Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

16 reviews

brookey8888's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring sad medium-paced

3.0

I did enjoy this and learn things, but I just felt like the story telling was a little confusing at first. It also didn’t get into the history till later, which is fine because this is her family history, but it talks about motherhood and I don’t really care about that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Grief, Violence, Colonisation, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, War, Child death, Racism, Sexism, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, and Genocide

bussmanbooks3000's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia

f18's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Medical content, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Vomit

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

This is the first time I've read a graphic memoir. It's an interesting format - the watercolour images give everything a kind of dreamy memory-like quality which is especially interesting in the parts that the author experienced as a small child. It's a story about Vietnam, but also about parents and children and what we pass down, both on purpose and without meaning to. It can be a heavy read, but I enjoyed it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Medical content, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence, Xenophobia, and Torture

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Miscarriage

ehmannky's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

A beautiful memoir, both in terms of the art and the story. Bui brings the effects of colonialism on the individual to the front and center, and how those who are simply trying to live their lives are the ones who suffer the most from imperial dreams. In the chapter "The Chessboard," she even mentions that in the grand scheme of the global chess for her country, her family didn't even factor in at all, even though their trauma was the result of the game. This trauma just manifests in every interaction of her family's lives, from the complicated way that her family relates (or struggles to relate) to one another, to her birth experience. Bui doesn't take a stance on the war itself, instead framing it as an all-around traumatic and tragic event, one sparked by centuries of foreign rule and colonialism. It's a lovely and intimate story and I couldn't put it down. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, and Xenophobia

icfasntw's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Miscarriage, and Medical content

Minor: Rape, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia

This is a graphic novelization of the author's family story, which includes her parents' lives in Vietnam from the 1940s and 50s through their escape to the United States after the Vietnam War. Thi Bui doesn't sensationalize their story, but she presents it honestly, and it isn't an easy one.