Reviews tagging 'Classism'

In Every Mirror She's Black by Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström

15 reviews

cherryblossomgirl's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• 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? Yes

2.75

The author is a good writer. However, I just didn't like the decisions these characters kept making. They were so shallow and selfish. It's really quite a depressing read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Racism, Body shaming, Suicide, Classism, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Abortion, Deportation, and Gaslighting

bookishevy's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book is told from the perspectives of three Black women living in Sweden. 

Kemi - a successful Nigerian-American marketing executive who is enticed by Jonny von Lundin to move to Stockholm and clean up a racially tone-deaf campaign turned PR fiasco at his marketing firm. Kemi also sees this as an opportunity to shake up her love life. 

Brittany - a Jamaican-American model-turned-flight attendant who Jonny thrusts onto the lap of privilege after a chance encounter in business class leads to his obsession with her. 

Muna - a Somali refugee who finds a job as a janitor in Jonny's office after losing the people closest to her. Muna is working toward becoming a permanent resident of Sweden and seeks a sense of belonging more than anything. 

There's so much being explored in this read. The isolation one feels when they immigrate to a new country, especially as a Black woman in a mostly white country. The privileged expecting the oppressed to do the work of dismantling racist systems the former's ancestors put in place. How even with wealth and all that comes with it Black women are still othered. How society dictates what we look for in a mate and how giving into these ideals can lead to unhappiness. The importance of processing trauma and loss and providing the proper supports to someone with developmental disabilities. The xenophobia and challenges refugees face while trying to make something of themselves in a new country. 

I empathized most with Muna because, unlike Kemi and Brittany who chose to uproot their lives and move to Sweden, she fled her home to survive. Her desperation to make a connection is palpable. She's sensitive and a bit naive but she notices things as at Jonny's firm. Through her little interactions with Jonny the reader sees Jonny for who he truly is. 

This story with so many isms: racism, sexism, classism, tokenism, fetishism, ends on a cliffhanger. I'm on to book two. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Classism, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, and Sexual assault

mikaclapson's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Racism, Sexual content, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual assault and Toxic relationship

abigalelouise12's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Racism, Body shaming, Suicide, and Classism

Minor: Abortion

elizabethwb's review

challenging emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Grief, Genocide, Suicide, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Fatphobia, Body horror, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Islamophobia, Sexism, Classism, Rape, Death, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny

pisces1_1318's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

lili_geek's review

emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.5

This book follows three black women from different backgrounds who are all impacted by the same man. Three out of four characters were incredibly unlikeable. 

The meat of the book had some good story development, where one woman was finding her niche while trying the cope with the systemic  racism surrounding her, one woman drowning in isolation due to outright racism she has to experience, and one woman who was constantly trying to make connections in the mist of all of her trauma. But the ending was simultaneously sad and frustrating, and I can’t say that I found it was a good ending. Only one character did my heart go out to. 

I also did not like the fact that the main ‘villain’ was coded as ASD. The representation was poor and not accurate. To me it read like someone went to webmd- found the main symptoms of ASD then put all of it in one character. 

Overall, the book was good enough for me to maintain interest to want to finish the book, but I would not recommend it to anyone. I felt like it had a lot of promise, but I was disappointed in the character decisions (not the last characters decision, that broke my heart) in the beginning and ending of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Ableism, Suicide, Mental illness, Islamophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, and Classism

peachani's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexism, Suicide, and Racism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Ableism, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic relationship, War, Classism, Death, Grief, Pregnancy, and Xenophobia

Minor: Islamophobia, Medical content, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Abortion, Alcohol, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Infertility, Trafficking, Violence, Hate crime, Murder, and Sexual assault

thatenbyisisreads's review

emotional informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I wish I could read this book for the first time again. I loved all of the girls even though I was disappointed a couple of times with Kemi and Brittany. Hopefully, there's a future where they both realize their worth. It was very sad to see Kemi and Brittany not become friends because I know in a perfect world, Kemi would've helped Brittany out in her situation at the end of the book. I hated whenever Brittany and Kemi would complain about stupid shit when Muna was going through such traumatizing experiences in her day-to-day. She deserved so much better.. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Mental illness, Suicide, Classism, Confinement, and Domestic abuse

jasminealizae's review against another edition

challenging tense slow-paced

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

1.0

I wanted to like this book so badly. With less than 10% of the book left I had no clue what the purpose or plot of this story was, and upon finishing I am still just as confused. This story was so extremely slow and dull. The characters made such poor decisions at every opportunity they could and it made them unlikable for me. The idea of these women all being tied to one man was very loose and the believability was just as flimsy. I completely understand what the author was trying to accomplish, but she unfortunately fell extremely far from that goal. The ending really negates the entire story and made the read feel pointless. The audio version was perfect to hear the accents and languages the characters spoke, and to be able to correctly hear the pronunciation of names for the places and people, but the narrator who spoke for both Kemi and Brittany often confused their established accents. Also was strange how Brittany was made to have a very stereotypical unrealistic American country accent and was off putting. I also couldn’t tell if all the Swedish characters were just unnaturally slow speakers or if the narrator was struggling using the accent so her words had extremely long pauses between them and everything was drawn out. This book was all over the place in a bad way and truly felt like it had no real direction and that the author had no actual vision for the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Body shaming, Cancer, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, Abortion, Grief, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Cultural appropriation, Death, Pregnancy, Stalking, Suicide, and Toxic relationship