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foreveranidiot's review
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
becka6131's review
5.0
As difficult as this was to read at points, I couldn't put it down. I think it's the author's inexhaustible heart, her empathy, her incredible skill. The essay at the back was a very welcome addition highlighting the wider impact a book like this can and should have.
nreyno's review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, and Rape
eleana's review
5.0
Incredible writing, but be warned this is extremely triggering in every way possible. Definitely worth a read
solachi's review against another edition
4.0
"In his rule book - sworn by patriarchy, watered by feudalism, manured by a selective interpretation of Communism - a woman should not moan. That is how history steals her voice."
.
A young woman marries a dashing University professor, moves to Mangalore, a place, so alien to her, but with her hopes high and colorful, nothing appeared to be unfeasible. Four days into marriage, facebook and e-mail passwords extorted; four weeks in, enduring the interminable verbal abuse, persuaded to forget her passion for writing, incessantly called "petit - bourgeois woman"; domestic abuse after a month & marital rape after two months. The story is unfaltering, and raw.
.
TW: The language is unprocessed. You will be forced to read about domestic violence, spousal rape & suicidal tendencies in detail, which produces intense, fervent emotions.
.
The characters are unnamed. This feature is to make the readers slip into the skin of an Indian, a Tamil woman who wants to soar high but ends plummeting with wings clipped.
The book is extremely pessimistic. It is not for weak willed readers. Every chapter has an epigraph from poems, and novels. One of my favourite epigraph is from chapter Xii - Zora Neale Hurston's "Their eyes were watching God"
.
The intertextuality makes this book so much better with Hélène Cixous, Marx, Woolf, Maoists, communists, and whatnot. Apart from the dry, repetitive patterns in every chapter, this depicts reality as it is, no more, no less.
.
Will I recommend it? Yes, but to a specific group of audience who are willing to be traumatized. Did it distress me? Absolutely.
.
Rating: 4/5 ✨
(GR - 16/24)
.
A young woman marries a dashing University professor, moves to Mangalore, a place, so alien to her, but with her hopes high and colorful, nothing appeared to be unfeasible. Four days into marriage, facebook and e-mail passwords extorted; four weeks in, enduring the interminable verbal abuse, persuaded to forget her passion for writing, incessantly called "petit - bourgeois woman"; domestic abuse after a month & marital rape after two months. The story is unfaltering, and raw.
.
TW: The language is unprocessed. You will be forced to read about domestic violence, spousal rape & suicidal tendencies in detail, which produces intense, fervent emotions.
.
The characters are unnamed. This feature is to make the readers slip into the skin of an Indian, a Tamil woman who wants to soar high but ends plummeting with wings clipped.
The book is extremely pessimistic. It is not for weak willed readers. Every chapter has an epigraph from poems, and novels. One of my favourite epigraph is from chapter Xii - Zora Neale Hurston's "Their eyes were watching God"
.
The intertextuality makes this book so much better with Hélène Cixous, Marx, Woolf, Maoists, communists, and whatnot. Apart from the dry, repetitive patterns in every chapter, this depicts reality as it is, no more, no less.
.
Will I recommend it? Yes, but to a specific group of audience who are willing to be traumatized. Did it distress me? Absolutely.
.
Rating: 4/5 ✨
(GR - 16/24)
paulfischer's review
5.0
An overwhelmingly raw, beautiful, and powerful book. I couldn't put it down, and I will read it over and over again.
_dunno_'s review against another edition
4.0
I will root for Meena's book to win the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018 for the sole reason of being the only one on the shortlist that I've managed to read. However, I loved it. I don't know how are the other shortlisted books, but When I Hit You is so contemporary, so 2018, so #metoo, etc. (and it almost doesn't read like a novel at all). It probably feels like we've been bombarded with too many of these feminine / feminist issues lately, but, like I said, it's 2018, plus domestic violence never gets old. This particular book raises some very good questions like: "how could he, an intellectual?" or "how could this happen to you, an accomplished woman, a feminist"? and Meena gives great answers to all of them. Let's not forget the writing, sharp and super-smart, my cuppa.
nuts246's review against another edition
5.0
Powerful story of a woman who survived to tell a story that is common yet unspoken. The story that nobody talks about.
I chanced upon the book by accident, and couldn't put it down.
I chanced upon the book by accident, and couldn't put it down.
tess_dennison's review
challenging
dark
emotional
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
3.5