Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

In Every Mirror She's Black by Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström

17 reviews

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

jpreads6's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

This book was nothing like I anticipated. Lola delicately tackles the reality of being a black woman existing anywhere but more so in a predominantly white environment. The three women are very different which gives us a wide scope for discussion. This makes a very good book club book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Domestic abuse

moniipeters's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Police brutality, Ableism, Abortion, Blood, Drug use, Genocide, Cancer, Deportation, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

kmyr1123's review

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Gaslighting, Death, Sexual assault, Grief, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Racism, Domestic abuse, and Sexual violence

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

betsw's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This is a story of the ways that society traps black women and grinds them down, and it conveys that experience powerfully. Although it mostly takes place in Sweden, there are American characters and it seems like many of the cultural issues examined are common between both countries. Very good and very well-written, you connect with and root for all three protagonists. I think it was important that the book ends the way it does, but it wasn't the ending I expected.

I was expecting to see the characters go through difficulties and ultimately overcome them, but then this would have been a book about "the lucky ones" rather than an honest examination of more common experiences. Instead, we see how each of the three characters is worn down by the indifference and often often unintentional harm caused by others, in addition to small tastes of overt, hostile bigotry. Great book, just don't go into it expecting everyone to learn their lesson and the women to escape unscathed at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Racism, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Islamophobia, Racial slurs, and Bullying

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Sexism, Classism, Domestic abuse, and Drug use

youngblackademic98's review

emotional reflective medium-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

3.0

Don’t listen to the audio version, the reader sucks 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Racism, Domestic abuse, and Infidelity

Minor: Fatphobia