Reviews - Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures

22 reviews for:

Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures

Yvan Alagbé

3.49 AVERAGE

600bars's review

5.0

i went into a bookstore a few weeks ago and saw this on a shelf and knew immediately i had to get it for my gf, so i brought it home. sometimes i find things for her that turn out to contain crazy coincidences and this was one of those times. she just instagrammed a bunch of pics of thomas sankara and had me learn all about him, so imagine my surprise when there is a whole section about him and the entire book is dedicated to him! it's just wild because if i read this book right after buying it or even last week i would not have understood a huge chunk of it, and i only read it now because i am going to give it to her next week and i wanted to make sure it was good. it proves the last section's point about being written out of history that i did not know who thomas sankara was until my gf told me about him last week. the first story made me feel a mix of pity and revulsion for the mario character, which i was not sure if i was supposed to feel until i went back and re-read the first poem n i think that was exactly what i was supposed to feel. i am usually not that great at reading esoteric artsy poem things but i loved this. the art was just so jarring and stunning i feel like i'm going to re read this over and over to look at it. when i think about immigration i always think of it in an american context, because that's where i am so it's easy to see and understand the issue and stories. you vaguely hear about immigration in europe on the news but it feels much more distant. this book is so stunning and sad and im sure i will be revisiting it.

egmamaril's review

3.5

dark emotional fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

estefaniavelez's review

2.0

I think my experience with this book is largely an issue of personal limitations- I'm discovering that graphic novels which aren't neatly crafted, whose art is too distracting or not clear enough in relation to the text/narrative, really take me out of a book. While the themes in these vignettes are important and the illustrations often powerful, I didn't find myself very engrossed. The confusing formatting and general chaos of the illustrations/templates/layout proved a barrier to my reading. I also ...understand the importance of disenfranchised experiences for men of color, but have very little patience left for reading about these experiences at the expense of women characters' depths, variety of roles and functions in the text, etc. The sexualization of women, specific women at that, with very little time devoted to their interrogatories exhausted me a bit- and perhaps I'm reading it wrong. But it's hard, I think, for me to elect to read beyond the vantage point of: these characters may not look at women as people.

This isn't to say the text or the author is misogynist. I don't believe they are and in fact maybe this novel is saying something about gender- but it just isn't for me.