Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Frère d'âme by David Diop

10 reviews

akane_readsyt's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Death, Grief, Body horror, and Mental illness

Moderate: Infidelity, Hate crime, and Racism

Minor: Rape, Sexism, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

maya7's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Narrated by Alfa, a Senegalese soldier serving in the French army during World War I. Facing the painful death of his almost brother-like friend, Alfa was slowly falling into a pit of madness and finally collapsed.

Repetitive sentences were a bit hard for me to get into the story at first, but I was horrified reading the last chapter and went back to the first page again, then the story felt different with more understanding about the background. 

A dark and powerful novella about the violence and madness caused by war and colonialism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and War

Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Kidnapping

meganannelise's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Gore, Sexism, Violence, Torture, and Rape

amselot's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Gore, Torture, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, War, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Death of parent

chichio's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

“God’s truth, that’s how things go, that’s how the world is: each thing is double.”

Jesus Christ. This was such a searing experience. I couldn’t put the book down…I literally read it all in one sitting. 

This book takes on large themes despite it being such a quick read. In this narrative, Diop speaks on race, war, toxic masculinity, and the way these three things aggravate one another, coming together to create a complex discussion on humanity, and the loss thereof. 

It’s a dark, unbelievably bleak read, yet it’s still poetic and beautifully literary—I found myself highlighting a lot of lines. The character voice in this is so strong and disturbing; Diop drags you into the mind of our protagonist, Alfa, and forces you to accompany him during his descent into madness. In the latter half of the book, as Alfa grows narcissistic, you begin to sense that he’s not just an unreliable narrator, but also an unbelievably unlikeable one, worn down into something ugly by grief and guilt. 

The prose is filled with repetition. Repetition of phrases, themes, and metaphors, but it works. It works. They perfectly highlight Alfa’s mental state, and the nonlinear narrative confuses you and forces you to keep up with him as his mind bounces between the past and the present, reality and delusion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Grief, Classism, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Xenophobia, War, Death, and Sexual assault

kaitlyng's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, War, Sexual content, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Mental illness, Colonisation, Grief, Cannibalism, Slavery, Rape, Racial slurs, and Kidnapping

Minor: Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Sexism

breazatoth's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

incredibly dark, but thought-provoking

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, War, Sexism, Blood, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

julianh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Violence, War, and Sexual assault

This book has all the triggers. Make sure you are in a good place mentally before reading this book.

wellfedpages's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

‘This story, like all interesting stories, is full of clever innuendo. Whoever tells a well-known story like the one about the lion-sorcerer and the fickle princess might always be hiding another story beneath it. To be seen, the story hidden beneath the well-known story has to peek out a little bit. If the hidden story hides too well beneath the well known story, it stays invisible…When it’s understood by those for whom it is intended, the story hidden beneath the well known story can change the course of their lives, can push them to transform a diffuse desire into a concrete act

Of stories

And meaning

And secrets

Hidden in plain sight

Aren’t those the best deceptions?

The best works of art

The best stories

The face beneath the face

The eyes beneath the eyes

The words beneath the words

Diop is commenting about the nature of story-telling

We all draw from

life

memory

research

our pasts

from things better left unsaid

But writers cloak them in words

So that there is a story on the surface most see

A deeper commentary that many glean between the lines

And then there’s a tale that only few know was told

A story for all

Yet a story for one

Through this blood & gore soaked saga of a soldier unravelling & sinking into the method of madness, Diop untangles the many fissures of war

How it destroy’s people’s sanity

How racism classism & xenophobia are deeply entrenched even in the trenches

& shape events

How there are no winners in a war

Everybody loses some part of themselves

How victory is just an empty shell

crunched on the battlefield

beneath the heavy boots of time

But this is also one man’s story

How he loses his mind

His humanity

Himself

But was it just war that pushed him to those depths of depravity?

Or had loss eaten away his soul long before?

Was war just the last straw?

Was his incapability to be temporarily mad like the others who threw themselves in the line of fire & clear commitment to hunt more apt?

Was his violence towards women a product of war?

Or was it rooted much deeper in how he viewed women & himself?

Was he the lion?

The hunter?

Or just a phantom of the man with the pen

‘The hidden story has to be there without being there, it has to let itself be guessed at, the way a tight saffron-yellow dress lets the beautiful figure of a young girl be guessed at. It has to be transparent.’

The blatant objectification of women in this part that I left out from the initial quote & many such passages say something not just about Alfa or Madema, but Diop

How he views women - objects that are either consumed or plundered

How men write women - the fickle princess or the mute mademoiselle

And how it severs them from becoming truly human

Much like the severed trophies that the protagonist collects

Or was that another hidden message Diop had tucked in all along?

Translated wonderfully from the French by Anna Moschovakis

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, War, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Gore, Rape, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Colonisation and Blood

Minor: Abandonment

angelaaaa's review against another edition

dark medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Death, Rape, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexism, Gore, Violence, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Body horror, and Blood