Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

85 reviews

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.

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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. 

 

 

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Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Cancer, Miscarriage, Abortion, 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. 

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Content Warnings

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

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Racism

minareadsa19e1's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

alechner10's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

A great memoir to learn about culture, race, and growing up as a Jamaican child in a Rastafari home. I did not know much about Rasta life or religion and I found it very interesting. The author had a really interesting outlook in the end after everything she had been through with the father growing up under strict control. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Violence

ittywitty's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Cancer

randisworld's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

This was an excellent memoir and may be the best of the year. The language and writing is divine. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual harassment

ooo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

kyladjamila's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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