Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

9 reviews

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

---

Content Warnings

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

Minor: Racism, Sexism, and Slavery

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

---

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

catcherinthepi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

~3.25 stars...this is a tough book to rate. It didn't feel like fiction in that it was so realistic and so bleak. It was a sobering, needed read, in that it paints a very telling picture of modern day colonization, especially on the part of Americans. 

That being said...the book's pace was awfully slow. The chapters were excessively long, and the beguiling tone of the narrators slowed it down further. The chapters are told from different perspectives, which often is interesting, but in the case of this book the interesting aspects of hearing about different people's thoughts was washed out by the redundancy in narration in the early and middle parts of the book.

There's a rape scene towards the end of the book that was totally unnecessary (unless it was included to show how a culture like the one here may address certain issues, I guess...) and totally ruined the rest of the book for me. I think the commentary of it was to showcase how women are treated, but I think there was ample context from the rest of the book to give readers the idea. 

All in all, probably a book more people should read, but it's slow as molasses and extremely depressing. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Colonisation

Moderate: Violence, Grief, Murder, Child death, Racism, and Slavery

zombiezami's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

---

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

ukponge's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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? No

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Gun violence, Murder, Death of parent, Racism, Pedophilia, Rape, Slavery, and Kidnapping

tina94's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Death of parent, Death, Rape, Gun violence, Child death, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Murder, Colonisation, and Miscarriage

Minor: Slavery and Torture

nfoutty's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Police brutality, Colonisation, Grief, Murder, Child death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, War, and Violence

Moderate: Mass/school shootings, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Infertility, Sexual content, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Incest, Torture, Trafficking, Death of parent, Classism, Kidnapping, and Homophobia

Minor: Alcohol and Abandonment

kylieqrada's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

When thinking about my rating for this book, I discovered that it seems to be very polarizing. The narrative style and timeline was very intriguing to some while being incredibly off-putting to others. I align myself firmly with the former camp, and wholeheartedly enjoyed this book in almost all ways. The treatment of the children of the village as a character in and of themselves was novel and arresting, and the nonlinear timeline and multiple narrators being drawn from one family only enhanced my enjoyment. I would have given it a 4.5 ⭐s, actually, except for a confusing, and admittedly very subtle, discussion of homosexuality that, in my opinion, was not ever reconciled or handled in any satisfying way. I was in fact reading others' reviews to see if anyone else had been put off by this thread in the story, but didn't see anyone else discussing it. I will be interested to see Own Voices reactions to this book in that regard. I finally settled on 4 ⭐s for my rating, docking 1/2 a star for this element. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Violence, Torture, Terminal illness, and Rape

Minor: Slavery

livmm's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism

Minor: Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, and Slavery