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rainbowarpaint's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Classism
Moderate: Cancer
nathiddles_106's review against another edition
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Cancer
cuartolimon's review
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism
schorlett's review
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Slavery, Alcohol, and Classism
centesimal's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Fragments with poetry mixed in. Very large font and only 100 ish pages. Not really a novella but a depressed woman's attempt to come to terms with a " choice," when society has never allowed her much choice. I think my main issue is that the only times the narrative was descriptive involved food. The strongest emotions I got from the POV all revolved around her disgust of people eating. Everything else was just bleak resignation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
lady_bountiful's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Medical content, and Classism
introvertsbookclub's review
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
I am always so impressed by writers who can so precisely and vividly portray real life and everyday moments. Whose writing feels so natural and familiar. This is an astonishingly good book.
It is also a shocking read – in the way it is written, direct, unflinching and uncovering the hidden abuse and trauma lurking within British society; and in the plot itself. Despite that, there was something comforting in the protagonist’s nihilism, it gave permission to similar feelings of despair in the face of modern reincarnations of violence.
The novel was the perfect blend of personal and political, in that it showed that the two can never be separated. Each moment was informed by centuries of racism and colonialism; it was a story of the history of racism enacted on one body and the ways that person is trapped within racism and made complicit through their attempt to survive the system. It was complex and critical and an incredible pick for Black History Month.
It is also a shocking read – in the way it is written, direct, unflinching and uncovering the hidden abuse and trauma lurking within British society; and in the plot itself. Despite that, there was something comforting in the protagonist’s nihilism, it gave permission to similar feelings of despair in the face of modern reincarnations of violence.
The novel was the perfect blend of personal and political, in that it showed that the two can never be separated. Each moment was informed by centuries of racism and colonialism; it was a story of the history of racism enacted on one body and the ways that person is trapped within racism and made complicit through their attempt to survive the system. It was complex and critical and an incredible pick for Black History Month.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
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!
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.
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!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, and Classism
Moderate: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Colonisation
endemictoearth's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
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
5.0
This book was fantastic. Searingly philosophical in a very essential way, it manages to do so much in such a short space/time.
The narrator is a Black British woman who has risen to the top of her financial field. She's very wealthy in her own right, and is dating a man who is probably somewhere in the aristocracy, certainly old white money. In the short space of the novella, he goes from 'the boyfriend' to 'the son' as she pulls further away from him and into her diagnosis.
Yes, she has just been diagnosed with advanced cancer. We aren't given details, other than her doctor is planning an aggressive treatment. She doesn't tell anyone, and seriously considers just . . . not. Not fighting, bc what does she really have to fight for? So, content warning for circuitous suicidal thoughts. (I saw some review that claimed those thoughts were disrespectful to people fighting cancer. And . . . I absolutely cannot with that sort of logic. Literature and stories are where we can try out thoughts and explore things. And we don't end the book with her irrevocably making the decision to NOT pursue treatment.)
But that is also missing the ENTIRE POINT of likening the cancerous cells in her body to the cancer that is white privilege. And she is probably best able to speak about that, bc she has been very very close to many forms of white privilege. Her co-workers who view her with suspicion and think she should be happy to share a promotion with a white upper class man who 'needs this for his family'. Her best friend who can fuck up and fail and shrug and go on and isn't held to anything like the same standards our narrator must maintain or be ostracized. Her boyfriend who takes the family estate and lands as his birthright and not something that has been passed down with blood-covered hands. White privilege that begets yet and yet more privilege further and further removed from anyone who's done anything to earn it, and those things and the 'earning' were done on the backs of everyone else.
This book is INCISIVE. It cuts DEEP. And I recommend it to everyone. It's short and not at all sweet.
The narrator is a Black British woman who has risen to the top of her financial field. She's very wealthy in her own right, and is dating a man who is probably somewhere in the aristocracy, certainly old white money. In the short space of the novella, he goes from 'the boyfriend' to 'the son' as she pulls further away from him and into her diagnosis.
Yes, she has just been diagnosed with advanced cancer. We aren't given details, other than her doctor is planning an aggressive treatment. She doesn't tell anyone, and seriously considers just . . . not. Not fighting, bc what does she really have to fight for? So, content warning for circuitous suicidal thoughts. (I saw some review that claimed those thoughts were disrespectful to people fighting cancer. And . . . I absolutely cannot with that sort of logic. Literature and stories are where we can try out thoughts and explore things. And we don't end the book with her irrevocably making the decision to NOT pursue treatment.)
But that is also missing the ENTIRE POINT of likening the cancerous cells in her body to the cancer that is white privilege. And she is probably best able to speak about that, bc she has been very very close to many forms of white privilege. Her co-workers who view her with suspicion and think she should be happy to share a promotion with a white upper class man who 'needs this for his family'. Her best friend who can fuck up and fail and shrug and go on and isn't held to anything like the same standards our narrator must maintain or be ostracized. Her boyfriend who takes the family estate and lands as his birthright and not something that has been passed down with blood-covered hands. White privilege that begets yet and yet more privilege further and further removed from anyone who's done anything to earn it, and those things and the 'earning' were done on the backs of everyone else.
This book is INCISIVE. It cuts DEEP. And I recommend it to everyone. It's short and not at all sweet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Xenophobia