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brain_z's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racism, Rape, and Sexual content
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Death of parent
sandysmith's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Transphobia
charley0796's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
But, I never adjusted to the lack of full stops, I just couldn’t cope. As all the characters were mentioned in seemingly disjointed order, I also struggled to connect and found my interest waning towards the end until a plot line came full circle.
So 3.75/5 it is from me.
Graphic: Domestic abuse
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, and Violence
alexashabit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racism, and Rape
Moderate: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia
lucyhicks'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
3.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Classism
secre's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
My main issue is the narrative structure, where the over-arching narrative is told through a series of shorts, skipping between characters and almost always introducing new characters, many of whom have tenuous links to previously referenced ones. They weren't necessarily chronological, so you'd have to place yourself in time as well as place. Every single skip, I had to force myself to mind plot who this person was in relation to everyone else - or at least somebody else. Every single skip, I had to re-orientate myself and that was exhausting to read. There were so many characters and many of them introduced by different names depending on who was talking that keeping the mental mind map made it a tedious exercise. My second issue was the formatting choice. Almost like poetry, but not poetry. Lines of text with no capitalisation or punctuation. Maybe I'm just a conservative reader, but I struggled to engage.
Each of the twelve chapters takes on a different perspective, all showing a variety of women, mostly black and British but from a variety of backgrounds, as they find their place in the world. There's a complete range of characters here and I did find that Evaristo captured the different voices well. There were some odd choices like a mother wanting to caress her daughter's partners balls almost the first time she meets him, but I suppose there's all sorts out there. Evaristo captures different time periods and scenes; from the elderly farming couple to the distinctly promiscuous lesbian scene. The links between characters can be overt or tenuous, which can make it difficult to track where the link is though.
It's got good bones to it, but the use of so many inter-linked characters let it down for me. It would have been better had Evaristo focussed more closely on three or four of the characters, using the others within their chapters rather than set on their own. It needed more meat on the bones to really work for me and it couldn't do that when it was skipping between so many different elements, particularly when some of them were so loosely connected. There were some characters I actively connected with, others I didn't and others I found myself mildly grossed out by; I'll reference back to the balls reference earlier. All in all, an interesting piece, but not one for me.
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Racism
Moderate: Rape
ellxnmcgrxth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism
eatyourphone's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, and Rape
bites_of_books's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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 book is full of really difficult topics, from abuse, abandonment, racism, bigotry, etc., and it is also full of a lot of heart and love between women. I loved the inclusion of trans and lesbian characters since they were the main characters in their respective stories.
I'd recommend this book if you like multigenerational stories, books where you have to do the work and piece the story together, and if you like diverse books full of conversations surrounding various aspects of feminism.
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment
coco43cl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia