Reviews tagging 'Racism'

A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt

43 reviews

wetdirtreads's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Racism, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Suicide

Moderate: Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Police brutality, and Transphobia

nibs's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.5

Belcourt's writing is so beautiful & precise & eloquent. I felt & learnt a lot about his experiences as an NDN queer man. 
I wrote down so many quotes because the writing is so beautiful. Learning about the specifics of Canadian colonialism (and thinking about how that compares to Australian colonialism), being in a body the state wants consumed. But also so much content on loneliness and queerness in a broader sense of community, collectivity and vulnerability as well, and how that intersects and interacts with his NDNness. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

cantfindmybookmark's review

challenging emotional reflective

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Transphobia, Homophobia, Police brutality, Racism, Mass/school shootings, Suicide, and Colonisation

spinesinaline's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

3.75

I'd like to reread this one to fully grasp all that the author is offering. This is presented as a mix of poetry and prose in a very loose memoir style. I’m looking forward to reading more by Belcourt across his multiple genres.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, Homophobia, and Sexual content

williamgideon's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective tense

4.5

It's taken me a while to be able to articulate my thoughts on this book. It's so unlike anything I've ever read, so unique in its form and subject matter. This book definitely is a lot to digest, despite only being 128 pages it took me 8 days to read. It is challenging, both in the subjects it deals with but also the way it is written.
This book deeply touched me, and there are passages that made me cry. Some of the essays are worthy of 5 stars, but others didn't hit as hard. My favorites were 'Please keep loving: Reflections on unlivability', 'Robert' and 'To hang our grief up to dry'.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Suicide, Racism, Suicide attempt, Grief, and Murder

littlecat's review

dark reflective

2.0

The rating is much more about my reading expierince of this book then a value of it cause the prose was the kind of dense style that I had a hard time reading, there are concepts I encountered  already  ( “Books of the sort I want to write are banned, for they are against the world that birthed the writer.”) that  I like tried to mental hold onto to understand the book but - it felt too unfocused for it to work for me, the constant quoting of others just made me want to read someone else and the general bleak tone (which he of course is entitled to! just wasnt for me). 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, Colonisation, Sexual content, Racism, Suicide, Body shaming, Rape, Transphobia, Genocide, Police brutality, and Homophobia

lisalynn's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective

4.0

too many big words:( beautiful tho:)

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Suicide, and Homophobia

sammies_shelf's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide, Racism, Homophobia, and Colonisation

becksusername's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

4.0

This book was anything but simple. Belcourt is obviously a poet, and in these essays makes many hard-hitting points about life as an indigenous queer person in Canada with lots of big words I had to look up, startling metaphors, and round-about storytelling. It was a lot to process and there were many quotes I wrote down to think about more. Even so, I'm sure a lot of his meaning will have gone over my head.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, Police brutality, Suicide, Sexual content, Medical trauma, and Mass/school shootings

pawpaw's review

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

To call Belcourt's memoir "inspiring" or "emotional" feels like an insult; the level of his writing is indescribably rich, refreshing, complex, and needed. I would quote some of his most poignant lines, but that'd ruin the experience of coming across them naturally. 

Don't get me wrong: sometimes I rolled my eyes because of how much he used the word "ontological," and he can come off as pretentious, but so be it. With everything that he's been forced to deal with, with everything he's achieved? He's allowed to come off as a bit arrogant at times.

If you're triggered by suicide, sexual assault, murder, and the institutionalized destruction of Indigenous peoples, please tread carefully. That being said, this book is vital, and well beyond worth it. 

Please remember that there are many other Indigenous and queer voices. If you choose to listen to this one, don't stop there. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual content, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, and Genocide

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, Racism, Murder, Cursing, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault