Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Assembly by Natasha Brown

147 reviews

leoniefnk's review against another edition

reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.75

This is the definition of literary girl dinner. The tangibility that Brown paints into my ears is at times gorgeous, but mostly a source of unease. Everybody should read this.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Slavery, Violence, Sexual harassment, War, and Deportation

oywiththepoodles's review

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism

Moderate: Slavery and Colonisation

sakisreads's review

adventurous challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

I needed something to desperately get me out of a reading slump and this was a recommended read. I am SO glad I read it 👏🏼

A Black British woman navigates the white world around her and my oh my, it’s not a pleasant place to be 🙄 I highlighted so many quotes from this book, one of which was:
‘Best case: those children grow up, assimilate, get jobs and pour money into a government that forever tells them they are not British. This is not home.’

How Natasha Brown managed to capture SO MANY EXPERIENCES (and nuances) into a 112 page novel I will never know. I thoroughly appreciated it though 🫠

4.5 out of 5 stars from me, thank you ✨

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Colonisation

annabella's review

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

A single sitting read which feels satisfying. It’s short but there’s so much packed into it. Various weaving threads and places like the doctors, mentions of both the protagonists family and childhood but also the involvement with her boyfriend’s, the office culture, etc. And all within that is this ongoing imperialism and racism that infiltrates into every fibre of everyone’s lives. I loved end note poetry bits and the Figures - more of an unusual structure and format of writing which makes it more exciting. It feels kinda brutal so I can’t say I enjoyed it really as it was so.. UGH.

Eg. The bit where the boyfriend is living his life by evaluating each decision as whether it’s biography worthy?? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

shoohoob's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

3.75

Interesting premise and a short read. I feel like it would have been easier to follow if I read it instead of listened to the audiobook

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia

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, Chronic illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Medical content

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

carly_reads's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

How do we examine the legacy of colonization when the basic facts of its construction are disputed in the minds of its beneficiaries? 

 

How can we engage, discuss, even think through a post-colonial lens, when there’s no shared base of knowledge? When even the simplest accounting of events - as preserved in the country’s own archives- wobbles suspect as tin-foil-hat conspiracies in the minds of its educated citizens? 

 

But what it takes to get there isn’t what you need once you’ve arrived. 

 

I feel. Of course I do. I have emotions. But I try to consider events as if they're happening to someone else. Some other entity. There's the thinking, rationalizing I (me). And the doing, the experiencing, her. I look at her kindly. From a distance. To protect myself, I detach. 

 

These directives: listen, be quiet, do this, don’t do that. When does it end? And where has it got me? More, and more of the same. I am everything they told me to become. Not enough. A physical destruction, now, to match the mental. Dissect, poison, destroy this new malignant part of me. But there’s always something else: the next demand, the next criticism. This endless complying, attaining, exceeding – why? 

 

It’s evident now, obvious in retrospect as the proof of root-two’s irrationality, that these world superpowers are neither infallible, nor superior. They’re nothing, not without a brutally enforced relativity. An organized, systematic brutality that their soft and sagging children can scarcely stomach- won’t even acknowledge. Yet cling to as truth. There was never any absolute, no decree from God. Just vicious, random chance. And then, compounding. 

 

Why subject myself to their reductive gaze? To this crushing objecthood. Why endure my own dehumanization? 

 

Considering its short length, this is a razor-sharp reflection of what it means to navigate a predominantly white, imperialist culture as a black person. Racism is so embedded in our society and language that people turn a blind eye to the subtleties and how they add up to a brutal total. She talks about the ways that black bodies and the idea of diversity have been commodified to further the status quo. She talks about the erasure of black experiences and identity in the pursuit of “assimilation” aka disappearance; The way that black people are forced to be complicit in their own dehumanization. There were so many quotes that were so precise that I was in awe. Do yourself a favor and pick this up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Racism

tamaramo's review

challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Infidelity, Racism, Colonisation, and Deportation

sydapel's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Death and Death of parent

fatfrog's review

dark informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Colonisation

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Infidelity and Slavery