Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood by Dawn Turner

4 reviews

alisonvh's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book was so good! Not only is it a powerful story about 3 black women who grew up in the same neighborhood but led very different lives, it's also beautifully written, and the audiobook narrator does a fantastic job! I cannot recommend this book enough!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Abortion, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

scatfloyd's review

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

 Three Girls from Bronzeville is a beautifully written memoir about Dawn, her sister Kim, and her best friend Debra growing up in Chicago in the 70's and the trajectories of their lives to present day. Despite having similar upbringings their unique experiences send them in different directions in their lives.

This story has so much joy and heartbreak in the same breath...I laughed and cried throughout. Dawn Turner has a gift with words and Janina Edwards brings them to life in the narration. I could genuinely feel the emotion and felt like I was hurting and celebrating with each memory shared.

I don't want to write too much because I don't want to give away details on what happens in each woman's life, but I have to say read. this. book. It was the best book I've read in a while and I honestly think it could be in the top books I read this year!! It is raw and passionate and at the same time reflective and measured. It's about women and friendships and family. 

Check out CW because there are more than a few. 

A few quotes that I really loved. They have been slightly edited to hide potential spoilers...also I listened on audio so the punctuation is probably not exact :) 

"Maybe because [we] started out together, I nursed a fantasy that we would both be standing at the same place at the same time. But we were on different trajectories."

"I used to think...that ours was a story about choices. Three girls who made vastly different ones. But it's really a story about second chances, who gets them, who doesn't, who makes the most of them."

"When I think about why I pushed my sister, and felt a stake in Debra's future, its because I wanted them to have their own piece of heaven"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Medical content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Grief, and Murder

d0505's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Slavery and Murder

skudiklier's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This book is one of those amazing memoirs that at times feels like a novel, but that also feels so real and cuts deeper because of its truth. It's about a woman growing up in Chicago, her family, and her best friend, but it's also about race, luck, addiction, forgiveness, and the policies that shape people's lives.

I loved how real the relationships between the women in Dawn's life felt. Her relationship with her sister was the most impactful one for me (and I have a spoiler near the end of the review regarding that, when I talk about content warnings). 

The very beginning of the book took me a bit to get into, but by the fifth chapter I was completely pulled into this world. By halfway through, I knew this book was breaking me open, and that I would love it.

My only real complaint with this book is a meta one that hopefully won't apply to many people reading this after it comes out; because I am reading an advanced copy, there were no content warnings available online. I am not usually one to need them anyhow, but if I had been provided content warnings for this book, it would have been a better experience. This was especially the case for

the death of her sister. The relationship she had with her sister was so like mine with my own sister (I was and am the protective know-it-all older sister to a headstrong fun-loving younger sister), and the worry and grief impacted me a great deal.

I wish I could have prepared a little for that, and known what I was getting myself into emotionally.

All in all, I loved this book. It is such a moving portrait of so many types of people and paths, and covers such a range of time and experiences. The prose is written beautifully and as I said at the start, reading it often feels like a novel. I would recommend it to anyone, even people who don't usually like memoirs.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the chance to review this ARC. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, and Car accident

Minor: Homophobia and Sexual content

This is a major spoiler, but if you're sensitive to death of family members, you may want to know that

her sister's death is a major part of the book