Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

11 reviews

elizea's review

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.75


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tangleroot_eli's review

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced
Beautiful. Inspiring. Infuriating.

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imrereads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

I don't know where to begin with such a powerful memoir. Author memoirs are one of my favourite types of books, but I don't think I've ever read a memoir quite like this. It felt groundbreaking. Word view shifting. Oh so intimate. I won't ever forget this. 

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ominous_teapot's review

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challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0


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laurenleigh's review

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

4.5

This memoir by Awaeke Emezi is written in letters, as they explore their gender identity, their romantic and sexual partnerships, their  life as an author, and their multiplicity. The epistolary format invites the reader into an intimate space, at times voyeuristic when Emezi gets into some intense detail. Some of these details, mainly relating to suicide and gore, were hard for me to read. I am a strict completionist, but even I had to give up on the titular “Dear Senthuran” letter, which is also rightly titled “Gore.” But I understand, at least to some degree, why it’s important for Emezi to push boundaries. Their life, their embodiment in human form, and in turn, their writing, is all so raw. It’s bursting at the seams with life and intensity. I highly recommend their debut novel, Freshwater, and I especially suggest reading that before this memoir, so you have an understanding of Emezi’s multiplicity and Igbo ontology. It’s all so fascinating to me, and their work is like nothing else I’ve ever read.

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maryberthelsen's review

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

3.75


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merin_aran's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.0


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ceallaighsbooks's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

“I know many people survive, but I also think people glorify resilience a little too much, forgetting that the fragile ones simply die as the world walks on over their bones. There are some things we shouldn’t be boasting about. 
 
TITLE—Dear Senthuran 
AUTHOR—Akwaeke Emezi 
PUBLISHED—2021 
 
GENRE—memoir 
SETTING—liminal spaces 
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—being a Black creator, being nonhuman, neurodivergency, love & friendship, identity 
 
WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
BONUS ELEMENT/S—multiple references to Helen Oyeyemi and her books 🥰 
PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
 
“I remember how it felt, and I know it was true. Maybe not in this life or this dimension, but it was true, and I miss it so much.” 
 
I feel like this isn’t really a book one reviews so much as rereads and recommends endlessly forever and ever amen. My “reviews” exist as endless marginalia and pagetabs inside my physical hardcopy of this book and they’re a mite too personal to share here anyway. ☺️ 
 
Basically this memoir style book is written as a series of letters to people in Emezi’s life, both named and unnamed, friends, other writers and artists, family, influences, enemies, and abusers. They cover themes from friendship to love to Blackness to Otherness to Neurodivergency and to being a Creator. (I highly recommend this book to *all* aspiring creators—*especially* writers.) I particularly (and highly personally) loved the chapters/letters “Deity | Dear Eloghosa” and “Dreams | Dear Katherine”. 
 
Akwaeke Emezi is an inspiration on many different levels but I’m never not going to be amazed by the fact that they have been willing to share themselves and their story and their experiences via such gorgeous and raw prose again and again. I am very much looking forward to everything else they create forever and ever. ❤️ 
 
“Alone, there’s just me, and I see myself clearly.” 
 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
 
TW // suicidal ideation, suicide attempt 
 
Further Reading— 
  • Freshwater, and everything else by Akwaeke Emezi
  • The Icarus Girl, and everything else by Helen Oyeyemi
  • The Bone People, and Te Kaihau The Windeater, by Keri Hulme
  • Zami, by Audre Lorde
  • The Night Before the Day, by Ailo Gaup
  • The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, by Mariana Enríquez
  • The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
  • The Nesting, by C. J. Cooke


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undertheteacup's review

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dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0


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catapocalypse's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book was so bold a creation, so extraordinary an experience. It is essentially a follow up to Freshwater, this time rightfully labeled as memoir. It's their story as a series of epistolary essays. I'd recommend reading Freshwater first, since it will provide additional explanation and context for things like their ȯgbanje identity, the brothersisters, some of their relationship with Yshwa, and more about their childhood and youth (Since I had already read it beforehand, I am not certain how much may need clarification without it). Dear Senthuran touches on those things, but its focus is more on their adulthood as well as philosophy behind their identities, spiritualities, relationships, work, life, etc.

Emezi's goals were to write truly of their personal experiences and to put those ideas out there for Black readers in particular. That said, I strongly urge other white readers not to shy away. We need to read and think about these things with honest reflection. So much of how we've harmed others and ourselves comes out of operating on narrow views and letting bad ideas calcify into accepted norms. Learning that this isn't how things are or should be helps work on dismantling these cages. There is still so much in here to relate to, and a lot that we can also find freeing, if we're willing to listen and think on it.

I would advise being prepared to go into this in the right headspace. It's at least as brutal and breathtaking as Freshwater, with a lot of heavy things covered in heavy detail. There are in-depth looks at depression, suicidal ideation and attempts, death, and a small section including fantasies of cannibalism.

I took my reading slow to let things percolate and avoid being overwhelmed. It was such a rewarding experience. Emezi remains a favorite, and I look forward to their upcoming projects. 

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