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amgarrido's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Abortion, Pregnancy, Rape, Pedophilia, and Police brutality
Moderate: Addiction and Alcoholism
megelizabeth's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
3.5
"...I couldn’t admit to feeling weak. That’s not something I ever saw women who looked like me do. We are never given the space to say we feel that we can’t do any more."
I went into this thinking it was a straight non-fiction book, whereas really it's more of a memoir, though I didn't end up necessarily minding that. The narrative style is very open and engaging, and there are a lot of excellent points made and discussions opened up. Although I strongly disagree with Brathwaite with regard to private schooling, and feel that her exploration here needed much more nuance, I otherwise gained a lot of valuable insights, and I liked that a lot of topics and life intricacies are covered.
However, I found the narrative to be structured in a very disjointed way, and the many strong points made weren't done so in the most cohesive way. There are also direct contradictions on occasion, and I quite often found myself having to reread parts to try to make sense of what was currently being talked about.
I'd never come across Brathwaite before, so I'll definitely be following her socials and keeping an eye out for what she does next, as her work is important and she has a lot of great things to say. This particular book just didn't quite end up hitting the mark for me, but it was still a worthy read overall.
I went into this thinking it was a straight non-fiction book, whereas really it's more of a memoir, though I didn't end up necessarily minding that. The narrative style is very open and engaging, and there are a lot of excellent points made and discussions opened up. Although I strongly disagree with Brathwaite with regard to private schooling, and feel that her exploration here needed much more nuance, I otherwise gained a lot of valuable insights, and I liked that a lot of topics and life intricacies are covered.
However, I found the narrative to be structured in a very disjointed way, and the many strong points made weren't done so in the most cohesive way. There are also direct contradictions on occasion, and I quite often found myself having to reread parts to try to make sense of what was currently being talked about.
I'd never come across Brathwaite before, so I'll definitely be following her socials and keeping an eye out for what she does next, as her work is important and she has a lot of great things to say. This particular book just didn't quite end up hitting the mark for me, but it was still a worthy read overall.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Abortion, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Pregnancy, Misogyny, and Racism
booksjessreads's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
I really liked the way that Candice Brathwaite writes and this non-fiction flowed so well. Brathwaite clearly has a great knack for story-telling and it has encouraged me to look at her fictional work and I hope when I get round to reading I enjoy it as much!
One thing I really enjoyed about it was how Brathwaite lets her personality shine through, and continually reminds everyone that she is a headstrong and resilient woman and this comes through so strongly through her decisions and her writing style. Brathwaite also shined light on the harsh realities of being a black mother in Britain. She conveyed these realities in such a raw way and it was engaging, yet horrifying, to read about racism in Britain through the lens of motherhood. I have read a lot of non-fiction by black authors and their personal experiences with racism from their home countries. They have all been eye-opening in their own way, but I think this has been by far the most influential of them all.
One thing I really enjoyed about it was how Brathwaite lets her personality shine through, and continually reminds everyone that she is a headstrong and resilient woman and this comes through so strongly through her decisions and her writing style. Brathwaite also shined light on the harsh realities of being a black mother in Britain. She conveyed these realities in such a raw way and it was engaging, yet horrifying, to read about racism in Britain through the lens of motherhood. I have read a lot of non-fiction by black authors and their personal experiences with racism from their home countries. They have all been eye-opening in their own way, but I think this has been by far the most influential of them all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Medical content, Abortion, and Sexism
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Infidelity
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