Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - Girl, Woman, Other

I read this book more quickly than any other this year - it was so captivating. A novel that will stick with me for a while and is forcing me to reflect in new ways on my own relationships, politics, and identities.

Readers with various perspectives on intersectional feminism, like the characters themselves, can empathize with these stories and the complicated (sometimes brutal) challenges of racism, misogyny, etc. the characters go through. I felt guided through new ideas and questions without feeling “preached” to. I especially loved the way Evaristo wrote about desire (sexual desire, but also friendship and life goals) and gritty coping mechanisms, like in Grace’s case. Each character felt so real, and the way their stories came together was so well-crafted.

Finally, at first I felt that the individual conversations about gender etc. were cheesy, but I think they’re actually pretty accurate representations of people working ideas out in real time (and of the author reaching more directly to readers, especially the end of ch. 5).

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katkatekate's review against another edition

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4.5

A booker winner I’ve picked up and put down for way too long before taking it home. Depth of the characters felt authentic. Great intersectionality. More relatable than expected. Ten storyline’s was a bit confusing at first and did take some time to establish who is who. This element revealed what linked/united them all so it kind of added to the experience.

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booksjessreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring 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

5.0

Re-read Review
Original review is here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/b91e3ed2-4f2d-4e97-8d09-b401a4ba884e

I have wanted to re-read this for such a long time, and decided to borrow the audio from my local library. Evaristo's command of words is masterful. The way the characters intertwine with each other is so clever and intricately done. The character development, the plots, just everything about this book is like nothing I have read before. I absolutely lap it up.

From my previous review, I quoted another review I had seen about this book, mentioning the prose rhythms mimicking both dialogue and thoughts. The audio further enhanced this and the writing felt so natural and lyrical. It was beautiful.

I will always highly recommend this book to everyone and could not hold this book in higher esteem.

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crum_93's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

This book was challenging in ways I certainly anticipated, but also in ways I did not. I struggled with this book for a long month; I can’t imagine if I had read a physical version rather than listen to it. I think for some, this book could be really illuminating, and I can appreciate why it is/was so celebrated. That said, I just really struggled with how ultimately negatively everything was portrayed. Yes, this brutal honesty in the book was part of the point, but literally none of the relationships, topics, etc. seemed to have an example of SOMETHING healthy to hopeful. Again, not what the intended feeling of the book, and as a white woman, I feel like I need to unpack that tension, but I think it’s something worth mentioning. I guess my tension lies in that it felt that the author was going for expressing the variety of the Black woman’s (and gender fluid individual’s) lived experience in Britain, but in reality, it was almost a monolith of almost entirely pain.

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naniaunruh's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

It seems like the author often writes about things she has little experience with or doesn’t know enough about. Some of these are just said in a one off sentence and never mentioned again but they bothered me a lot as this is still harmful.

(Anarchists opposing self-governing, a drug addict being healed after 9 days of cold turkey at home detox, anything to do with being trans, a woman lying about s*xual a*sault to get an apartment…)

and tries too many things in the same book without doing any particular topic real justice.
I understand that this book can have value for Black British women who can feel seen and represented here but i feel like this could have been achieved and better by getting a diverse group of Black British female and trans authors together to write stories instead of having one person to try and do it all.

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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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lynxpardinus's review

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challenging emotional reflective

4.5

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