Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Fille, femme, autre by Bernardine Evaristo

47 reviews

helfire124's review against another edition

challenging dark funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I really enjoyed the interconected stories of these british people. I'd love a chart with all the relationahip dynamics

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Alcohol, and Classism

lucille_c's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Transphobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Grief, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

Minor: Cancer, Slavery, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and War

hunkydory's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Classism

paigereitz's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• 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

Wow. Just - wow. This book was phenomenal. A series of character sketches of (mainly British Black femme) characters across a diverse range of ages and ideologies that weave in and out of each other's lives. Exploration of racism, colorism, immigrant issues, LGBTQIA issues, feminism in its many forms, love, relationships, inequitable educations - so much in here to unpack. I suspect I'll find myself coming back to it in the future. Bernadine Evaristo displayed an amazing ability to really get into the skin of her characters, many of whom have exceedingly disparate experiences, and do so flawlessly. This was an amazing book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Classism

Minor: Deadnaming, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

poenaestante's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny slow-paced

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

2.0

Shoutout to the critic that shaded this play Misty by Arinze Kene by asking, "are tales of Black trauma catnip for paying audiences...riddled with white guilt?". I was looking for just the right words to explain why I hated Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. There are other reasons, but this really captures the main one so beautifully. The book was also too long with too many characters.  I just simply stopped  caring.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

zara89's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Cancer and Drug use

camoo3032's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is a collection of short stories about black women in England. The author covers a lot of topics including feminism, racism, homophobia, transphobia and domestic abuse. The book's format is a clever way of exploring these topics and I really enjoyed how it explored the change in society's acceptance of each of these issues over time. I also enjoyed how the grammatic style of the book allowed for more poetic moments.

There are a lot of characters so the book can feel like a bit of whirlwind, particularly in the first chapter, and some of the topics covered could've been discussed in more depth. Regardless, I still found this book very eye opening

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

anayyuh's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

• very enjoyable read, didn’t take long and i genuinely wanted to pick it up
• interesting
• didn’t really like to kumbaya ending but overall enjoyed the experience

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

prideandparchment's review against another edition

reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Slavery

hannahbailey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I loved this! What a cracking book, I can't believe I didn't read this sooner.

Generally I prefer not to read character-vignette novels written in third-person. But this novel just goes to show that when done well, I can really enjoy them! I loved the distinct voice of each character and how they would be name-dropped in one chapter only to be the main character of the next one. It built such an interesting and creative narrative without leaving me feeling I didn't know enough about them–which is usually the case for me with character-vignettes.

Surprised to see some reviews stating the character dialogue and mix of poetry/prose was hard to believe and unrealistic. I completely disagree! The inner dialogue of the female characters was relatable and familiar. I enjoyed the exploration of womanhood and motherhood and how this intersects with race in Britain. It was an interesting and sobering read.

It was almost 5 stars, but there was a part where the character overcomes drug addiction by sheer willpower–they literally stay at home for a week without any form of support and somehow recovers? This didn't feel realistic to me especially given the vulnerability and young age of the character. That said, this was one of the chapters that really stood out to me in its exploration of body/gender dysphoria and trans joy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Classism