A review by crum_93
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was challenging in ways I certainly anticipated, but also in ways I did not. I struggled with this book for a long month; I can’t imagine if I had read a physical version rather than listen to it. I think for some, this book could be really illuminating, and I can appreciate why it is/was so celebrated. That said, I just really struggled with how ultimately negatively everything was portrayed. Yes, this brutal honesty in the book was part of the point, but literally none of the relationships, topics, etc. seemed to have an example of SOMETHING healthy to hopeful. Again, not what the intended feeling of the book, and as a white woman, I feel like I need to unpack that tension, but I think it’s something worth mentioning. I guess my tension lies in that it felt that the author was going for expressing the variety of the Black woman’s (and gender fluid individual’s) lived experience in Britain, but in reality, it was almost a monolith of almost entirely pain. 
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