Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

44 reviews

yunsq's review against another edition

4.0

ahhhh i loved the way this book is written. love is an understatement! this book had my heart wrenched and my gut-punched and my stomach twisted throughout. I've learnt so much about Nigeria and Nigerian food and textiles through Adunni, and I appreciated her story a lot. I've got nothing bad to say about the book but maybe that's why it's not a 5 star read??

adunni's words.. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Misogyny, and Sexism

dlouvre's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

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

0.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, and Slavery

curatoriallyyours's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I struggled at first with this book - some truly awful things happen to the main character and I had to set it aside until I was feeling mentally stronger. It does get better - even though bad things happen in the second half of the book too, there is a more hopeful feeling once she has allies. There is a plot point in the second half of the book that was annoying to me - her innocence was over-done, in my opinion, when she was trying to work out what happened to Rebecca. Other incidences where she does not understand seem more contextually consistent but I found it hard to believe that she could not put two and two together to work out at least the base level of what had gone on. Even so, the book was compelling and I particularly enjoyed listening to the performance on audiobook, as it really brought life to the story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Violence, Trafficking, Sexual content, Sexism, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Grief, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, and Bullying

zoe_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful slow-paced

4.0

 This was really good but it also wasn't my cup of tea. By which I mean that I appreciate the story more than I actually liked it. 

I'm always a fan of narrative voices that represent different dialects and, accordingly, I was extremely happy to read Adunni's storytelling. As with any dialect representation, especially one that may be read as a "bad" or "broken" English (a not fully educated English would be a better description but even that is a little lacking), it may be difficult for some to fully immerse themselves in the narrative. However, in my experience talking to other people about such books, it usually takes only a couple of pages for someone to become acquainted with a certain language style and once that has happened, a more “natural” way of representing language often aids in the immersion. 

I, myself, never struggled with the language level at all, yet still remained somewhat non-engrossed. I can’t really pinpoint why that is so, my lack of a deeper emotional connection to the story is the primary reason why I’m not giving this more stars. There’s plenty in the book that should have hit me harder than it did, and plenty instances where I should have been rooting incessantly for Adunni, yet I only ever read with pretty cold interest. Maybe I don’t have a heart, maybe it was bad timing for this book, maybe… 

Anyway, this is a sad book on many levels, even if you (like me) aren’t emotionally impressed by it. It’s also a very hopeful book, which is important because it’s so terrifying in so many ways. The inclusions of the facts also made the story much more vivid because it tore the story extremely close to reality. Daré presents some of the worst and some of the most hopeful of Nigeria. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Rape

lorinew1's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence

secretsoup's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

This book was a rough read because of the rape and physical abuse, but I’m glad I stuck with it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Excrement, Sexism, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Torture

rachelbug's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion

foreverbookwandering's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Violence

Minor: Infertility and Vomit

fionac326's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Violence, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexism, Pedophilia, Infertility, and Death

feifeii's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

It’s refreshing and reflective at the same time to read the own-voice story of Adunni to get to understand more about race, gender and class issues in our world from another perspective. 

Through the lens of an innocent, naive black girl growing up in the rural village of Nigeria, with her constant struggle and maltreatment in the village and Lago, this offers readers to challenge racial, gender and class inequality and discrimination we may get used to through socialisation and therefore becoming unaware of even when they are actually problematic. 

It’s refreshing to read a story set in Nigeria where Daré offers to portray the book with lots of local cultural features    
The characterisation of our heroine Adunni is strong with the author’s deliberate choice of dictions and syntax to first portray Adunni as an naive village teenage who knows nothing about the outside world and thus create conflict and raise questions as she gets to meet the more sophisticated characters in the book. As the story goes, Adunni is gaining more insight about the real world to be more sophisticated, where we noticed the narrative gets smoother and formulated with more standard English words and syntax. It’s also the achievement of Bette use of English as language which allows her to have her own voice as the ending tries to conclude. 

Overall the plot is simple and straightforward. What I appreciate about this book is the characterisation and the touch of Nigerian and related facts portrayed for some cultural understanding. 

Another interesting point on the naming of the previous housemaid , Rebecca. This is probably an unusual name for a girl from Agan. With the mystery around her and what’s happened to her in story, this reminds me of “Rebecca” from the novel by Daphne du Maurier. 

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Physical abuse, Violence, Slavery, Racism, and Sexism