Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Girl, Woman, Other

This book was definitely a unique experience. It told the story of twelve (mostly Black) women in Britain and things they had to deal with and overcome. They were slightly interwoven with each other, be it by family ties, by being friends, or just by simply having been in each other's lives for a while. It got a bit hard for me later in the book to remember all the characters sometimes, because each chapter introduced a bunch of new characters that sometimes sporadically showed up again later, but for the most part, I loved that format.

The writing style was probably something that some people will struggle with. There were no quotation marks, almost no capitalised words, and instead of ending sentences with a period, Evaristo simply wrote the next sentence on a new line. I have to say I'm kind of a sucker for a style like this, even if it did seem a bit pretentious and hard to read at times (especially during dialogue, because it could be hard to keep track of who was saying what). But I have to say that if you struggle with writing styles à la Sally Rooney, you will probably also struggle with this one - possibly more so, even.

To be honest, the writing was almost a bit too advanced for me? I didn't always quite understand what characters were talking about and it made little sense to me. Which, obviously, was mostly a me-problem.

The topics were tough to read sometimes. Evaristo covered a big variety of issues. Some of them were omnipotent in every chapter, like the racism that Black people and Black women in general face in Britain, or the rampant misogyny and sexism. Other themes were only there in a specific chapter or specific chapters, like teenage pregnancies, drug addiction, miscarriages, or (gang) rape. I'd definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings first if you've got big triggers. Admittedly, sometimes some of the topics were too easy to overcome. For example, the drug addict got over her addiction simply by going cold turkey for a week and then never fell back into addiction anymore. There was sometime nothing specific that actually helped the women overcome their struggles and trauma; it was simply by pure will.

Some of the feminism that Evaristo wrote also felt a bit problematic and non-inclusive, especially when it came to trans rights. One of the chapters was about a non-binary person, and while I could deal with them getting misgendered and deadnamed in their own chapter - they didn't know yet at the beginning of the chapter that they were even non-binary to begin with -, I didn't understand while they kept getting misgendered in many of the later chapters, too. A lot of the transphobia just wasn't called out enough.

The character portrayal was done pretty well. The characters were mostly not very likeable and didn't differ from one another that much sometimes, but Evaristo explored their psyches a lot, which I liked. Also, I don't think a character necessarily needs to be likeable to be interesting to read about. Like I said, I did occasionally have trouble remembering characters, but it was usually not that hard to figure out who I was reading about again.

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hiraeth_'s review against another edition

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emotional funny informative 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? Yes

4.5

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anapthine's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny informative 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

4.75

Really enjoyed.

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camilla98_'s review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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miarose_'s review

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective relaxing 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? Yes

4.75

Wonderful. Interconnected. Whirlwind.

A dozen interconnected stories thoughtfully played out across only 464 pages. I really enjoyed Evaristo's fluid experimental style, it felt very natural, with no disruptions despite being so unconventional.
I read a hard copy of the book and listened to the audiobook narrated by Anna-Maria Nabirye (who was fabulous). This helped hugely with keeping up with the fluidity of the prose and would recommend doing this if you're unsure about this aspect of the book. Overall it was a tender, honest, whirlwind that speaks to the spectrum of black British identity, sexuality, intergenerational struggles and how the character's relationships with themselves, their world and the people in it grow apart and reconnect.

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corriejn's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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henrike1997's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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