Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Assembly by Natasha Brown

8 reviews

jennanaps's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Medical content, Racism, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Hate crime, Classism, Colonisation, and Medical content

hypocrisis's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

hard to stomach, in a good way.
more like poetry than a novel, really enjoyed the style. natasha brown knows people and how to cut to their core quickly.
there are many great quotes from this book, yet this one found its way into this unfairly brief review simply because i opened my notes app immediately upon reading it, starting the collection of quotations from assembly.

p.21
"Victimhood is a choice," Rach said. Part opinion, part mantra.

while the narrator is describing her best friend here, as the book unfolds it becomes apparent that - although they are not affected in the same way and navigate this differently - both women repress their true feelings, in the narrator's case going so for as to alter her personality, to survive an inhospitable environment (until she chooses to stop surviving).

edit: I still find myself thinking a lot about this book and i don't think it was entirely random of me to elaborate on this particular quote, though it must've been subconscious at the time which I'm slightly embarrassed about. Only now do i realise how much of the protagonists' perspective is revealed within those sentences and how they literally foreshadow the plot.

I can't do this book justice... but if you're thinking about reading it you really should!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Racism, Cancer, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Colonisation

anneklein's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

holy shit

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Terminal illness, Classism, Misogyny, Medical content, Racism, Sexism, Cancer, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Xenophobia

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cancer, Medical content, Xenophobia, Classism, Colonisation, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Hate crime

notthatcosta's review

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Hate crime, Slavery, Death, Colonisation, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, and Racism

nialiversuch's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Hate crime, Classism, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Cursing, and Racial slurs

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Slavery

solasuaine's review

challenging informative reflective fast-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? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Cancer, Classism, and Colonisation

absolute_bookery's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

Read this in one sitting and wow wow wow, what a book. An informed, brutally honest portrayal and narrative on race, class, conformity and choice. Excellently written and emotion provoking, can't believe this is a debut. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Racial slurs, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Suicidal thoughts