Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

37 reviews

ada_elisabeth's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.75

This was my second time reading this: I skimmed through it a few summers ago out of sheer boredom and found it decent, but we were assigned it as summer reading for AP Lang this year so I'm writing it a proper review now. 

I'll start out by saying that I did enjoy this book. I thought the storytelling was good, I thought the way mother-son relationships were highlighted, and I liked that it featured three of my favorite things: race, class, and masculinity. Noah did a fantastic job of balancing the deeper, less funny moments of his childhood with lighthearted stories and memories, which kept this from being too depressing. I also appreciate how short and segmented it was: making non-fiction accessible and interesting is very difficult, but the way this read like a collection of short stories rather than one connected text made it a more enjoyable reading experience.

However, there were a few things I didn't like. It often felt that stories would end without resolution and then the topic would switch to something entirely different, which was a little annoying. Some parts of the story and the usage of certain phrases also struck me as being somewhat misogynistic. I understand that Trevor Noah is a man, and therefore the book centers around his experiences as a man, but there were some parts that felt a little sexist to me. Also, I wasn't always a huge fan of his writing style: I know that he's primarily a comedian, so I wasn't expecting incredible writing or anything, but I still felt like there were certain chapters that fell a little flat. 

I also really liked the final chapter. Although it was heartbreaking and painful to read, I think it was so necessary. Trevor's mother not being able to press charges against her abusive husband because the police told her it would 'ruin his life' was so infuriating to me because it happens to so many women across the world: the minimizing of a woman's fear and pain and suffering to protect a man's ego and reputation.

 

I always appreciate reading about something I don't know much about, and overall, I really enjoyed this, so I'll give it a 3.75 rounded up. Not my favorite, but when is assigned reading ever my favorite? 

“You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad. Where you either hate them or love them. But that's not how people are.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Gun violence, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Rape

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Pregnancy, Animal death, Body horror, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Classism, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Slavery, Grief, Stalking, Mental illness, Infertility, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, and Colonisation

els4lp's review against another edition

5.0

read the Finnish translation by Jaana Iso-Markku

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Racism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Domestic abuse, Cursing, and Physical abuse

Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Colonisation, Bullying, Sexual content, Misogyny, and Slavery

maddiearthur's review against another edition

emotional funny informative tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Addiction, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Colonisation, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Alcohol, Gun violence, Sexism, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Blood and Antisemitism

Minor: Rape

rkhill's review against another edition

funny hopeful informative fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Rape

jess_always_reading's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

5.0

An amazing read. Noah's book is a brutally honest depiction that doesn't shy away from raw topics and experiences. An ode to his incredible mother, Noah's narrative is engaging and reflective.  Political events, race, oppression, family violence and abuse are all laid out in his wry and honest way of writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Rape

miranda_graham's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

5.0

Trevor Noah is an excellent story teller, evidently a talent you have or quickly build up as a comedian. This book is written in piece-wise stories so you can read one chapter, then pause and reflect before moving on to the next. There’s a lot of dark and graphic content, and there are many content warnings for this book. None of it was ever written to shock the reader but it is matter-of-fact as he talks about his childhood and early life. Even if you don’t know or enjoy his comedy, Trevor Noah’s book gives a lot of insight into how race and the aftermath of apartheid play into recent- and modern-day Africa. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Rape

sarahschuster's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad

3.0

Heavy. Hard to read but I’m glad I did.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racism, Murder, Violence, Rape, and Gun violence

norcalchris's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

3.75

Well written and performed (audiobook). Trevor Noah has a really surprising and rough story that I had no awareness of. He explained a lot about apartheid and South African cultures; it was very informative. 

Some of the book got a little repetitive and the organization of the last third felt odd. Rather than continuing chronologically like the rest of the book had, the last part jumped around in time. The ending also felt quite abrupt. 

The first half of this memoir was incredibly strong, but my interest dipped over time which affected my rating. My interest dipped due to the inclusion and lengthy amount of time dedicated to stories where it wasn’t clear why those moments had impacted him or his life (the different dates he had in his adolescence, and the mishaps of his dance group in particular). I would’ve enjoyed exploration of the aftermath or post-reflection of these stories, but it was absent. 

I also would’ve enjoyed more continuity of story into his current life. He mentioned university and starting to be a comedian off hand, but without explanation as to how that came about. 

Overall, a very eye opening memoir and I really value the knowledge it imparted. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Domestic abuse, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Racism and Rape

miratass's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Rape, Animal cruelty, and Sexual assault