Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

116 reviews

amberwinsor's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? N/A

5.0

Listened to this as an audiobook and the reader Anna-Maria Nabirye was amazing. Couldn’t stop listening and finished it in 2 days.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Racism

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, and Police brutality

camoo3032's review

challenging emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a collection of short stories about black women in England. The author covers a lot of topics including feminism, racism, homophobia, transphobia and domestic abuse. The book's format is a clever way of exploring these topics and I really enjoyed how it explored the change in society's acceptance of each of these issues over time. I also enjoyed how the grammatic style of the book allowed for more poetic moments.

There are a lot of characters so the book can feel like a bit of whirlwind, particularly in the first chapter, and some of the topics covered could've been discussed in more depth. Regardless, I still found this book very eye opening

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, and Racism

Moderate: Abandonment, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Classism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Murder, Transphobia, Vomit, Child death, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Cancer, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Slavery, Suicide, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Xenophobia

grandpabuxton's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? No

4.75

beautiful, poetic, wrenching, relatable, unexpected, prescient. one of my favorite reads in a long while. an incredible breadth of a story, and I felt inside the heads and hearts of each of the characters.

My only disappointment was I felt the epilogue was a little predictable and I wanted more from it, but not sure what. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Abandonment, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Outing, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Rape, Misogyny, Grief, Death, Deadnaming, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Classism, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Racism, Islamophobia, Incest, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Child death, and Infertility

anayyuh's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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

4.25

• very enjoyable read, didn’t take long and i genuinely wanted to pick it up
• interesting
• didn’t really like to kumbaya ending but overall enjoyed the experience

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Miscarriage, Abandonment, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Racism, Alcohol, and Infidelity

b_austridge's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, Rape, Deadnaming, and Death of parent

Minor: Abortion, Child death, and Miscarriage

jamieruwen's review

emotional reflective slow-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

This was just wonderful. So many different perspectives, interconnected yet their own, generational, and such real characters and real stories. This is the epitome of "something doesn't have to be relatable to be good" (for me, as a 20-something white NB that is). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Transphobia and Homophobia

Minor: Alcoholism

Carole 2 contains an absolutely devastating description of the gang rape of a 13 yr old girl.

hannahbailey's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved this! What a cracking book, I can't believe I didn't read this sooner.

Generally I prefer not to read character-vignette novels written in third-person. But this novel just goes to show that when done well, I can really enjoy them! I loved the distinct voice of each character and how they would be name-dropped in one chapter only to be the main character of the next one. It built such an interesting and creative narrative without leaving me feeling I didn't know enough about them–which is usually the case for me with character-vignettes.

Surprised to see some reviews stating the character dialogue and mix of poetry/prose was hard to believe and unrealistic. I completely disagree! The inner dialogue of the female characters was relatable and familiar. I enjoyed the exploration of womanhood and motherhood and how this intersects with race in Britain. It was an interesting and sobering read.

It was almost 5 stars, but there was a part where the character overcomes drug addiction by sheer willpower–they literally stay at home for a week without any form of support and somehow recovers? This didn't feel realistic to me especially given the vulnerability and young age of the character. That said, this was one of the chapters that really stood out to me in its exploration of body/gender dysphoria and trans joy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Racism, Alcohol, Abortion, Addiction, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug use, Blood, Body shaming, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Slavery, Transphobia, and Xenophobia

sylvia_reads's review

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

To be honest, I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. I read it as part of a university-wide project where we could get the book cheap through the university and go to activities around it, but I don’t think I would have otherwise picked it up. 
But I am glad I did! Because this was a very good book. I loved how every story was interconnected and it really made me think about gender/race issues I’d never even considered before. 
The only small gripe I have about this book is that I feel like the younger characters are not always taken as seriously by the narrative as the older characters, but that might just be because I personally identify more with them and hence feel these things more strongly. 
Overall, I’m very glad I own this book now because I will definitely want to reread it some day.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, and Transphobia

Moderate: Slavery, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Miscarriage, Sexism, and Xenophobia

sophie_paterson's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Rape, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Drug use, and Child death

beriboo's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Child death, Rape, and Racism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Abandonment