Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

11 reviews

mauricekofi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Mbue writes yet another insightful yet heartbreaking story, more so than her previous Behold the Dreamers. Again, the follies and pride of African men destroy the dreams of the women they claim to love and protect. But more importantly she writes a story of resistance that while fraught, should be a lesson to all about the fruits of struggle and the need for unity when we are at our lowest

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, War, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny and Colonisation

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Rape, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Bullying, Child death, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Chronic illness, and Violence

mia_difelice's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Grief, Child death, Death of parent, and Gun violence

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Police brutality, Gun violence, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Racism, Miscarriage, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia, Homophobia, and Torture

zombiezami's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Animal death, Child death, Murder, Grief, Terminal illness, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Blood, Chronic illness, Gore, Incest, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, War, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Ableism

Minor: Homophobia, Deportation, and Fatphobia

environmental destruction, saneism

frogggirl2's review

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

WARNING:  Do not read this book if you are particularly sensitive to misogyny or rape.

This book is a beautiful cultural artifact.  While set in present day, because this culture is what we would call less advanced, there is near constant misogyny (things like saying a woman is useless if she can't have children, women can't work or remarry when widowed, etc.) throughout.  Some demeaning discussions of gender presentation (when they visit the city they mockingly say they can't figure out what gender prople are because women wear pants and men have long hair, etc.) are sprinkled throughout.  The culmination of all this sexism is the rape and forced impregnation of a woman who confesses rape is her worst fear, not by enemies but by her own community.  

I thought this book was beautifully written with resonant themes and beautiful characterizations of relationships and community, but, on balance I cant say it was worth it to battle through this unending, disgusting, unquestioned misogyny and rape.   Ultimately, the men in this community do to the women of this community what everyone else (government, corporations and colonizers) does to them (and so the women are doubly abused).  I don't think this is what the book meant for me to take from it, but this is what I got out of it nonetheless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Incest, Gun violence, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Violence, Sexism, Police brutality, Murder, Child death, Death, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

ivannna_u's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Rape, and Child death

ameeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

5.0

This is a book that I have to give 5 stars, because it still gnaws at me many days after finishing. Mbue writes incredibly vivid characters, and with the use of multiple POVs, we get to read (and reread) the events of this community unspool over 40 long years. While there were a couple character perspectives I wished she had returned to, the intergenerational focus on the women of Thula's family was apt. In addition to fighting environmental racism, colonialism, etc, the women were forced to contend with a patriarchal system on all sides.

Another strong choice was the returning, omniscient second person POV of "the children." These chapters not only illuminated the trauma and failures of each previous generation- they kept reinforcing how much and how little was changing. Nevertheless, I found their hope infectious, to detrimental effect. This story is a gut punch, in part because it is more real than fiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Pedophilia and Sexual violence

biblioghoul's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Grief, Violence, and Genocide

simonator's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence

Gut-wrenching. Every now and then, a sentence comes along and knocks you out with its poetry. Intelligent, emphatic lesson in the complexities of contemporary colonialism and the terrible inevitibilty of a monstrous modernity. Biggest issue is with narrative structure; often any suspense is neutered by some questionable choices for the temporal sequence of plot-events

plumquin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Racism, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, and Genocide

Minor: Stalking, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Infertility, Infidelity, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Homophobia