Reviews with content warning for Death - Assembly

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Assembly by Natasha Brown

15 reviews

sektaufeis's review against another edition

challenging informative 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? No

5.0

Hat mich tief beeindruckt und ein must-read für weiße Männer. Als weiße Frau konnte ich teilweise relaten, aber es war eine sehr unbequeme Erfahrung so eine allumfassende Schilderung vom durchdringenden Rassismus nur für ein paar Seiten auszuhalten.
So scharf und zielgerichtete geschrieben - wow.

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safymo's review

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challenging reflective sad fast-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? No

4.0

this novels feels like a weight on my chest. it is an important one but oh so disheartening.

it's the story of a black woman living in the UK. a woman who has "made it" and now ponders the question "what was this all for?". it's about the inherited grit, guilt, self-effacement, characteristic of people of immigrant descent in a Western, white male-dominated world – "what was this all for?". when you've merged your work and identity "but what it takes to get there isn't what you need once you've arrived." then what?

this glimpse into a single week in a fictional character's life is sadly reflective of many of our lives. Brown uses many devices to convey the impersonal and perennial value of the text – dialogues without quotation marks, imprecise but evocative descriptions of entitled Janes and Johns Smith. she uses form for a similar goal – poem-like passages, legends of infographics depicting casual racism and "an organised, systematic brutality that their soft and sagging children can scarcely stomach – won't even acknowledge".

the writing is eloquent but challenging at times – some sentence structures eluded my comprehension which made these reflections feel private (to the author) and exclusive but not untrue.

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sydapel's review against another edition

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dark reflective fast-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? No

Ultimately, I think this is a book I need to return to. I found the message and the writing incredibly compelling, but because it's so short (which is why I picked it up in the first place), it was hard to really immerse myself in. There's so much introspective on class, race, capitalism, etc, that I feel I can't think about it deeply without a second read. hertofore, holding any rating for the time being.

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lysander__a's review

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reflective 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

So good! I devoured it in one sitting. Has deepened my thoughts about the issues tackled within.

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aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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tiriol's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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notthatcosta's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book is like a 100-page fever dream. There is so much said in so little time, but the pacing and the structure ties it all together somehow. I appreciated how little exposition there is, and yet I was able to discern the fundamentals of what was happening, despite the non-linear, splintering structure.

Even as plot lines and moments fade in and out within the space of a few pages, I remained grounded in the motions - I felt tension, fear, frustration and even peace at points. I was also confused a lot, don't get me wrong.

While part of me would have liked more than the snapshot we received of this story, I was more impressed at the economy and the confidence in its delivery than I was disappointed in its length.

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