Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

12 reviews

taylorlanxon's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexual assault

tetedump's review

inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Racism, Racial slurs, Rape, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

a_bloom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

It took a little while for me to get used to the writing and actually interested in the story, but within a hundred pages it REALLY captured my attention. Her writing is beautiful and descriptive and painfully aware of how her younger self perceived the situation of her birth and life. However, the last few chapters come off awkward as it strays from the usual pacing, but considering she had more autobots it makes sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Sexual violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Grief, Death, Blood, Abortion, and Addiction

Minor: Infidelity, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, War, Incest, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, and Slavery

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Rape, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Classism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Hate crime, Pregnancy, and Slavery

Moderate: Death and War

Minor: Abortion

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Rape, Violence, Racism, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Body shaming, Ableism, Sexism, Grief, Mental illness, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Medical content, and Child abuse

Minor: Child death, Bullying, War, Infidelity, Car accident, Police brutality, Torture, Slavery, Infertility, Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Drug use, and Classism

Poverty, WWII, concentration camps, Japanese displacement, homelessness, d slur.

signeskov's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

5.0

“Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware. And the worst part of my awareness was that I didn’t know what I was aware of.”

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a beautiful and haunting piece of writing on the troubles of growing up black and female in interwar America. But more than that, it is really just that: a story of growing up and the wisdom that comes from experience.

Written in wonderful prose and effectively weaving its tapestry of real-life characters, events, and glimpses of memories, Angelou expresses both childlike wonder, horror, teenage anxiety, and most of all, love of family and self in the most exquisite ways. This is truly a  timeless and recommended read  and understandably part of the modern American literary canon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Sexism, Racism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Homophobia

mayavd's review

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death, Incest, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

blainereads's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

4.0

This is kind of tough as I’m reading it today, knowing full well that it changed the American literary canon and profoundly contributed to how we conceptualize race and identity in the United States—and I can easily see why, if considering it in the context of the 1960s/70s when it was initially published. 

Today, it falls a little bit flat and/or dry (though the trauma is, as it always will be, horrific); the instances of racism (towards Latinos and Asians) and implied homophobia, though understandable for the period, are still a bummer; and it is certainly not the most engaging memoir I’ve ever read, but I know that those incredibly compelling memoirs (often from marginzaled authors) only exist because of this one, so I suppose for that alone, it deserves at least four stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, Racism, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Hate crime, and Child abuse

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

emotional inspiring slow-paced

4.0

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a touching story of life for a Black girl growing up in the first half of the 20th century. Angelou faces racism in all different shades, and perseveres despite the world stacking everything it has against her. As this first chapter of her story unfolds, we see the influences around her that shaped her childhood and inspired her to become a determined young woman.

From a purely technical perspective, I had a hard time following this book. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings remains objectively an incredibly important memoir and should be read. It’s also a little cluttered with poetic musings that detract from the overall arc of the story. It’s also a book I would recommend picking up in its actual print form rather than as an audiobook. Well many audiobooks read by their original authors add a particular level of magic, Angelou’s reading is very much like someone reading a book aloud. It is palatable, but not exciting.

None of these things, you’ll know, detract from the overall quality of the book. I think Angelou‘s story is important, but the writing itself is not to my taste. There’s nothing wrong with the writing, and in fact, it is beloved by many and has been for decades. But it was this aspect that made the book a little bit more difficult for me to read then I’d like.

The content, when taken piecemeal, remains as powerful today as it did when the book was originally published. Through her eyes, we see her coming of age. We see what it was like to grow up as a Black woman not just in the South, but in the West and in the North. We see different levels of racism coming at her from different kinds of people. We witness the many different ways people around her react to the racism that they face every day, and what they do to feel alive despite the denial of their humanity. I find myself remembering individual vignettes much more clearly than the book as a whole. The particular stories that strapped to me were her toothache, and her brief period as a homeless runaway.

Then, beyond racism, we have the very heavy topic of rape and sexual assault. I must admit I’m not as well-read in books from the 1960s and 1970s as many others, but I do believe this is one of the first times that rape was called out so blatantly in a piece of popular literature. Even into the 2010s we fought to raise voices rape victims, so the fact that Angelou had the strength to share her story in a time where not only her race, but her gender would call her story into doubt is incredible.

An overall powerful memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is certainly a book that should be taught in schools and read independently. I will be the first person to admit the writing is a little difficult to digest, but the value of the content far outweighs any technical preferences in this case. If you haven’t read at least the first of Angelou’s memoirs, I recommend you look into it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, and Racism

Moderate: Abandonment, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

Minor: Homophobia

ginadapooh's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Rape, and Pedophilia