Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Content Warning: Everything by Akwaeke Emezi

10 reviews

levisainz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

heartbreaking and beautiful. the poem “self portrait of an abuser” is a masterclass in poetry. two towers of text that mean so much alone, and then when read together create a whole new, even more powerful poem. amazing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Rape, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

mxpringle's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Sexual assault, Self harm, Child abuse, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Racism

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

 Content Warning:Everything is a collection of poetry, much of which explores details of their life covered in their memoir and also their first novel. Seeing similar events and themes explored in different genres is intriguing. Emezi is an author whose books seem to always be in conversation with each other - each work part of a greater whole. Some poems impacted me more than others but the ones that hit, hit hard. One of the things that struck me about this collection was speculative type poems involving Biblical figures poems like What if Jesus was my Big Brother and What if Magdalene Seduced Me. While I won’t pretend I understood every poem I was captured by their raw power and emotion. Trauma and violence are definitely present - the title does not lie - but so too is resilience. I know many of us on Bookstagram gravitate to fiction far more than poetry. If you want to give contemporary poetry a try and have read some of Emezi’s previous work, particularly Freshwater and/or Dear Senthuran then I recommend giving this a go. Familiarity with those works will really help ease your way with a less familiar genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, and Sexual violence

aglclark's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Suicide, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

hngisreading's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

thatenbyisisreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This book, especially the poem, "I was born in a great length of river", helped remind me that despite all of my trauma, I will never know what it's like to drown. Akwaeke Emezi is truly such an inspiring and powerful author, I highly recommend everyone to read their work! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Sexual assault

atla98's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, and Toxic relationship

rdebner's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual violence and Biphobia

nerdybookies's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring sad tense fast-paced

3.5

Formally, their poetry is not incredibly complex. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence

suzyreadsbooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

4.5

ahhhh the combo of reading this whole collection on pub day & then having the chance to immediately listen to Akwaeke Emezi explain some of their intentions & thought processes at a virtual book talk 🥹Such a wonderful, immersive reading experience!!!

After having read so much of their work, there’s a familiarity that travels across genres. This poetry collection is fiery and covers many difficult topics that you might be familiar with if you’ve read any of their other autobiographical work, but it also includes a distinct gentleness and an acknowledgment of the possibility of transformation. 

While reading, I was struck by how religious this book was, with biblical references woven throughout. During the talk, Emezi spoke about how so much of who they are is deeply religious, speaking particularly about religion as ritual, religion as being an entity that is in service to a community rather than as a hierarchical relationship.

The “What If” poems, imagining Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as family friends, were some of my favorites, particularly “what if jesus was my big brother” and “what if mary auntie explained mortality”

I also loved the poems that were more dense blocks of text, which Emezi described as “a practice in releasing constraint.” esp the poem “disclosure”!!

other favorites: i was born in a great length of river, sanctuary, “but why did you feel you had to kill yourself, baby love?”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Self harm, Homophobia, Sexual violence, and Violence