Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

10 reviews

nialystic's review

hopeful inspiring reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Rape, Incest, Deportation, Xenophobia, and Alcoholism

Minor: Domestic abuse

sammyofthevalley's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This wasn’t my type of book - I don’t usually read sad endings or books which are completely focused on angst. However, I also feel justified in disliking it, as the main character never develops. My FAVORITE part of books is character development, but the only upward motion we see in S is because of a time skip when the development has happened without the reader. I would have liked a lot more payoff for suffering through her situation. But that’s how life is

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Sexism, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Racism, Terminal illness, Deportation, Classism, Addiction, Police brutality, Alcoholism, Drug use, Xenophobia, and Transphobia

lorenag5's review

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Child abuse, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Colonisation, Deportation, Pedophilia, Classism, Outing, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Alcohol, Blood, Lesbophobia, and Addiction

al3xa's review

challenging sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse

rachelmichelson's review

challenging dark inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.75

This took me awhile, but I'm glad I stuck with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Xenophobia

cleo_reads's review

5.0

Wow, this is a remarkable debut and also a remarkable book. Also remarkably hopeful and generous for lit fic. 

I found parts of it heavy, both because of all of the content warnings I put below and because it's such an emotionally accurate portrayal of being in your early 20s and wow, can that be hard to read about. But it's ultimately hopeful and uplifting. 

Here's Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya's review, the review that convinced me to give it a try, even though I don't usually like lit fic - https://www.autostraddle.com/all-this-could-be-different-review/

A note for my fellow genre romance readers - this is absolutely not a genre romance - the MC does have a messy, on again, off again relationship but there's no hfn or hea and that felt like the absolutely right choice to me. This is a brilliantly written lit fic, coming of age story and that's what it should be read as.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Mental illness, Xenophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Homophobia, Child abuse, Police brutality, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Classism

Minor: Chronic illness and Transphobia

Other warnings: internalized racism, internalized homophobia, maybe some internalized transphobia (it depends on how you interpret one character), depression / anxiety, housing insecurity

agustinayloslibros's review

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Police brutality

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Xenophobia, Addiction, Classism, and Alcoholism

Minor: Deportation, Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

deedireads's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

All This Could Be Different is a very millennial novel (in a good way) that takes a lot of what works in many successful books today, mashes it, and adds to it to creates something that feels wholly fresh and original.

For you if: You like sad girl novels but want a protagonist who isn’t just another white woman.

FULL REVIEW:

All This Could Be Different is a smart, impressive debut, and I’m very glad that the National Book Award put it in my hands. Think sad girl literature, but but make it a queer, first-gen immigrant, South Asian protagonist. Mathews takes a lot of the things that modernly successful books do well and builds on them in a way that feels fresh and novel.

The story is about Sneha, a young woman who graduated college into the midst of the 2008 recession. Her parents have moved back to India and she’s found a contract job as a corporate consultant in Milwaukee. When she’s not working, she’s on dating apps or finding girls to take home in bars, but also looking for new friends to forge connections with. Eventually she meets a dancer named Marina and they hit it off. Things are good — until they’re not.

This is — and I mean this in the best way — a very millennial book. It’s a bildungsroman (early adulthood novel) that nails the entry-level corporate hustle, the way it asks you to tie your identity to your job while you try to figure out who you are outside it; trying to climb a ladder while exploring friendship and love and holding onto yourself even if you don’t always know who you are. I think all young women understand this struggle. But of course, Mathews brings so much more here with Sneha being a first-gen, non-citizen immigrant. I don’t have those experiences personally, but I’ve seen a lot of reviewers say they felt deeply seen.

I also loved that Mathews allows Sneha to be young and imperfect and immature and a little ugly — she has some sexist thoughts and transphobic moments that wouldn’t have been uncommon in 2008. We get to see her grow and change in a way that feels true to her age and experiences, and that feels sort of rare nowadays.

This was a good one. Give it a go!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia

Moderate: Transphobia and Addiction

rahthesungod's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Xenophobia, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Racism, Drug abuse, and Deportation

While All This Could Be Different deals with a lot of difficult topics, no mention of potentially triggering topics is graphic

anapthine's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

 Thank you Net Galley, W&N and Orion Publishing Group for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I loved this book. The writing was just brilliant and I felt so emotionally attached to this book. The characters had so much depth and complexity that you really got to know them and easily saw character development. 

Additionally, the diversity within this book and the stories it told was just beautiful. A South Asian Lesbian protagonist and a gender fluid Black character, with both amazingly written stories which clearly had so much love and care put into the characters to reflect their communities. 

The writing flowed so smoothly, making it very easy to read and keep up with what was going on. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was because I tend to read books with a bit more action and events happening, but this is such a great book.

I would recommend this book to anyone - I really enjoyed reading this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Homophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Suicide