Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Mädchen, Frau etc.

I really loved the way all of the stories linked together! As I was reading each person's story I was so excitedly looking for Easter eggs from the other stories, to see how they interacted. Seeing it all come together at the end was satisfying

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scripturient's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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lilacsophie's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

3.75

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snowhitereads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It took me a while but I finally finished Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo.

Let me tell you… It was a ride.

It is one of the rare books that lives up to the hype.

I can definitely see why it earned the booker prize for 2019.

This book is made of layers upon layers and stories woven into other stories that in the end create a full picture.

The characters really do seem real and are incredibly well developed.

It spans numerous generations and socioeconomic backgrounds and it is truly diverse, not just in terms of ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation but also in terms of points of view.

It brings to the table problematic and controversial topics and opinions but it doesn’t shy away from demonstrating how discriminatory and extremist they can be . It discusses privilege and the many forms it can take and the hardships of immigrants.

One thing I really appreciated, although very hard to read about, was the portrayal of

an abusive wlw relationship

. It is an issue rarely talked about, but it’s a reality for many people so it’s important to bring awareness to that.

On a completely different note, I did not expect so much wlw content in this book. I don't even remember anyone mentioning it, it was a pleasant surprise for me, but I probably would have read it much sooner if i knew haha.

Cw: domestic violence, rape, racism, suicide, drug use, deadnaming, miscarriage, infedelity, toxic relationship, homophobia, transphobia, racial slurs

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sarah984's review against another edition

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challenging emotional slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The way this was written without full stops took a while to get used to, but in the end I liked it. It made the prose feel poetic, and each character still felt unique. It felt like listening to a group of people telling you a story.

There were some perspectives I liked, but some of them felt really mean-spirited (both Yazz and Morgan’s segments read like they were the targets of mockery by the author, which was disappointing) and it's weird that three different people managed to magically rise out of depression on a dime for no reason. The ending felt really predictable and the character it involved annoyed me.

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coinmanatee's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This review contains spoilers

I read this for uni. For a class with the guidance to look for intersectionality.
And well, I don't think you can get a better look at that. Each woman has a very different background and the ways their backgrounds affect them are again very different. And the book is literally about that whole topic.

However there's two gaping holes in the book for feminism and intersectionality.
The first is trans characters. There's only 1 POV character who is trans and not only is their chapter *about* them being trans it deadnames them and not a single other POV character uses their correct pronouns. This could have been done better. There are ways to have trans characters that have their trans existence affect the narrative without falling into the trans story(tm) that this book does.

Another character is a TERF and while she's called out on it, she doesn't have a chance to either answer or grow before the book ends.

The second is more dire. There's not a single disabled character in the book. Yet there are many many offhand mentions that turn disability into a joke or something negative. The most egregious is in Yazz's chapter:

Her room is the largest in her block on account of the "extreme claustrophobia and social anxiety" stunt she pulled to get it

So thanks book. For turning my lived experience into a punchline.

Whenever characters have mental problems, mainly depression, it tends to get better on its own. They wake up and suddenly the world is bright again. This isnt how depression works. Its again, making light of a serious thing (in a potentially dangerous way)

Now, the way this book is written I did like. It doesnt use full stops. Any pause or end of clause is a new line. Reading it feels like reading an internet story or a long chain text.
It blends poetry and prose in a very skilled way.

A uni note: its done to throw off/rebel against the rules of the English language. To not follow the laws of old white men. Why should it? Its not about them.

It also doesn't use quotation marks and while I understand why, I don't like the effect.
It blends interior and exterior, thoughts and speech, prose and character together.

Its great for feeling the POV characters everything, but it turns anyone without a viewpoint into card board cutouts at best and objects at worst. I think this has a really detrimental effect on the relationships that are in the book. After awhile it felt like men were a completely different species. And ones that were really violent. I always questioned why they were in that relationship and was waiting for them to do something horrible. ...and to be fair, a lot of the men did do horrible things. There's maybe 2 straight relationships that don't have any rape, spousal abuse of some kind of adultery in them.

The lack of dialogue, and that blending of interior exterior also makes everything "true" because prose tends to be valued as facts more than dialogue. Everything in this book is prose. Everything is true. That's a big problem when your character is a bigot in a way that you don't later or earlier have another character actively refute somewhere in the book.
And this is why those badly handled intersectionalities go from being badly handled, to just outright damaging.

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marthaisobel's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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