Reviews tagging 'Death'

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

31 reviews

sarahmackenziey's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Cannibalism, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Death, Hate crime, and War

Minor: Domestic abuse

thatokiebird's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Friday Black is a short story collection, without a theme yet connected in the tone of each story. They're dark, heavy, tense and dread and despair fill nearly every page. This was definitely not an enjoyable read, yet I'm glad I read it all the same. I enjoy short story collections typically, and this book is filled with interesting view points and alternate histories and I particularly liked the science fiction and dystopian elements.

The author is so imaginative, processing what different realities would look like. From a virtual realty theme park where people go to murder virtually and come back again and again, to an infinite time loop Groundhog day-esque world, where no rules exist anymore because why not. There were only three connected stories of the 12, which follows a two people working retail, one story detailing an alternate Black Friday where deaths add up casually as just a matter-of-fact.

I do want to read the author's full-length novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, to get a feel of how they write characters over the course of a novel, instead of just in these short 10-15 page vignettes. Also the cover art of this book is stunning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Violence, Death, Abortion, Gun violence, Hate crime, Murder, and Racism

jenny_d's review

dark sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Racism, Death, and Gun violence

shainabriley's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gore, Death, and Torture

Minor: Cannibalism

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Abortion, Homophobia, and War

storielore's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Murder, Gun violence, Racism, and Body horror

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Death, Animal death, Mass/school shootings, and Child death

kananineko's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Blood, Self harm, Gun violence, Abortion, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Racial slurs, Torture, Grief, Drug abuse, Addiction, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Suicide, and Gore

Minor: Islamophobia, War, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, and Cancer

nana_sillylilbooks's review

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Roxanne Gay is quoted in Friday Black as saying if you like This is America [by Childish Gambino] youlll love Friday Black. I second this and raise it with a if you enjoy Jordan Peele movies or Black Mirror you’ll love it too.

This collection is electric and genuinely one of the most start to finish enjoyable, thought provoking and honestly quite disheartening, short story collections i’ve read in maybe years.

I fell in love with Nana Kwame about 3 stories in and am thrilled to already have his next novel on hand.

Dystopian , aware and insightful. My only ‘thoughts’ would be that it started off with such fireworks in  The Finklestein 5 and maybe we had a few too many on the consumerism theme later on but these are so minor because that being said I still loved 95% of the stories which is unheard of.

If Nana Kwame has no fans that means im no longer on earth…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Racism

jdamae11's review

challenging dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Police brutality, Abortion, Body horror, Death, Mass/school shootings, Domestic abuse, and War

hnagarne's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Gore, Abortion, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Violence, Death, Suicide, Police brutality, Hate crime, and Torture