that gently explains everything one at a time vibes) as well as the extensive resources at the back of the book. also shout out to the creators for including non heterosexual couples + not just talking about cishet relationships.

Ariel Himboi &
A Quick & Easy Guide to Consent by Isabella Rotman

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Ariel Himboi &A Quick & Easy Guide to Consent by Isabella Rotman

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Ariel Himboi &
A Quick & Easy Guide to Consent by Isabella Rotman