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lynxpardinus's review
4.5
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Child abuse, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Transphobia, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, and Homophobia
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Islamophobia, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Ableism, Pedophilia, Slavery, Suicide, War, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child death, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Sexual content
Minor: Antisemitism, Cancer, Confinement, Miscarriage, Dementia, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Incest warning is just in case, for an affair between in-laws.thedisabledreader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Incest, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Ableism, Alcohol, Child abuse, Classism, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts
skudiklier's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Sexism, Classism, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Domestic abuse, Rape, Xenophobia, and Infidelity
Moderate: Alcohol, Abandonment, Ableism, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Grief, and Islamophobia
peachani's review against another edition
- 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? No
5.0
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Racism, and Rape
Minor: Ableism, Abortion, Addiction, Antisemitism, Biphobia, Lesbophobia, Transphobia, Child abuse, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, and Pedophilia
coinmanatee's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I read this for uni. For a class with the guidance to look for intersectionality.
And well, I don't think you can get a better look at that. Each woman has a very different background and the ways their backgrounds affect them are again very different. And the book is literally about that whole topic.
However there's two gaping holes in the book for feminism and intersectionality.
The first is trans characters. There's only 1 POV character who is trans and not only is their chapter *about* them being trans it deadnames them and not a single other POV character uses their correct pronouns. This could have been done better. There are ways to have trans characters that have their trans existence affect the narrative without falling into the trans story(tm) that this book does.
Another character is a TERF and while she's called out on it, she doesn't have a chance to either answer or grow before the book ends.
The second is more dire. There's not a single disabled character in the book. Yet there are many many offhand mentions that turn disability into a joke or something negative. The most egregious is in Yazz's chapter:
Her room is the largest in her block on account of the "extreme claustrophobia and social anxiety" stunt she pulled to get it
So thanks book. For turning my lived experience into a punchline.
Whenever characters have mental problems, mainly depression, it tends to get better on its own. They wake up and suddenly the world is bright again. This isnt how depression works. Its again, making light of a serious thing (in a potentially dangerous way)
Now, the way this book is written I did like. It doesnt use full stops. Any pause or end of clause is a new line. Reading it feels like reading an internet story or a long chain text.
It blends poetry and prose in a very skilled way.
A uni note: its done to throw off/rebel against the rules of the English language. To not follow the laws of old white men. Why should it? Its not about them.
It also doesn't use quotation marks and while I understand why, I don't like the effect.
It blends interior and exterior, thoughts and speech, prose and character together.
Its great for feeling the POV characters everything, but it turns anyone without a viewpoint into card board cutouts at best and objects at worst. I think this has a really detrimental effect on the relationships that are in the book. After awhile it felt like men were a completely different species. And ones that were really violent. I always questioned why they were in that relationship and was waiting for them to do something horrible. ...and to be fair, a lot of the men did do horrible things. There's maybe 2 straight relationships that don't have any rape, spousal abuse of some kind of adultery in them.
The lack of dialogue, and that blending of interior exterior also makes everything "true" because prose tends to be valued as facts more than dialogue. Everything in this book is prose. Everything is true. That's a big problem when your character is a bigot in a way that you don't later or earlier have another character actively refute somewhere in the book.
And this is why those badly handled intersectionalities go from being badly handled, to just outright damaging.
Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Rape, and Sexual content
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Ableism and Transphobia
Cheating, adultery, generational trauma