Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

7 reviews

lllomnylll's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I definitely recommend this book! Some of the stories are much stronger than others.  The last story has some of the best world-building. The stories vary greatly and all condemn aspects of society and of individuals' values, beliefs, and actions. Very dark and dystopic but neccisarry and gripping. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

catsbreadbikes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.5

This book was not for me, but that's my own fault as i didn't seek out any information about the content warnings for this book. It was really well-written, and vivid in detail though! Some of the stories i liked vetter than others, but even when i didn't lile a particular story, it was still worth listening to. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Abortion, and War

aubrey_cody's review

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Gripping. Gory. Immersive. Thought provoking. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Abortion, and Murder

j_m_alexander's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

 Biting, gut-punching short stories that are frighteningly sad and darkly humorous at times. Like all short story collections, this collection is a bit of a mixed bag, some nearly perfect, others falling a slightly short by comparison. The collection started and finished particularly strong - that first short story was a haunting and powerful statement to start with, the final story while similarly startling finished with more of a lingering bitter-sweetness; truly perfect choices to book-end the collection. There were a few others in the latter half that I felt really built on one another in a way I really liked as well. Adjei-Brenyah makes an undeniable impact in a short amount of pages/words, leaning toward dystopian of the rather violent variety. Not every story hits quite a perfect balance but when they do, it's a real triumph and will keep you thinking about them long afterward.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

tey_lynn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

emily_mh's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Gore, Racial slurs, Rape, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Cannibalism, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Lynching, colourism, loss of a loved one (including a child), eugenics, menstruation, trampling, sick parent, homophobic slur, nuclear bombing

booksthatburn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

FRIDAY BLACK is a finely constructed collection of stories which range from simply invoking a certain kind of Black and American existence, to ones where the premise is inextricable from the intersection of these identities. 

Some of them have not literally happened but feel like they could if reality got just a little bit worse (or, more awfully, like they’re already here). Others are more speculative, requiring some shift in reality in order to be plausible, or being altogether impossible. In all of them, the relevant social and existential rules are deftly conveyed to build tiny pockets of a different space, in which a story is told that believes its own premise unabashedly and wholeheartedly. 

Three of the stories have a shared underlying reality, but I’m not certain whether the others are meant to be connected with them or not. None of the premises are mutually exclusive, but a few would definitely be oddly paired if they canonically coexist. My favorites are “Zimmer Land” (for the way it shows the precarious position of a marginalized employee in a job which objectifies his existence even as it exploits his identity), Friday Black” (for making shopping feel like a zombie story), and “Through the Flash” (for unflinchingly capturing the potential and inevitability of brutality in a certain kind of time loop).

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Medical content

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Vomit, Abortion, Death of parent, and Pregnancy