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amyvl93's reviews
902 reviews
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
My first experience with Maggie O'Farrell was a bit mixed, but I found Hamnet incredibly moving so I was intrigued to pick up The Marriage Portrait when it was shortlisted for the Women's Prize.
This novel tells the story of Lucrezia, a daughter of the house of de Medici in Florence, who is married off to the Duke of Ferrara at the age of fifteen - and becomes convinced that her husband is going to murder her. This is in part based on historical sources, whilst Lucrezia's death is thought to be caused by TB, there were many rumours that she was killed. Her story was also immortalised in Browning's poem 'My Last Duchess'.
Whilst there is certainly intrigue here, I think what fell down for this novel is that part of its tragedy - Lucrezia's very young age at her death - means that there isn't a great deal for the book to focus on. We get a very slow burn of her young years growing up with her wider family in Florence, where she is deemed the black sheep of the family. Like Hamnet, it is clear that O'Farrell really immersed herself in the historical context of this story, but it was a slow read for the first two thirds. Once Lucrezia enters her marriage to Alfonso there is definitely more to go at, and I found O'Farrell's writing of a claustrophobic, controlling relationship to be very effective, but it takes a long time to get there.
Overall, this novel made me feel like it would have been a great short story but the content felt overstretched.
This novel tells the story of Lucrezia, a daughter of the house of de Medici in Florence, who is married off to the Duke of Ferrara at the age of fifteen - and becomes convinced that her husband is going to murder her. This is in part based on historical sources, whilst Lucrezia's death is thought to be caused by TB, there were many rumours that she was killed. Her story was also immortalised in Browning's poem 'My Last Duchess'.
Whilst there is certainly intrigue here, I think what fell down for this novel is that part of its tragedy - Lucrezia's very young age at her death - means that there isn't a great deal for the book to focus on. We get a very slow burn of her young years growing up with her wider family in Florence, where she is deemed the black sheep of the family. Like Hamnet, it is clear that O'Farrell really immersed herself in the historical context of this story, but it was a slow read for the first two thirds. Once Lucrezia enters her marriage to Alfonso there is definitely more to go at, and I found O'Farrell's writing of a claustrophobic, controlling relationship to be very effective, but it takes a long time to get there.
Overall, this novel made me feel like it would have been a great short story but the content felt overstretched.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
Moderate: Violence and Murder
Minor: Pregnancy
You People by Nikita Lalwani
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
You People is a novel that covers some serious and important topics, but was one I didn't ever quite find compelling enough to want to really pick up.
The novel is based around a pizza restaurant in London, where the staff are all people looking for a new start. The plot focuses in particular on waitress Nia, who has left her alcoholic mother behind in Wales, and chef Shan, who has fled war in Sri Lanka and is haunted by the guilt of not knowing what has happened to his wife and son. The restaurant is managed by Tuli, an enigmatic character with his fingers in many pies, and the other staff are all also migrants from various parts of the world.
There are some moments in the novel that really highlight, similar to The Beekeeper of Aleppo the experience of those seeking a new life in the UK, legally or not. The raids on businesses by Home Office staff are incredibly evocatively written. However, much of the novel is a bit of a plod through Nia trying to work out how she feels about Tuli's range of work and Shan's day-to-day life. The plot escalates quite dramatically over the final third of the novel and I was slightly unsure about how earned that felt.
Some interesting topics covered here, but there are many other novels that look at similar things in a slightly more accomplished way.
The novel is based around a pizza restaurant in London, where the staff are all people looking for a new start. The plot focuses in particular on waitress Nia, who has left her alcoholic mother behind in Wales, and chef Shan, who has fled war in Sri Lanka and is haunted by the guilt of not knowing what has happened to his wife and son. The restaurant is managed by Tuli, an enigmatic character with his fingers in many pies, and the other staff are all also migrants from various parts of the world.
There are some moments in the novel that really highlight, similar to The Beekeeper of Aleppo the experience of those seeking a new life in the UK, legally or not. The raids on businesses by Home Office staff are incredibly evocatively written. However, much of the novel is a bit of a plod through Nia trying to work out how she feels about Tuli's range of work and Shan's day-to-day life. The plot escalates quite dramatically over the final third of the novel and I was slightly unsure about how earned that felt.
Some interesting topics covered here, but there are many other novels that look at similar things in a slightly more accomplished way.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Xenophobia, Trafficking, War, and Deportation
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It's always slightly anxiety-inducing to pick up a book that has been raved about as much as Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow has been, in case this has set expectations impossibly high. However, it was a real delight to find that, for me, this book is far from overhyped.
The novel largely follows Sam and Sadie, who first meet as children in hospital - where Sam is recovering from a car accident which killed his mother, and Sadie is visiting her sick sister. They bond over video games and after falling out of touch for their childhood, meet again on a train platform as college students. This fateful meeting begins a video game collaboration which makes them both famous, and pulls in Sam's roommate Marx into their trio.
This novel has been heavily promoted as being a novel about friendship, and I can understand reviews which have critiqued this - as really this is a novel about the complexities of relationships. How you can love and be driven mad by someone, how you can be close friends and intensely jealous, how someone's work can be much admired but their person leaves much to be desired. I found Sadie, Sam and Marx to be individually at times hugely frustrating, and at others to be people I really cared about. I can't say I'd ever choose to be friends with Sam, but Zevin injects her characters with so much life that I certainly can say I understood where he was coming from.
The world of this novel is also just so fully realised - the invention of the Unfair gaming world feels so detailed and nuanced as as a non-gamer (outside of The Sims), I still found the chapters about game development to be so interesting, especially considering how they intersected with both Sam and Sadie's own experiences in the outside world and how this was reflected in their games.
Zevin keeps the novel moving along with plenty of twists and turns, and THAT particular twist was heartbreaking, but I felt incredibly well written - even if it did make me cry on public transport. Elsewhere by Zevin was another one of my favourites growing up, so it came to no surprise to me as to how well she also wrote about the complexities of surviving and guilt.
So much to love here, and I'm sure we'll see this novel on a small screen very soon - I can only hope the streaming service will let us loose on some of those games!
The novel largely follows Sam and Sadie, who first meet as children in hospital - where Sam is recovering from a car accident which killed his mother, and Sadie is visiting her sick sister. They bond over video games and after falling out of touch for their childhood, meet again on a train platform as college students. This fateful meeting begins a video game collaboration which makes them both famous, and pulls in Sam's roommate Marx into their trio.
This novel has been heavily promoted as being a novel about friendship, and I can understand reviews which have critiqued this - as really this is a novel about the complexities of relationships. How you can love and be driven mad by someone, how you can be close friends and intensely jealous, how someone's work can be much admired but their person leaves much to be desired. I found Sadie, Sam and Marx to be individually at times hugely frustrating, and at others to be people I really cared about. I can't say I'd ever choose to be friends with Sam, but Zevin injects her characters with so much life that I certainly can say I understood where he was coming from.
The world of this novel is also just so fully realised - the invention of the Unfair gaming world feels so detailed and nuanced as as a non-gamer (outside of The Sims), I still found the chapters about game development to be so interesting, especially considering how they intersected with both Sam and Sadie's own experiences in the outside world and how this was reflected in their games.
Zevin keeps the novel moving along with plenty of twists and turns, and THAT particular twist was heartbreaking, but I felt incredibly well written - even if it did make me cry on public transport. Elsewhere by Zevin was another one of my favourites growing up, so it came to no surprise to me as to how well she also wrote about the complexities of surviving and guilt.
So much to love here, and I'm sure we'll see this novel on a small screen very soon - I can only hope the streaming service will let us loose on some of those games!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Drug use, Sexism, and Suicide
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I definitely went into The Beekeeper of Aleppo with some unjustified snobbery, and I'm now eating some humble pie, as I found this book to be incredibly moving and an excellent portrayal of the refugee experience.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo follows the journey of Nuri and Afra as they attempt to journey from war-torn Aleppo in Syria, to join their family in relative safety in the North of England, where they have found comfort teaching beekeeping to fellow refugees. Lefteri draws a heartbreaking portrayal of Aleppo, as Afra in particular struggles to leave their home and the place they have experienced unimaginable loss - but this portrayal becomes all the more challenging as we begin to follow the couple through Turkey and into Greece. The novel shines a brutal light on the desperate refugee experience, on the constraints related to safe routes and those who benefit from the desperation of fellow humans to reach a place of safety. Lefteri also shows the reality of the asylum process for people when they arrive in England, which is far from the gold-plated, benefit-recieving experience that certain newspapers would have you believe.
Against this, it would be unsurprising if the characters within the novel became mere ciphers for Lefteri to get her points across - but this is not the case. All the people that Nuri and Afra meet are given human complexity - as do Nuri and Afra as they struggle to adapt to a life having seen and lived the things they have.
Some of the imagery and metaphor used in the novel was a little too on the nose for me, but overall I really enjoyed and appreciated The Beekeeper of Aleppo.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo follows the journey of Nuri and Afra as they attempt to journey from war-torn Aleppo in Syria, to join their family in relative safety in the North of England, where they have found comfort teaching beekeeping to fellow refugees. Lefteri draws a heartbreaking portrayal of Aleppo, as Afra in particular struggles to leave their home and the place they have experienced unimaginable loss - but this portrayal becomes all the more challenging as we begin to follow the couple through Turkey and into Greece. The novel shines a brutal light on the desperate refugee experience, on the constraints related to safe routes and those who benefit from the desperation of fellow humans to reach a place of safety. Lefteri also shows the reality of the asylum process for people when they arrive in England, which is far from the gold-plated, benefit-recieving experience that certain newspapers would have you believe.
Against this, it would be unsurprising if the characters within the novel became mere ciphers for Lefteri to get her points across - but this is not the case. All the people that Nuri and Afra meet are given human complexity - as do Nuri and Afra as they struggle to adapt to a life having seen and lived the things they have.
Some of the imagery and metaphor used in the novel was a little too on the nose for me, but overall I really enjoyed and appreciated The Beekeeper of Aleppo.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Murder, and War
Moderate: Racism, Rape, Self harm, Xenophobia, and Trafficking
Minor: Deportation
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This seems to be a very well-loved novella, but it didn't really work for me. <i>Kitchen</i> follows our narrator who after the loss of her Grandmother who has raised her, is taken in by a friend and his parent to help her get through her grief.
Grief is well explored within this novel - and we experience two different deaths within the book both of which impact on our protagonist. There's also plenty of meditation in here around the power of cooking and of food in creating moments of togetherness, openness and healing.
However, there's also some things in this that made me go...huh. I am not sure if this is due to Yoshimoto's original prose or the translation, but our protagonists voice felt unbearable twee and over the top - with lots of gasping, explanations and exclamation points when the situation really didn't require it. There is also a 'romance' of sorts introduced into the novel which I found to be both unnecessary and too insta-love for my taste.
It is also worth nothing that this novel's depiction of trans people is quite behind the times - the novella was originally written in the late 1980s, and the way the character is written about and discussed by characters in very of that time.
Grief is well explored within this novel - and we experience two different deaths within the book both of which impact on our protagonist. There's also plenty of meditation in here around the power of cooking and of food in creating moments of togetherness, openness and healing.
However, there's also some things in this that made me go...huh. I am not sure if this is due to Yoshimoto's original prose or the translation, but our protagonists voice felt unbearable twee and over the top - with lots of gasping, explanations and exclamation points when the situation really didn't require it. There is also a 'romance' of sorts introduced into the novel which I found to be both unnecessary and too insta-love for my taste.
It is also worth nothing that this novel's depiction of trans people is quite behind the times - the novella was originally written in the late 1980s, and the way the character is written about and discussed by characters in very of that time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Grief, and Death of parent
Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This had a really strong start that was slightly dampened by an unconvincing time jump.
Best of Friends opens following Maryam and Zahra, two close friends entering their final years at secondary school. Maryam is drawing men's attention for the first time, and comes from a wealthy family who run a leather company - overseen by an iron-fisted patriarch who sees Maryam as his preferred successor. Zahra is more retiring, makes less of a splash, and whose parents are a teacher and a much-loved cricket commentator. As time passes, their youth coincides with the end of the Pakistani dictatorship, ushering in a world of potential opportunities.
Shamsie does a great job of capturing all the intricacies of teenage female friendship, and of teenagehood in general - where you question how much your parents can really know, and where the world feels so big and so small all at once. The central event in this novel is well crafted at reminder Maryam and Zahra, and the reader - of the realities of being a woman in a patriarchal society - where power may rest with a woman in government, but that may not make much change to women on the ground.
The time jump to contemporary London is less successful. We find Maryam as a tech venture capitalist (there's a fairly heavy handed signpost to this when she mentions programming earlier in the novel) desperate to convince the government not to introduce privacy legislation, and Zahra as running a civil liberties organisation (think Liberty) who views the government as inhumane.
Shamsie introduces a host of other issues into the novel at this point - the asylum process, ethical technology, how we protect young people online and off, surveillance culture, as well as more obvious links to the early part of the novel around female sexuality and the diaspora experience. I found this muddied the waters somewhat, and made the ultimate ending of the novel to fall quite flat. It seemed strange that a formative event could have taken place in the girls' youth, which they never chose to discuss until the 'now' of the second half.
Best of Friends opens following Maryam and Zahra, two close friends entering their final years at secondary school. Maryam is drawing men's attention for the first time, and comes from a wealthy family who run a leather company - overseen by an iron-fisted patriarch who sees Maryam as his preferred successor. Zahra is more retiring, makes less of a splash, and whose parents are a teacher and a much-loved cricket commentator. As time passes, their youth coincides with the end of the Pakistani dictatorship, ushering in a world of potential opportunities.
Shamsie does a great job of capturing all the intricacies of teenage female friendship, and of teenagehood in general - where you question how much your parents can really know, and where the world feels so big and so small all at once. The central event in this novel is well crafted at reminder Maryam and Zahra, and the reader - of the realities of being a woman in a patriarchal society - where power may rest with a woman in government, but that may not make much change to women on the ground.
The time jump to contemporary London is less successful. We find Maryam as a tech venture capitalist (there's a fairly heavy handed signpost to this when she mentions programming earlier in the novel) desperate to convince the government not to introduce privacy legislation, and Zahra as running a civil liberties organisation (think Liberty) who views the government as inhumane.
Shamsie introduces a host of other issues into the novel at this point - the asylum process, ethical technology, how we protect young people online and off, surveillance culture, as well as more obvious links to the early part of the novel around female sexuality and the diaspora experience. I found this muddied the waters somewhat, and made the ultimate ending of the novel to fall quite flat. It seemed strange that a formative event could have taken place in the girls' youth, which they never chose to discuss until the 'now' of the second half.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, and Violence
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Essay collections are a tricky beast - as with any collection of writing there will be some that resonate, and some that hit a little less closer to home.
Jia Tolentino is a super talented writer, whose work I've read numerous times over the years, and I was excited to finally become the last millennial on earth to pick up this book. Trick Mirror has essays that cover reality TV, scamming, thoughts on weddings and broader internet culture.
Strangely enough as someone who loves a bit of pop culture criticism, Tolentino's essays on pop culture were less engaging for me, perhaps as this collection is a few years old, many of her thoughts have been reflected, shared and adapted elsewhere.
The two essays that were highlights for me were 'Ecstasy' - about Tolentino's relationship with religion and drug use and in particular, 'We Come from Old Virginia' - an essay that looks at the aftermath of the infamous Rolling Stone article about the young woman who claimed she was gang raped, a story that was later found to be false, but Tolentino's sensitive telling of a culture of covering up and/or acceptance of sexual harassment and assault is excellent. It is probably worth reading the collection for those two essays alone - and for the very honest & cringey reflections on Tolentino's brief moment of teenage reality TV stardom.
Jia Tolentino is a super talented writer, whose work I've read numerous times over the years, and I was excited to finally become the last millennial on earth to pick up this book. Trick Mirror has essays that cover reality TV, scamming, thoughts on weddings and broader internet culture.
Strangely enough as someone who loves a bit of pop culture criticism, Tolentino's essays on pop culture were less engaging for me, perhaps as this collection is a few years old, many of her thoughts have been reflected, shared and adapted elsewhere.
The two essays that were highlights for me were 'Ecstasy' - about Tolentino's relationship with religion and drug use and in particular, 'We Come from Old Virginia' - an essay that looks at the aftermath of the infamous Rolling Stone article about the young woman who claimed she was gang raped, a story that was later found to be false, but Tolentino's sensitive telling of a culture of covering up and/or acceptance of sexual harassment and assault is excellent. It is probably worth reading the collection for those two essays alone - and for the very honest & cringey reflections on Tolentino's brief moment of teenage reality TV stardom.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and Sexual harassment
Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I have loved both of the previous Evaristo novels I've read, so perhaps I was due one that didn't quite land as well for me. In Blonde Roots , Evaristo takes an alternative look at history - where white people are enslaved and black people are the ones exploiting their labour and experiencing the benefits of labour. Our story is narrated by Doris, a young white woman whose rural childhood is disreputed when she is snatched from fields in England and sold into slavery.
It is clear that Evaristo had a lot of fun playing with places, geographies and what a world steeped in black culture for hundreds of years would look like, in comparison to one dominated by white culture. There's some interesting reflections in particular on beauty standards and relationships - however, after a while these start getting a little grating. Whilst the sense of place of individual locations is strong, the narrative also feels at times unmoored from a sense of time - is this taking place now, in the past, somewhere in between?
What does makes this book readable still is Evaristo's impactful writing; her reinterpretation of the middle passage is excellent, as are scenes later on in the novel where Doris really starts to feel the horrors of her situation.
I'm not necessarily sure I would recommend Blonde Roots as a place to start with Evaristo's work, but for completists it's probably worth a read.
It is clear that Evaristo had a lot of fun playing with places, geographies and what a world steeped in black culture for hundreds of years would look like, in comparison to one dominated by white culture. There's some interesting reflections in particular on beauty standards and relationships - however, after a while these start getting a little grating. Whilst the sense of place of individual locations is strong, the narrative also feels at times unmoored from a sense of time - is this taking place now, in the past, somewhere in between?
What does makes this book readable still is Evaristo's impactful writing; her reinterpretation of the middle passage is excellent, as are scenes later on in the novel where Doris really starts to feel the horrors of her situation.
I'm not necessarily sure I would recommend Blonde Roots as a place to start with Evaristo's work, but for completists it's probably worth a read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This was another book club pick which I'm glad to have had come my way. Under the Udala Trees is the story of Ijeoma, who is growing up in Nigeria during and in the wake of the Civil War. After the loss of her father, she is sent by her mother to live with another couple for a period of time, where her path crosses with another young woman Amina, where she begins to realise that her feelings for Amina may be more than friendship.
This novel follows Ijeoma from her childhood and her loss of her father to her adulthood, where she attempts to balance her sexuality with what is expected of her by a society that sees homosexuality as an abomination. Okparanta has a really beautiful writing style, which make at times become overly lyrical, but does keep you hooked when you're reading the novel. The sense of place within the novel is also very powerful, from Ijeoma's childhood home to boarding school to her mother's shop that she sets up.
The experience of the LGBTQ population in Nigeria is something that I knew very little about, and this is a very good, if upsetting, light shone on their experience. I did feel that at times Okparanta's messaging was a little too on the nose, and we spend a lot of time looking at Bible passages. I'm also not sure if the non-linear timeline in the beginning of the novel quite worked, given we know from the blurb what the 'reveal' is.
On the whole, I'm glad that I got to read this novel.
This novel follows Ijeoma from her childhood and her loss of her father to her adulthood, where she attempts to balance her sexuality with what is expected of her by a society that sees homosexuality as an abomination. Okparanta has a really beautiful writing style, which make at times become overly lyrical, but does keep you hooked when you're reading the novel. The sense of place within the novel is also very powerful, from Ijeoma's childhood home to boarding school to her mother's shop that she sets up.
The experience of the LGBTQ population in Nigeria is something that I knew very little about, and this is a very good, if upsetting, light shone on their experience. I did feel that at times Okparanta's messaging was a little too on the nose, and we spend a lot of time looking at Bible passages. I'm also not sure if the non-linear timeline in the beginning of the novel quite worked, given we know from the blurb what the 'reveal' is.
On the whole, I'm glad that I got to read this novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, and Religious bigotry
Takeaway: Stories From a Childhood Behind the Counter by Angela Hui
informative
medium-paced
3.5
Takeaway is a memoir that I've heard lots of great things about, so was excited to finally pick it up. It follows Hui's childhood in rural Wales, where she and her family lived and ran a Chinese takeaway.
There was lots in here I found really interesting - I'd had no idea that many Chinese migrants moved to rural areas, and the ways in which they stayed in touch with other members of their community through weekly get-togethers and maintaining some cultural traditions. It also looks at the ways in which the family were and weren't welcomed by the Valleys community they lived in - and Hui's complicated feelings about her Chinese and British identities. There's also some excellent food writing in here, both about how certain dishes were introduced to align with British palettes and also recipes for the meals that the family cooked and ate. Hui is a similar age to me, so I did enjoy some of the contemporary references to the early 00s that I recognised.
I did find that this memoir was often quite repetitive, there were repeated anecdotes and historical information which meant that the reading experience wasn't always that great, maybe the memoir could have been slightly shorter to ensure that the important messages in here didn't get diluted too much.
There was lots in here I found really interesting - I'd had no idea that many Chinese migrants moved to rural areas, and the ways in which they stayed in touch with other members of their community through weekly get-togethers and maintaining some cultural traditions. It also looks at the ways in which the family were and weren't welcomed by the Valleys community they lived in - and Hui's complicated feelings about her Chinese and British identities. There's also some excellent food writing in here, both about how certain dishes were introduced to align with British palettes and also recipes for the meals that the family cooked and ate. Hui is a similar age to me, so I did enjoy some of the contemporary references to the early 00s that I recognised.
I did find that this memoir was often quite repetitive, there were repeated anecdotes and historical information which meant that the reading experience wasn't always that great, maybe the memoir could have been slightly shorter to ensure that the important messages in here didn't get diluted too much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism