mmscl_rasd 's review for:

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

4.0

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This work is a powerful piece depicting the life of a proud, traditional, and deeply flawed man at the dawn of the colonization of what is today Nigeria. This story takes its time, allowing the reader to be instructed on the ways of Okonkwo's people in the context of cultural practices and religious beliefs before the arrival of the British Empire and its missionaries. This book contains challenging language and points-of-view that definitely clash with those many (including in Nigeria) hold today, but it is for the purpose of providing a historical window into what once was the prevailing existence for a group before it was subsumed, destroyed, and conquered by an all-consuming world-wide hegemon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Homophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, War