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greavuem's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
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
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Drug abuse, and Infertility
Minor: Homophobia
thewellbitch's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I don't know what to say about this book. It's unique and I'm glad to have read it because it's a whole-ass experience, but at the same time I don't think I can recommend it because I can't think of anyone who would enjoy it lmao. The writing is poetic and musical, the characters are vibrant, the plot was interesting, but it was still hard. Listening to the audiobook at the same time I was reading was definitely the right choice for me, I couldn't have finished it if it was one or the other.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexism, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Moderate: Child death, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Homophobia, and Infidelity
theinkwyrm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Honestly kind of disappointed because I’d expected to love this but I really just didn’t. This had some elements that I really loved (the cors, the pum-pums, the food, the overall lore and vibe of Popisho), but that didn’t really make up for the things I didn’t like. This book was just too long and could have used some editing. It’s so long and the narrative meanders so much that it’s really easy to forget that the main plot line is taking place over the course of a day. I can understand that it meanders so much because Ross is having to lay the groundwork so the reader can understand what’s been leading up to the events of this day, but it really needed some tightening up because the pace absolutely crawled. Also, I like magical realism, but not when it gets so magical that it loses the realism like it did in this book. It’s just not quite the right fit for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Alcohol
Minor: Blood, Death, and Homophobia
moshappy's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
such a well written book that reflects such a unique culture; includes so much magical realism it borders fantasy (in a good way); interesting characters and world, the world will stick with me
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Addiction, and Sexual violence
madelynfrank's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
I got this book from the library because it had a pretty cover. And now it’s one of my top favorites.
Beautiful prose, interesting and fun setting. Many extremely unique and strong characters and I love them all. It was a joyful escapist magical fantasy that still spoke on food scarcity, complex colonialism, addiction, misogyny. Smart and special and I wish I had more.
Beautiful prose, interesting and fun setting. Many extremely unique and strong characters and I love them all. It was a joyful escapist magical fantasy that still spoke on food scarcity, complex colonialism, addiction, misogyny. Smart and special and I wish I had more.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Addiction, Classism, Death, Genocide, Grief, Alcoholism, Racism, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, and Infidelity
lavenderlemonade's review against another edition
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
This book is visceral and luscious in a way I haven’t encountered before. Colourful and baffling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Addiction, Infidelity, Excrement, Grief, and Infertility
infectiousreading's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
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? Yes
5.0
Popisho
Leone Ross
★★★★★
"Generally, men told stories to boast, but women were different. They wanted to look at their words in the air and extract the meaning, and if you shut up and listened, they’d tell you very interesting things indeed."
In this delightful tale, Popisho, you will enter a magical world so vividly that it will fill you with awe, fear, and enchantment: "The warehouse yawned before her, like church. The walls, a perfect, pale blue." Though the experience with Popisho reminds you of the corruptions of the world, it also makes you feel young and free of them. It offers elements that no other book has been able to provide - regardless of its genre. The world of Popisho is rich with natural, tangible experiences.
Popisho provides an interconnected storyline, interwoven throughout a series of individual stories that are quite engaging; the audiobook only enlarges this world. I closed my eyes - often - and drifted into Popisho connecting with its voice, and magical aura 🏔
"Xavier hadn’t realized a grown woman could be so soft-eyed and succulent, especially this one, who scared grown men." Because each character's point of view is integrated and enchantingly conveyed, it becomes a whole, cohesive, familial structure that penetrates your brain and resides there even when you are distant from the book's realm. Popisho is a narrative of gentrification, feminism, masculinity, epochs, and tenderness, as well as an exploration of the in-between: "Most Popisho people left their doors unlocked, but this was Intiasar-Brenteninton property and things weren’t how they used to be."
There is an element of cultural influence to this fairy tale, giving it a fresh and robust nature. There are words in Popisho that seem ambiguous at first, but as the words, characters, and love flow through it, this ambiguity takes on a greater significance. I feel that I am being embraced by a dream that I never wish to leave. I am gutted that, now, having completed Popisho, I now exist as an outsider to it. I miss it terribly so, so I will leave with this: "It seemed outrageous to feel happy, but she was.”
Leone Ross
★★★★★
"Generally, men told stories to boast, but women were different. They wanted to look at their words in the air and extract the meaning, and if you shut up and listened, they’d tell you very interesting things indeed."
In this delightful tale, Popisho, you will enter a magical world so vividly that it will fill you with awe, fear, and enchantment: "The warehouse yawned before her, like church. The walls, a perfect, pale blue." Though the experience with Popisho reminds you of the corruptions of the world, it also makes you feel young and free of them. It offers elements that no other book has been able to provide - regardless of its genre. The world of Popisho is rich with natural, tangible experiences.
Popisho provides an interconnected storyline, interwoven throughout a series of individual stories that are quite engaging; the audiobook only enlarges this world. I closed my eyes - often - and drifted into Popisho connecting with its voice, and magical aura 🏔
"Xavier hadn’t realized a grown woman could be so soft-eyed and succulent, especially this one, who scared grown men." Because each character's point of view is integrated and enchantingly conveyed, it becomes a whole, cohesive, familial structure that penetrates your brain and resides there even when you are distant from the book's realm. Popisho is a narrative of gentrification, feminism, masculinity, epochs, and tenderness, as well as an exploration of the in-between: "Most Popisho people left their doors unlocked, but this was Intiasar-Brenteninton property and things weren’t how they used to be."
There is an element of cultural influence to this fairy tale, giving it a fresh and robust nature. There are words in Popisho that seem ambiguous at first, but as the words, characters, and love flow through it, this ambiguity takes on a greater significance. I feel that I am being embraced by a dream that I never wish to leave. I am gutted that, now, having completed Popisho, I now exist as an outsider to it. I miss it terribly so, so I will leave with this: "It seemed outrageous to feel happy, but she was.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Drug use, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Child abuse and Child death
starry_ayed's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Boi I tried to love this book! I loved the dialogue - the descriptions - the sincerity with which characters fell in love. But the body horror was too much for me, man! I felt less certain of what was going on as the book went on. I also felt things was a bit too cool and ambiguous sometimes - I felt certain persons died because it would have been too much work to take them to account for their wrongs. And the book only seemed sometimes interested in that. So many things in this world I loved - but o that body horror scalded me bad! It ruined whole chapters for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Sexual content
Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Vomit
Minor: Pedophilia and Rape
2treads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The dialogue is sharp, fluid, lyrical, rhythmic, vibrant, and vibrates with the spirit of a culture and people that we are intimately linked to.
The prose is heady with meaning, reaches out to steep the reader in emotion, place, and space; the characters feel known and the smells of the world are rich.
The characters are central to the themes, setting, and world that Ross creates. They are our sisters, brothers, friends, and neighbours; all infused with a magic that is heavily influenced by our culture.
The diligence imparted in creating this story is palpable and every emotion is engaged while reading. It is impossible not to acknowledge the beauty found within these pages, the heart and empathy, the love, loss, and pain; how each serve their immense purpose of combining to culminate in true storytelling prowess.
Each page takes us from strength to strength and leaves us in awe of Ross' ability to weave a tale so unique yet marked indelibly with her heritage, her Caribbean, paying homage to the breadth of imagination that most assuredly is gifted from the ancestors.
Every once in a blue moon a book comes along with a story on its pages that drips pure concentrated sugar, sugar that is so sweet it hurts, so sumptuous and sensual, so bawdy and real, so mystical and magical. This One Sky Day is that book. A story of people that could fall from our grandmother's lips. There's no greater praise we could give a book.
The prose is heady with meaning, reaches out to steep the reader in emotion, place, and space; the characters feel known and the smells of the world are rich.
The characters are central to the themes, setting, and world that Ross creates. They are our sisters, brothers, friends, and neighbours; all infused with a magic that is heavily influenced by our culture.
The diligence imparted in creating this story is palpable and every emotion is engaged while reading. It is impossible not to acknowledge the beauty found within these pages, the heart and empathy, the love, loss, and pain; how each serve their immense purpose of combining to culminate in true storytelling prowess.
Each page takes us from strength to strength and leaves us in awe of Ross' ability to weave a tale so unique yet marked indelibly with her heritage, her Caribbean, paying homage to the breadth of imagination that most assuredly is gifted from the ancestors.
Every once in a blue moon a book comes along with a story on its pages that drips pure concentrated sugar, sugar that is so sweet it hurts, so sumptuous and sensual, so bawdy and real, so mystical and magical. This One Sky Day is that book. A story of people that could fall from our grandmother's lips. There's no greater praise we could give a book.
Content Warnings
Minor: Misogyny, Drug abuse, and Child death
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