Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

5 reviews

bookwormcat's review

emotional funny informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, Body shaming, Cancer, Bullying, Abandonment, Grief, Terminal illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual content

amarreth's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Told through the lens of a 12-year-old girl, the story is about what it is to grow up and be a woman in the 1970s in Uganda as it is shifting from what was before to what is a colonized country. We see how the culture both rejects colonization and is forced to embrace it, we see what that means for a child who is also trying to understand her place in her family, without her mother, with a mostly absent father, and adoring, though firm, grandparents. The vestiges of the clan system, and the xenophobia that can bring as well as colorism that she, who is very dark, faces, and also that she herself applies to others. The story is simple, and that it is about a girl growing up. But everybody knows that growing up is never actually that simple and this story shows that very well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, and Classism

Moderate: Death of parent and Grief

Minor: Miscarriage, War, Infertility, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Infidelity

The racism is mostly colorism, but that is not a tag. Additionally, the kidnapping is actually abduction of an adult minor character.

amberinpieces's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Medical content, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, War, Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Car accident, Body shaming, and Sexism

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Bullying, Islamophobia, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Blood, Miscarriage, and Sexual content

achingallover's review

challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Cancer, Car accident, Colonisation, Death of parent, Grief, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Racism, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, War, and Violence

abbie_'s review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is truly as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside! I put The First Woman on my Christmas list last year after brilliant reviews from both @reads.and.reveries and @enobooks (it’s published as A Girl Is a Body of Water in the US), and it did not disappoint! It’s a stunning coming-of-age tale, intertwining Ugandan folklore, feminism and friendship, all set against the dictatorship of Idi Amin with the country changing in the background of Kirabo’s story.

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The characters in this book are all incredible, especially the women. I loved Kirabo as a protagonist, but I think Nsuuta may have stolen the show for me. I don’t really cry at books often but I welled up at the end of The First Woman, there’s such a tender, beautiful scene at the end that I read over and over again.

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I also loved Makumbi’s exploration of how the women in this book interact with each other and with men, and how that’s changed over time. Through storytelling, Kirabo learns when women started to be oppressed, and how in more recent times, that oppression is often increased by women turning on other women.

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Tasnim pointed out in her review, and there’s a tweet from the publisher too, that Makumbi doesn’t write for a western audience. She writes for Ugandans. The rest of us are lucky to be privy to her work. I’m really excited to read her other books now too!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death of parent, and Grief