Reviews

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

sophiareads_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective

4.0

nlando115's review against another edition

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medium-paced

5.0

This was so brilliant! The 3rd book I’ve read of Emezi’s (they’re all very different genres but do tend to handle themes of identity and LGBTQ+ characters). The way the storytelling was organized from the distinct voices of the ogbanje to (eventually) Ada’s POV was done SO well. 

biblio_t's review against another edition

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5.0

How do I review something so unprecedented? There is simply nothing to compare this to. 

Some of my favorite moments below:

The world in my head is far more real than the one outside–maybe thats the exact definition of madness, come to think of it. 

It was interesting for us to watch, as he didn't even have to go anywhere in order to leave her.

Añuli's accident was a baptism in the best liquid, that mother of a color, then a clotting movement, a scrambled look at mortality and the weakness of the vessel. With our swollen new eyes, we saw the blood and knew it was a mantle.

She hid and hid, and Saul did not find her because he, as he had made clear, could not be at home with her and therefore was not looking. 

The anxiety curled up on her chest like a cat and purred through her bones. 

It is only a fool who does not know that freedom is paid for in old clotted blood, in fresh reapings of it, in renewed scarifications

We were sent through carelessly, with a net of knowledge snarled around our ankles, not enough to tell us anything, just enough to trip us up.

But I've learned that you can't force forever on the wrong people. They belong exactly where they are, giving exactly what they want to. I don't ask for anything more. I figure I shouldn't have to.

Understand this if you understand nothing: it is a powerful thing to be seen

The first madness was that we were born, that they stuffed a god into a bag of skin.

When you break something, you must study the pattern of the shattering before you can piece it back together.

When you have been living in a great shadow, it hurts to look at the light, to be awake, to feel.

I inhabit a space between depression and happiness, a sweet spot, a brilliant spot. 

kaylaellis's review

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  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Intimate yet caustic, I felt as though I was inside Ada's head along with her other selves.

Please heed the CW, this deals with some heavy topics.

freddysreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.5

zeemeermijn's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0


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llnstr's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional

4.0

jamiedark10's review against another edition

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challenging 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

4.75

linnym55's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

silasburke's review against another edition

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  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

This book was wild and enthralling. Big CW for sexual violence. The narration style (sometimes first person plural, sometimes first person singular) took a second for me to get into, but then I was hooked. Intense, so many implications about how trauma affects us, what grief and loneliness and displacement and misogyny does to us, about mental illness, etc. 
I usually am put off by books with atypical narration styles and spiritual themes, but this one was touching and heart-wrenching and never felt like it was forcing a narrative on me. The narration was done SO effectively that it was truly disorienting to go from the plural POV to non-plural. The spirituality felt almost sci-fi/fantasy to me? Like in that the main character just is in strange circumstances she has to deal with. 
Anyways, yeah, a wild fucking book which I was surprised to really like. Will be interesting to read someday.