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mnatale100's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Blood, Colonisation, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, War, Addiction, Genocide, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Deportation, Death of parent, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Sexual content
Minor: Infidelity
mmefish's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
I don't understand the reasoning behind writing a psychopath of a character that is Zamani, can't understand why we have to follow the events of the book through his eyes, read about his thoughts, his made-up scenarios. The "revelations" of the last chapters are not revelations at all—it's easy to guess what exactly happened by much earlier in the book—and so the invention of his character makes for a weird choice (serving what purpose exactly?), keeping in mind what the other half of the novel talks about.
And the other half is this: Zimbabwean genocide; the (separate) lives and griefs of a married couple.
But because the book spends too much time on Zamani, all of that painful imagery, all that history kind of gets brushed aside at the end – unfinished, perfunctory, forgotten. Maybe that's exactly the point but again, the way the novel deliveres it confused me.
Graphic: Violence, Torture, Child abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Murder, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Rape, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Excrement, and Pregnancy
VERY graphic rape+murder scene. Very graphic murder of a pregnant woman and the death of her fetus.quinnjuliac's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Genocide, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Child death, Grief, Alcohol, Violence, Death, Colonisation, and Animal cruelty