Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu

7 reviews

kirstym25's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Homophobia and Racism

keeganrb's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Racism, Homophobia, and Cancer

Minor: Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, and Genocide

vaniavela's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

Nadia Owusu was a little girl when her mother left her and her little sister with her father. 

Aftershocks is told in a non-linear narrative, moving forward and backward in time and place, showing us how her life fell apart. You can read each chapter as an individual product, and link them together at the end, without a problem.

The author uses earthquakes as a metaphor for her life, dealing with mental health issues growing up. With her mother's abandonment and her father's death, her world collapsed. 

The writing is also powerful in its own way, portraying racism, colorism, grief and mental illness in a particular way. 

This is a memoir that will move you!

CW:
Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Grief
Moderate: Racism, Cancer, Homophobia
Minor: Eating disorder, Genocide, Adult/minor relationship 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, and Racism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, and Genocide

hot_water's review

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Xenophobia

kayleyhyde's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

jayisreading's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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

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

Minor: Genocide and Eating disorder

readalongwithnat's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

I definitely think audio was the right format for this one. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Cancer, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

content includes 9/11