Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir by Safiya Sinclair

18 reviews

cnlarge's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

corinth113's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Heartbreaking, poignant, and lovely. Raw, painful, bleak, abundant, a song, and a prayer. Beautiful prose, poetic and lyrical beats, this woman’s family’s story pushes and pulls at something deep inside of anyone who has ever had to deal with unsettling family dynamics and the  way we wrestle forever with forgiveness and reconciliation—not just with others, but with who we become because of our parents and who we want to be despite them.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Drug use, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Self harm, and Sexual assault

ireanirean's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexism, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Miscarriage, Slavery, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and War

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. 

 

 

---

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

sillyduckie's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

znvisser's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

Beautiful memoir that taught me a lot while drawing a picture of the authors life: Safiya Sinclair manages to interweave personal memories seamlessly with Jamaican and Rastafarian history, making her story a whole. Her childhood memories are detailed and lively, drawn poetically with childlike wonder, shamelessness and parental worship, after which you feel complexity grow and doubts creeping in as she gets older. Sinclair is so proficient with language and I loved taking this in through audio as well, because her voice is gorgeous and she had great melody to her storytelling.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Infertility, Racism, Self harm, Blood, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Death, Drug use, Miscarriage, and Racial slurs

sapphire's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual assault

bookdragon217's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

"There is an unspoken understanding of loss here in Jamaica, where everything comes with a rude bargain—that being citizens of a 'developing nation', we are born already expecting to live a secondhand life, and to enjoy it. But there is hope, too, in our scarcity, tolerable because it keeps us constantly reaching for something better." 

There are not enough words to describe the beauty that is found within the pages of How To Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair. She cracks herself open to show us the deep roots of her family trauma but still manages to hold the ones she loves tenderly with her poetic prose.  Her words are captivating & in true poet form, she delivers magical sentences that dance off the page & stick with you. She interrogates the misogyny of the Rastafarian lifestyle her father subjected their family to while at the same time connecting it to the history of colonialism in Jamaica. She calls out the mental abuse she was subjected to but also gives greater context & explanation about how her father could also be viewed as vulnerable to a corrupt system that is fueled by patriarchy. 

What struck me deeply was how Sinclair explores such deep themes through a child's perspective. She places us in her stream of conscience and allows us to see her observations and how she comes to make sense of her world in order to save herself. You see Sinclair develop an astute emotional intelligence that allowed her to survive her circumstances on a daily basis. Sinclair's mother offers poetry & literature as a form of liberation & this was so beautiful to see, especially since her own choices were limited by her own father. The books she read opened doors to understanding the world & provided the keys to free herself from her circumstances. This act of love from her mother is what ultimately helps her find her voice in the midst of chaos. 

I can still feel the power of Sinclair's narrative voice. This memoir is not only a testimony but an indictment on the systems of oppression that enforce & perpetuate patriarchy. It also serves a reminder that the consequences of colonialism are still being felt today. Sinclair is an author to watch in the future.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, and Classism