Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval by Saidiya Hartman

3 reviews

meganpbell's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

This intense, experimental history weaves together biography, archival record, period photographs, and a kind of radical act of imagination to tell the stories of Black and queer women in Philadelphia and NYC at the turn of the century—their experiments in love, living, sex, family, gender, autonomy, and more—all while under severe legal, societal, and police oppression. This is a challenging read—it’s easy to get lost, but it’s a worthwhile part of being “wayward.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Homophobia, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Grief, Transphobia, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

dominic_t's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

5.0

This is absolutely fantastic. One of the best books I've read all year.

It's a history book, but it's written through the eyes of the Black people who are the subjects. The book focuses on gender marginalized Black people. Most are cis women, but some of them expressed masculine identities and ambivalence regarding gender and might not have identified as women. The author used archival materials to glean details about their lives and then wrote from their perspectives. She provided historical context as to what was going on around them and how that might impact their choices. The author has a lot of love for the people she's writing about, and that comes through in the text. I think it's great that she expresses admiration for the people she writes about. She points out the ways in which their lives were groundbreaking and innovative. She shows how they struggled and fought back against a deeply racist, cruel society. 

I also learned a lot about the Great Migration, and she showed very clearly how the anti-Black policing at that time provided a foundation for the racist policing practices today. She writes very detailed accounts of lynching and prison conditions. It was sometimes painful to read, but it gave me a really clear look at what was going on at the time.

I really liked the framing devices she used. She had some chapters that compared the subjects' stories to movies or theater. She used archival photos in ways that really enhanced the story.

Overall, this was a great book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Racism, Homophobia, Transphobia, Racial slurs, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

antonique_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Abandonment, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Miscarriage, Violence, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Death