Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

2 reviews

whtbout2ndbrkfst's review

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challenging emotional reflective

2.0


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foreverinastory's review

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dark emotional inspiring tense

5.0

I have no words.

I've had the pleasure of reading both Freshwater and The Death of Vivek Oji so I knew I would be inhaling Emezi's memoir as soon as I could. Dear Senthuran has solidified Emezi as one of my favorite authors of all time. Any time they come out with something new, I will be reading it immediately.

This memoir is not an easy book to read. Emezi has chronic depression and has lived through several suicide attempts. Reading about their struggles and how being an author on tour only exacerbated their depression is something readers and fans almost never see. We see the shiny, polished author who puts their best face forward during the extent of the tour where as many cities as possible are crammed in.

So much of this book is about pain. But it's also about becoming who you are. The thing I related to the most was Emezi's struggles with gender and defining exactly what their gender was. Plus dealing with dysphoria and taking steps to treat it. They also discuss how this impacted their relationship with their mother.

This book took a knife to my soul and it felt like someone finally understood the thoughts in my head I haven't been able to verbalize. Read this book as soon as you can.

CWs: Death, emotional abuse, homophobia, medical content (gender affirming surgeries), misogyny, racism, religious bigotry, sexism, self harm, sexual content, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, toxic relationship, transphobia, body horror, mental illness (depression). 

 

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