Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

50 reviews

dlsmk's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

BIG TRIGGER WARNING FOR ON PAGE R*PE. TWICE. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Classism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Violence, Abandonment, Hate crime, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Transphobia, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexism, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

salemander's review against another edition

5.0

this book made me laugh, cry, want to punch my fist through a wall, etc. incredibly written and full of pure human connectedness, definitely a journey and not always a fun one but worth the read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Abandonment, Addiction, Transphobia, Classism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Colonisation, Rape, and Fatphobia

paigereitz's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. Just - wow. This book was phenomenal. A series of character sketches of (mainly British Black femme) characters across a diverse range of ages and ideologies that weave in and out of each other's lives. Exploration of racism, colorism, immigrant issues, LGBTQIA issues, feminism in its many forms, love, relationships, inequitable educations - so much in here to unpack. I suspect I'll find myself coming back to it in the future. Bernadine Evaristo displayed an amazing ability to really get into the skin of her characters, many of whom have exceedingly disparate experiences, and do so flawlessly. This was an amazing book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, Racism, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cursing, Transphobia, Dysphoria, Xenophobia, Classism, Alcohol, and Drug abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Deadnaming

catherineallsop's review

challenging emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexism, Cursing, and Misogyny

Minor: Violence, Miscarriage, Rape, Transphobia, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Addiction, and Drug abuse

poenaestante's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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

2.0

Shoutout to the critic that shaded this play Misty by Arinze Kene by asking, "are tales of Black trauma catnip for paying audiences...riddled with white guilt?". I was looking for just the right words to explain why I hated Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. There are other reasons, but this really captures the main one so beautifully. The book was also too long with too many characters.  I just simply stopped  caring.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Suicide, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Death, Classism, Rape, Violence, Sexual content, Racism, Homophobia, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Sexism, Misogyny, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Grief, Drug use, and Domestic abuse

blubonby'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

4.0

I didn’t expect to love this as much as i did. I found a lot of the characters were unlikable in different ways but i enjoyed it, sometimes i wanted to scream at certain characters though (looking at u penelope and shirley), they all felt like real people to me so even when I didn’t like the character I still enjoyed reading. I thought it was a well done exploration of race, class, age and gender and the different trials of adulthood. 
I heard about the writing in a review I seen and I was worried about it not having punctuation but I found that to not really be an issue, I felt like it made the stories flow and I kept wanting to read on. Overall I really enjoyed this book and I wish I read it sooner. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Transphobia, Racism, Rape, and Infertility

Moderate: Physical abuse, Addiction, Dysphoria, and Miscarriage

Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

ninascozydayreads's review

challenging inspiring reflective relaxing slow-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

 I bought this book years ago and cannot tell you how many posts I made where I said “I’m definitely going to read it this month!” (too many, that’s the answer). And February was the month! I buddyread it with @taketowlu (<3) and genuinely, I really enjoyed it. When I first heard that it had no punctuation I got a little scared, but it works. Girl, Woman, Other is a beautiful mix between prose and poetry, highlighting what Audre Lorde once said: “poetry is not a luxury, it’s a necessity”. It is through poetry that she manages to bring out the urgency of seeing the connection between humans, and the flaws of humans. It is through this poetry that Evaristo manages to tell the stories of all kinds of people and women: citylivers and countrydwellers, non-binary teens and (frankly) bigoted teachers. It is through this poetry that all these stories are intricately interwoven. 

This book was a powerful piece of storytelling, of testimony, combining past, present and future. It shows that none of us exist in a vacuum, no story exists alone, there is always more of it, and honestly, I loved that. 

It wasn’t the mindblowing book I had expected it to be, if I’m honest. To be fair, I had high expectations because I’d put it off for so long, but I wasn’t wowed at every turn of the page. It also wasn’t disappointing, not at all, but rather than mindblowing I was stunned. I was stunned by the writing and mode of storytelling. There was a calmth while I read it, allowing for the words to sink in. 

There were some hard moments to read; some perspectives are from women who simply aren’t progressive. Those are the only few chapters (luckily there’s not a lot) that I’m not sure how to feel about. I know Evaristo meant to simply tell stories of people, meaning all stories of all kinds of people, and I appreciate that, but they still felt a little off. They didn’t take away from my enjoyment of this book though. 

In short, I really did love this book, as a book that I’m gonna carry with me forever. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Death, Miscarriage, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Addiction

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

julieannereads's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Police brutality, Rape, and Racial slurs

Minor: Addiction and Transphobia

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