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readingwithgoose's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
This was one of those rare cases where I found all of the short stories in a collection to be really good. Not stinkers, no duds, this one was incredible.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, Sexual violence, and Violence
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Excrement, Infidelity, Body horror, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, and Slavery
tiannaedwards's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
The collection of short stories are beautifully told. With such little time, the author efficiently builds a world, introduces characters, stakes, consequences and delivers a riveting story every time. A hard thing to do. And it's pulled off flawlessly in this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism
Moderate: Sexual violence
They are a passing part of the tapestry of the storynini23's review
5.0
After reading a sample of the first story Red Cloth, White Giraffe in this Zimbabwean collection, I wanted to get my hands on a copy. Incidentally the sample ended with the sentence "All I feel in this moment is rage," which is very apropos because incandescent rage runs throughout the stories. Some of these short stories have been published in various journals and magazines before. Through it all, rage at the lack of agency over women's bodies, corruption, injustice, poverty, colonization blazes through. In the stories that had justice served, I felt a vicious vicarious satisfaction. The pace and feel is hard-hitting throughout, quality consistent across the board. With powerful Zimbabwean/pan-African mythology and folklore, the message is accessible, blunt and forceful.
In Water Bites Back, we are introduced to the concept of ubuntu which the author also mentions as central to her work. Such a humanistic all-encompassing concept. From Wikipedia Ubuntu Philosophy: "In the Shona language, the majority spoken language in Zimbabwe, ubuntu is unhu or hunhu. In Ndebele, it is known as ubuntu. The concept of ubuntu is viewed the same in Zimbabwe as in other African cultures. The Shona phrase munhu munhu nekuda kwevanhu means a person is human through others while ndiri nekuti tiri means I am because we are."
Highly recommended, I can't think of a better book than this for women's history month.
In Water Bites Back, we are introduced to the concept of ubuntu which the author also mentions as central to her work. Such a humanistic all-encompassing concept. From Wikipedia Ubuntu Philosophy: "In the Shona language, the majority spoken language in Zimbabwe, ubuntu is unhu or hunhu. In Ndebele, it is known as ubuntu. The concept of ubuntu is viewed the same in Zimbabwe as in other African cultures. The Shona phrase munhu munhu nekuda kwevanhu means a person is human through others while ndiri nekuti tiri means I am because we are."
Highly recommended, I can't think of a better book than this for women's history month.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexual violence
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