Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi

44 reviews

irinalast's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Murder, War, Racism, Emotional abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death, Violence, and Police brutality

nevermoregothic's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Torture, and War

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Homophobia, Child death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Rape

ursa_arlo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.25

Positives. The artstyle suits the story wonderfully and mixes elements of western and arab illustrative styles which visually translates the identity conflict within Marjane. The story is told with so much nuance, acknowledging Marjane's (in comparison to many of her peers) privileged position, while leaving enough room for other people in her life to express their lived experience and subsequent opinions in the story. The graphic novel thrives on astute observations, such as how war can so quickly become a taken-for-granted fact or how signs of 'modern' womanhood can become signs of protest. 

Negatives. Because this graphic novel is a chronological life story which compiles important events from the author's life, it does not have a traditional story structure. The eclectic storytelling suits the life Marjane has lived but the lack of structure makes some sections drag on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Racism, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Drug use, Xenophobia, Grief, and Alcohol

grp101's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Deals with the topics in Satrapi’s life in a manner that simultaneously coveys the severity and is easy to understand for a younger reader. A marvelous real story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, Death, Racism, Addiction, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Rape

chaoticbeing's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Really what kickstarted my fascination and love of graphic memoirs. I read it on repeat to the point that I had pages memorized.
Book #1 is much stronger than Book #2, but both are equally important in sharing the author’s life story. #2 is much slower than #1 pace-wise, and feels much less eventful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Violence, Islamophobia, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, War, Classism, Racial slurs, Alcohol, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual content, Child death, and Suicidal thoughts

sleepylit's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

One of my favorite books of all time. This was my second read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Alcohol, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, War, Violence, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Police brutality, Colonisation, Death, and Homophobia

markwillnevercry's review against another edition

0.5

So, there is a bit to tell. I really did not like this book. You might think "Ah, so you did not like it, because it was bad", but it wasn't. Marjane Satrapi does a very good job of showing how she grew up and how stuff changed her. However, it felt a bit like listening to your friend go through absolute shit, without recognizing that you also have problems that you have to deal with. Marjane Satrapi just kept going, because she wanted to tell her story and it was uncomfortable to read, specifically the Vienna part. As a separate note, this book is just in general giving the vibe of "i do not care about the way you feel, because i will never reflect on this", so we got slutshaming and fatphobia. I kind of feel like I wasted my time with this book. 

Reading notes:

Momo sucks ass.

She just accused man of a crime he didn't commit? And what she accused him of is not even comparible of her wearing lipstick? And her and her boyfriend are so happy about it? They deserve each other. 

The scene with the pills in uni. Just like, girly, if you have something on your heart, maybe don't throw it at the first person you see?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Fatphobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Cursing, Drug abuse, Bullying, Confinement, Rape, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Excrement, Hate crime, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

I do not actually remember if there were examples of addiction, alcoholism and drug abuse, but I am not planning to reread the whole book to find them. It felt like they were there, but do not trust my word. Also, ableism is there for like a chapter, but it is bad.

blueteacup's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad

5.0

Persepolis is an extremely interesting and captivating look into life in Iran during and after the revolution.  Satrapi uses political ideology and her graphic art style to paint a picture of what it was like to be a child in a war-torn country, and after that her experience as an immigrant from Southwest Asia in Europe.  

Her socialist leanings lends itself to giving an objective view of the horrors that happened to anyone who was a “threat” to the regime.  She’s not afraid to describe what happens to a Communist young girl before she’s killed for her beliefs, or showing images of people drowned in their own bathtubs.  I appreciated that she didn’t shy away from these graphic descriptions and images when other authors will usually describe things as “unspeakable” and leave it at that, or, worse, describe things in a way that’s meant to be voyeuristic to Western audiences and simultaneously paints Iranaians as both poor and helpless and ruthless and “backwards”.  Her sympathy and love for her country really comes through, even if she is describing horrific scenarios brought on by the government.

Satrapi’s art style lends itself well to the graphic novel medium.  Her simple but still descriptive drawings allow for the novel to be very accessible while still being understandable.  Her expressive depictions of her family, friends and acquaintances paint her life as colourful and full of intrigue.

I really enjoyed this series of graphic novels and would highly recommend them to anyone who wants a better understanding of Iranian history, war and culture, or to anyone who’s interested in auto-biographies of interesting people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child death, Death, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Racism and Suicide attempt

There's a very upsetting scene where her Jewish neighbours' house is blown up by a missile while they're there and are killed. It was very upsetting for me as a Jewish person to read, as the reason they were home was because of Shabbat. It shows up in the chapter titled "Shabbat".

olicavanna's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Racism, Violence, War, Xenophobia, and Death

emileesbooks's review against another edition

dark informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug use, Genocide, Racism, Religious bigotry, Death, Xenophobia, War, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual violence