Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

Mañana, y mañana, y mañana by Gabrielle Zevin

192 reviews

vonrxyes's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

i can’t decide if i enjoyed this or not, lots of it made me mad, lots of it made me cry. all i can say is i couldn’t put it down, for better or for worse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Body horror, Death of parent, Vomit, Blood, Grief, Suicide, Chronic illness, Xenophobia, Cursing, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Racism

the zionism, second wave feminism, and internalized anti-asian racism is not subtle in this

tedz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring sad 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

4.25

4.25 Sterne! 

Auf Englisch gelesen.

Eine sehr interessante Lektüre, mit tollen, glaubhaft menschlichen Charakteren und nostalgischen Inhalten der Videospielindustrie! 
(Mein kleines Videospielherz hat bei jeder Referenz, mit der auch ich groß geworden bin, die mich begleitet oder geformt hat, höher geschlagen!)

Es braucht ein paar Seiten und Kapitel bis man sich in den Protagonisten wiederfindet, mit ihnen lacht, mitfiebert und weint, gerade für Leser*innen die nicht gewandt in klassische Literatur und den Anfängen von Videospielen sind, kann es etwas dauern bis das Lesen angenehmer wird und man nicht mehr aktiv Seiten umblättern muss.
Jedoch zieht man Verlauf der Geschichte schnell Vergleiche zum eigenem Leben, den eigenen Ambitionen und Eigenschaften und sehnt sich schlussendlich nach solch einer freundschaftlich, zwischenmenschlich, aufrichtig und schmerzenden Liebe, wie sie dort mit Worten beschrieben wird!
Es kann hier und da etwas im Leseflow stocken, da es repetitiv um die selben Konflikte, Hemmungen und Ängste der Protagonisten geht, was die Darstellung des gemeinsam geteilten und getrennten Leben von Sadie, Sam, Marx und ihren Liebsten und dem bitter-süßen Ende nicht die Glaubhaftigkeit nimmt!
Ein paar Entscheidungen, „Grudges“ und Handlungen schienen mir etwas unpassend und nicht Charakterentsprechend und im Konflikt und zu großen Kontrast mit vorherigen Handlungen (Sadie), jedoch ist es deutlich sichtbar mit wie viel Vorsicht und Aufmerksamkeit jeder Charakter entwickelt und geschrieben worden ist! 
Jede kleine oder noch so große Rolle wurde gut durchdacht und ehrlich gestaltet, mit Fehlern, Problemen, Erfahrungen und individuellen Eigenschaften! 

Allgemein ein sehr angenehmer Schreibstil, mit guter Geschwindigkeit, der die Klugheit (Havard-/Cambridge Studenten mit interessanten Denkweisen/Fähigkeiten, die überdurchschnittlich schlau sind), die Gerissenheit und Tiefe der Charaktere sehr gut und authentisch rüberbringt! 
Allerdings haben mich die vielen Fremdwörter, insbesondere die hohe Anzahl an deutschen Wörten, oft stocken lassen, was für Muttersprachler störend sein könnte! 

Ein sehr schönes Buch mit dem ich mich wahrscheinlich in ein paar Jahren, mit mehr Reife und Erfahrung noch besser identifizieren kann!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, and Gun violence

Moderate: Death, Cultural appropriation, Homophobia, and Emotional abuse

wooblatoober's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

i really enjoyed zevin’s ability to portray characters with generosity & portray ever-changing relationships, even with rifts, and just overall make everything feel real.

i’m obsessed with marx’s fruit tree motif. he’s ever-giving, and he’s beautiful, and he’s soft. the love he gives freely is so beautiful and bountiful and juicy and sweet, but not too much so, like a fuyu persimmon. for now, maybe because of my own experiences, i’m more hung up on marx’s death than sam & sadie’s stories and relationship.

zevin does an AMAZING job of showing how people and their relationships change over time. it’s crazy how much my opinions on the characters changed over time, waxing and waning and flipping between them.

specifically, i loved sadie at the beginning and felt sorry for how she was being manipulated, then disliked her toward the end, which isn’t even how every reader might feel about her, since she seems like such a real person, and real people have some people that like them and some people that don’t. conversely, i was a bit annoyed by sam for the beginning, thinking he seemed like any other toxic smart guy who thinks he’s smarter than everybody else, until i started LOVING him toward the middle, then i was a bit annoyed by him again by the end for his lack of communication, though i was proud of his growth and baby steps in communication.

this book reads like creative nonfiction. it’s remarkable. my only small complaint is a major spoiler (everything i’ve marked “spoiler” is a major spoiler though), and that’s basically the end of the book. tl;dr for the spoiler, i felt like the ending was just over the line of a little bit too late in the back-and-forth of the story to feel satisfied by it. i felt empty at the end like i do out of all the best books, but that emptiness came from events that happened before the ending of the book, and the ending was overshadowed by that and felt too little too late.

by sadie and sam’s happy ending, which implies that they’ll fight again in the future but will work to be better to themselves and each other, i was kinda over it. overshadowed by marx’s death, i had become done with sadie’s paralysis and easy-to-anger attitude as well as her ability to hold a grudge that outshines teen sam’s, and done with sam’s refusal to communicate, even if they had experiences or mental illnesses that facilitated those actions (or lack thereof).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Racism, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Drug use, Hate crime, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Ableism, Cultural appropriation, Antisemitism, and Body shaming

freshbatchofbooks's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Car accident, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual content, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Cancer, and Sexual violence

Minor: Domestic abuse, Abortion, Emotional abuse, Cultural appropriation, and Ableism

victoria_bnb's review against another edition

emotional

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

1.0

I do not like the characters like everyone else seems too. The character felt a little bit flat to me. The  didn't  have much character to begin with but they also do not grow as people over time, this spans 20+ years and they are almost the same people they were in the beginning (if not worse). 
I would've liked to see their relationship develop,not even in a romantic way, but more caring and relying on each other. instead of 20+ years of them calling each other "friends"

It is particularly aggravated me because Zevin writes about how great their friendship is but we don't ever see it. We see them as business partners and then not talking to each other and holding grudges for years.
Sadie specifically annoyed me, she was so hypocritical. Sam was not a great person but had "reasons". And when they were upset they never just talked it out, and then let it go. 
Marx was the flatest character of them all he is "perfect and everyone loves him even his exes." He got treated badly but didn't care, and continued to take care of the people treating him that way and never corrected bad behavior.
Also Dov is the worst, he was abusive and manipulative (and an IDF solider) and that was just glossed over. This book as a whole did not do enough to criticizehis behavior. He continued to be a part of Sadie's life, after everything he did but she stops talking to Sam of all people.

I did like the overall writing. It was an easy read except some parts, there was too much detail or prose.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship

Moderate: Mass/school shootings, Racism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Car accident, and Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion, Cultural appropriation, and Cancer

audreytrml's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad fast-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Death, Medical content, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Homophobia, Gun violence, Cancer, Abortion, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Racism, Misogyny, Medical trauma, and Car accident

marippe's review against another edition

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

edit: read before i knew the author was a zionist but hey u cant win em all

og rating: 3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fatphobia, Chronic illness, Cancer, Medical trauma, Sexism, Vomit, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Suicide, Death, Racism, Abortion, Car accident, Infidelity, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Blood, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Classism, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Cultural appropriation, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Xenophobia

rown99's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

I don't think I loved this book as much as other people. It wasn't all bad, but something about this book just didn't do it for me.

First, the characters generally fell a bit flat, what little development Sam and Sadie made still wasn't enough for me to like them. I would've liked to see their relationship develop (doesn't even have to be romantic) instead of 20+ years of on-again/off-again friendship.  Sadie specifically annoyed me, she was so hypocritical. Sam was not a great person but at least he was consistent. Marx was so boring, he had no real character except "perfect and everyone loves him even his exes". I didn't even care when he died. Also Dov was obviously abusive and I felt like that was just glossed over. I don't think the book was condoning his treatment of Sadie, but it was also not condemned. He continued to be a part of Sadie's life, which just feels like a weird message by the author.

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Overall, I think the first half of the book is compelling, the second half is a bit of a slog. The premise was there but I feel like the author bit off more than she could chew with this one. Generally her prose is good but at times felt overly intellectual and out of place, please Zevin put down the thesaurus. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gun violence, Suicide, Cancer, Abortion, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

andjinan's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

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

3.0

Entertaining and insightful when it came to exploring what goes into creating video games. Loved the references to specific games I have played in the past.

While the main theme and message of this story was about a relationship deeper than romance or simple friendship, I found the unreliable narrator and its counterpart characters hard to love and relate to. The relationship is fraught with its intersection of sexuality, gender politics, mixing the professional with the personal, presentation of toxic masculinity, and grief—some of which make for an interesting but not convincing story.
Still, I would recommend this book! It’s a refreshing read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Sexism, Suicide, and Cultural appropriation

millie_kawakami's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Hate crime, Homophobia, Car accident, Gun violence, and Cultural appropriation