Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu

22 reviews

madelinedalton's review against another edition

2.5

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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If you like memoirs, history, and nonfiction, this will likely be more of a 3.5-4 star book for you. But if you’re like me and you prefer fiction, this is probably not a good fit. I was really intrigued at the beginning, but once we started getting into dense history, I lost my focus. History textbooks in middle and high school killed my love of reading, so I think that’s why. It felt like more of a collection of essays, and the threads of story that she set up at the beginning did not serve as strong through-lines throughout (besides the earthquake metaphors). Overall, it was really hard for me to stay engaged with this book, but maybe that’s not the case for someone who likes this genre more than I do. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Death of parent, War

Moderate: Racism, Abandonment, Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder, Vomit

beiiadonna's review against another edition

4.25

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Sexual assault

Moderate: War

gabi_tron's review

5.0

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts

hot_water's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Abandonment

Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation

Minor: Xenophobia

kayleyhyde's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness

jesseisilliterate's review

4.0

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Death of parent

bookreviewswithkb's review

5.0

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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5/5 ✨✨✨✨✨ TOP TIER

it’s a memoir but really so much more than that. a personal memoir. a memoir of how trauma lives in the body and is passed through generations. a memoir of home, and what not having a traditional home might mean. a memoir of colonialism. a memoir of anti-blackness. a memoir of motherhood. of loss. of parental death. of abandonment. of deceit. of family. of depression. of natural disaster; earthquakes. 

“history is many stories. those stories are written, spoken and sung. they are carried in our bodies. they billow all around us like copper-colored dust that sometimes obscures everything. in these stories, we grasp at meaning. we search for ourselves, for our place, for direction. we search for a way forward: an invitation home, a meteor, a lake, a child landing with a splat. destruction and creation. changes in light, terrain, and atmosphere. delicate new freedom. hope.”

read it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Death of parent

jayisreading's review

5.0

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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Aftershocks is an intimate, beautifully written memoir that explores belonging and identity with incredible nuance and grace. I wouldn’t quite call this an experimental approach to memoirs (e.g., In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado), but it doesn’t follow conventions when it comes to memoirs. Owusu opts out of temporality and, instead, takes the reader through her own temporality that you could argue is defined by a seismometer. I really liked how she divided her memoir up into events related to earthquakes (hence, the title). This presentation of her life, culture, and history through vignette-like pieces takes the reader into a liminal space that Owusu often feels she exists in.

Owusu brings such unique perspective to the table as a biracial woman (Ghanaian Armenian) who had a less grounded childhood as a result of her father’s job with the United Nations. In addition, she brings to attention what it’s like dealing with madness, grief, and trauma; deeply contemplating on their connections with each other and to her life. She traces these through her fraught relationships with her mother and stepmother, the death of her father, the various countries she lived in and, of course, her identity.

Owusu invites you into her world in Aftershocks, but in such a way that doesn’t allow you to stare, because these pieces she shares with the readers are precarious. In addition, and I don’t know if this was her intention, but I thought Owusu demonstrated how intersectionality works phenomenally, especially across time and space. There’s a lot to praise— All I can say is to check this memoir out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Police brutality

Minor: Eating disorder, Genocide

meganelise's review

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Police brutality

imstephtacular's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault