Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

38 reviews

rly's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: War, Murder, Rape, and Gun violence

cyden's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Death, Gun violence, Child death, Colonisation, Violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Racism, Sexism, and Slavery

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Rape, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Bullying, Child death, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Chronic illness, and Violence

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is about the village of Kosawa, Africa and all those who live and died there. Kosawa, like many other poor areas of the world, was taken advantage of by a huge corporation who got them to sign contracts they didn’t understand then poisoned their air, soil, and water. This meant that many of their children got sick and died. Then they started fighting back.

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Content Warnings

Minor: War, Grief, Death, Torture, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Sexual content, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Police brutality, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Violence, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Chronic illness, Blood, and Child death

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I loved Mbue’s debut book, Behold the Dreamers, and after enjoying this one as well she’s officially become an auto buy author!

The story takes us through generations of Kosawa residents with switching POVs from Thula, different members of her family, and the children of the village. Their stories are emotional but contain glimmers of hope as they fight to get their land back from an oil corporation poisoning their families.

How Beautiful We Were has beautiful writing and well written, complex characters. I just love her storytelling style and ability to create such depth with all of her characters, giving each their own unique voice.

The chapters are a little too long for my taste making it feel slower/harder to read here and there, but as I got further into the novel, the chapters started to go  by faster. 

Overall a heartbreaking but enjoyable, groundbreaking novel! I can’t wait to see what Mbue writes next.

TW/CW: child death, kidnapping, imprisonment, death, miscarriage/stillbirth, grief, colonization, violence, blood, child sexual abuse, gun violence, mass shooting, slavery, religious bigotry (brief mention), rape

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Gun violence, Violence, Confinement, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Slavery, Blood, and Rape

Minor: Religious bigotry and Fatphobia

readingelli's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, and Death of parent

Minor: Rape

Massacres, legal disputes

karinacheah17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Gun violence

Minor: Rape

ka_cam's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Another reviewer said this book is a tragedy that wishes it didn’t have to be a tragedy and I couldn’t agree more. Tragic and infuriating, it did a good job of capturing how different people within the village Kosawa, corporate Pexton, the local capital and various governments navigate violence, greed, loss, and morality. The pacing was a bit off for me, and I was hoping for more fleshed out political development for Thula and later Juba, as it stood they felt flat at times. The expository letters from Thula’s time in the US didn’t really work for me as a device. All in all worth reading but not the top of my list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Child death, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Torture, Racism, and Terminal illness

Minor: Stalking

Additional content warnings for environmental racism and imperialism, death and illness due to environmental destruction, cultural loss and assimilation, government corruption and state sanctioned violence, etc

mia_difelice's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Grief, Child death, Death of parent, and Gun violence

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Police brutality, Gun violence, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Racism, Miscarriage, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia, Homophobia, and Torture

zombiezami's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Animal death, Child death, Murder, Grief, Terminal illness, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Blood, Chronic illness, Gore, Incest, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, War, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Ableism

Minor: Homophobia, Deportation, and Fatphobia

environmental destruction, saneism