Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

14 reviews

cyden's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Death, Gun violence, Child death, Colonisation, Violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Racism, Sexism, and Slavery

tlaynejones's review against another edition

emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Colonisation, Child death, Racism, Sexism, and Gaslighting

roxanne_can_read's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Sexism, Grief, Violence, Kidnapping, Death, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Car accident

zombiezami's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Animal death, Child death, Murder, Grief, Terminal illness, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Blood, Chronic illness, Gore, Incest, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, War, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Ableism

Minor: Homophobia, Deportation, and Fatphobia

environmental destruction, saneism

rachael_jo's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual assault

frogggirl2's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

WARNING:  Do not read this book if you are particularly sensitive to misogyny or rape.

This book is a beautiful cultural artifact.  While set in present day, because this culture is what we would call less advanced, there is near constant misogyny (things like saying a woman is useless if she can't have children, women can't work or remarry when widowed, etc.) throughout.  Some demeaning discussions of gender presentation (when they visit the city they mockingly say they can't figure out what gender prople are because women wear pants and men have long hair, etc.) are sprinkled throughout.  The culmination of all this sexism is the rape and forced impregnation of a woman who confesses rape is her worst fear, not by enemies but by her own community.  

I thought this book was beautifully written with resonant themes and beautiful characterizations of relationships and community, but, on balance I cant say it was worth it to battle through this unending, disgusting, unquestioned misogyny and rape.   Ultimately, the men in this community do to the women of this community what everyone else (government, corporations and colonizers) does to them (and so the women are doubly abused).  I don't think this is what the book meant for me to take from it, but this is what I got out of it nonetheless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Incest, Gun violence, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Violence, Sexism, Police brutality, Murder, Child death, Death, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

nfoutty's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Police brutality, Colonisation, Grief, Murder, Child death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, War, and Violence

Moderate: Mass/school shootings, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Infertility, Sexual content, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Incest, Torture, Trafficking, Death of parent, Classism, Kidnapping, and Homophobia

Minor: Alcohol and Abandonment

signeskov's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-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? No

3.25

This is a solid read - but not for the lighthearted. The topics this story deals with are heavy and

given the realities that it takes inspiration from, you cannot expect a happy ending no matter how much you hope for the village to persevere

. At first, I was a bit thrown by the multiple and almost omnipresent narrators, but towards the end, you start to realize how it made sense - I only wish I would have gotten more opportunity to return to the perspectives of some characters throughout instead of being constantly carried through by “The Children”. As a consequence of the multiple narrators, we also skipped over some quite uncomfortable gender roles or realities - while it makes perfect sense to get an insight into the various mindsets and traditions within the village, it would have been nice to see even more emphasis on the strong female characters in the story, as they could have made for an excellent and more obviously pronounced feminist storyline. Overall though, a nice read - albeit one should prepare for sadness more than happiness!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia and Sexual assault

Moderate: Sexism and Violence

bandysbooks's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was one of those books that is incredibly sad and also based in reality, but so well written that you can’t put it down. The fictional village of Kosawa was very compelling and at points I wanted to step through the pages of the story to help them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Murder, Police brutality, Rape, Chronic illness, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, and Genocide

raenyreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

The subject matter of this book was what drew me into reading it and I'm glad I did. I think if you don't know much about this aspect of the world its a really important read and shows how unfair the world can be. However, the jumping back and forth in timelines and points of view made this a bit boring and difficult to read as it felt like the story was progressing at a snails pace even without all the flash backs. So that's why my rating is a little lower than it would be if this was not the case.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Grief, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Sexism, and Sexual assault