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raven9346's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Racism, Mass/school shootings, Violence, and Cultural appropriation
jazhandz's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Sexual content, Cultural appropriation, and Mass/school shootings
buchdrache's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Die vollständige Rezension findet sich auf meinem Blog.
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Terroranschlag von Hanau wird thematisiertheatherjchin's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Racism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, and Classism
Moderate: Sexual content and Misogyny
Minor: Islamophobia, Abandonment, and Mass/school shootings
jayisreading's review against another edition
3.0
Anyway, as a non-German reader who doesn’t live in Germany, this book was interesting to read, especially because I got a glimpse of how racial identity politics was working outside the Anglosphere. It’s clear that Sanyal drew inspiration from the Rachel Dolezal scandal (which did happen in the United States), who pretended to be Black but is actually white. In Identitti, the character, Saraswati, did something similar, except she pretended to be Indian. There’s also the fact that Saraswati’s research focused on race and postcolonialism (welp). Furthermore, her ideology and accomplishments were all built on her masquerading as a Brown woman. When Nivedita, a biracial (Indian and white German) student working with Saraswati, discovered this, it understandably sent her reeling. However, another reason her world was upended was because it put to question her own racial identity, which she has struggled with most of her life. Who gets to decide how you identify racially in a country like Germany? Can being “transracial” actually be a thing?
There were some interesting (even clever) points made throughout this book about identity, but damn, was it executed poorly. The discussions just went in circles to the point of exhaustion, and by the end of the book, it didn’t really reach a conclusion on whether what Saraswati did was okay or not, which… bothered me. A lot. The characters were also exhausting to deal with, having over-the-top, grating personalities. I understand that satire often means excess, but there is such thing as too much. In addition, these characters had a lot of contradicting opinions, which combined with the roundabout discussions, really frustrated me. As a result, I think Sanyal’s satire backfired and ended up with her validating Saraswati’s actions. It’s really unfortunate, because there were a lot of opportunities that would have made this book a really effective piece of satire. Something else I should add is my jaw dropped when Sanyal used the Hanau shooting as a plot device, and it played a relatively big part in the direction of the (admittedly, near-absent) plot.
I think on the more logistical side of things, there were far too many moving parts (and a lot of them were weird) for one book, with Sanyal getting sidetracked by an array of things. One thing I did appreciate was the translator’s note on how she approached the text. I wish more could have been said about particular word/term choices, such as “BIPOC,” but this is more a personal interest in her approach to localization.
Again, I think it’s important to be mindful of where you’re from when reading about discourse on identity in other countries, because, well, they play out a little differently. Whether you take this into consideration or not, though, I have to say that this was a pretty exhausting book to get through that could have been a lot shorter and clearer.
Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Mass/school shootings, and Cultural appropriation
Moderate: Colonisation and Gaslighting
Minor: Death
therecoveringbookworm's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Cultural appropriation
Moderate: Racism, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
wertofu's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Mental illness
Minor: Blood, Colonisation, Islamophobia, Self harm, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, and Slavery