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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.cgreenstein's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Violence, Rape, and Domestic abuse
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
hannahleewhite's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Rape, and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Miscarriage, and Genocide
kaneebli's review
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Rape, Murder, Gaslighting, and Gore
natalieba's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Rape, Murder, and Genocide
2treads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
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Tshuma has created against the backdrop of a Zimbabwe emerging from the strangling coils of colonialism, a story that centres the power of history, more specifically the power of those with the skill and opportunity to control history and how it is recorded, disseminated, and presented.
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Under the thumb of duplicitous and opportunistic Zamani, a man with no knowledge of his lineage, he insinuates and ingratiates himself into Abednego's family and proceeds to hijack a history for himself. Using his proximity and apparent usefulness and extension of support to cement himself deeper into the fabric of their family, eventually hoping to usurp the place of a missing son.
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But as much as Tshuma has used a dark period in her country's history, she uses it to trace connections between family, known and unknown. The rippling and cascading effects of state-sanctioned violence, food shortages, ethnic hatred and tensions and how the very fabric of a nation was affected.
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And with the failed attempt at reconciliation and recompense of the Commission of Inquiry, one cannot help but to wonder who is really helped by these institutions who come cloaked as a saviour, when true justice has yet to be dispensed in a history of violence that has swept across so many vulnerable communities.
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Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Violence, Rape, Hate crime, Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Addiction
browngirlreading's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Rape, Torture, and Violence