Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

70 reviews

creativerunnings's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Violence, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Slavery

Minor: Cancer

j_nell's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

jodiesbookishposts's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Domestic abuse

larakatharina's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, and Domestic abuse

shansometimes's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

I love a good memoir, and this one is excellent. From the first page, I was wowed by how beautiful the writing was without being overly flowery. I didn't know anything about the author, Safiya Sinclair, going into this, but when it was revealed later in the book that she's a poet, I thought, "Ohhhhh! That explains it." The prose is seriously stunning.

Sinclair's memoir is about growing up in Jamaica under her strict Rastafarian father's thumb. The Rastafari religion is one we rarely see books about, and Sinclair described her life under its rigorous rules with candor and nuance. Her locs, her sexuality and "purity," her food, her clothing (no pants), her access to family and friends outside the Rasta community...all under the control of her father. The reader watches as the author's life unfolds and her father becomes increasingly volatile, bitter, and abusive.

Despite all of that, Sinclair ultimately inspected her father's actions through a lens of humanity and grace without excusing his mistreatment of her, her siblings, and her mother. And if I get started on the incredible way she portrayed her mother as the strikingly strong overcomer she surely is, I'd be here all night. It's getting to the point in this review where I realize the book was far better than I can describe, so I'll just recommend it. If you're into memoirs, religion/cult analysis, coming-of-age stories, and reading about Black women making something out of nothing, read this.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Sexual assault

frogggirl2's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

A devastatingly beautiful, relatable, painful and inspirational story of a Jamaican woman's evolution through her difficult family life into wholeness.  This is an incredibly stunning, revelatory work.  I just cannot praise it highly enough.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

dark inspiring slow-paced

4.5

Context: I chose How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair as an add-on to my Book of the Month box in October 2023. 

 

Review:

 

Safiya Sinclair delivers a beautifully written and powerful memoir of her life growing up under the tyranny of her abusive father, who uses his interpretation of the Rastafari faith to control Safiya, her siblings, and her mother. Although Sinclair got her start as a poet and frequently uses metaphor and figurative language in How to Say Babylon, her memoir is immensely readable and pulls the reader in with its literary quality. Sinclair is a master of language, but her memoir also reveals her mastery of storytelling structure, as each chapter feels like a cohesive whole that seamlessly builds upon the story of her life, her family, and her roots. Her retrospective on her upbringing demonstrates a keen awareness of the forces and personalities that shaped her life—nurturing and destructive, fleeting and abiding. She reminds us that above all else, courage and empathy are necessary to free ourselves from people and situations that work to keep us silent. 

 

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug use, Sexism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Child abuse, Classism, Racism, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Sexual assault, Self harm, Adult/minor relationship, and Bullying

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Colonisation

Minor: Miscarriage, Abortion, Cancer, and Deportation

karenleagermain's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Wow. I finished the audio book a few days ago and Safiya Sinclair's memoir will not leave my mind. Sinclair shares her life growing up in a Rastafari family in Jamaica. This rigid religion puts her father as the ultimate authority in their household, where he demands total obedience from his wife and children. Sinclair is raised in a very conservative and isolated environment. She is brilliant in school, but her religion, shown outwardly by her dreadlocks, signals her as an outcast in Jamaica, where many are Christian. 

Sinclair desires to be a writer and shows a great deal of talent, but her family's poverty and her father's values threaten to keep her from achieving her dream. As she grows older, Sinclair realizes that both her goals and the life that she wants to pursue are in contrast to the way she was raised. 

Sinclair's memoir has similar themes to Tara Westover's Educated. Both memoirs are brilliant and eye-opening.

Many times while listening, I paused and resisted to sections of Sinclair's writing. She is such a talented writer. Her prose is gorgeous and she has unique phrasing. Her story is powerful, but made more so by her writing talents. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Physical abuse, and Bullying

Moderate: Abandonment and Sexual harassment

The story is filled with domestic violence, including both physical and verbal abuse. Sinclair has a mentor ( older male, when she is a teen) who makes suggestive comments to her and touches her inappropriately.

aweekinthelife's review

challenging reflective medium-paced

4.25

i knew absolutely nothing about Rastafarianism and found Safiya Sinclair's writing to be really compelling and engrossing. for how long the book was, i did find the ending to be a little sudden/unexpected, as i expected the level of detail from her childhood and earlier experiences to carry into the more recent parts of her life. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Racism

minareadsa19e1's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, and Fire/Fire injury