Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

42 reviews

lycheejelly's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Alcohol, Car accident, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Cursing, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Dysphoria, Vomit, Biphobia, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, and Homophobia

Minor: Outing, Transphobia, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Religious bigotry

macknificent's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Grief, Mental illness, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual violence, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Rape, Transphobia, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Pedophilia, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Incest

bookishplantmom's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-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? Yes

5.0

This book was « terrifyingly beautiful ». Amezi blew me out of the water. This book is compelling, reflective, gut wrenching, beautiful and thoughtful. It follows Ada after/during/through traumatic events and focuses on the interiority of dealing with such this. I don’t wish to say too much about the plot because much of the story deserves to be experienced without preconceived notions. It is just stunning. I would say if you have read Butter Honey Pig Bread by Ekwuyasi you may very well enjoy this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Rape, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Transphobia

Moderate: Medical content

cjcrawfish's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Homophobia

thewordsdevourer's review

dark reflective medium-paced

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

1.5

maybe im not spiritual enough for this book, but i find freshwater - despite it being interesting at points - too rambling and 'inward' for me.

i find ọgbanje to be fascinating, but the incorporation of it, or rather the way it's incorporated, in this novel is a lil bit too full of misery. this doesnt mean the book is bad by any means - in fact, i find it to be quite well written - but it purely comes down to my personal taste, which simply doesnt rly click w/ it. and while the lack of a plot doesnt bother me, its long-winded and verbose content that seemingly repeats in countless similar loops does.

the structure and lack of enough info/details also confuse me at times as well, w/ the former jumping around timeline and chronology, and the latter resulting in statements indicating some development or sudden change that the reader isnt previously privy to, making things a bit jarring. i'll still be checking out emezi's the death of vivek oji tho, which hopefully will be better than this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Self harm

Moderate: Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Rape, Blood, and Eating disorder

Minor: Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, and Child abuse

qtcarolyn's review against another edition

dark reflective 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Rape, Dysphoria, Biphobia, Car accident, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Eating disorder, Child abuse, and Death

Minor: Body shaming and Pedophilia

nefariousbee's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Self harm, and Mental illness

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Acephobia/Arophobia, Biphobia, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Child abuse, and Confinement

seawarrior's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

Freshwater is a dizzying, original tale of a young woman who comes of age with gods trapped within her mind and her flesh. Emezi's writing is cutting and clear, conveying the messages of Ada's divine residents with precise expression and violent, glittering imagery. While the chronology of the book was disorienting at times, I never felt lost. The way events were revealed made sense in context, and furthered our understanding of the characters' thought processes. I am not familiar with Igbo onotology, or metaphysical theories in general, yet my lack of knowledge did not make the story hard to follow, thanks to Emezi's direct style and explicit metaphors. However, I would not recommend this book to people triggered by or vulnerable to depictions of sexual violence and self harm. A key plot development in the book is the arrival of a vengeful and hedonistic god summoned to protect Ada from the realization she has been raped. Even before this, Ada was self harming to provide her gods with the blood they craved, yet this event accelerates the self destructive behavior her gods encourage. Though deeply unsettling, I did enjoy reading this novel. I've never encountered another story like it, and look forward to reading the unique and divergent works Emezi felt inspired by. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Eating disorder, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Grief, Death, Homophobia, Medical content, and Transphobia

talonsontypewriters's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Sexual assault, Rape, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Body horror, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Blood, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Car accident

Moderate: Grief, Alcoholism, Drug use, Infidelity, Transphobia, Pedophilia, Suicide, Death, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Child abuse, and Abandonment

Minor: Homophobia, Fatphobia, and Outing

Assault scenes are present but not extremely graphic; aftermath and results are covered more extensively than events themselves, though there are frank descriptions of rape and (C)SA.

snowforest's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Self harm

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Outing, Misogyny, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Grief, Dysphoria, Addiction, Biphobia, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Drug use, Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Car accident